The Revolution Itself: Part One
On June 20 1789, a group of French nobles, politicians, and civilians who proclaimed themselves as the National Assembly went to meet in Versailles to talk about establishing a better French government: one that gave more representation to the lower classes. They found that the doors to their meeting place were locked, however, and so they traveled over to a nearby tennis court where they pledged to meet again, and to do so until they had established a new French constitution.
That is the popular scene. However, while everything in the above paragraph is accurate, that is not simply how it occurred. For one, though the tennis court was technically “nearby,” relative to perhaps the locations of other, alternative tennis courts, it was still a very considerable length away (and I recall learning that it took about one or two hours to walk to). In fact, even before the Tennis Court Oath, there were already pushes for a reformed French Government.
Now, before I continue, I should probably state that, though it is traditionally taught that there was only one group of revolutionaries during the French revolution, the views and lengths to which the participants of that Revolution would go were very different between many individuals. For instance, the two largest goals of many of the revolutionaries were arguably to establish a more fair French government that adequately addressed the needs of the masses, and to abolish religion from France as much as possible. However, there were other goals for specific groups of individuals, as well. For instance, many women supported the revolution because they hoped to gain more rights as women.
Another society soon sprang up, known as the Society of Thirty (also known as the Patriotic Society of 1798, and the Society of 1798), was a group of French radicals that staunchly supported the French Revolution. Arguably their most famous member was none other than Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (or, in less unreasonable terms, “Lafayette”) (1757-1834). Aside from having one of the longest naming titles in history, he was also a key individual in the American Revolution of 1775-1783.
In France, on July 14, 1789, things became particularly bloody. A considerable group of revolutionaries and even a few mutinying soldiers surrounded a stone military fortification and prison known as the Bastille. They did not storm this fortress to free its prisoners, however (in fact, there were only a handful of prisoners in it, including a common thief and a lunatic); rather, the rebels sought to procure the weapons and ammunition - including over two hundred barrels of gunpowder - inside the establishment.
The revolutionary crowd was armed with muskets, swords, and other types of official or makeshift weaponry. In the other corner, there were the soldiers defending the Bastille. They were led by none other than Bernard-René Jordan de Launay (1740-1789). The governor of the garrison, Launay, attempted to negotiate peace terms with the rebels, and ordered his own troops (of which, there were roughly one hundred) not to fire on the rebel crowd unless fired upon.
However, as peace talks subsided, the crowd attempted to rush the Bastille - the garrison retaliated. As the day wore on, as many as one thousand Paris civilians may have joined the fray. The garrison had artillery on hand, but they would not use it because they considered that using cannons against a civilian crowd would be inhumane. Eventually, Launay agreed to surrender if none of his troops were harmed (this was at first rejected by the rebel forces).
After the surrender, Launay himself was supposed to be taken to a different location, apart from his troops, but on the way, a mob got ahold of him and stabbed and beat him to death, despite the fact that he surrendered peacefully. (The moral of this story being, if you have cannons on hand, just use them). The storming of the Bastille is often seen as the earliest major act of the French Revolution, and has since gone down in history.
As this and other acts of violence began to erupt, the National Assembly began making legal changes, as well. For instance, they abolished feudalism, finally (on all land, as in, not just on royal land, as Louis XVI had done).
By October 5, 1789, another infamous event occurred: the Women’s March on Versailles (also sometimes known as the October Days). It began in Paris, where civilians were already upset about the scarcity of food and the high prices for bread. These individuals and some revolutionary agitators eventually marched to Versailles, and swelled into a group of thousands of individuals. They were armed with everything from standard weapons to kitchen knives and pitchforks. They ventured to the Palace of Versailles, to try to pressure the king and queen to return to Paris. In fact, Mari Antoinette tried to appease the rebel forces by ordering the flour in the palace pantries to be distributed amongst them (it was really too little too late, unfortunately for her).
The palace only had minimal military staff on hand, and even these were mostly body guards that were mostly just for show and did not really have much formal training compared to that which a typical French infantryman should have received. The royals called for more troops, which did arrive, albeit in small numbers and too late to do much about the situation. Early in the morning, some of the rioters discovered that one of the palace gates was unguarded, and the attack began.
The palace guards tried frantically to barricade any doors and hallways that they could, though this effort proved to be unsuccessful, as Antoinette herself was chased barefoot down a hallway and (in a classic horror-movie fashion) was banging on a locked door as several of her guards (including, Tardivet, who was beheaded) were killed behind her. She narrowly escaped death. However, many of the palace guards were not so fortunate. In fact, many of them were beaten to death, and even a few of them had their heads removed and placed atop pikes (which the king and queen would have to ride past on their way back to Paris).
Finally, however, the violence had calmed down enough to commence negotiations. It was decided that the king and queen should be forced back to Paris, and there they would remain. The National Assembly would often force Louis XVI into signing away more and more power. The king and queen would even attempt to escape from Paris (by dressing in disguise) in 1791, but were recognized by a postmaster in the town of Varennes and arrested (some accounts even state that they were only recognized because the postmaster knew the distinct smell of Antoinette’s perfume. Something to think about the next time you’re trying to escape from captivity but also want to maintain your prestige while doing it).
And of course, the National Assembly was busy at work with other things, as well, in the political respect. They wrote the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” that granted “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” It also allowed for freedom of speech, press, access to public offices, legislation, and restricted the monarchy and outlawed tax exempts and arbitrary arrests.
However, these reforms did not meet the desires of everybody, particularly those of women. In response, Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793), a French playwright (whose real name was Marie Gouze), wrote “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,” which affirmed that women should have the same rights as men. The majority of revolutionaries and the National Assembly “ignored her demands.” In fact, she defended the life of Louis XVI, and the revolutionaries sentenced her to death in 1793, by decapitation under the guillotine.
The National Assembly also sought to endure the process of purging France of the oppressive Catholic Church (as, the Church had pretty much been oppressing the lower classes of France up until that point). The Church was soon secularized and it was established that bishops and priests would be elected and paid by the state. The revolutionaries also forced several clergy members to take the oath of the “Civil Constitution,” which meant that they were alleged to these terms.
Finally, the National Assembly created a limited constitutional monarchy. Under this system, the monarch (in this case, Louis XVI) had little power, and deputies were chosen by electors that were voted upon by tax-paying French to a new revolutionary-formed organization: the Legislative Assembly.
Thus, the National Assembly was soon discarded, and the Legislative Assembly took over. By this time, with yet another shift in power, things in France were really starting to go to pieces. The revolutionaries and the loyalists (who were still loyal to the French king) were beginning to engage in constant, small conflicts, and even within both of these groups there were smaller groups of people who disagreed about the general cause but fought over how those causes should be accomplished and the extent to which certain courses of action should be undertaken.
In a pathetic attempt to unite all of the French against a common enemy, it was decided that France should invade Austria. That way, all of France’s population would unite against the Austrians. Well, that plan backfired, and Austria actually began to win the conflict (and even almost captured Paris). (So, people, please…Just take one problem at a time).
With all this turmoil, one group in particular began to take charge: these were the Jacobins (est. 1789), a group of revolutionary extremists. One of the widely-known leaders of this group was none other than the notorious Maximilien Robespierre (full name, Maximilien-François-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre) (1758-1794).
Soon, power shifted again, with the creation of the next latest revolutionary governing body, the National Convention, which was formed shortly after the king’s capture (so, we’ve gone, now, from the National Assembly, to the Legislative Assembly, to the National Convention). Oh, and how could I almost leave out the Paris Commune (the French Revolution one), which was established in 1789 but became quite violent and repulsive of the royal French government in 1792. This organization was led led by yet another revolutionary radical: Georges Danton (1759-1794). In fact, I would argue that Danton was even more extreme than Robespierre (and yet, both of them would be overthrown and killed by the same revolutionaries that they helped to inspire). The followers of the Paris Commune were known as sans-culottes. The organization ultimately pressured the National Convention into making more radical decisions.
Around 1793, Maximilien Robespierre would form the Committee of Public Safety. A pretty ironic name, this was, especially considering that it weathered many of “the domestic and foreign crises of 1793.” This organization also established the Republic of Virtue, which was given permission to monitor and regulate the French military. The Committee would be replaced by the elected Directory (made up of a “Council of Elders” who were voted on by “council” members who were voted on by tax-paying citizens of France who were over the age of twenty one).
The Revolutionaries also made significant strides in ridding France of religion. They pillaged and repurposed many churches and cathedrals. The revolutionaries also encouraged priests to marry, and even created a non-Christian calendar in 1793 (though it included the year of 1792). It consisted of twelve months, which were composed of three ten-day weeks called “décades.” Each day was approximately one hundred thousand seconds long, and the year would begin at the autumnal equinox. The calendar recognized no religious holidays whatsoever. It would last for fourteen years, before being rejected by Napoleon on the first day of 1806.
Now, where was I? Ah, yes: the National Convention. This organization was a primitive form of a representative government, and like the typical two-party political systems today, it had two primary factions. First, there were the Girondins (called so because the party leaders were from the department of the Gironde). These individuals were less extreme, and wanted the revolution to be as little violent as possible and for the king and queen to be kept alive. Then, on the opposite side of the room, were the Mountain (literally called so because the floor on their side of the establishment was raised a little higher than it was in the rest of the room). While both sides had Jacobins sprinkled throughout them, the Mountain had far more than the former party, and the Mountain were also generally quite the extremists: they generally rooted for quick, violent action and wanted the king and queen dead.
In fact, these groups came to despise each other. At one point, one of the leading Mountain extremists, Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), was assassinated by one of the members of the Girondins while in the bathtub (which was ironic, because he supposedly always smelled rancid and had a persistent skin infection). The assassinator, Charlotte Corday (1768-1793), was later executed for her action. In fact, at one point around the same year, the Mountain staged an act of terror in which they arrested some twenty two Girondins and sentenced them to death. That silenced the more-conservative minority, leaving the extremists in an alarming state of control
Finally, it seemed to explode into violence, shortly after the execution of the king and then the queen. On January 21,1793, King Louis XVI was to be executed under the guillotine (he was thirty eight). During the reign of terror, Antionette would meet a similar fate (in fact, the words “pardon me” were part of her final speech, because she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s foot). Here is the speech that the king is recorded to have delivered minutes before his death:
“I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.”
Perhaps there is more that he wished to say, but a drum roll began, and he was silenced, and a few moments later, positioned under the blade and beheaded. His wish would go unfulfilled, as in the months to come, the Reign of Terror would commence.