10th of August (French Revolution) |
On August 10, 1792, during the French Revolution, a mob -- with the backing of a municipal government of
Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune -- beseiged the
Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and the royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly. This proved to be the effective end of the French Monarchy (until it was restored in 1814). The formal end of the monarchy occurred
six weeks later, as one of the first acts of business of the new Convention.
This insurrection and its outcome are most commonly referred to by historians of the Revolution simply as "the 10th of
August"; other common designations include "the journée of the 10th of August" (French: journée du 10 août), "the
insurrection of the 10th of August," or even "the revolution of the 10th of August."
The context
Through the first part of 1792, France had been moving slowly toward the first of
the French Revolutionary Wars. In April, the king
had taken the unprecedented step of forming a cabinet of revolutionary Girondins. On April 20, war was declared against Austria.
The initial battles were a disaster for the French, and
Prussia joined Austria in active alliance against France (see First Coalition). However, a delay in their preparations gave France an
opportunity to improve its army.
The Revolution at this time was moving into a more radical phase. The Legislative Assembly passed several decrees, notably one against non-juring priests, which the king refused to sign. This led in early June to a break between the king and his
Girondist ministers. When the king formed a new cabinet mostly of constitutional monarchist Feuillants, this widened
the breach between the king on the one hand and the the leaders of the Assembly and the majority of the common people of Paris on
the other.
On June 20, the armed populace invaded the hall of the Assembly and the royal
apartments in the Tuileries, but were repelled. The failure of the insurrection
encouraged a movement in favour of the king. Lafayette attempted to use this
opportunity to heal the breach, but was suspected by people, legislature, and court alike of mere personal ambition.
A last Girondist advance to Louis was rebuffed, and the Feuillants were in collapse. The Girondins now made a turn to the
left and joined those ready to use force to overthrow the
monarchy. Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, in a
speech to the Assembly directed toward the king the following rhetorical questions: "Did the constitution leave you the choice of
ministers for our happiness or our ruin? Did it place you at the head of our army for our glory or our shame? Did it give you the
right of sanction, a civil list and so many prerogatives, constitutionally to lose the empire and the constitution?" Brissot was
event more direct: "I tell you to strike at the Tuileries... you are told to prosecute all factious and intriguing conspirators;
they will all disappear if you once knock loud enough at the door of the cabinet of the Tuileries, for that cabinet is the point
to which all these threads tend, where every scheme is plotted, and whence every impulse proceeds. The nation is the plaything of
this cabinet. This is the secret of our position, this is the source of the evil, and here the remedy must be applied." [1]
On July 5 the Assembly declared that the country was "in danger." All citizens able
to bear arms, and having already served in the National Guard, were placed in active service; pikes were given to those who were unable to procure
guns. Banners were placed in the public squares, bearing the words, "Citizens, the country is in danger!" On July 14 -- the third anniversary of the storming of the Bastille -- there were massive patriotic festivities. Pétion, dismissed as mayor of Paris for his conduct during the events of June 20 was restored to office. The constitutional monarchist grenadiers of the
Filles-Saint-Thomas scuffled with the federates of Marseilles, but it was the last stand of the constitutional monarchist
faction: the club of the Feuillants was closed; the grenadier and chasseur companies of the National Guard which formed the force
of the bourgeoisie were disbanded; the soldiers of the line, and a portion of the Swiss, were sent away from Paris. The stage was
set for the 10th of August.
The insurrection of the 10th of August
The ruling spirit of this new revolution was Danton,
a barrister only thirty-two years old, who had not sat in either Assembly, although he had been the leader of the Cordeliers, an advanced republican club,
and had a strong hold on the common people of Paris. Danton and his friends were assisted in their work by the fear of invasion,
for the allied army was at length mustering on the frontier. Volunteers and fedérés were constantly arriving in Paris,
and, although most went on to join the army, the Jacobins enlisted those who were
suitable for their purpose, especially some 500 whom Barbaroux, a Girondin, had summoned from Marseilles.
At the same time the National Guard -- up to
now middle-class in character -- was opened to those from the lower classes. The Prussian Duke of Brunswick's
famous declaration of July 25, 1792, announcing that the allies would enter France to
restore the royal authority and would visit the Assembly and the city of Paris with military execution if any further outrage
were offered to the king, heated the republican spirit to fury. It was resolved to strike the decisive blow on August 10.
On the night of August 9 a new revolutionary Paris Commune took possession of
the Hôtel de Ville (the seat of city government), and early
on the morning of August 10 the insurgents assailed the Tuileries. As the
preparations of the Jacobins had been notorious, some measures of defence had been taken. Beside a few gentlemen in arms and a
number of National Guards the palace was garrisoned by the Swiss Guard, about 950 strong. The disparity of force was not so great
as to make resistance altogether hopeless. But Louis let himself be persuaded into betraying his own cause and retiring with his
family under the shelter of the Assembly. The National Guards either dispersed or fraternised with the assailants. The Swiss
Guard stood firm, and, possibly by accident, a fusillade began. The enemy were gaining ground when the Swiss received an order
from the king to cease firing and withdraw. They were mostly shot down as they were retiring, and of those who surrendered many
were murdered in cold blood next day.
The aftermath
The aftermath was to be six weeks of chaos, resulting in the end of the monarchy and
the replacement of the Legislative Assembly by the new Convention. During this six weeks, the insurrectionary Paris Commune held more actual power than the
Assembly. It demanded and received custody of the royal family, obtained indefinite powers of arrest, and instigated the September Massacres, in which over a 1400 of those arrested were
killed in the prisons.
A shrunken remnant of the Legislative Assembly, almost all of them Jacobins, suspended the king from office and called for a
convention to give France a new constitution. An ad hoc executive council was established, but it had no root in law and
little hold on public opinion. When Lafayette's troops would not follow
him to Paris to defend the Constitution of 1791, he chose
to surrender himself to the Austrians.
The elections to the Convention were by almost universal suffrage, but indifference or intimidation reduced the voters to a
small number. Many who had sat in the National Constituent Assembly and many more who had sat in the Legislative Assembly were
returned. The Convention met on September 20 and became the new de
facto government of France. One of its first acts was to abolish the monarchy.
See also
References
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