THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

UNIT 3 AREA OF STUDY 2: CREATING A NEW SOCIETY

Massacre on the Champ de Mars (17 July 1791)

• Explain the reactions to the King’s Flight to Varennes

• Understand the political divisions that occurred as a result of the King’s Flight to Varennes

• Identify the new revolution that had begun in 1791

• Explain what happened at the Champ de Mars on July 17 1791

• Explain the significance of the Champs de Mars massacre

Learning Outcome:Understand the significance of the

Champ de Mars Massacre

ATTEMPTS TO SAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

• The National Assembly claimed the Royal Family had been Kidnapped

• Claimed Varennes patriots rescued them and returned them to Safety

REACTIONS TO THE KING’S FLIGHT TO VARENNES

‘[T]he King’s flight ... Initiated a sweeping re-conceptualisation of the political nation. Within days after the news had been received, everyone realised that the King had not been kidnapped, that he had fled of his own volition. For a great many people the shock was brutal... They experienced a profound sense of desertion and betrayal. In language that was often exceptionally harsh and angry, Louis was denounced a liar, a coward, a traitor, a despot... During that three week period of uncertainty when the National Assembly chose not to make a public judgement, a minority of people – far more than historians have realised – reflected seriously on the possibility of ousting the reset king, even on the possibility of creating a republic’ (Thackett in Fenwick & Anderson 2010:125)

RADICAL AGITATION AGAINST THE KING

• 24 June 1791: The Cordeliers Club petition to have the King deposed. Signed by 30,000 people

• Parisian crowds began destroying symbols of the Monarchy• The Jacobin Club (now with 900 branches across France

connected to them) demanded that the King not be restored to office

• The later claim his Flight to Varennes equated to his abdication of the throne

• 264 members of the Jacobin Club (including Lafayette) disagreed and left the Jacobins to form the Feulliants Club

THE CORDELIERS

AGAINST THE KING

THE JACOBINS

AGAINST THE KING

THE FEULLIANTS

FOR THE KING

The third crisis and third journée:The Champs de Mars

• Cordeleirs asked Jacobin support in organising a petition to assert that the King abdicated his throne when he fled to Varennes

• The Jacobins and sans-cullote do not accept the ‘kidnapping’ story concocted by the National Assembly

• 16 July 1791: Crowd assemble at the Champ de Mars demanding a referendum on the King’s fate and a signing of this abdication petition

‘Field of Grass’: a large public green space in Paris

‘His perjury, his desertion, his protest, to say nothing of all the other criminal acts which have preceded, accompanied and succeeded them, entail formal abdication

of the constitutional crown entrusted to him’

The third crisis and third journée:The Champs de Mars

FOR ABDICATION:

Cordeleirs and Jacobins:Danton, Hebert, Desmoulins, Brissot

and Marat were members of both clubs

AGAINST ABDICATION:

Feulliant Club (members of Jacobins who separted in protest of the

denouncing the King)

The Champ de MarsThen... Today...

The third crisis and third journée:The Champs de Mars

• On July 17 1791, the 50,000 strong crowd rejected the petition

• Crowd turned on two suspicious looking individuals and prepared to murder them

• Fear of riot spread and Bailly called in National Guard to restore order

• Stones were thrown at the National Guard, shots were fired and guards opened fire on the crowd. 50 killed and many more injured

Hibbert: As the petition was being signed, two men, one a hairdresser and the other a pensioned-off soldier with a wooden leg, were discovered under a

platform, possibly with the intent of peeping up the skirts of the women. The crowd thought they were spies for counter-revolutionaries intending to set fire

to the altar of liberty, and they were taken out and hanged on the spot

The third crisis and third journée:Significance of the Champs de Mars massacre

• A crucial turning point• Revolutionaries fire upon fellow

revolutionaries• Two revolutions now occurring:1. 1789: Liberal project with King ruling

with accountability to National Assembly2. 1791: More radical project: Deposing the

King, ending constitutional monarchy and establishing a republic

MODERATE

RADICAL

The third crisis and third journée:Significance of the Champs de Mars massacre

The third crisis and third journée:Short term outcome of the Champs de Mars

massacre

• Moderate revolution is more successful• 200 arrested• Danton fled overseas• Marat went into hiding• More radical clubs closed down (e.g: Social

Circle)• Some radical newspapers closed down

Lafayette and the tensions within the revolutionary movement

• As people became suspicious of King, so too they became suspicious of Lafayette

• Had used bullets rather than popularity to control crowd

• His leadership had become weaker

LOUIS XVI FINALLY ACCETED THE CONSTITUTION ON SEPTEMBER 14, 1791

ACTIVITY

• Form groups of four• Select a scribe and a spokesperson• One team to form a panel

IN YOUR GROUPS, PROVIDE A DETAILED RESPONSE TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING

Secondary Course Document Analysis

Other historians general views handy for analysing this document• ‘...the King had greatly contributed to the

destabilisation of the state and the society’ (Thackett)

• ‘ a central truth of the French Revolution: its dependence on organised killing to accomplish political ends’ (Schama)

• Republicanism in France was a result of the Revolution, not the cause of it’ (Bosher)

Secondary Course Document AnalysisThis document is useful insofar as it

This document is limited in that it

Historians such as…

Historians such as…

Refer back to question/summarise

Explain strengths of document

Explain perspective of Historian and

how it is evident in this pieceDescribe key

information about this aspect of the revolution that is not represent in this document.

Include key dates or facts

Summarise one or two

perspectives

Summarise one or two

perspectives

• Explain the reactions to the King’s flight to Varennes

• Understand the political divisions that occurred as a result of the King’s Flight to Varennes

• Identify the new revolution that had begun in 1791

• Explain what happened at the Champ de Mars on July 17 1791

• Explain the significance of the Champs de Mars massacre

Class discussion