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On 17 July 1791 the revolutionary National Guard of Paris opened fire on a crowd of protesters: citizens believing themselves patriots trying to save France from the reinstatement of a traitor king. To the National Guard and their political superiors the protesters were the dregs of the people, brigands paid by counter-revolutionary aristocrats. Politicians and journalists declared the National Guard the patriots, and their action a heroic defence of the fledgling Constitution. Under the Jacobin Republic of 1793, however, this 'massacre' was regarded as a high crime, a moment of truth in which a corrupt elite exposed its treasonable designs. This detailed study of the events of July 1791 and their antecedents seeks to understand how Parisians of different classes understood 'patriotism', and how it was that their different answers drove them to confront each other on the Champ de Mars.DAVID ANDRESS is senior lecturer in Modern European History, University of Portsmouth. Who was a member of the revolutionary people? And who were its enemies? How could one tell them apart? The contradictory answers to such questions would lead 'patriotic' citizen-soldiers to shoot down patriot protesters in Paris on 17 July 1791. This book explores why and how such a conflict arose, in a city aflame with political opinions, and beset by aristocratic 'dangerous' unemployed. Political unanimity was one of the great goals of the French Revolution; this study illustrates why it was so hard to achieve.
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ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY STUDIES IN HISTORY New Series
MASSACRE AT THE CHAMP DE MARS
Studies in History New Series Editorial Board Professor Martin Daunton (Convenor) Professor David Eastwood Dr Steven Gunn Professor Colin Jones Professor Peter Mandler Dr Simon Walker Professor Kathleen Burk (Honorary Treasurer)
MASSACRE AT THE CHAMP DE MARS POPULAR DISSENT AND POLITICAL CULTURE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
David Andress
THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE BOYDELL PRESS
© David Andress 2000 All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 2000 A Royal Historical Society publication Published by The Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604–4126, USA website: www.boydell.co.uk
ISBN 0 86193 247 1 ISSN 0269–2244
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on acid-free paper Printed in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
TO J.
This illustration cannot be reproduced for copyright reasons
‘Massacre des patriotes au Champ de Mars’, by Louis Lafitte (Musée Carnavalet). Reproduced by courtesy of the Photothèque des Musées de Paris, Paris.
Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1 The people of Paris and their historians 2 Aristocrats, priests and brigands: January–February 1791 3 Guards, spies and commissaires: policing the capital 4 Plots, pamphlets and crowds: February–April 1791 5 The Saint-Cloud affair and the wages movement 6 Before and after Varennes: the rise in popular hostility 7 The Constitution in the balance: events after the king’s return 8 17 July 1791: massacre and consternation 9 After the bloody field: commentaries, narratives and dissent Conclusion Bibliography Index
Page ix x 1 19 39 61 85 109 136 157 174 191 213 225 235
Publication of this volume was aided by a grant from the