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90-677: The only settlement in the Bienwald is Büchelberg (940 inhabitants as of 2015), which lies inside a clearing in the forest and is administratively part of the town of Wörth am Rhein. On 13 August 1793, a battle of the War of the First Coalition took place in the Bienwald. Austrian troops under Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser pushed the French Army back and frustrated the relief of Mainz . In March 1945, during World War II ,

180-482: A cathartic effect. He also suggests that France was plagued by fewer foreign enemies afterward. What emerges therefore from Perry's report is a view that, if massacres did take place, they occurred not out of spontaneous popular madness but because of comprehensible grievances. According to Robert Lindet , Adolphe Thiers , George Long , and Stanley Loomis the massacres were not an outburst of passion, but coldly and carefully organized. Rather than being proof of

270-410: A revolutionary tribunal , with extraordinary powers to impose the death sentence without any appeal , was installed on 17 August. Robespierre, who had proposed this measure, refused to preside over the tribunal, arguing that the same man ought not to be a denouncer, an accuser, and a judge. Already, on 15 August, four sections called for all priests and imprisoned suspects to be put to death before

360-716: A French defeat, which never occurred. Relations between the French revolutionaries and neighbouring monarchies had deteriorated following the Declaration of Pillnitz in August 1791 . Eight months later, following a vote of the revolutionary-led Legislative Assembly , France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792 ; Prussia , having allied with Austria in February, declared war on France in June 1792. In July 1792, an army under

450-589: A bookseller who was accused of murder, was tied to a pole, killed, and mutilated. According to Prudhomme people sat on the stairs of the Palace of Justice watching the butchery in the courtyard. Not far away Restif de la Bretonne saw bodies piled high on Pont au Change in front of the Châtelet , then thrown in the river. He recorded the atrocities he witnessed in Les Nuits de Paris (1794). Before midnight

540-584: A doubling of the number of seats. However, the assembly canceled the decree the next day at the request of Jacques-Alexis Thuriot . The balance of power was disrupted and the conflict between the Girondins and the Montagnards would influence the progress of the French Revolution. On 1 September the prisons were full. The citizens of Paris were told to prepare themselves for the defense of

630-657: A few other French cities; in total 65–75 incidents were reported. The exact number of victims is not known, as over 440 people had uncertain fates, including from 22 to 200 Swiss soldiers. The identity of the perpetrators, called " septembriseurs ", is poorly documented, but a large number were Parisian national guards and provincial federates who had remained in the city since their arrival in July. Of those killed, 72% were non-political prisoners including forgers of assignats (galley convicts), common criminals, women, and children, while 17% were Catholic priests. The minister of

720-399: A few; yet it is not so clear that this work was not connived at, or consented to, by a much greater number, and those perhaps in authority; for otherwise, two or three companies of the town guard would have been sufficient to disperse those who were employed on the occasion. Perry describes the restoration of order after the events, giving the impression that the massacres may even have had

810-529: A group of 200 "Septembriseurs" came to the house of Roland on Place Dauphine to arrest him, but, as he was at the ministry, they went there. Between 7:00 and 8:00 pm, the group of fédérés , etc. was back at the Abbaye prison. The Abbaye prison was located in what is now the Boulevard Saint-Germain just west of the current Passage de la Petite Boucherie. The door was closed, but the killing

900-526: A hospice for women and girls to which a prison was attached, was visited. The number of victims is exactly known: 35 women, including 23 underaged. The average age of the 35 victims was 45 – only one of them, Marie Bertrand, a diocesan from Dyon, was 17 years old – and 52 were released according to Cassagnac. On Tuesday afternoon the killing in the Abbey finally stopped. Police commissioners Etienne-Jean Panis and Sergent-Marceau gave orders to wash away all

990-549: A multi-lane controlled access highway through the forest is disputed. The proposed road would connect the French A35 autoroute and the German A65 autobahn . European wildcats have taken up residence in the Bienwald in the last few years, often using the ruins of destroyed bunkers for shelter. 49°01′44″N 08°08′38″E  /  49.02889°N 8.14389°E  / 49.02889; 8.14389 War of

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1080-573: A new revolutionary commune headed by transitional authorities. The next day the insurrectionists stormed the Tuileries Palace . King Louis XVI was imprisoned with the royal family, and his authority as king was suspended by the Legislative Assembly . The following day the royalist press was silenced. A provisional executive ( conseil exécutif ) was named and busied itself with reorganizing or solving questions concerning

1170-471: A quickly assembled group of around 500 British reservists , militia and sailors under the command of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor . After brief clashes with the local civilian population and Lord Cawdor's forces on 23 February, Tate was forced into an unconditional surrender by 24 February. This would be the only battle fought on British soil during the Revolutionary Wars. Austria signed

1260-744: A separate peace accord with France (Second Treaty of Basel) and the French Directory annexed more of the Holy Roman Empire . North of the Alps , Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen defeated the invading armies during the Rhine campaign, but Napoleon Bonaparte succeeded against Sardinia and Austria in northern Italy (1796–1797) near the Po Valley , culminating in the Peace of Leoben and

1350-483: A similar way to Perry, Williams emphasizes the understandable impatience of the people, who had been kept waiting too long for justice after the August Days, when husbands, brothers, and fathers had been killed. According to Pierre Caron there were almost 2,800 prisoners in early September. Between 1,250 and 1,450 prisoners were condemned and executed. According to Caron and Bluche 70% of the victims were killed in

1440-599: A strong patois accent. They forced the priests one by one to take the oath on the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and "swear to be faithful to the nation and to maintain liberty and equality or die defending it". Some priests hid in the choir and behind the altar. Several tried to get away by climbing in the trees and over the walls and making their escape through the Rue Cassette. At around 5:00 pm,

1530-571: A temporary lack of judges. Bicêtre , a hospital for men and boys that also served as a prison for beggars and the homeless, was visited twice that day after a rumor that there were thousands of rifles stored there. The commander brought seven cannons. According to Cassagnac François Hanriot and his battalion were present; 56 prisoners were released. The average age of the 170 victims was 24–25 years, 41 were between 12 and 18 years old, and 58 were under 20. Mayor Pétion did not have much influence discussing humanity with them. At dawn Salpêtrière ,

1620-457: Is a sufficient explanation for the killing". Historian Timothy Tackett deflected specific blame from individuals, stating: "The obsession with a prison conspiracy, the desire for revenge, the fear of the advancing Prussians, the ambiguity over who was in control of a state that had always relied in the past on a centralized monarchy: all had come together in a volatile mixture of anger, fear, and uncertainty." In April 1792 France declared war on

1710-418: Is not an alarm signal; it sounds the charge on the enemies of our country." After the applause, he continued, "To conquer them we must dare, dare again, always dare, and France is saved." His speech acted as a call for direct action among the citizens, as well as a strike against the external enemy. Madame Roland and Hillary Mantel weren't the only ones who thought his speech was responsible for inciting

1800-539: Is widely regarded as Virgil's masterpiece. Most of the victims' clothes were pierced with spade marks and had bloodstains. According to Louvet four armed men came to the house of Roland to get paid. On Monday morning nine o'clock, Billaud-Varenne came to the Abbaye prison and declared that the tribunal should stop stealing and would get paid by the Commune. At ten Maillard and his twelve judges resumed their work. In three days 216 men, and only three women were massacred in

1890-723: The Austrian Netherlands and the Rhine , and Great Britain supporting revolts in provincial France and laying siege to Toulon in October 1793 . France suffered reverses ( Battle of Neerwinden , 18 March 1793) and internal strife ( War in the Vendée ) and responded with draconian measures. The Committee of Public Safety was formed (6 April 1793 ) and the levée en masse drafted all potential soldiers aged 18 to 25 (August 1793). The new French armies counterattacked, repelled

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1980-747: The Duke of Brunswick and composed mostly of Prussians joined the Austrian side and invaded France. The capture of Verdun (2 September 1792) triggered the September massacres in Paris. France counterattacked with the victory at Valmy (20 September) and two days later the Legislative Assembly proclaimed the French Republic. Subsequently, these powers made several invasions of France by land and sea, in association with Prussia and Austria attacking from

2070-652: The French Revolution . Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by sans-culottes , fédérés , and guardsmen , with the support of gendarmes responsible for guarding the tribunals and prisons, the Cordeliers , the Committee of Surveillance of the Commune , and the revolutionary sections of Paris . With Prussian and royalist armies advancing on Paris, and widespread fear that prisoners in

2160-730: The Girondists to a more social approach given by the commune as expressed by Pierre-Joseph Cambon : "To reject with more efficacy the defenders of despotism, we have to address the fortunes of the poor, we have to associate the Revolution with this multitude that possesses nothing, we have to convert the people to the cause." Besides these measures, the commune engaged in a policy of political repression of all suspected counter-revolutionary activities. Beginning on 11 August, every Paris section named surveillance committees (committees of vigilance) for conducting searches and making arrests. It

2250-521: The Habsburg monarchy , prompting the War of the First Coalition . In July, an army under the Duke of Brunswick , and composed mostly of Prussians , joined the Austrian side and invaded France. As the army advanced, Paris went into a state of hysteria, especially after the Duke issued the " Brunswick Manifesto " on 25 July. His avowed aim was to put an end to the anarchy in the interior of France, to check

2340-463: The Peace of Basel , which recognized France's occupation of the left bank of the Rhine . The new French-dominated Dutch government bought peace by surrendering Dutch territory to the south of that river. A treaty of peace between France and Spain followed in July. The grand duke of Tuscany had been admitted to terms in February. The coalition thus fell into ruin and France proper would be free from invasion for many years. Britain attempted to reinforce

2430-459: The Rhine . The invasion commenced in July 1792. The Duke then issued a declaration on 25 July 1792, which had been written by the brothers of Louis XVI, that declared his [Brunswick's] intent to restore the King of France to his full powers, and to treat any person or town who opposed him as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law. This motivated the revolutionary army and government to oppose

2520-628: The Siege of Mantua . Bonaparte defeated successive Austrian armies sent against him under Johann Peter Beaulieu , Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser and József Alvinczi while continuing the siege. The rebellion in the Vendée was also crushed in 1796 by Louis Lazare Hoche . Hoche's subsequent attempt to land a large invasion force in Munster to aid the United Irishmen was unsuccessful. On 2 February Napoleon finally captured Mantua , with

2610-733: The Treaty of Campo Formio in October, ceding Belgium to France and recognizing French control of the Rhineland and much of Italy. The ancient Republic of Venice was partitioned between Austria and France. This ended the War of the First Coalition, although Great Britain and France remained at war. September massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during

2700-597: The U.S. VI Corps and the French First Army assaulted German Siegfried Line fortifications in the Bienwald and penetrated German defenses in the forest during a week of heavy combat. The forest is still marked by trenches and bunker ruins from World War II. There are also older French earthworks ( redoutes ) in the southwestern parts of the forest where it borders the Lauter river and Mundat Forest ( French : Forêt du Mundat ). The proposed construction of

2790-653: The West Indies . A British fleet occupied Martinique , St. Lucia , and Guadeloupe , although a French fleet arrived later in the year and recovered the latter by ousting the invaders. After seizing the Low Countries in a surprise winter attack, France established the Batavian Republic as a puppet state . Even before the close of 1794 Prussia retired from any active part in the war, and on 5 April 1795 King Frederick William II concluded with France

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2880-512: The prison de l'Abbaye near the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , after being interrogated by Billaud-Varenne in the town hall. One of the carriages, escorted by Fédérés, was attacked after an incident. The fédérés killed three men in the middle of the street, before the procession arrived at the prison. Eighteen of the arrested were taken inside. They then mutilated the bodies, "with circumstances of barbarity too shocking to describe" according to

2970-505: The seminary Saint Firmin was visited by just four men, who killed all the seminarians . All of them were detained in August according to Cassagnac; the average age of the prisoners was 47. At 2.30 am, the Assembly was informed that most of the prisons were empty. The next morning the Assembly was still involved with the defense of the city; Hérault de Séchelles presided. It decided the other prisoners had to wait for their trial because of

3060-532: The Abbaye, to seize priests, and especially the officers of the Swiss Guards and their accomplices and run a sword through them". From 15 to 25 August, around 500 detentions were registered; some were sent to Orléans. Half the detentions were of nonjuring priests, but even priests who had sworn the required oath were caught in the wave. Around 26 August, news reached Paris that the Prussian army had crossed

3150-576: The Abbey. De Virot , responsible for the safeguarding of large stocks of weapons stored in the Hotel des Invalides , and his daughter survived. Late in the afternoon, they went to Tour Saint-Bernard (belonging to a confiscated monastery Collège des Bernardins , located in the Sansculotte district) where forgers of assignats were jailed. (Almost all of them were locked up in the previous three months.) The pattern of semi-formal executions followed by

3240-788: The Austrians suffered twin defeats at the battles of Wattignies and Wissembourg . British land forces were defeated at the Battle of Hondschoote in September. 1794 brought increased success to the revolutionary armies. A major victory against combined coalition forces at the Battle of Fleurus gained all of the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhineland for France. Although the British navy maintained its supremacy at sea, it

3330-707: The Austrians surrendering 18,000 men. Archduke Charles of Austria was unable to stop Napoleon from invading the Tyrol, and the Austrian government sued for peace in April. At the same time, there was a new French invasion of Germany under Moreau and Hoche. On 22 February, a French invasion force consisting of 1,400 troops from the La Legion Noire (The Black Legion) under the command of Irish American Colonel William Tate landed near Fishguard in Wales . They were met by

3420-445: The British diplomatic dispatch. One of their victims was the former minister of foreign affairs Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin . Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard was recognized as a beneficent priest and released. In the late afternoon 115 priests in the former convent of Carmelites , detained with the message they would be deported to French Guiana , were massacred in the courtyard with axes, spikes, swords and pistols by people with

3510-626: The First Coalition French victory; Treaty of The Hague , Treaty of Paris , Peaces of Basel , Treaty of Tolentino , Treaty of Campo Formio First Coalition: [REDACTED] Dutch Republic (until 1795) [REDACTED] French Royalists [REDACTED]   Great Britain [REDACTED]   Holy Roman Empire (until 1797) [REDACTED] Kingdom of France (until 1792) [REDACTED] French Republic (from 1792) French satellites : French naval allies : [REDACTED] 1794: The War of

3600-491: The First Coalition ( French : Guerre de la Première Coalition ) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succeeded it. They were only loosely allied and fought without much apparent coordination or agreement; each power had its eye on a different part of France it wanted to appropriate after

3690-550: The French Queen Marie Antoinette , had initially looked on the Revolution calmly. He became increasingly concerned as the Revolution grew more radical, although he still hoped to avoid war. On 27 August 1791, Leopold and King Frederick William II of Prussia , in consultation with émigré French nobles, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz , which declared the concern of the monarchs of Europe for

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3780-408: The French border and occupied Longwy without a battle. Roland proposed that the government should leave Paris, whereas Robespierre suggested in a letter to the sections of the commune that they should defend liberty and equality and maintain their posts, and die if necessary. The assembly decreed that all the non-juring priests had to leave Paris within eight days and the country within two weeks. In

3870-595: The French had been successful on several other fronts, occupying the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice until the Massif de l'Authion, while General Custine invaded Germany, capturing Speyer , Worms and Mainz along the Rhine, and reaching as far as Frankfurt . Dumouriez went on the offensive in the Austrian Netherlands once again, winning a great victory over the Austrians at Jemappes on 6 November 1792, and occupying

3960-525: The Fédérés from Marseille, Avignon and Brest were involved in the killing. About 800–1000 were staying in barrack, but moved supposedly to where events would take place. It seems around 300 Fédérés from Brest and 500 from Marseille were then lodged in Cordeliers Convent . Servan planned to give them military training before using them to supplement the army at the front. The fact is that

4050-498: The Prussian invaders by any means necessary, and led almost immediately to the overthrow of the King by a crowd which stormed the Tuileries Palace . Brunswick's army, composed mostly of Prussian veterans, crossed into French territory on 19 August and easily took the fortresses of Longwy and Verdun . But at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792 they came to a stalemate against Dumouriez and Kellermann in which

4140-529: The September Massacres, also Louis Mortimer−Ternaux. Around 4 in the afternoon Madame de Staël , as ambassadress of Sweden, who lived in Rue du Bac near Champ de Mars, tried to flee through crowded streets but her carriage was stopped and the crowd forced her to go to the Paris town hall , where Robespierre presided. (However, according to Maximilien's sister Charlotte , he never presided over

4230-646: The Treaty of Campo Formio (October 1797). The First Coalition collapsed, leaving only Britain in the field fighting against France. As early as 1791, other monarchies in Europe were watching the developments in France with alarm, and considered intervening, either in support of Louis XVI or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The key figure, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II , brother of

4320-490: The assault. Supported by a new armed force, the commune dominated the Legislative Assembly and its decisions. The commune pushed through several measures: universal suffrage was adopted, the civilian population was armed, all remnants of noble privileges were abolished and the properties of the émigrés were sold. These events meant a change of direction from the political and constitutional perspective of

4410-401: The attacks upon the throne and the altar, to reestablish the legal power, to restore to the king the security and the liberty of which he is now deprived and to place him in a position to exercise once more the legitimate authority which belongs to him. The manifesto threatened the French population with instant punishment should it resist the imperial and Prussian armies or the reinstatement of

4500-437: The blood from the stairs and the courtyard, to spread straw, to count the corpses, and to dispose of them on carts to avoid infections. A contract was signed with the gravedigger of the nearby Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris , who also had to purchase quicklime . On 5 September, the day of the election, it was perfectly quiet in Paris according to Le Moniteur Universel . There were still 80 prisoners in "La Force". On 6 September

4590-487: The capital. As a result of this inquisition, more than 1,000 "suspects" were added to the immense body of political prisoners already confined in the jails and convents of the city." On 29 August, the Prussians attacked Verdun . When this news arrived it escalated panic in the capital; the situation was highly critical. Throughout August, the Legislative Assembly, which had been greatly diminished as more than half of

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4680-481: The charge on the enemies of our country." The massacres began around 2:30 pm in the middle of Saint-Germain-des-Prés , and within the first 20 hours more than 1,000 prisoners were killed. The next morning, the surveillance committees of the commune published a circular that called on provincial patriots to defend Paris by eliminating counter-revolutionaries, and the secretary, Jean-Lambert Tallien , called on other cities to follow suit. The massacres were repeated in

4770-460: The city would be freed to join them, on 1 September the Legislative Assembly called for volunteers to gather the next day on the Champs de Mars . On 2 September, around 1:00 pm, Minister of Justice Georges Danton delivered a speech in the assembly, stating: "We ask that anyone refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death. The bell we are about to ring... sounds

4860-409: The country and gather immediately upon the sound of the tocsin. Their imminent departure from the capital provoked further concern about the crowded prisons, now full of counter-revolutionary suspects who might threaten a city deprived of so many of its defenders. Marat called for a "new blood-letting", larger than the one on 10 August. Marat and his Committee of Surveillance of the Commune organized

4950-409: The deputies had fled since the storming of the Tuileries, had acquiesced to the activities of the commune and its sections. On 30 August, the Girondins Roland and Marguerite-Élie Guadet tried to suppress the influence of the commune, which they accused of exercising unlawful power. The assembly, tired of the pressures, declared the commune illegal and suggested the organization of communal elections and

5040-444: The edge of Tyrol by September. However Jourdan was defeated by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and both armies were forced to retreat back across the Rhine. Napoleon, on the other hand, was successful in a daring invasion of Italy. In the Montenotte Campaign , he separated the armies of Sardinia and Austria , defeating each one in turn, and then forced a peace on Sardinia . Following this, his army captured Milan and started

5130-435: The entire country by the beginning of winter. On 21 January the revolutionary government executed Louis XVI after a trial. This united all European governments, including Spain , Naples & Sicily , and the Netherlands against the Revolution. France declared war against Britain and the Netherlands on 1 February 1793 and soon afterwards against Spain. In the course of the year 1793 the Holy Roman Empire ( on 23 March ),

5220-617: The evening, in the presence of 350,000 people, a funeral ceremony was held in the gardens of the Tuileries for those killed while storming the Tuileries . On 28 August, the assembly ordered a curfew for around two days. The city gates were closed; all communication with the country was stopped. At the behest of Justice Minister Danton, thirty commissioners from the sections were ordered to search in every (suspect) house for weapons, munition, swords, carriages and horses. "They searched every drawer and every cupboard, sounded every panel, lifted every hearthstone, inquired into every correspondence in

5310-474: The failure of the siege of Mainz by Jourdan . The French prepared a great advance on three fronts, with Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau on the Rhine and the newly promoted Napoleon Bonaparte in Italy. The three armies were to link up in Tyrol and march on Vienna . In the Rhine campaign of 1796 , Jourdan and Moreau crossed the Rhine river and advanced into Germany. Jourdan advanced as far as Amberg in late August while Moreau reached Bavaria and

5400-403: The first sign of battle, deserting en masse , in one case murdering General Théobald Dillon . The French soldiers were insulted, hissed, even assaulted. The situation of the "Flanders Campaign" was alarming. While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, an allied army under Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at Koblenz on

5490-426: The gates closed and an alarm gun fired. After the tocsin was rung around 2:00 pm, 50 or 60,000 men enrolled for the defense of the country on the Champs de Mars. On 2 September, around 13:00, Georges Danton , a member of the provisional government, delivered a speech in the assembly: "We ask that anyone refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death." "The bell we are about to ring

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5580-402: The highly professional French artillery distinguished itself. Although the battle was a tactical draw, it bought time for the revolutionaries and gave a great boost to French morale. Furthermore, the Prussians, facing a campaign longer and more costly than predicted, decided against the cost and risk of continued fighting and determined to retreat from France to preserve their army. Meanwhile,

5670-489: The insurrectionary commune. According to Louvet de Couvrai he "governed" the Paris Conseil Général of the département . ) Late in the evening, she was conveyed home, escorted by the procurator Louis Pierre Manuel . The next day the secretary-general to the Commune of Paris , Tallien, arrived with a passport and accompanied her to the barrier . The first massacre began in the quartier Latin around 2:30 pm on Sunday when 24 non-juring priests were being transported to

5760-421: The interior, Roland , accused the commune of the atrocities. Charlotte Corday held Jean-Paul Marat responsible, while Madame Roland blamed Georges Danton . Danton was also accused by later French historians Adolphe Thiers , Alphonse de Lamartine , Jules Michelet , Louis Blanc and Edgar Quinet of doing nothing to stop them. According to modern historian Georges Lefebvre , the "collective mentality

5850-400: The invaders, and advanced beyond France. The French established the Batavian Republic as a sister republic (May 1795) and gained Prussian recognition of French control of the Left Bank of the Rhine by the first Peace of Basel . With the Treaty of Campo Formio , Austria ceded the Austrian Netherlands to France and Northern Italy was turned into several French sister republics. Spain made

5940-425: The kings of Portugal and Naples, and the Grand Duke of Tuscany declared war against France. Thus the First Coalition was formed. France introduced a new levy of hundreds of thousands of men, beginning a French policy of using levée en masse (mass conscription) to deploy more of its manpower than the other states could, and remaining on the offensive so that these mass armies could commandeer war material from

6030-456: The ladies-in-waiting the Princess de Tarente and the Princess de Lamballe ; the queen's ladies-maids Marie-Élisabeth Thibault and Mme Bazile; the dauphin's nurse St Brice; the Princesse de Lamballe's lady's maid Navarre; and the valets of the king, Chamilly and Hue. All ten former members of the royal household were placed before the tribunals and freed from charges, with the exception of the Princess de Lamballe, whose death would become one of

6120-452: The massacres finally ended. The next day the gates were opened, but it was impossible to travel to another department without a passport. In a letter from 25 January 1793 Helen Maria Williams accused Robespierre and Danton, saying that Marat was only their instrument. Francois Buzot , a Girondin, mentions Camille Desmoulins and Fabre d'Eglantine . According to Galart de Montjoie, a lawyer and royalist, in those days everyone believed

6210-579: The massacres, first voting to round up 4,000 mostly ordinary people, "suspects" of the committee, agreed to kill them in "whole groups," voting down a Marat proposal to murder them by setting them on fire, then finally agreeing to a proposal by Billaud-Varennes to "butcher them". The bulk of the butchers were made up of "Marseilles," "hired assassins" from the prisons of Genoa and Sicily, paid twenty-four dollars, whose names were listed by "M. Granier de Cassagnac." The rest were murderers and others previously imprisoned for violent crimes released ahead of time from

6300-424: The monarchical powers of Europe, disputes continued over the status of Imperial estates in Alsace , and the French authorities became concerned about the agitation of émigré nobles abroad, especially in the Austrian Netherlands and in the minor states of Germany. In the end, France declared war on Austria first, with the Assembly voting for war on 20 April 1792, after the presentation of a long list of grievances by

6390-429: The monarchy. The manifesto was frequently described as unlawful and offensive to national sovereignty. Its authorship was frequently in doubt. Revolutionaries like Marat and Hébert preferred to concentrate on the internal enemy. On 3 August Pétion and 47 sections demanded the deposition of the king. On the evening of 9 August 1792, a Jacobin insurrection overthrew the leadership of the Paris municipality, proclaiming

6480-476: The most publicized of the September Massacres. Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ de Tourzel was released on order of Manuel by the Commune. Of the Swiss Guard prisoners 135 were killed, 27 were transferred, 86 were set free, and 22 had uncertain fates. According to George Long 122 died and 43 people were released. The victims had to leave behind money, jewelry, silver, gold, assignats, but also an Aeneid which

6570-417: The newly appointed foreign minister Charles François Dumouriez , who sought a war which might restore some popularity and authority to the King. Dumouriez prepared an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expected the local population to rise against Austrian rule. However, the revolution had thoroughly disorganized the French army, which had insufficient forces for the invasion. Its soldiers fled at

6660-405: The police, justice, the army, navy, and paper money, but actual power now rested with the new revolutionary commune, whose strength resided in the mobilized and armed sans-culottes , the lower classes of Paris, and fédérés , armed volunteers from the provinces that had arrived at the end of July. The 48 sections of Paris were equipped with munitions from the plundered arsenals in the days before

6750-479: The popular tribunals was for condemned prisoners to be ordered "transferred" and then taken into the prison courtyard where they would be cut down. One man was released after he was recognized as a thief. The participants in the killing received bread, wine and cheese, and some money. In the early evening, groups broke into another Paris prison, the Conciergerie , via an open door in a side stair. The massacre

6840-409: The prisoner why he or she was arrested. A lie was fatal, and the prisoners were summarily judged and either freed or executed. Each prisoner was asked a handful of questions, after which the prisoner was either freed with the words " Vive la nation " and permitted to leave, or sentenced to death with the words "Conduct him to the Abbaye" or "Let him go", after which the condemned was taken to a yard and

6930-408: The prisons they would soon be returning to for the massacres. Earl Gower, the British ambassador reported: A party at the instigation of someone or other declared they would not quit Paris, as long as the prisons were filled with Traitors (for they called those so, that were confined in the different Prisons and Churches), who might in the absence of such a number of Citizens rise and not only effect

7020-522: The rebels in the Vendée by landing French Royalist troops at Quiberon , but failed, and attempts to overthrow the government in Paris by force were foiled by the military garrison led by Napoleon Bonaparte , leading to the establishment of the Directory . On the Rhine frontier, General Pichegru , negotiating with the exiled Royalists , betrayed his army and forced the evacuation of Mannheim and

7110-442: The release of His Majesty but make an entire counterrevolution. On 1 September, the gates of the city closed the days before, were opened on the orders of Pétion, providing an opportunity for suspects to flee the capital. According to Louis-Marie Prudhomme people still profited from the opportunity on Sunday morning 2 September. (Verdun capitulated on 2 September gaining a clear westward path to Paris. ) The Assembly decreed arming

7200-405: The reports of conspiracies in the prisons, however improbable, and the constant propaganda about the people's will and the people's anger, held everyone in a sort of stupor and gave the impression that this infamous performance was the work of the populace, whereas in reality there were not above 200 criminals. Though it is an ascertained fact that the perpetrators of the atrocious murders were but

7290-605: The territory of their enemies. The Girondin faction of the French government sent Citizen Genet to the United States to encourage them to enter the war on France's side. The newly formed nation refused, and the Washington administration 's 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality threatened legal action against any citizen providing assistance to any side in the conflict. After a victory in the Battle of Neerwinden in March,

7380-467: The unprecedented depravity of an entire population, the prison massacres were the explicable result of both the "wrath and fury" of the victims of 10 August and the machinations of the Paris Commune, who gave their tacit consent to the killings. Those targeted in the attacks had not been imprisoned unjustly but had been suspected of having aided the court in its negotiations with foreign princes. In

7470-464: The volunteers departed. Robespierre proposed to erect a pyramid on Place Vendôme to remember the victims of 10 August. On 19 August the nonjuring priests were ordered to leave the country within two weeks, which meant before 2 September 1792. In Paris, all monasteries were closed and would soon be in use as hospitals, etc. The remaining religious orders were banned by the law of 15 August. Marat left nothing in doubt when he urged "good citizens to go to

7560-414: The volunteers; a third would stay in Paris and defend the city with pikes, the others were meant for the frontier and the trenches. It further decreed that traitors who refused to participate in the defense or hand over their arms deserved death. The sections, gathered in the town hall, decided to remain in Paris; Marat proposed to have Roland and his fellow Girondist Brissot arrested. The commune ordered

7650-569: The well-being of Louis and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as a way of taking action that would enable him to avoid actually doing anything about France, at least for the moment, Paris saw the Declaration as a serious threat and the revolutionary leaders denounced it. In addition to the ideological differences between France and

7740-548: Was immediately killed by a waiting mob consisting of men, women, and children. The massacres were opposed by the staff of the prison, who allowed many prisoners to escape, one example being Pauline de Tourzel . The Prison de l'Abbaye contained a number of prisoners formerly belonging to the royal household, as well as survivors of the Swiss Guards from the royal palace. Among them were the royal governesses Marie Angélique de Mackau and Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ de Tourzel ;

7830-520: Was more uncontrolled in the Conciergerie than in the Prison de l'Abbaye. In the Conciergerie, the staff did not cooperate by turning the prisoners to the mob; instead, the mob broke into the cells themselves. The massacre continued from late evening through the night until morning. Of 488 prisoners in the Conciergerie, 378 were killed during the massacre. One woman in the Conciergerie, Marie Gredeler,

7920-464: Was mostly these decentralized committees, rather than the commune as a whole, which engaged in the repression of August and September 1792. Within a few days each section elected three commissioners to take seats in the insurrectionary commune; one of them was Maximilien Robespierre . To ensure that there was some appropriate legal process for dealing with suspects accused of political crimes and treason, rather than arbitrary killing by local committees,

8010-400: Was resumed after an intense discussion with Manuel, the procurator, on people's justice and failing judges. Manuel and Jean Dussaulx belonged to a deputation sent by the " Conseil Général " of the commune to ask for compassion. They were insulted and escaped with their lives. A tribunal composed of twelve people presided over by Stanislas-Marie Maillard, started the interrogation by asking

8100-513: Was unable to support effectively any land operations after the fall of the Belgian provinces. The Prussians were slowly driven out of the eastern provinces and by the end of the year they had retired from any active part in the war. Against Spain, the French made successful incursions into both Catalonia and Navarre in the War of the Pyrenees . Action extended into the French colonies in

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