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123-512: The Enragés were not a unified party, but rather a set of individuals who worked for their own objectives, and evidence of cooperation between them is inconclusive. The leaders did not view themselves as part of a cohesive movement, with Roux even calling for Varlet's arrest at one point. The notion of the Enragés as a cohesive group was perpetuated by the Jacobins , as they lumped their critics to

246-503: A National Convention . Varlet was elected as a deputy in the new Convention. Even as a member of this representative government, though, Varlet mistrusted representation and favored direct universal suffrage which could bind representatives and recall elected legislators. He sought to prevent the wealthy from expanding their profits at the expense of the poor and called for the nationalization of all profits obtained through monopoly and hoarding . In 1790, Théophile Leclerc joined

369-758: A presumption of innocence . Girondins The Girondins ( US : /( d ) ʒ ɪ ˈ r ɒ n d ɪ n z / ji- RON -dinz, zhi- , French: [ʒiʁɔ̃dɛ̃] ), or Girondists , were a political group during the French Revolution . From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention . Together with the Montagnards , they initially were part of

492-642: A royauté pentarchique . But public opinion was now preponderantly moderate or royalist, and the club was violently attacked in the press and in the streets. The suspicions of the government were aroused; it had to change its meeting-place from the Tuileries to the church of the Jacobins (Temple of Peace) in the Rue du Bac, and in August it was suppressed, after barely a month's existence. Its members avenged themselves on

615-526: A Girondin sympathizer. It covers her work for the Girondins while her husband Jean-Marie Roland was Interior Minister. The book echoes such popular novels as Rousseau's Julie or the New Héloise by linking her feminine virtue and motherhood to her sacrifice in a cycle of suffering and consolation. Roland says her mother's death was the impetus for her "odyssey from virtuous daughter to revolutionary heroine" as it introduced her to death and sacrifice—with

738-590: A Jacobin, strongly pleaded against war with Prussia and Austria – but in the Jacobin Club, not in the Assembly where he was not seated. Disdainfully, Robespierre addressed those Jacobin war promoters as 'the faction from the Gironde'; some, not all of them, were indeed from department Gironde . The Jacobins finally rid itself of Feuillants in its midst; the number of clubs increased considerably, convening became

861-571: A draft constitution known as the Girondin constitutional project , which was presented to the National Convention in early 1793. Thomas Paine was one of the signers of this proposal. The crisis came in March 1793. The Girondins, who had a majority in the Convention, controlled the executive council and filled the ministries, believed themselves invincible. Their orators had no serious rivals in

984-525: A group around Robespierre – after September 1792 called ' Montagnards ' or 'Montagne', in English 'the Mountain' – and the Girondins. These groups never had any official status, nor official memberships. The Mountain was not even very homogenous in their political views: what united them was their aversion to the Girondins. The Legislative Assembly , governing France from October 1791 until September 1792,

1107-528: A nationwide fad. In March 1792, in retaliation for their opposition to war with Austria the Feuillant ministers were forced out by the Girondins. The Assembly in April 1792 finally decided for war, thus following the ' Girondin ' line on it, but Robespierre's place among the Jacobins had now become much more prominent. From then on, a polarization process started among the members of the Jacobin Club, between

1230-749: A nickname originally given to French Dominicans because their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques . Once in Paris, the club soon extended its membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter, and even foreigners were welcomed: the English writer Arthur Young joined the club in this manner on 18 January 1790. Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage , separation of church and state, and other reforms. On 8 February 1790,

1353-696: A peasant proprietor from Tuel-en-Montgermont, in Brittany, whose rough common sense was admired as the oracle of popular wisdom, and whose countryman's waistcoat and plaited hair were later on to become the model for the Jacobin fashion. The Jacobin Club supported the monarchy up until the very Eve of the Republic (20 September 1792) . They did not support the petition of 17 July 1791 for the king's dethronement , but instead published their own petition calling for replacement of King Louis XVI . The departure of

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1476-473: A position of more equal formal rights, centralization, and moderate authoritarianism . It can be used to denote supporters of a role of the state in the transformation of society. It is, in particular, used as a self-identification by proponents of a state education system that strongly promotes and inculcates civic values. It is more controversially used by or for proponents of a strong nation-state capable of resisting undesirable foreign interference. When

1599-528: A price accessible to all". He also called for strict punishments against actors engaged in speculation and monopoly . He demanded the National Convention take severe action to repress counterrevolutionary activity, promising to "show them [enemies] those immortal pikes that overthrew the Bastille ". Lastly, he accused the National Convention of ruining the finances of the state and encouraged

1722-416: A regular correspondence. By 10 August 1790 there were already one hundred and fifty-two affiliated clubs; the attempts at counter-revolution led to a great increase of their number in the spring of 1791, and by the close of the year the Jacobins had a network of branches all over France. At the peak there were at least 7,000 chapters throughout France, with a membership estimated at a half-million or more. It

1845-402: A treasurer, and committees elected to superintend elections and presentations, the correspondence, and the administration of the club. Any member who by word or action showed that his principles were contrary to the constitution and the rights of man was to be expelled. By the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them

1968-500: A vote of the Convention. This was enough to secure him the votes of the Paris electors when he was elected mayor ten days later. The Mountain was strengthened by the accession of a significant ally whose one idea was to use his new power to avenge himself on his former colleagues. Mayor Pache, with procureur of the Commune Pierre Gaspard Chaumette and deputy procureur Jacques René Hébert , controlled

2091-574: A way to suppress the Vendée insurrection and the Federalist revolts , and to deter recurrences. In July 1794, the National Convention pushed the administration of Robespierre and his allies out of power and had Robespierre and 21 associates executed . In November 1794, the Jacobin Club closed. In the years and decades after the revolution, the term Jacobin was used in an extended sense to denote political positions perceived as similar to those of

2214-470: A week after the execution of his wife. A very few escaped, including Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai , whose Mémoires give a detailed picture of the sufferings of the fugitives. The survivors of the party made an effort to re-enter the Convention after the fall of Robespierre on 27 July 1794, but it was not until 5 March 1795 that they were formally re-instated forming the Council of Five Hundred under

2337-580: Is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror . The Girondins were a group of loosely affiliated individuals rather than an organized political party and the name was at first informally applied because the most prominent exponents of their point of view were deputies to the Legislative Assembly from the département of Gironde in southwest France. Girondin leader Jacques Pierre Brissot proposed an ambitious military plan to spread

2460-671: The Salle du Manège of the Tuileries , and was thus known as the Club du Manège . It was patronized by Barras , and some two hundred and fifty members of the two councils of the legislature were enrolled as members, including many notable ex-Jacobins. It published a newspaper called the Journal des Libres , proclaimed the apotheosis of Robespierre and Babeuf , and attacked the Directory as

2583-584: The Abbé Grégoire , Charles Lameth , Alexandre Lameth , Artois deputy Robespierre , the duc d'Aiguillon , and La Revellière-Lépeaux . At this time meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, still entirely composed of deputies, reverted to being a provincial caucus for National Constituent Assembly deputies from Brittany. The club

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2706-584: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy , to which he swore an oath on 16 January 1791. Roux famously claimed, I am ready to give every last drop of my blood to a Revolution that has already altered the fate of the human race by making men equal among themselves as they are all for all eternity before God. Roux saw violence as a key to the French Revolution’s success. In fact, when King Louis XVI

2829-661: The Committee of Public Safety and, through it, the National Convention, which was not only a legislature but also took upon itself executive and judicial functions. The Jacobins as a political force were seen as "less selfish, more patriotic, and more sympathetic to the Paris Populace." The Jacobin Club developed into a bureau for French republicanism and revolution , rejecting its original laissez-faire economic policy and economic liberal approach in favour of economic interventionism . In power, they completed

2952-723: The Estates General of 1789 in France convened in May–June 1789 at the Palace of Versailles , the Jacobin club, originating as the Club Breton , comprised exclusively a group of Breton representatives attending those Estates General. Deputies from other regions throughout France soon joined. Early members included the dominating comte de Mirabeau , Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès , Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave , Jérôme Pétion ,

3075-757: The French First Republic . In May 1793, the leaders of the Mountain faction, led by Maximilien Robespierre , succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government featured high levels of political violence, and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is identified as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were guillotined . The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide as

3198-578: The Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy , but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution , which caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 , which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the Girondins. This event

3321-531: The Jacobin Club ( Club des Jacobins ) or simply the Jacobins ( / ˈ dʒ æ k ə b ɪ n / ; French: [ʒakɔbɛ̃] ), was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror , during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes. Initially founded in 1789 by anti-royalist deputies from Brittany ,

3444-405: The National Convention of 1792–1795. Five were lawyers: Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud , Marguerite-Élie Guadet , Armand Gensonné , Jean Antoine Laffargue de Grangeneuve and Jean Jay (who was also a Protestant pastor). The other, Jean François Ducos , was a tradesman. In the Legislative Assembly, they represented a compact body of opinion which, though not as yet definitely republican (i.e. against

3567-833: The Rhineland , Poland and the Netherlands with a goal of creating a protective ring of satellite republics in Great Britain , Spain and Italy by 1795. The Girondins also called for war against Austria , arguing it would rally patriots around the Revolution, liberate oppressed peoples from despotism, and test the loyalty of King Louis XVI . Girondins at first dominated the Jacobin Club, where Brissot's influence had not yet been ousted by Maximilien Robespierre and they did not hesitate to use this advantage to stir up popular passion and intimidate those who sought to stay

3690-571: The Septembriseurs (the supporters of the September Massacres such as Robespierre, Danton , Marat and their lesser allies) realised that not only their influence but their safety depended on keeping the Revolution alive. Robespierre, who hated the Girondins, had proposed to include them in the proscription lists of September 1792: The Mountain Club to a man who desired their overthrow. A group including some Girondins prepared

3813-781: The Situationists , these Enragés emerged as one of the leading groups in the May 1968 French protests . Jacobin Former Former The Society of the Friends of the Constitution ( French : Société des amis de la Constitution ), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality ( Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité ) after 1792 and commonly known as

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3936-583: The Thermidorian Reaction . The Jacobins became targets of Thermidorian and anti-Jacobin papers, with Jacobins lamenting counterrevolutionary pamphlets "poisoning public opinion". The Jacobins disavowed the support they gave Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, yet supported an unpopular return to the Terror. Meanwhile, the society's finances fell into disarray and membership dipped to 600. Further, they were linked to ongoing trials of prominent members of

4059-409: The abolition of feudalism in France that had been formally decided 4 August 1789 but had been held in check by a clause requiring compensation for the abrogation of the feudal privileges. Robespierre entered the political arena at the very beginning of the Revolution, having been elected to represent Artois at the Estates General . Robespierre was viewed as the quintessential political force of

4182-751: The 22 began before the Revolutionary Tribunal on 24 October 1793. The verdict was a foregone conclusion. On 31 October, they were borne to the guillotine. It took 36 minutes to decapitate all of them, including Charles Éléonor Dufriche de Valazé , who had committed suicide the previous day upon hearing the sentence he was given. Of those who escaped to the provinces, after wandering about singly or in groups most were either captured and executed or committed suicide. They included Barbaroux , Buzot , Condorcet , Grangeneuve, Guadet , Kersaint , Pétion , Rabaut de Saint-Etienne and François Rebecqui . Roland killed himself at Rouen on 15 November 1793,

4305-475: The 83 departments against the politicians and Parisians, mainly Montagnards, that had seized power over the Republic. The government in Paris called such revolts 'federalist' which was not accurate: most did not strive for regional autonomy but for a different central government. In October 1793, 21 former Girondin Convention deputies were sentenced to death for supporting an insurrection in Caen . In March 1794,

4428-564: The Assembly. Temperament largely accounts for the dividing line between the parties. The Girondins were doctrinaires and theorists rather than men of action. They initially encouraged armed petitions, but then were dismayed when this led to the émeute (riot) of 20 June 1792 . Jean-Marie Roland was typical of their spirit, turning the Ministry of the Exterior into a publishing office for tracts on civic virtues while riotous mobs were burning

4551-879: The Citizen. As commented in Jean-Jacques Rousseau 's 1762 book The Social Contract , "Citizenship is the expression of a sublime reciprocity between individual and General will ." This view of citizenship and the General Will, once empowered, could simultaneously embrace the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and adopt the French Constitution of 1793 , then immediately suspend that constitution and all ordinary legality and institute Revolutionary Tribunals that did not grant

4674-712: The Committee in May, Robespierre entered it in July, Collot d'Herbois in September and Billaud-Varenne also around September 1793. Robespierre for his steadfast adherence to and defence of his views received the nickname and reputation of l'Incorruptible (The Incorruptible or The Unassailable). Several deposed Girondin-Jacobin Convention deputies, among them Jean-Marie Roland , Brissot , Pétion, Louvet , Buzot and Guadet , left Paris to help organize revolts in more than 60 of

4797-538: The Convention and, indeed, contributed to the demise of the moderate Girondins, who were widely seen as having fought to spare the king. Those who adhered to the ideologies presented in the Manifesto of the Enragés wished to emphasize to the National Convention that tyranny was not just the product of monarchy, and that injustice and oppression did not end with the execution of the king . In their view, oppression existed whenever one stratum of society sought to monopolize

4920-517: The Convention proscribed 21 deputies, five of whom were from the Gironde, as traitors and enemies of their country ( Charles-Louis Antiboul , Boilleau the younger, Boyer-Fonfrêde, Brissot, Carra, Gaspard-Séverin Duchastel, the younger Ducos, Dufriche de Valazé, Jean Duprat, Fauchet, Gardien, Gensonné, Lacaze, Lasource, Claude Romain Lauze de Perret, Lehardi, Benoît Lesterpt-Beauvais, the elder Minvielle,

5043-608: The Convention. She might have killed her if Jean-Paul Marat had not intervened. To the left of the Montagnards and Hébertists , the Enragés were undermined by Montagnard leader Maximilien Robespierre and Hébertist leader Jacques Hébert , both of whom implemented some of their proposals in order to appeal to the same sans-culottes the Enragés sought to win over. Their ideas were taken up and developed by Gracchus Babeuf and his associates. Another group styling itself as Enragés emerged in France in 1968 among students at Nanterre University . Inspired by, and closely allied with,

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5166-463: The Directory . On 3 October of that same year (11 Vendémiaire , year IV), a solemn fête in honour of the Girondins, "martyrs of liberty", was celebrated in the Convention. In her autobiography, Madame Roland reshapes her historical image by stressing the popular connection between sacrifice and female virtue. Her Mémoires de Madame Roland (1795) was written from prison where she was held as

5289-523: The Directory by supporting Napoleon Bonaparte. The Jacobin movement encouraged sentiments of patriotism and liberty amongst the populace. The movement's contemporaries, such as the King Louis XVI , located the effectiveness of the revolutionary movement not "in the force and 1789 bayonets of soldiers, guns, cannons and shells but by the marks of political power". Ultimately, the Jacobins were to control several key political bodies, in particular

5412-486: The European powers. They supported an aggressive foreign policy and constituted the war party in the period 1792–1793, when revolutionary France initiated a long series of revolutionary wars with other European powers. Brissot proposed an ambitious military plan to spread the Revolution internationally, one that Napoleon later pursued aggressively. Brissot called on the National Convention to dominate Europe by conquering

5535-465: The Gironde supported a free market – opposing price controls on goods (e.g., a 1793 maximum on grain prices), supported by a constitutional right to public assistance for the poor and public education . With Brissot, they advocated exporting the Revolution through aggressive foreign policies including war against the surrounding European monarchies. The Girondins were also one of the first supporters of abolitionism in France with Brissot leading

5658-579: The Jacobin Movement, thrusting ever deeper the dagger of liberty within the despotism of the Monarchy. As a disciple of Rousseau, Robespierre's political views were rooted in Rousseau's notion of the social contract , which promoted "the rights of man". Robespierre particularly favored the rights of the broader population to eat, for example, over the rights of individual merchants. "I denounce

5781-430: The Jacobin movement was the Reign of Terror overseen by the Committee of Public Safety, who were given executive powers to purify and unify the Republic. The Committee instituted requisitioning , rationing , and conscription to consolidate new citizen armies. They instituted the Terror as a means of combating those they perceived as enemies within: Robespierre declared, "the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead

5904-479: The Jacobins use of mass movements , direct democracy and left-wing populism . The Jacobin philosophy of a complete dismantling of an old system, with completely radical and new structures, is historically seen as one of the most revolutionary and important movements throughout modern history. The cultural influence of the Jacobin movement during the French Revolution revolved around the creation of

6027-504: The Marquis de Sillery, Vergniaud and Louis-François-Sébastien Viger). Those were sent to trial. Another 39 were included in the final acte d'accusation , accepted by the Convention on 24 October 1793, which stated the crimes for which they were to be tried as their perfidious ambition, their hatred of Paris, their "federalism" and above all their responsibility for the attempt of their escaped colleagues to provoke civil war. The trial of

6150-456: The Montagnard Hébert and some followers were sentenced to death; in April the Montagnard Danton and 13 of his followers were sentenced to death; in both cases after insinuation by Robespierre in the Convention that those "internal enemies" were promoting 'the triumph of tyranny'. Meanwhile, the Montagnard-dominated government resorted also to harsh measures to repress what they considered counter-revolution, conspiracy and " enemies of freedom " in

6273-455: The Montagnard faction). Their numbers were increased by the return to national politics by former National Constituent Assembly deputies such as Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne , Pétion de Villeneuve and Kervélégan, as well as some newcomers as the writer Thomas Paine and popular journalist Jean-Louis Carra. The Girondins called on the local authorities to oppose the concentration and centralisation of power. The Girondins proposed suspending

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6396-413: The Montagnards at 120. The remaining 480 of the 750 deputies of the convention were called ' the Plain ' (French: la Plaine) and managed to keep some speed in the debates while Girondins and Montagnards were mainly occupied with nagging the opposite side. Most Ministries were manned by friends or allies of the Girondins, but while the Girondins were stronger than the Montagnards outside Paris, inside Paris

6519-454: The Montagnards at the Hôtel de Ville and the Jacobin Club itself where members had been gathering every Saturday evening. Robespierre and 21 associates including the Jacobin Saint-Just and the Montagnard Couthon were sentenced to death by the National Convention and guillotined . Probably because of the high level of repressive violence – but also to discredit Robespierre and associates as solely responsible for it – historians have taken up

6642-417: The Montagnards were much more popular, implying that the public galleries of the convention were always loudly cheering for Montagnards, while jeering at Girondins speaking. On 6 April 1793, the convention established the Comité de salut public (Committee of Public Prosperity, also translated as Committee of Public Safety) as sort of executive government of nine, later twelve members, always accountable to

6765-442: The National Convention and the sans-culottes . They illuminated the internal and external war waged by the sans-culottes . They complained that the National Convention ordered men to fight on the battlefield without providing for the widows and orphans remaining in France. They emphasized the unavailability of basic necessities, particularly bread. In his Manifesto of the Enragés , Jacques Roux colorfully expressed this sentiment to

6888-503: The National Convention of protecting the merchant elite's interests at the expense of the sans-culottes. Further attempts of the Enragés to communicate their position were denied by the National Convention. Determined to be heard, they responded with revolt. They plundered the homes and businesses of the merchant elite, employing direct action to meet their needs. The Enragés were noted for using both legal and extralegal means to achieve their ends. The Enragés were composed of members within

7011-549: The National Convention, asking, Is it necessary that the widows of those who died for the cause of freedom pay, at the price of gold, for the cotton they need to wipe away their tears, for the milk and the honey that serves for their children? They accused the merchant aristocracy of withholding access to goods and supplies to intentionally drive up prices. Roux demanded that the National Convention impose capital punishment upon unethical merchants who used speculation , monopolies and hoarding to increase their personal profits at

7134-420: The National Convention. Initially, it counted no Girondins and only one or two Montagnards, but gradually the influence of Montagnards in the Committee grew. Early April 1793, Minister of War Pache said to the National Convention that the 22 leaders of the Girondins should be banned. Later that month, the Girondin Guadet accused the Montagnard Marat of 'preaching plunder and murder' and trying 'to destroy

7257-428: The Paris National Guards, purged the Convention of the Girondins (see Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 ). A list drawn up by the Commandant-General of the Parisian National Guard François Hanriot (with help from Marat) and endorsed by a decree of the intimidated Convention, included 22 Girondin deputies and 10 of the 12 members of the Commission of Twelve , who were ordered to be detained at their lodgings "under

7380-497: The Revolution internationally, therefore the Girondins were the war party in 1792–1793. Other prominent Girondins included Jean Marie Roland and his wife Madame Roland . They also had an ally in the English-born American activist Thomas Paine . Brissot and Madame Roland were executed and Jean Roland (who had gone into hiding) committed suicide when he learned about the execution. Paine was imprisoned, but he narrowly escaped execution. The famous painting The Death of Marat depicts

7503-465: The Terror involved in atrocities in Nantes , especially Jean-Baptiste Carrier . Organized gangs formed, the jeunesse doree or Muscadins , who harassed and attacked Jacobin members, even assailing the Jacobin Club hall in Paris. On 21 Brumaire, the Convention refused to support enforcement of protection of the club. The Committee of General Security decided to close the Jacobins' meeting hall late that night, resulting in it being padlocked at four in

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7626-402: The actress Claire Lacombe , another individual associated with the Enragés, founded the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women . This group was outraged by high costs of living, lack of necessities and awful living conditions. Lacombe was known for violent rhetoric and action. On 26 May 1793, Lacombe nearly beat to death a Girondin woman, Théroigne de Méricourt , with a whip on the benches of

7749-444: The anti-slavery Society of the Friends of the Blacks . Certain Girondins such as Condorcet supported women's suffrage and political equality . They sat to the left of the centrist Feuillants . The Girondins supported democratic reform , secularism and parliamentary sovereignty at the expense of a weaker executive and judiciary as opposed to the authoritarian left-wing Montagnards , who supported public acknowledgement of

7872-410: The armed militias of the 48 revolutionary Sections of Paris and prepared to turn this weapon against the Convention. The abortive émeute of 10 March warned the Girondins of their danger and they responded with defensive moves. They unintentionally increased the prestige of their most vocal and bitter critic Marat by prosecuting him before the Revolutionary Tribunal , where his acquittal in April 1793

7995-414: The assassins of the people to you and you respond, 'let them act as they will.' In such a system, all is against society; all favors the grain merchants." Robespierre famously elaborated this conception in his speech on 2 December 1792: "What is the first goal of society? To maintain the imprescribable rights of man. What is the first of these rights? The right to exist." The ultimate political vehicle for

8118-414: The châteaux unchecked in the provinces. Girondins did not share the ferocious fanaticism or the ruthless opportunism of the future Montagnard organisers of the Reign of Terror . On 25 July, according to the Logographe , Carnot promoted the use of pikes (seven feet long) and provided to every citizen. (On this day the points of view between Robespierre and Brissot split. ) On 29 July Robespierre called for

8241-411: The club grew into a nationwide republican movement with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s: The Mountain and the Girondins . In 1792–93, the Girondins were more prominent in leading France when they declared war on Austria and on Prussia , overthrew King Louis XVI , and set up

8364-406: The conservative members of the Jacobin Club to form their own Feuillants Club in July 1791 to some extent radicalized the Jacobin Club. Late 1791, a group of Jacobins in the Legislative Assembly advocated war with Prussia and Austria. Most prominent among them was Brissot , other members were Pierre Vergniaud , Fauchet , Maximin Isnard , Jean-Marie Roland . Maximilien Robespierre , also

8487-438: The deposition of the King and the election of a Convention. Early August Brissot urged the preservation of the constitution, advocating against both the dethronement of the king and the election of a new assembly. As the Revolution developed, the Girondins often found themselves opposing its results; the overthrow of the monarchy on 10 August 1792 and the September Massacres of 1792 occurred while they still nominally controlled

8610-497: The deputies to the Convention who were memorialized were only those hailing from the Gironde department, omitting notable people like Brissot and Madame Roland. Former Former The words Girondin and Montagnard are defined as political groups—more specific definitions are the subject of theorizing by historians. The two words were much tossed about by partisans with various understandings of what they were intended to represent. The two groups lacked formal political structures, and

8733-438: The differences between them have never been satisfactorily explained. It has been suggested that the word Girondin as a useful term be abandoned. Influenced by classical liberalism and the concepts of democracy , human rights and Montesquieu 's separation of powers , the Girondins were republicans , Like the Jacobins, they were also influenced by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau . In its early times of government,

8856-405: The discussions from the balconies. The rather high subscription of the Jacobin Club confined its membership to well-off men. The Jacobins claimed to speak on behalf of the people but were themselves not of 'the people': contemporaries saw the Jacobins as a club of the bourgeoisie . As far as the central society in Paris was concerned, it was composed almost entirely of professional men (such as

8979-458: The dominant voice in the Jacobin Club. Since late 1791, the Girondins became opponents of Robespierre, taking their place on the right side of the session room of the convention. By this time, they stopped visiting the Jacobin Club. Those parliamentary groups, Montagnards and Girondins, never had any official status, but historians estimate the Girondins in the Convention at 150 men strong,

9102-422: The domination of Paris and summoned provincial levies to their aid and so fell under suspicion of "federalism" as on September 25, 1792. They strengthened the revolutionary Commune by first decreeing its abolition but withdrawing the decree at the first sign of popular opposition. In the suspicious temper of the times, their vacillation was fatal. Marat never ceased his denunciations of the faction by which France

9225-408: The establishment of order, which would mean the guarantee of their own power. The Girondins, who had been the radicals of the Legislative Assembly (1791–1792), became the conservatives of the Convention (1792–1795). The Revolution failed to deliver the immediate gains that had been promised and this made it difficult for the Girondins to draw it to a close easily in the minds of the public. Moreover,

9348-446: The exclusive use of the assignat to stabilize finances. The Enragés formed in response to the Jacobins 's reluctance to restrain the capitalist bourgeois . Many Parisians feared that the National Convention protected merchants and shopkeepers at the expense of the sans-culottes , the lower-class working peoples. The Enragés, though not a cohesive body, offered these working poor a platform to express their dissent. Their dissent

9471-407: The expense of the poor. The Enragés labeled price gouging as counter-revolutionary and treasonous. This sentiment also extended to those who sympathized with the recently executed King Louis XVI . They felt that those who sympathized with the monarchy would also sympathize with those who hoarded goods. It is not surprising that many within the Enragés actively worked against the Girondin faction of

9594-555: The fiery radical journalist and denouncer of the Girondins Jean-Paul Marat after being stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday , a Girondin sympathizer. Corday did not attempt to flee and was arrested and executed. The collective name "Girondins" is used to describe "a loosely knit group of French deputies who contested the Montagnards for control of the National Convention". They were never an formal organization or political party. The name itself

9717-487: The first battalion of Morbihan volunteers, remaining a member until February 1792. He gained recognition in Paris through a speech to the Jacobins attacking Louis XVI. After moving to Lyon , he joined the Central Club and married Pauline Léon , a revolutionary woman . He approved of radical violence like the other Enragés, calling for the execution of expelled Girondins after the 2 June insurrection . In 1793,

9840-448: The galleries and around the convention would finally lead the country to anarchy and civil war, and he threatened on 25 May: "If anything should befall to the representatives of the nation, I declare, in the name of France, that all of Paris will be obliterated". The next day, Robespierre said in the Jacobin Club that the people should "rise up against the corrupted deputies" in the convention. On 27 May, both Girondins and Montagnards accused

9963-675: The government, but the Girondins tried to distance themselves from the results of the September Massacres. At the end of August Robespierre was no longer willing to cooperate with Brissot and Roland . On Sunday morning 2 September the members of the Commune, gathering in the town hall to proceed the election of deputies to the National Convention, decided to maintain their seats and have Roland and Brissot arrested. According to Charlotte Robespierre , her brother stopped talking to his former friend, mayor Pétion de Villeneuve . Pétion

10086-672: The governments of Europe throughout the 1800s. This complex and complete revolution in political, societal and cultural structure, caused in part by the Jacobins, had lasting impact throughout Europe, with such societal revolutions throughout the 1800s culminating in the Revolutions of 1848 . Jacobin populism and complete structural destruction of the old order led to an increasingly revolutionary spirit throughout Europe and such changes would contribute to new political foundations. Leftist organizations would take different elements from Jacobin's core foundation. Anarchists took influence from

10209-494: The group around Robespierre dominating French politics in June 1793–July 1794 was often designated as 'Jacobins'. Many of these Montagnards (and Jacobins) entered, or were already, in the de facto executive government of France, the Committee of Public Prosperity (or Public Safety) : Barère was in it since April 1793 until at least October 1793, Danton served there from April until July 1793, Couthon and Saint-Just had entered

10332-461: The habit to roughly label the period June 1793–July 1794 as ' Reign of Terror '. Later and modern scholars explain that high level of repressive violence occurred at a time when France was menaced by civil war and by a coalition of foreign hostile powers, requiring the discipline of the Terror to mold France into a united Republic capable of resisting this double peril. With the execution of Robespierre and other leading Montagnards and Jacobins, began

10455-435: The historical Jacobins and the Mountain in the National Convention . It was popular among conservative publicists as a pejorative to deride progressive politics , and among Anglophone progressives likewise as a pejorative denoting the violent excesses of the revolution, whereas they associated its positive features and principles with the Girondins . In Britain, the term faintly echoed negative connotations of Jacobitism ,

10578-406: The hostile camp—their system was established in mere reason, but the Montagnards made up for what they lacked in talent or in numbers through their boldness and energy. This was especially fruitful since uncommitted delegates accounted for almost half the total number, even though the Jacobins and Brissotins formed the largest groups. The more radical rhetoric of the Jacobins attracted the support of

10701-553: The king and summoning of the National Convention, but they agreed not to overthrow the monarchy until Louis XVI became impervious to their counsels. Once the king was overthrown in 1792 and a republic was established, they were anxious to stop the revolutionary movement that they had helped to set in motion. Girondins and historian Pierre Claude François Daunou argues in his Mémoires that the Girondins were too cultivated and too polished to retain their popularity for long in times of disturbance, and so they were more inclined to work for

10824-491: The lawyer Robespierre ) and well-to-do bourgeoisie (like the brewer Santerre ). From the start, however, other elements were also present. Besides the teenage son of the Duc d'Orléans , Louis Philippe , a future king of France, aristocrats such as the duc d'Aiguillon, the prince de Broglie , and the vicomte de Noailles , and the bourgeoisie formed the mass of the members. The club further included people like "père" Michel Gérard,

10947-523: The left into one group. In 1793, Jacques Roux delivered a speech at the National Convention known as the Manifesto of the Enragés that represented the essential demands of the group. He asserted that freedom and equality had thus far been "vain phantoms", because the rich had profited from the French Revolution at the expense of the poor. To remedy this, he proposed measures for price controls , arguing, "Those goods necessary to all should be delivered at

11070-459: The left side on the highest seats of the session room: therefore that group around and led by Robespierre was called The Mountain (French: la Montagne , les Montagnards ). Some historians prefer to identify a parliamentary group around Robespierre as Jacobins, which can be confusing because not all Montagnards were Jacobin and their primal enemies, the Girondins, were originally also Jacobins. By September 1792, Robespierre indeed had also become

11193-480: The majority of resources while simultaneously preventing others from gaining access to those same resources. In their view, the pursuit of resources was acceptable, but the act of limiting access to resources was punishable by death. The Enragés called on the National Convention to restrict commerce, so that it might not "consist of ruining, rendering hopeless, or starving citizens". While the Enragés occasionally worked within political structures, their primary objective

11316-626: The monarchy), was considerably more "advanced" than the moderate royalism of the majority of the Parisian deputies. A group of deputies from elsewhere became associated with these views, most notably the Marquis de Condorcet , Claude Fauchet , Marc David Lasource , Maximin Isnard , the Comte de Kersaint , Henri Larivière and above all Jacques Pierre Brissot, Jean Marie Roland and Jérôme Pétion , who

11439-404: The monarchy; both were democrats as well as republicans; and both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals. Despite being accused of wanting to weaken the central government ("federalism"), the Girondins desired as little as the Montagnards to break up the unity of France. From the first, the leaders of the two parties stood in avowed opposition, in the Jacobin Club as in

11562-488: The morning. The next meeting day, 22 Brumaire (12 November 1794), without debate the National Convention passed a decree permanently closing the Jacobin Club by a nearly unanimous vote. Within a year 93% of the Jacobin clubs were closed throughout the country. An attempt to reorganize Jacobin adherents was the foundation of the Réunion d'amis de l'égalité et de la liberté , in July 1799, which had its headquarters in

11685-489: The movement in the National Convention. Revolutionary proto-feminists held vital positions within the Enragés, including Claire Lacombe and Pauline Léon . The proto-feminists of the French Revolution are now credited with inspiring feminist movements in the 19th century . Jacques Roux , a Roman Catholic priest, was a leader of the Enragés. Roux supported the common people (i.e., the sans-culottes ) and republicanism . He participated in peasant movements and endorsed

11808-449: The name "Brissotins" for his followers. The group was identified by its enemies at the start of the National Convention (20 September 1792). "Brissotins" and "Girondins" were terms of opprobrium used by their enemies in a separate faction of the Jacobin Club, who freely denounced them as enemies of democracy. In the Legislative Assembly, the Girondins represented the principle of democratic revolution within France and patriotic defiance to

11931-787: The other party of propagating civil war. On 2 June 1793, the convention was besieged in its Tuileries Palace by a crowd of around 80,000 armed soldiers, clamorously on the hand of the Montagnards. In a chaotic session a decree was adopted that day by the convention, expelling 22 leading Girondins from the convention, including Lanjuinais , Isnard and Fauchet. Around June 1793, Maximilien Robespierre and some of his associates (Montagnards) gained greater power in France. Many of them, like Robespierre himself, were Jacobin: Fouché , Collot d'Herbois , Billaud-Varenne , Marat , Danton , Saint-Just . Three other powerful Montagnards were not known as Jacobin: Barère , Hébert and Couthon . In 'culture wars' and history writing after 1793 however,

12054-563: The people by reason and the people's enemies by terror." The meeting place of the Fraternal Society of Patriots of Both Sexes was an old library room of the convent which hosted the Jacobins, and it was suggested that the Fraternal Society grew out of the regular occupants of a special gallery allotted to women at the Jacobin Club. Georges Valois , founder of the first non-Italian fascist party Faisceau , claimed

12177-535: The political foundation of almost all leftist schools of thought including anarchism , communism and socialism . The Paris Commune was seen as the revolutionary successor to the Jacobins. The undercurrent of radical and populist tendencies espoused and enacted by the Jacobins would create a complete cultural and societal shock within the traditional and conservative governments of Europe, leading to new political ideas of society emerging. Jacobin rhetoric would lead to increasing secularization and skepticism towards

12300-484: The pro-Catholic, monarchist, rarely insurrectional political movement that faded out decades earlier tied to deposed King James II of England and his descendants. The term Jacobin reached obsolescence and supersedence before the Russian Revolution , when the terms (Radical) Marxism , anarchism , socialism , and communism had overtaken it. In modern France, the term Jacobin generally denotes

12423-467: The progress of the Revolution. They compelled the king in 1792 to choose a ministry composed of their partisans, among them Roland, Charles François Dumouriez , Étienne Clavière and Joseph Marie Servan de Gerbey ; and they forced a declaration of war against Habsburg Austria the same year. In all of this activity, there was no apparent line of cleavage between La Gironde and The Mountain . Montagnards and Girondins alike were fundamentally opposed to

12546-427: The provinces outside Paris, resulting in 17,000 death sentences between September 1793 and July 1794 in all of France. In late June 1794, three colleagues on the Committee of Public Prosperity/Safety – Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois and Carnot – called Robespierre a dictator. On 10 Thermidor, Year II (28 July 1794), at some time in the evening, Louis Legendre was sent out with troops to arrest leading members of

12669-562: The revolutionary Paris Commune , the Revolutionary Sections (mass assemblies in districts) and the National Guard of Paris and they had gained control of the Jacobin club, where Brissot, absorbed in departmental work, had been superseded by Robespierre. At the trial of Louis XVI in 1792, most Girondins had voted for the "appeal to the people" and so laid themselves open to the charge of "royalism". They denounced

12792-444: The roots of fascism stemmed from the Jacobin movement. This is disputed as the Jacobin's were socially and politically liberal , against conservatism, and advocated for republicanism . The Jacobin movement is considered to be left-wing . The political rhetoric and populist ideas espoused by the Jacobins would lead to the development of the modern leftist movements throughout the 19th and 20th century, with Jacobinism being

12915-406: The safeguard of the people". Some submitted, among them Gensonné, Guadet, Vergniaud, Pétion, Birotteau and Boyer-Fonfrède. Others, including Brissot, Louvet, Buzot, Lasource, Grangeneuve, Larivière and François Bergoeing, escaped from Paris and, joined later by Guadet, Pétion and Birotteau, set to work to organise a movement of the provinces against the capital. This attempt to stir up civil war made

13038-411: The society became formally constituted on this broader basis by the adoption of the rules drawn up by Barnave , which were issued with the signature of the duc d'Aiguillon, the president. The club's objectives were defined as such: At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, and the constitution of the club determined. There was to be a president, elected every month, four secretaries,

13161-425: The sovereignty of the people'. A majority of the Convention agreed to put Marat on trial, but the court of justice quickly acquitted Marat. This apparent victory of the Montagnards intensified their antipathies of the Girondins, and more proposals were vented to get rid of the Girondins. On both 18 and 25 May 1793, the acting president of the convention, Isnard, a Girondin, warned that the disturbances and disorder on

13284-522: The ultimate sacrifice of her own life for her political beliefs. She helped her husband escape, but she was executed on 8 November 1793. A week later he committed suicide. A monument to the Girondins was erected in Bordeaux between 1893 and 1902 dedicated to the memory of the Girondin deputies who were victims of the Terror. The vagueness of who actually made up the Girondins led to the monument not having any names inscribed on it until 1989. Even then,

13407-581: The unpopularity of the Girondins and seal their fate. The excuse for the Terror that followed was the imminent peril of France, menaced on the east by the advance of the armies of the First Coalition (Austria, Prussia and Great Britain) on the west by the Royalist Revolt in the Vendée and the need for preventing at all costs the outbreak of another civil war. On 28 July 1793, a decree of

13530-429: The wavering and frightened Convention suddenly determined. On 13 June 1793, it voted that the city of Paris deserved well of the country and ordered the imprisonment of the detained deputies, the filling up of their places in the Assembly by their suppléants and the initiation of vigorous measures against the movement in the provinces. The assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday on 13 July 1793 only served to increase

13653-479: Was a foregone conclusion. The Commission of Twelve was appointed of on 24 May, including the arrest of Varlat and Hébert and other precautionary measures. The ominous threat by Girondin leader Maximin Isnard , uttered on 25 May, to "march France upon Paris" was instead met by Paris marching hastily upon the Convention. The Girondin role in the government was undermined by the popular uprisings of 27 and 31 May and finally on 2 June 1793, when François Hanriot , head of

13776-514: Was accused of conspicuous consumption by Desmoulins, and finally rallied to Brissot. When the National Convention first met on 22 September 1792, the core of like-minded deputies from the Gironde expanded as Jean-Baptiste Boyer-Fonfrède , Jacques Lacaze and François Bergoeing joined five of the six stalwarts of the Legislative Assembly (Jean Jay, the Protestant pastor, drifted toward

13899-454: Was achieving social and economic reform. They were a direct action group, attempting to meet the immediate needs of the working poor. Jean-François Varlet , though a man, understood the enormous influence women possessed, particularly within the French Revolution. Varlet formed the Enragés by provoking and motivating working poor women and organizing them into a semi-cohesive mobile unit. The Enragés often appointed women as speakers to represent

14022-586: Was being betrayed to her ruin and his cry of Nous sommes trahis! ("We are betrayed!") was echoed from group to group in the streets of Paris. The growing hostility of Paris to the Girondins received a fateful demonstration by the election on 15 February 1793 of the bitter ex-Girondin Jean-Nicolas Pache to the mayoralty. Pache had twice been minister of war in the Girondins government, but his incompetence had laid him open to strong criticism and on 4 February 1793 he had been replaced as minister of war by

14145-403: Was being blamed for their leadership. Other names were employed at the time too, but "Girondins" ultimately became the term favored by historians. The term became standard with Alphonse de Lamartine 's History of the Girondins in 1847. Twelve deputies represented the département of the Gironde and there were six who sat for this département in both the Legislative Assembly of 1791–1792 and

14268-442: Was bestowed not by any of its alleged members but by the Montagnards , "who claimed as early as April 1792 that a counterrevolutionary faction had coalesced around deputies of the department of the Gironde ". Jacques-Pierre Brissot , Jean Marie Roland and François Buzot were among the most prominent of such deputies and contemporaries called their supporters Brissotins , Rolandins , or Buzotins , depending on which politician

14391-423: Was changed to Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité (Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality). In the newly elected National Convention , governing France as of 21 September 1792, Maximilien Robespierre made his comeback in the center of French power. Together with his 25-year-old protégé Louis Antoine de Saint-Just , Marat , Danton and other associates they took places on

14514-421: Was dominated by men like Brissot, Isnard and Roland: Girondins. But after June 1792, Girondins visited less and less the Jacobin Club, where Robespierre, their fierce opponent, grew more and more dominant. On 21 September 1792, after the fall of the monarchy the title assumed by the Jacobin Club after the promulgation of the constitution of 1791 ( Société des amis de la constitution séants aux Jacobins à Paris )

14637-474: Was elected mayor of Paris in succession to Jean Sylvain Bailly on 16 November 1791. Madame Roland , whose salon became their gathering place, had a powerful influence on the spirit and policy of the Girondins with her "romantic republicanism". The party cohesion they possessed was connected to the energy of Brissot, who came to be regarded as their mouthpiece in the Assembly and in the Jacobin Club , hence

14760-524: Was executed in January 1793, it was Roux who led him to the scaffold. Jean Varlet , another leader of the Enragés, played a leading role in the fall of the monarchy . When King Louis XVI attempted to flee Paris , Varlet circulated petitions in the National Assembly and spoke against the king. On 10 August 1792 , the Legislative Assembly suspended the king and called for the election of

14883-523: Was often conveyed through riots, public demonstrations and passionate oratory. Jacques Roux and Jean-Francois Varlet emboldened the Parisian working poor to approach the Jacobin Club on 22 February 1793 and persuade them to place price controls on necessary goods . The Enragés appointed two women to represent the movement and their agenda to the National Convention. However, the Convention refused to grant them an audience. This provoked outrage and criticism throughout Paris, and some went as far as to accuse

15006-927: Was re-founded in November 1789 as the Société de la Révolution , inspired in part by a letter sent from the Revolution Society of London to the Assembly congratulating the French on regaining their liberty. To accommodate growing membership, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the Dominican monastery of the “Jacobins” in the Rue Saint-Honoré , adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. They changed their name to Société des amis de la Constitution in late January, though by this time, their opponents had already concisely dubbed them "Jacobins",

15129-530: Was this widespread yet highly centralized organization that gave to the Jacobin Club great power. By early 1791, clubs like the Jacobins, the Club des Cordeliers and the Cercle Social were increasingly dominating French political life. Numbers of men were members of two or more of such clubs. Women were not accepted as members of the Jacobin Club (nor of most other clubs), but they were allowed to follow

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