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107-564: The sans-culottes ( French: [sɑ̃kylɔt] ; lit.   ' without breeches ' ) were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France , a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the Ancien Régime . The word sans-culotte , which is opposed to " aristocrat ", seems to have been used for

214-760: A civil war. Discontent in the Vendée lasted—according to some accounts—until after the Terror. On 6 April 1793 the National Convention established the Committee of Public Safety , which gradually became the de facto war-time government of France. The Committee oversaw the Reign of Terror. "During the Reign of Terror, at least 300,000 suspects were arrested; 17,000 were officially executed, and perhaps 10,000 died in prison or without trial." On 2 June 1793,

321-629: A concealed staircase to the third floor and his apartment. The great confusion that arose during the storming of the municipal Hall of Paris, where Robespierre and his friends had found refuge, makes it impossible to be sure of the wound's origin. A group of 15 to 20 conspirators were locked up in a room inside the Hôtel de Ville. In any case, Robespierre was guillotined the next day, together with Saint-Just, Couthon and his brother Augustin Robespierre . The day following his demise, approximately half of

428-570: A concept. There is disagreement among historians over when exactly "the Terror" began. Some consider it to have begun only in 1793, often giving the date as 5 September or 10 March, when the Revolutionary Tribunal came into existence. Others, however, cite the earlier time of the September Massacres in 1792, or even July 1789, when the first killing of the revolution occurred. The term "Terror" used to describe

535-487: A more dictatorial boss, would have ended up overthrowing him to put himself in his place; we also knew that we stood in the way of his projects and that he would have us guillotined; we had him stopped." The fall of Robespierre was brought about by a combination of those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety (and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow) and the moderates who completely opposed

642-553: A newfound military power in France, which was used to defend against the future coalitions formed by rival nations. The event also solidified Robespierre's rise to power as president of the Committee of Public Safety earlier in July. On September 8, banks and exchange offices were shuttered to curb the circulation of counterfeit assignats and the outflow of capital, with investments in foreign countries punishable by death. The following day,

749-518: A proposal by Chaumette and supported by Billaud and Danton, decided to form a revolutionary army of 6,000 men in Paris. Barère, representing the Committee of Public Safety, introduced a decree that was promptly passed, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,200 gunners "tasked with crushing counter-revolutionaries, enforcing revolutionary laws and public safety measures decreed by the National Convention, and safeguarding provisions." This allowed

856-687: A skirt, but is actually pants." During the Victorian Era (mid- to late-nineteenth century European culture) long split skirts were developed for horseback riding so that women could sit astride a horse with a man's saddle rather than riding side-saddle . Horse-riding culottes for women were controversial because they were used to break a sexual taboo against women riding horses when they were expected to hide their lower limbs at all times. Later, split skirts were developed to provide women more freedom to do other activities as well, such as gardening , cleaning, bike riding, etc. and still look like one

963-506: A sort of proto-proletariat that played a central role in the French Revolution. That view has been sharply attacked by scholars who say the sans-culottes were not a class at all. Indeed, as one historian points out, Soboul's concept has not been used by scholars in any other period of French history. The term "culottes" in more recent French describes women's underpants, an article of clothing that has little or no relation to

1070-993: A standard uniform article, the lower leg being covered by either stockings , leggings , or knee-high boots . Culottes were a common part of military uniforms during the European wars of the eighteenth-century (the Great Northern War , the War of the Spanish Succession , the War of the Austrian Succession , the Seven Years' War , the French and Indian War , and the Revolutionary War ). Historical Japanese field workers and military samurai wore hakama that were sometimes tight at

1177-577: A trial was not necessary, and won with a slim majority. Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793. The demands of the sans-culottes did not stop with the execution of the King, and the Montagnards worked hard to fulfil their mounting orders. This increased pressure from the radical masses exacerbated the ideological split between the Montagnards and the Girondins, and tensions began to grow within

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1284-629: A very strong Girondin majority, was set up to investigate the anarchy in the communes and the activities of the sans-culottes . On 28 May, the Paris Commune accepted the creation of a sans-culottes army to enforce revolutionary laws. Petitioners from the sections and the Commune appeared at the bar of the Convention at about five o'clock in the afternoon on 31 May. They demanded that a domestic revolutionary army should be raised and that

1391-499: Is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie [homeland, fatherland] . Marxist historian Albert Mathiez argues that such terror was a necessary reaction to the circumstances. Others suggest there were additional causes, including ideological and emotional. Enlightenment thought emphasized

1498-419: Is wearing a skirt. Culottes are used in school uniforms for girls. They can be used along with skirts, or they may be used as a replacement for skirts. Culottes are worn as part of a uniform mainly to primary and middle schools. Culottes were also part of the uniform of UK Brownie Guides up until recently, when the uniform was modernized and the traditional brown culottes (and the navy blue culottes worn by

1605-587: The sans-culottes a necessary group in implementing the Terror. The popular image of the sans-culotte has gained currency as an enduring symbol for the passion, idealism and patriotism of the common man of the French Revolution . The term sans-culottism , sans-culottisme in French, refers to this idealized image and the themes associated with it. Many public figures and revolutionaries who were not strictly working class styled themselves citoyens sans-culottes in solidarity and recognition. However, in

1712-418: The sans-culottes again invaded the convention. They demanded tougher measures against rising prices and the setting up of a system of terror to root out the counter-revolution. The sans-culottes took an especially active interest in the revolutionary army. A " sans-culotte army" (in a sense, Robespierre's brain-child) was formed in Paris. Barère voiced the Committee of Public Safety's support for

1819-581: The sans-culottes in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine , was appointed provisional president of the Insurrectionary Commune. In Spring 1793, after the defection of Dumouriez , Robespierre urged the creation of a " sans-culotte army" to sweep away any conspirator. On 1 May, the crowds threatened armed insurrection if the emergency measures demanded (price control) were not adopted. On 8 and 12 May Robespierre repeated in

1926-490: The sans-culottes were a "shapeless, mostly urban movement of the labouring poor, small craftsmen, shopkeepers, artisans, tiny entrepreneurs and the like". He further notes they were organised notably in the local political clubs of Paris and "provided the main striking-force of the revolution". Hobsbawm writes that these were the actual demonstrators, rioters and constructors of the street barricades . However, Hobsbawm maintains, sans-culottism provided no real alternative to

2033-586: The Catholic Church and given to the state. In 1789, church lands were expropriated and priests killed or forced to leave France. Later in 1792, "refractory priests" were targeted and replaced with their secular counterpart from the Jacobin club . Not all religions experienced equal aggression, the Jewish community, on the contrary, received admittance into French citizenship in 1791. A Festival of Reason

2140-554: The Constituent Assembly were taken to the scaffold. Saint-Just and LeBas left Paris at the end of the month for the army in the north . On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the Terror would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the trials held in Paris. On 20 May, Robespierre signed Theresa Cabarrus 's arrest warrant, and on 23 May, following an attempted assassination on Collot d'Herbois , Cécile Renault

2247-616: The Cordeliers club. The Hébertists hoped that the National Convention would expel Robespierre and his Montagnard supporters. The sans-culottes did not respond, and Hanriot refused to cooperate. On 13 March Hébert, the voice of the sans-culottes , had been using the latest issue of Le Père Duchesne to criticise Robespierre. On 18 March Bourdon attacked the Commune and the sans-culottes army. Jacques Hébert , Ronsin , Vincent , Momoro , Clootz , De Kock were arrested on charges of complicity with foreign powers ( William Pitt

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2354-642: The Federalist revolts against the National Convention in Paris, which were ultimately crushed. On 24 June 1793, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of 1793 . It was ratified by public referendum , but never put into force. On 13 July 1793, the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat —a Jacobin leader and journalist—resulted in a further increase in Jacobin political influence. Georges Danton ,

2461-541: The First Coalition . The Coalition, consisting of Russia , Austria , Prussia , Spain , Holland , and Sardinia began attacking France from all directions, besieging and capturing ports and retaking ground lost to France. With so many similarities to the first days of the Revolutionary Wars for the French government, with threats on all sides, unification of the country became a top priority. As

2568-528: The Montagnards expressed concern for the working classes of France. When the National Convention met to discuss the fate of the former king Louis XVI in 1792, the sans-culottes vehemently opposed a proper trial , instead opting for an immediate execution . The moderate Girondin faction voted for a trial, but the radical Montagnards sided with the sans-culottes , deeming that

2675-472: The September Massacres of 1792 by taking violence into their own hands as an instrument of government. The monarchist Jacques Cazotte who predicted the Terror was guillotined at the end of the month. What Robespierre called "terror" was the fear that the "justice of exception" would inspire the enemies of the Republic. He opposed the idea of terror as the order of the day, defending instead "justice" as

2782-593: The revolt of Lyon against the National Convention , while Jean-Baptiste Carrier ordered the drownings at Nantes . Tallien ensured the operation of the guillotine in Bordeaux, while Barras and Fréron addressed issues in Marseille and Toulon. Joseph Le Bon was sent to the Somme and Pas-de-Calais regions. On 8 November, the director of the assignats manufacture and Manon Roland were executed. On 13 November,

2889-467: The right to strike . Following the king's veto of the Assembly's efforts to raise a militia of volunteers, the reinstatement of Brissotin ministers and suppression of non-juring priests , the monarchy faced an abortive Demonstration of 20 June 1792 . Sergent-Marceau and Panis  [ fr ] , the administrators of police, urged the sans-culottes to lay down their weapons, telling them it

2996-439: The working class sans-culottes wore pantaloons , or long trousers, instead. The sans-culottes , most of them urban labourers, served as the driving popular force behind the revolution. They were judged by the other revolutionaries as "radicals" because they advocated a direct democracy , that is to say, without intermediaries such as members of parliament. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, with little or no support from

3103-550: The 1800s. Culottes were abandoned among non- Hassidim in the mid-1900s to early 20th century (due to upheavals in traditional Jewish life in those times), but ended up staying customary only among Hassidim , who continue to wear them today. However, culottes are not worn by Russian Hassidic sects, such as Karlin and Chabad . Different sects of Hassidim have different customs as to when and how they are worn, and whether and how unmarried men wear them on Shabbos and Jewish holidays, or if they wear them at all. In modern English,

3210-546: The Austro-Prussian invasion. While the French military had stabilized and was producing victories by the time the Reign of Terror officially began, the pressure to succeed in this international struggle acted as justification for the government to pursue its actions. It was not until after the execution of Louis XVI and the annexation of the Rhineland that the other monarchies began to feel threatened enough to form

3317-551: The Comité de salut public was created, whose task was to monitor public servants, competing with both the Committee of General Security and the Committee of Public Safety. Foreigners were no longer allowed to travel through France or visit a Jacobin club; Dutch patriots who had fled to France before 1790 were excluded. On 22 April Malesherbes , a lawyer who had defended the king and the deputés Isaac René Guy le Chapelier and Jacques Guillaume Thouret , four times elected president of

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3424-615: The Convention shut down the Paris Bourse and banned all commerce in precious metals, under penalties. Anti-clerical sentiments increased and a campaign of dechristianization occurred at the end of 1793. Eventually, Robespierre denounced the "de-Christianisers" as foreign enemies. In early December, Robespierre accused Georges Danton in the Jacobin Club of "too often showing his vices and not his virtue". Camille Desmoulins defended Danton and warned Robespierre not to exaggerate

3531-438: The Convention, which itself was clearly at the mercy of whoever could command the armed sans-culottes battalions." Now, whoever was in control of France's destiny had to answer to the sans-culottes , who "effectively exercised legislative power" in situations of unrest. Otherwise, they would risk a similar uprising and their own exile, or possibly even execution. This political shift towards radicalism would soon turn into

3638-585: The French Revolution, the surrounding monarchies did not show great hostility towards the rebellion. Though mostly ignored, Louis XVI was later able to find support in Leopold II of Austria (brother of Marie Antoinette ) and Frederick William II of Prussia . On 27 August 1791, these foreign leaders made the Pillnitz Declaration , saying they would restore the French monarch if other European rulers joined. In response to what they viewed to be

3745-526: The French people, were replaced by views on reason and scientific thought. The radical revolutionaries and their supporters desired a cultural revolution that would rid the French state of all Christian influence. This process began with the fall of the monarchy , an event that effectively defrocked the State of its sanctification by the clergy via the doctrine of Divine Right and ushered in an era of reason. Many long-held rights and powers were stripped from

3852-471: The Girl Guides) were replaced. A cut which emerged in the 21st century – a combined silhouette of pants which appear to be made out of two separate garments. They look like slim fit jeans from behind, like a skirt or culottes worn on top of slim fit jeans – from the front. The term "culottes" in French is now used to describe women's panties , an article of clothing that has little or no relation to

3959-428: The Jacobin club the necessity of founding a revolutionary army consisting of sans-culottes , paid by a tax on the rich, to beat the aristocrats inside France and the convention. Every public square should be used to produce arms and pikes. On 18 May, Marguerite-Élie Guadet proposed to examine the "exactions" and to replace municipal authorities. As rioting persisted, a commission of inquiry of twelve members , with

4066-475: The Laws defines a core principle of a democratic government: virtue —described as "the love of laws and of our country." In Robespierre's speech to the National Convention on 5 February 1794, titled "Virtue & Terror", he regards virtue as being the "fundamental principle of popular or democratic government." This was, in fact, the same virtue defined by Montesquieu almost 50 years prior. Robespierre believed

4173-399: The Montagnards gained control of the National Convention, they began demanding radical measures. Moreover, the sans-culottes, the urban workers of France, agitated leaders to inflict punishments on those who opposed the interests of the poor. The sans-culottes' violently demonstrated, pushing their demands and creating constant pressure for the Montagnards to enact reform. The sans-culottes fed

4280-461: The National Convention, including the sans-culottes , despite their having previously been the strongest supporters of the revolution and its government. Several important leaders of the Enragés and Hébertists were imprisoned and executed by the very revolutionary tribunals they had supported. The execution of radical leader Jacques Hébert spelled the decline of the sans-culottes , and with

4387-522: The National Guard and restrict its membership to active citizens , largely property owners. He demanded the reconstitution of the army on a democratic basis to allow passive citizens . He felt that the army had to become the instrument of defence of the Revolution and no longer be a threat to it. On 28 April, despite Robespierre's intensive campaign, the principle of an armed bourgeois militia

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4494-524: The Parisian sans-culottes surrounded the National Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a fixed low price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral franchise to sans-culottes alone. With the backing of the national guard , they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders. In reaction to the imprisonment of the Girondin deputies, some thirteen departments started

4601-535: The Reign of Terror, the sans-culottes and the Hébertists put pressure on the National Convention delegates and contributed to the overall instability of France. The National Convention was bitterly split between the Montagnards and the Girondins . The Girondins were more conservative leaders of the National Convention, while the Montagnards supported radical violence and pressures of the lower classes. Once

4708-471: The Reign of Terror. The mass violence of the sans-culottes created a lasting impact during the Reign of Terror . These revolutionaries allied themselves most readily with those in power who promised radical change. The sans-culottes believed in a complete upheaval of the government, pushing for the execution of any that were considered corrupt by the leaders, even going as far as wanting "the enemies of

4815-574: The Terror and threatened insurrection, and the Dantonists , led by Danton, who demanded moderation and clemency. The Committee of Public Safety took actions against both. On 8 February 1794, Jean-Baptiste Carrier was recalled from Nantes, after a member of the Committee of Public Safety wrote to Robespierre with information about the atrocities being carried out, although Carrier himself was not put on trial. On 26 February and 3 March 1794 (8 and 13 Ventôse), Saint-Just proposed decrees to confiscate

4922-496: The United States, only the first five presidents , from George Washington (1732-1799) through James Monroe (1758-1831), wore culottes according to the style of the late 18th century . John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) wore long trousers instead of knee breeches at his inaugural ceremony in 1825, thus becoming the first president to have made the change of dress. European military uniforms incorporated culottes as

5029-476: The Year III (1795) and substituted the name jours complémentaires ("additional days"). According to Sally Waller, part of the sans-culottes mantra was "permanent anticipation of betrayal and treachery". The members of the sans-culottes were constantly on edge and fearing betrayal, which can be attributed to their violent and radical rebellion tactics. Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm observes that

5136-605: The Younger ) and guillotined on 24 March. On 27 March the infantry and cavalry of the revolutionary army, for eight months active in Paris and surroundings, were finally disbanded, except their artillery. (Hanriot was denounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal as an accomplice of Hébert, but seems to have been protected by Robespierre.) The working class was especially hurt by a hail storm which damaged grain crops in 1788, which caused bread prices to skyrocket. While

5243-534: The assemblies (the Legislative, and Convention) by the delegates. The sans-culottes had a third way of applying pressure to achieve their demands: the police and the courts received thousands of denunciations of traitors and supposed conspirators. The height of their influence spanned roughly from the original overthrow of the monarchy in 1792 to the Thermidorian Reaction in 1794. Throughout

5350-418: The borders of France, pushed the government to resort to drastic measures to ensure the loyalty of every citizen, not only to France but more importantly to the Revolution. While this series of losses was eventually broken, the reality of what might have happened if they persisted hung over France. The tide would not turn from them until September 1792 when the French won a critical victory at Valmy preventing

5457-456: The bottom as French military culottes. Wider bifurcated wrap-skirt hakama were for horse-back riding. Eighteenth and nineteenth-century European women introduced culottes cut with a pattern looking like long hakama, hiding their legs while riding horses. Today Aikido and Kendo masters wear long hakama, to hide their feet from opponents. Jews in Poland wore culottes with high socks since around

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5564-464: The bourgeois radicalism of the Jacobins ; from Hobsbawm's Marxist perspective, the ideal of the sans-culottes , which sought to express the interests of the "little men" who existed between the poles of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat , was contradictory and ultimately unrealizable. The Marxist historian Albert Soboul emphasized the importance of the sans-culottes as a social class,

5671-518: The convention. Eventually, by May 1793, the Montagnards worked with the National Guard —which was, at this time, mostly sans-culottes —to depose many of the Girondin deputies. Jeremy Popkin writes, "[the Montagnards and the sans-culottes ] surrounded the Convention, and two days later the intimidated assembly suspended twenty-nine Girondin deputies. The defeated Girondin leaders fled to the provinces . The Montagnards were left in control of

5778-547: The countryside to supervise the requisition of grain, to prevent the manoeuvres of rich égoistes and deliver them up to the vengeance of the laws)".) For that reason, twelve travelling tribunals (with moveable guillotines) were set up. Three months later, on 4 December, the departmental revolutionary armies (except in Paris) were banned on proposal of Tallien. The sections lost all rights to control their delegates and officials. On 4 March 1794, there were rumours of uprising in

5885-408: The enactment of the law, the number of executions greatly increased, and the period from this time to the Thermidorian Reaction became known as "The Great Terror" ( French : la Grande Terreur ). Between 10 June and 27 July, another 1,366 were executed, causing fear among Collot d'Herbois, Fouché and Tallien due to their past actions. Like Brissot, Madame Roland, Pétion, Hébert and Danton, Tallien

5992-422: The establishment of fixed wages, the implementation of price controls to ensure affordable food and other essentials, and vigilance against counter-revolutionaries . The sans-culottes ... campaigned for a more democratic constitution, price controls, harsh laws against political enemies, and economic legislation to assist the needy. They expressed their demands through petitions of the sections presented to

6099-431: The event as a means to combat the "moral counterrevolution" taking place among his rivals. Additionally, he hoped to stem "the monster Atheism" that was a result of the radical secularization in philosophical and social circles. The tension sparked by these conflicting objectives laid a foundation for the "justified" use of terror to achieve revolutionary ideals and rid France of the religiosity that revolutionaries believed

6206-454: The extremists Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne were elected in the Committee of Public Safety. On 9 September the convention established paramilitary forces, the "revolutionary armies", to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the government. On 17 September, the Law of Suspects was passed, which authorized the imprisonment of vaguely defined "suspects". This created a mass overflow in

6313-421: The first time on 28 February 1791 by Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan in a derogatory sense, speaking about a " sans-culottes army". The word came into vogue during the demonstration of 20 June 1792 . The name sans-culottes refers to their clothing, and through that to their lower-class status: culottes were the fashionable silk knee-breeches of the 18th-century nobility and bourgeoisie , and

6420-408: The frenzy of instability and chaos by utilizing popular pressure during the Revolution. For example, the sans-culottes sent letters and petitions to the Committee of Public Safety urging them to protect their interests and rights with measures such as taxation of foodstuffs that favored workers over the rich. They advocated for arrests of those deemed to oppose reforms against those with privilege, and

6527-442: The gendarme Charles-André Merda . A change in orientation might explain how Robespierre, sitting in a chair, got wounded from the upper right in the lower left jaw. ) According to Bourdon, Méda then hit Couthon's adjutant in his leg. Couthon was found lying at the bottom of a staircase in a corner, having fallen from the back of his adjutant. Saint-Just gave himself up without a word. According to Méda, Hanriot tried to escape by

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6634-551: The government to form "revolutionary armies" designed to force French citizens into compliance with Maximilian rule. These armies were also used to enforce "the law of the General Maximum ", which controlled the distribution and pricing of food. Addressing the Convention, Robespierre claimed that the "weight and willpower" of the people loyal to the republic would be used to oppress those who would turn "political gatherings into gladiatorial arenas". The policy change unleashed

6741-416: The government was required to act for the general will , which represented the interests of everyone rather than a few factions. Drawing from the idea of a general will, Robespierre felt that the French Revolution could result in a Republic built for the general will but only once those who fought against this ideal were expelled. Those who resisted the government were deemed " tyrants " fighting against

6848-419: The historic men's culotte breeches, except that in French, calling something "culottes" is like calling them "bottoms". The historical French term " sans-culottes " which was once the rejection of aristocrats' breeches, is now used colloquially to mean the same as an English colloquialism " going commando " or not wearing under-pants. Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: la Terreur )

6955-461: The historical culottes, but now also refers to apparent skirts that are actually split with two legs. The term sans-culottes has been used colloquially to mean not wearing underpants. Culottes In English-speaking history culottes were originally the knee-breeches commonly worn by gentlemen of the European upper-classes from the late Middle Ages or Renaissance through the early 19th century . The style of tight trousers ending just below

7062-411: The hospitals; the children shall pick rags to lint [for bandages]; the old men shall betake themselves to the public square in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic. On 5 September on the proposal of Barère , the Convention is supposed to have declared by vote that "terror is the order of the day". On that day's session, the Convention, upon

7169-405: The importance of rational thinking and began challenging legal and moral foundations of society, providing the leaders of the Reign of Terror with new ideas about the role and structure of government. Rousseau 's Social Contract argued that each person was born with rights, and they would come together in forming a government that would then protect those rights. Under the social contract,

7276-486: The knee was popularized in France during the reign of Henry III (1574–1589). Culottes were normally closed and fastened about the leg, to the knee, by buttons, a strap and buckle, or a draw-string . During the French Revolution of 1789–1799, working-class revolutionaries were known as the " sans-culottes " – literally, "without culottes" – a name derived from their rejection of aristocratic apparel. In

7383-475: The leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the Committee of Public Safety on 10 July 1793. On 27 July 1793 Robespierre became part of the Committee of Public Safety. On 23 August 1793, the National Convention decreed the levée en masse : The young men shall fight; the married man shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in

7490-412: The measures desired by the assembly: he presented a decree that was passed immediately, establishing a paid armed force of 6,000 men and 1,000 gunners "designed to crush the counter-revolutionaries, to execute wherever the need arises the revolutionary laws and the measures of public safety that are decreed by the National Convention, and to protect provisions (A force of citizen-soldiers which could go into

7597-487: The meddling of foreign powers, France declared war on 20 April 1792. However, at this point, the war was only Prussia and Austria against France. France began this war with a series of major defeats, which set a precedent of fear of invasion in the people that would last throughout the war. Massive reforms of military institutions, while very effective in the long run, presented the initial problems of inexperienced forces and leaders of questionable political loyalty. In

7704-578: The middle and upper classes, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army and were responsible for many executions during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars . The most fundamental political ideals of the sans-culottes were social equality , economic equality , and popular democracy . They supported the abolition of all the authority and privileges of the monarchy , nobility, and Roman Catholic clergy ,

7811-478: The more militant members would advocate pillage in order to achieve the desired equality. The resulting instability caused problems that made forming the new Republic and achieving full political support critical. The Reign of Terror was characterized by a dramatic rejection of long-held religious authority, its hierarchical structure, and the corrupt and intolerant influence of the aristocracy and clergy. Religious elements that long stood as symbols of stability for

7918-458: The new French Republic . But by early 1794, as the bourgeois and middle-class elements of the revolution began to gain more political influence, the fervent working-class radicalism of the sans-culottes rapidly began falling out of favour within the National Convention. It was not long before Maximilien de Robespierre and the now dominant Jacobin Club turned against the radical factions of

8025-407: The order of the day. In February 1794 in a speech he explains why this "terror" was necessary as a form of exceptional justice in the context of the revolutionary government: If the basis of popular government in peacetime is virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror

8132-415: The peasants of rural France could sustain themselves with their farms, and the wealthy aristocracy could still afford bread, the urban workers of France, the group that comprised the sans-culottes , suffered. In the city, the division grew between the sans-culottes and these wealthy aristocrats; the former had a particular hostility "towards those with large private incomes." The faction known as

8239-537: The people " and accused of conspiring against liberty . Paris saw a doubling of death sentences, with two new mass graves dug at Picpus Cemetery by mid-July. There was widespread agreement among deputies that their parliamentary immunity , in place since 1 April 1793, had become perilous. On 14 July Robespierre had Fouché expelled. To evade arrest about fifty deputies avoided staying at home. According to Barère , who just like Robespierre never went on mission: "We never deceived ourselves that Saint-Just, cut out as

8346-520: The period immediately following the Thermidorian Reaction , the sans-culottes and other far-left political factions were heavily persecuted and repressed by the likes of the Muscadins . The French Republican Calendar at first termed the complementary days at the end of the year Sansculottides ; however, the National Convention suppressed the name when adopting the Constitution of

8453-433: The period was introduced by the Thermidorian Reaction , which took power after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794, to discredit Robespierre and justify its own actions. By then, 16,594 official death sentences had been dispensed throughout France since June 1793, of which 2,639 were in Paris alone. An additional 10,000 to 12,000 people had been executed without trial and 10,000 had died in prison. There

8560-433: The pressure of the radical sans-culottes , the Convention agreed to institute a revolutionary army but refused to make terror the order of the day. According to French historian Jean-Clément Martin , there was no "system of terror" instated by the Convention between 1793 and 1794, despite the pressure from some of its members and the sans-culottes. The members of the convention were determined to avoid street violence such as

8667-449: The price of bread should be fixed at three sous a pound, that nobles holding senior rank in the army should be dismissed, that armouries should be created for arming the sans-culottes , the departments of State purged, suspects arrested, the right to vote provisionally reserved to sans-culottes only, and a fund set apart for the relatives of those defending their country and for the relief of aged and infirm. According to Hampson,

8774-489: The prison systems. On 29 September, the Convention extended price fixing from grain and bread to other essential goods, and also fixed wages. On 10 October the Convention decreed that "the provisional government shall be revolutionary until peace." On 16 October Marie Antoinette was executed. The trial of the Girondins started on the same day; they were executed on 31 October in just over half an hour by Charles-Henri Sanson . Joseph Fouché and Collot d'Herbois suppressed

8881-469: The property of exiles and opponents of the revolution, known as the Ventôse Decrees . In March 1794, the major Hébertists were tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed on 24th. On 30 March the two committees decided to arrest Danton and Desmoulins after Saint-Just became uncharacteristically angry. The Dantonists were tried on 3 to 5 April and executed on 5 April. In mid-April, it

8988-421: The ranks of paramilitary forces charged with physically enforcing the policies and legislation of the revolutionary government, a task that commonly included violence and the carrying out of executions against perceived enemies of the revolution. During the peak of their influence, the sans-culottes were seen as the truest and most authentic sons of the French Revolution, held up as living representations of

9095-542: The republic [to] hang-main and the guillotine to stand like the first patriots, the finisher of the law." The support of the sans-culottes could be used as a political weapon to get rid of enemies of the Revolution. The key to Robespierre's Terror lay in their willingness and ability to mobilize. Thus, the Committee leaders used speeches to gain their support. In a speech On the Principles of Political Morality. Robespierre proclaimed: "It has been said that terror

9202-753: The revolution, the sans-culottes provided the principal support behind the more radical and anti-bourgeoisie factions of the Paris Commune , such as the Enragés and the Hébertists , and were led by populist revolutionaries such as Jacques Roux and Jacques Hébert . In the summer of 1793 the sans-culottes , the Parisian enragés especially, accused even the most radical Jacobins of being too tolerant of greed and insufficiently universalist. From this far-left point of view, all Jacobins were at fault because all of them tolerated existing civil life and social structures. The sans-culottes also populated

9309-520: The revolution. On 5 December 1793 (14 Frimaire) the National Convention passed the Law of Frimaire , which gave the central government more control over the actions of the representatives on mission . The Commune of Paris and the revolutionary committees in the sections had to obey the law, the two Committees, and the Convention. Desmoulins argued that the Revolution should return to its original ideas en vogue around 10 August 1792. A Committee of Grace had to be established. On 8 December, Madame du Barry

9416-507: The revolutionary government. They had, between them, made the Law of 22 Prairial one of the charges against him, so that, after his fall, to advocate terror would be seen as adopting the policy of a convicted enemy of the republic, putting the advocate's own head at risk. Between his arrest and his execution, Robespierre may have tried to commit suicide by shooting himself, although the bullet wound he sustained, whatever its origin, only shattered his jaw. Alternatively, he may have been shot by

9523-401: The revolutionary spirit. During the height of revolutionary fervor, such as during the Reign of Terror when it was dangerous to be associated with anything counter-revolutionary, even public functionaries and officials actually from middle or upper-class backgrounds adopted the clothing and label of the sans-culottes as a demonstration of solidarity with the working class and patriotism for

9630-483: The subject is quite extraordinarily complicated and obscure. The next day all Paris was in arms. Hanriot was ordered to march his National Guard, by this time mostly consisting of sans-culottes , from the town hall to the Palais National . On 2 June 1793, a large force of supposedly 80,000 sans-culottes and National Guards led by Hanriot, surrounded the convention with 160–172 guns. On 4 September,

9737-671: The successive rise of even more conservative governments, the Thermidorian Convention and the French Directory , they were definitively silenced as a political force. After the defeat of the 1795 popular revolt in Paris , the sans-culottes ceased to play any effective political role in France until the July Revolution of 1830 . The distinctive costume of typical sans-culottes featured: On 27 April 1791, Robespierre opposed plans to reorganize

9844-419: The time it took for officers of merit to use their new freedoms to climb the chain of command, France suffered. Many of the early battles were definitive losses for the French. There was the constant threat of the Austro-Prussian forces which were advancing easily toward the capital, threatening to destroy Paris if the monarch was harmed. This series of defeats, coupled with militant uprisings and protests within

9951-565: The use of the word culottes can mean a close fitting pair of pants ending at the knees, such as Lady Diana Spencer popularised during the early 1980s. The term is used as such in the United Kingdom and Canada. In this sense, culottes are similar to the American knickerbockers (knickers), except whereas the latter are loose in fit. Culottes can also, in some cases, describe a split or bifurcated skirt or any garment which "hangs like

10058-400: The virtue and honor of the general will. The leaders felt that their ideal version of government was threatened from the inside and outside of France, and terror was the only way to preserve the dignity of the Republic created from French Revolution. The writings of Baron de Montesquieu , another Enlightenment thinker of the time, also greatly influenced Robespierre. Montesquieu's Spirit of

10165-408: The virtue needed for any democratic government was extremely lacking in the French people. As a result, he decided to weed out those he believed could never possess this virtue. The result was a continual push towards Terror. The Convention used this as justification for the course of action to "crush the enemies of the revolution…let the laws be executed…and let liberty be saved." At the beginning of

10272-450: The war continued and the Reign of Terror began, leaders saw a correlation between using terror and achieving victory. Well phrased by Albert Soboul , "terror, at first an improvised response to defeat, once organized became an instrument of victory." The threat of defeat and foreign invasion may have helped spur the origins of the Terror, but the timely coincidence of the Terror with French victories added justification to its growth. During

10379-464: Was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic , a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety . While terror was never formally instituted as a legal policy by the Convention, it was more often employed as

10486-407: Was a sense of emergency among leading politicians in France in the summer of 1793 between the widespread civil war and counter-revolution. Bertrand Barère exclaimed on 5 September 1793 in the convention: "Let's make terror the order of the day!" This quote has frequently been interpreted as the beginning of a supposed "system of Terror", an interpretation no longer retained by historians today. Under

10593-610: Was accused of participating in conspicuous dinners. On 18 June Pétion de Villeneuve and François Buzot committed suicide and Joachim Vilate was arrested on 21 June. On 26 June 1794 (8 Messidor), the French army won the Battle of Fleurus , which marked a turning point in France's military campaign and undermined the necessity of wartime measures and the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Government. In early July about sixty individuals were arrested as " enemies of

10700-405: Was arrested near Robespierre's residence with two penknives and a change of underwear claiming the fresh linen was for her execution. She was executed on 17 June. On 10 June (22 Prairial), the National Convention passed a law proposed by Georges Couthon , known as the Law of 22 Prairial , which simplified the judicial process and greatly accelerated the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal. With

10807-465: Was decreed to centralise the investigation of court records and to bring all the political suspects in France to the Revolutionary Tribunal to Paris. Saint-Just and Le Bas journeyed the Rhine Army to oversee the generals and punish officers for perceived treasonous timidity, or lack of initiative. The two committees received the power to interrogate them immediately. A special police bureau inside

10914-442: Was definitively enacted in the Assembly. Along with other Jacobins, he urged in his magazine the creation of a revolutionary army in Paris, consisting of 20,000 men, with the goal to defend "liberty" (the revolution), maintain order in the sections, and educate the members in democratic principles; an idea he borrowed from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Machiavelli . According to Jean Jaures , he considered this even more important than

11021-587: Was guillotined. On receiving notice that he was to appear on the next day before the Revolutionary Tribunal Étienne Clavière committed suicide. Thomas Paine lost his seat in the Convention, was arrested, and locked up for his association with the Girondins, as well as being a foreign national. By the end of 1793, two major factions had emerged, both threatening the Revolutionary Government: the Hébertists, who called for an intensification of

11128-537: Was held in the Notre Dame Cathedral , which was renamed "The Temple of Reason", and the old traditional calendar was replaced with a new revolutionary one . The leaders of the Terror tried to address the call for these radical, revolutionary aspirations, while at the same time trying to maintain tight control on the de-Christianization movement that was threatening to the clear majority of the still devoted Catholic population of France. Robespierre used

11235-511: Was illegal to present a petition in arms, although their march to the Tuileries was not banned. They invited the officials to join the procession and march along with them. Early in the morning ( 10 August 1792 ) 30,000 Fédérés, and sans-culottes militants from the sections led a successful assault upon the Tuileries; according to Robespierre a triumph for the "passive" (non-voting) citizens. Sulpice Huguenin  [ fr ] , head of

11342-459: Was standing in the way. On 10 March 1793 the National Convention set up the Revolutionary Tribunal . Among those charged by the tribunal, initially, about half of those arrested were acquitted but the number dropped to about a quarter after the enactment of the Law of 22 Prairial on 10 June 1794. In March, rebellion broke out in the Vendée in response to mass conscription, which developed into

11449-467: Was the mainspring of despotic government. Does your government, then, resemble a despotism? Yes, as the sword which glitters in the hands of liberty's heroes resembles the one with which tyranny's lackeys are armed." Robespierre expressed a desire for liberty that the sans-culottes admired. They pushed the committee for radical changes and often found a voice with Robespierre. Their desperate desire for immediate changes and their aptitude for violence made

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