Girondist
Encyclopedia
The Girondists were a political faction
in France
within the Legislative Assembly
and the National Convention
during the French Revolution
. The Girondists were a group of loosely-affiliated individuals rather than an organised political party
with a clear ideology, and the name was at first informally applied because the most prominent exponents of their point of view were deputies to the States-general
from Gironde
.
There were twelve of these deputies, six of whom—the lawyers Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
, Marguerite Élie Guadet, Armand Gensonné
, Jean Antoine Laffargue de Grangeneuve and Jean Jay, and the tradesman Jean François Ducos—sat both in the Legislative Assembly
and the National Convention
. In the Legislative Assembly, these represented a compact body of opinion which, though not as yet definitely republican
, was considerably more advanced than the moderate royalism
of the majority of the Paris
ian deputies.
Associated with these views was a group of deputies from elsewhere, of whom the most notable were Thomas Paine
, the Marquis de Condorcet
, Claude Fauchet
, M. D. A. Lasource, Maximin Isnard
, the Comte de Kersaint, Henri Larivière, and, above all, Jacques Pierre Brissot
, Jean Marie Roland and Jérôme Pétion
, elected mayor of Paris
in succession to Jean Sylvain Bailly on 16 November 1791.
became their gathering-place, had a powerful influence on the spirit and policy of the Girondists. But the party cohesion they possessed was due to the energy of Brissot, who came to be regarded as their mouthpiece in the Assembly and in the Jacobin Club
. Hence the name "Brissotins", coined by Camille Desmoulins
, which was sometimes substituted for that of "Girondins", sometimes closely coupled with it. These first came into use strictly as party designations after the assembling of the National Convention (20 September 1792), to which a large proportion of the deputies from the Gironde who had sat in the Legislative Assembly were returned. Both names appeared as terms of opprobrium in speeches by the orators of the Jacobin Club, who freely denounced "the Royalists, the Federalists, the Brissotins, the Girondins and all the enemies of the democracy
" (FA Aulard
, La société des Jacobins, Recueil de documents (6 volumes, Paris, 1889, etc., V. 531)).
In the Legislative Assembly, the Girondists represented the principle of democratic revolution within and of patriotic
defiance to the European
powers. They were all-powerful in the Jacobin Club, where Brissot's influence had not yet been ousted by Robespierre
, and they did not hesitate to use this advantage to stir up popular passion and intimidate those who sought to stay 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 Servan de Gerbey; and they forced the declaration of war against Habsburg Austria
. In all this there was no apparent line of cleavage between La Gironde and The Mountain
. Montagnard
s and Girondists alike were fundamentally opposed to the monarchy
; both were democrats as well as republicans; both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals; despite being accused of "federalism
", the Girondists desired as little as the Montagnards to break up the unity of France. Yet from the first the leaders of the two parties stood in avowed opposition, in the Jacobin Club as in the Assembly.
Temperament largely accounts for the party dividing line. The Girondists were radicals, doctrinaires and theorists rather than men of action; they initially encouraged the armed petitions which resulted, to their dismay, in the émeute (riot) of June 20; but Roland, turning the ministry of the exterior into a publishing office for tracts on the civic virtues, while in the provinces riotous mobs were burning the château
x unchecked, is more typical of their spirit. They did not share the ferocious fanaticism or the ruthless opportunism of the future Montagnard organisers of the Reign of Terror
. As the Revolution developed, the Girondists 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 the government, but the Girondists tried to distance themselves from the results of the September massacre.
had become impervious to their counsels. Once the republic was established, they were anxious to stop the revolutionary movement which they had helped to set in motion. Daunou argues in his Mémoires that they were too cultivated and too polished to retain their popularity for long in times of disturbance, and so they were the more inclined to work for the establishment of order, which would mean the guarantee of their own power. The Girondists, who had been the radical
s of the Legislative Assembly, became the conservatives
of the Convention.
The revolution had failed to deliver the immediate gains that had been promised, and this made it difficult for the Girondists to easily draw it to a close in the minds of the public; moreover, the Septembriseurs—Robespierre, Danton, Marat
and their lesser satellites—realised that not only their influence but their safety depended on keeping the Revolution alive. Robespierre, who hated the Girondists, had proposed to include them in the proscription
lists of September 1792; The Mountain Club to a man desired their overthrow.
The crisis came in March 1793. The Girondists, who had a majority in the Convention, controlled the executive council and filled the ministry
, believed themselves invincible. Their orators had no serious rivals in the hostile camp; their system was established in the purest reason
. But the Montagnards made up by their fanatical, or desperate, energy and boldness for what they lacked in talent or in numbers. This was especially fruitful because while the largest groups in the convention were the Jacobins and Brissotins, uncommitted delegates accounted for almost half the total number. The Jacobins' rhetoric had behind them the revolutionary Commune
, the 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, most Girondists had voted for the "appeal to the people", and so laid themselves open to the charge of "royalism"; they denounced the domination of Paris and summoned provincial levies to their aid, and so fell under suspicion of "federalism", though they rejected Buzot's proposal to transfer the Convention to Versailles. They strengthened the revolutionary Commune by first decreeing its abolition but withdrawing the decree at the first sign of popular opposition; they increased the prestige of Marat by prosecuting him before the Revolutionary Tribunal
, where his acquittal was a foregone conclusion.
In the suspicious temper of the times, this vacillating policy was doubly fatal. Marat never ceased his denunciations of the faction des hommes d'Etat ("faction of the men of the State"), by which France was being betrayed to her ruin, and his cry of Nous sommes trahis! ("We are betrayed!") was re-echoed from group to group in the streets of Paris.
The hostility of Paris to the Girondists received a fateful advertisement by the election, on 15 February 1793, of the ex-Girondist Jean-Nicolas Pache
(1746–1823) to the mayoralty. Pache had twice been minister of war in the Girondist government; but his incompetence had laid him open to strong criticism, and on 4 February 1793 he had been superseded by a vote of the Convention. This was enough to secure him the suffrages of the Paris electors ten days later, and the Mountain was strengthened by the accession of an ally whose one idea was to use his new power to revenge himself on his former colleagues. Pache, with Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
, procureur of the Commune, and Jacques René Hébert, deputy procureur, controlled the armed organisation of the Paris Sections, and prepared to turn this against the Convention. The abortive émeute of 10 March warned the Girondists of their danger, but the Commission of Twelve
appointed on 18 May, the arrest of Marat and Hébert, and other precautionary measures, were defeated by the popular uprisings of 27 and 31 May, and, finally, on 2 June 1793, François Hanriot
with the National Guards purged the Convention of the Girondists. Isnard's threat, uttered on 25 May, to march France upon Paris had been met by Paris marching upon the Convention hastily.
determined the wavering and frightened Convention. On 13 June 1793, it voted that the city of Paris had deserved well of the country, and ordered the imprisonment of the detained deputies, the filling up of their places in the Assembly by their suppleants, and the initiation of vigorous measures against the movement in the provinces.
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
, on the west by the Royalist insurrection of La Vendée
, and the need for preventing at all costs the outbreak of another civil war. The assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday
only served to increase the unpopularity of the Girondists and to seal their fate. On 28 July 1793, a decree of the Convention proscribed 21 deputies as traitors and enemies of their country. They were Antiboul, Boilleau the younger, Boyer-Fonfrêde, Brissot, Carra, Duchastel, the younger Ducos, Dufriche de Valazé, Duprat, Fauchet, Gardien, Gensonné, Lacaze, Lasource, Lauze-Deperret, Lehardi, Lesterpt-Beauvais, the elder Minvielle, Sillery, Vergniaud and Viger, of whom five were deputies from the Gironde. 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.
in five tumbrils, the corpse of Dufriche de Valazé—who had killed himself—was carried with them. They met death with great courage, singing the refrain Plutôt la mort que l'esclavage, "rather death than slavery".
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 Rebecqui. Roland had killed himself at Rouen
on 15 November 1793, a week after the execution of his wife. Very few finally escaped, including Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
, whose Mémoires give a thrilling picture of the sufferings of the fugitives. They also prove that the sentiment of France was against the Girondists, who were proscribed even in their chief centre, the city of Bordeaux
.
, year III) a solemn fête in honour of the Girondist "martyr
s of liberty
" was celebrated in the Convention.
et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées (3 volumes, Paris, 1864–1872).
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
within the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly (France)
During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
and the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. The Girondists were a group of loosely-affiliated individuals rather than an organised political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
with a clear ideology, and the name was at first informally applied because the most prominent exponents of their point of view were deputies to the States-general
French States-General
In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...
from Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
.
There were twelve of these deputies, six of whom—the lawyers Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud was a lawyer and statesman, and a significant figure of the French Revolution. A deputy to the Assembly from Bordeaux, Vergniaud was a notably eloquent and impressive orator...
, Marguerite Élie Guadet, Armand Gensonné
Armand Gensonné
Armand Gensonné was a French politician.The son of a military surgeon, he was born in Bordeaux, Gascony, and studied Law before the outbreak of the French Revolution, becoming lawyer of the parlement of Bordeaux...
, Jean Antoine Laffargue de Grangeneuve and Jean Jay, and the tradesman Jean François Ducos—sat both in the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly (France)
During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
and the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
. In the Legislative Assembly, these represented a compact body of opinion which, though not as yet definitely republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
, was considerably more advanced than the moderate royalism
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
of the majority of the Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian deputies.
Associated with these views was a group of deputies from elsewhere, of whom the most notable were Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
, the Marquis de Condorcet
Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet , known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist whose Condorcet method in voting tally selects the candidate who would beat each of the other candidates in a run-off election...
, Claude Fauchet
Claude Fauchet (revolutionist)
Claude Fauchet was a French revolutionary bishop.He was born at Dornes, Nièvre. He was a curate of the church of St Roch, Paris, when he was engaged as tutor to the children of the marquis of Choiseul, brother of Louis XVs minister, an appointment which proved to be the first step to fortune...
, M. D. A. Lasource, Maximin Isnard
Maximin Isnard
Maximin Isnard , French revolutionary, was a dealer in perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the département of the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists.- Before the French Revolution :Born in 1755, he was the last son of Maximin Isnard and Anne-Thérèse...
, the Comte de Kersaint, Henri Larivière, and, above all, Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot , who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot.-Biography:...
, Jean Marie Roland and Jérôme Pétion
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was a French writer and politician.Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a at Chartres. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion’s early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution...
, elected mayor of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in succession to Jean Sylvain Bailly on 16 November 1791.
Rise
Madame Roland, whose salonSalon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
became their gathering-place, had a powerful influence on the spirit and policy of the Girondists. But the party cohesion they possessed was due to the energy of Brissot, who came to be regarded as their mouthpiece in the Assembly and in the Jacobin Club
Jacobin Club
The Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
. Hence the name "Brissotins", coined by Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins was a journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a childhood friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton, who were influential figures in the French Revolution.-Early...
, which was sometimes substituted for that of "Girondins", sometimes closely coupled with it. These first came into use strictly as party designations after the assembling of the National Convention (20 September 1792), to which a large proportion of the deputies from the Gironde who had sat in the Legislative Assembly were returned. Both names appeared as terms of opprobrium in speeches by the orators of the Jacobin Club, who freely denounced "the Royalists, the Federalists, the Brissotins, the Girondins and all the enemies of the democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
" (FA Aulard
François Victor Alphonse Aulard
François Victor Alphonse Aulard was the first professional French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon.He was born at Montbron in Charente...
, La société des Jacobins, Recueil de documents (6 volumes, Paris, 1889, etc., V. 531)).
In the Legislative Assembly, the Girondists represented the principle of democratic revolution within and of patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
defiance to the European
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
powers. They were all-powerful in the Jacobin Club, where Brissot's influence had not yet been ousted by Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
, and they did not hesitate to use this advantage to stir up popular passion and intimidate those who sought to stay 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
Charles François Dumouriez
Charles-François du Périer Dumouriez was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General François Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revolutionary Army and became a royalist intriguer during the reign of Napoleon.-Early life:Dumouriez...
, Étienne Clavière
Étienne Clavière
Étienne Clavière was a Swiss-born French financier and politician of the French Revolution.-Geneva and London:...
and Joseph Servan de Gerbey; and they forced the declaration of war against Habsburg Austria
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. In all this there was no apparent line of cleavage between La Gironde and The Mountain
The Mountain
The Mountain refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly...
. Montagnard
The Mountain
The Mountain refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly...
s and Girondists alike were fundamentally opposed to the monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
; both were democrats as well as republicans; both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals; despite being accused of "federalism
Federalism
Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
", the Girondists desired as little as the Montagnards to break up the unity of France. Yet from the first the leaders of the two parties stood in avowed opposition, in the Jacobin Club as in the Assembly.
Temperament largely accounts for the party dividing line. The Girondists were radicals, doctrinaires and theorists rather than men of action; they initially encouraged the armed petitions which resulted, to their dismay, in the émeute (riot) of June 20; but Roland, turning the ministry of the exterior into a publishing office for tracts on the civic virtues, while in the provinces riotous mobs were burning the château
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
x unchecked, is more typical of their spirit. They did not share the ferocious fanaticism or the ruthless opportunism of the future Montagnard organisers of the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
. As the Revolution developed, the Girondists often found themselves opposing its results; the overthrow of the monarchy on 10 August 1792 and the September Massacres
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
of 1792 occurred while they still nominally controlled the government, but the Girondists tried to distance themselves from the results of the September massacre.
Fall
The Girondists proposed suspending the king and summoning of the National Convention; but they had agreed not to overthrow the monarchy until Louis XVILouis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
had become impervious to their counsels. Once the republic was established, they were anxious to stop the revolutionary movement which they had helped to set in motion. Daunou argues in his Mémoires that they were too cultivated and too polished to retain their popularity for long in times of disturbance, and so they were the more inclined to work for the establishment of order, which would mean the guarantee of their own power. The Girondists, who had been the radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
s of the Legislative Assembly, became the conservatives
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
of the Convention.
The revolution had failed to deliver the immediate gains that had been promised, and this made it difficult for the Girondists to easily draw it to a close in the minds of the public; moreover, the Septembriseurs—Robespierre, Danton, Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
and their lesser satellites—realised that not only their influence but their safety depended on keeping the Revolution alive. Robespierre, who hated the Girondists, had proposed to include them in the proscription
Proscription
Proscription is a term used for the public identification and official condemnation of enemies of the state. It is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" and is a heavily politically charged word, frequently used to refer to state-approved...
lists of September 1792; The Mountain Club to a man desired their overthrow.
The crisis came in March 1793. The Girondists, who had a majority in the Convention, controlled the executive council and filled the ministry
Ministry (government department)
A ministry is a specialised organisation responsible for a sector of government public administration, sometimes led by a minister or a senior public servant, that can have responsibility for one or more departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions or other smaller executive, advisory, managerial or...
, believed themselves invincible. Their orators had no serious rivals in the hostile camp; their system was established in the purest reason
Reason
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
. But the Montagnards made up by their fanatical, or desperate, energy and boldness for what they lacked in talent or in numbers. This was especially fruitful because while the largest groups in the convention were the Jacobins and Brissotins, uncommitted delegates accounted for almost half the total number. The Jacobins' rhetoric had behind them the revolutionary Commune
Paris Commune (French Revolution)
The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...
, the Sections (mass assemblies in districts) and the National Guard
National Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
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, most Girondists had voted for the "appeal to the people", and so laid themselves open to the charge of "royalism"; they denounced the domination of Paris and summoned provincial levies to their aid, and so fell under suspicion of "federalism", though they rejected Buzot's proposal to transfer the Convention to Versailles. They strengthened the revolutionary Commune by first decreeing its abolition but withdrawing the decree at the first sign of popular opposition; they increased the prestige of Marat by prosecuting him before the Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
, where his acquittal was a foregone conclusion.
In the suspicious temper of the times, this vacillating policy was doubly fatal. Marat never ceased his denunciations of the faction des hommes d'Etat ("faction of the men of the State"), by which France was being betrayed to her ruin, and his cry of Nous sommes trahis! ("We are betrayed!") was re-echoed from group to group in the streets of Paris.
The hostility of Paris to the Girondists received a fateful advertisement by the election, on 15 February 1793, of the ex-Girondist Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache was a French politician.-Biography:Pache was born in Verdun, but grew up in Paris, of Swiss parentage, the son of the concièrge of the hotel of Marshal de Castries...
(1746–1823) to the mayoralty. Pache had twice been minister of war in the Girondist government; but his incompetence had laid him open to strong criticism, and on 4 February 1793 he had been superseded by a vote of the Convention. This was enough to secure him the suffrages of the Paris electors ten days later, and the Mountain was strengthened by the accession of an ally whose one idea was to use his new power to revenge himself on his former colleagues. Pache, with Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette was a French politician of the Revolutionaryperiod.-Early activities:Born in Nevers France, 24 May 1763, his main interest was botany and science. Chaumette studied medicine at the University of Paris in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution...
, procureur of the Commune, and Jacques René Hébert, deputy procureur, controlled the armed organisation of the Paris Sections, and prepared to turn this against the Convention. The abortive émeute of 10 March warned the Girondists of their danger, but the Commission of Twelve
Commission of Twelve
During the French Revolution, the Extraordinary Commission of Twelve was a commission of the French National Convention charged with finding and trying conspirators...
appointed on 18 May, the arrest of Marat and Hébert, and other precautionary measures, were defeated by the popular uprisings of 27 and 31 May, and, finally, on 2 June 1793, François Hanriot
François Hanriot
François Hanriot was a French leader and street orator of the Revolution. He played a vital role in the Insurrection and subsequently the fall of the Girondins.-Early years:...
with the National Guards purged the Convention of the Girondists. Isnard's threat, uttered on 25 May, to march France upon Paris had been met by Paris marching upon the Convention hastily.
Reign of Terror
The list drawn up by Hanriot, and endorsed by a decree of the intimidated Convention, included 22 Girondist deputies and 10 members of the Commission of Twelve, who were ordered to be detained at their lodgings "under 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 Bergoing, 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 warCivil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
determined the wavering and frightened Convention. On 13 June 1793, it voted that the city of Paris had deserved well of the country, and ordered the imprisonment of the detained deputies, the filling up of their places in the Assembly by their suppleants, and the initiation of vigorous measures against the movement in the provinces.
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
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
, on the west by the Royalist insurrection of La Vendée
Revolt in the Vendée
The War in the Vendée was a Royalist rebellion and counterrevolution in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution. The Vendée is a coastal region, located immediately south of the Loire River in western France. The uprising was closely tied to the Chouannerie, which took place in...
, and the need for preventing at all costs the outbreak of another civil war. The assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont , known to history as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and...
only served to increase the unpopularity of the Girondists and to seal their fate. On 28 July 1793, a decree of the Convention proscribed 21 deputies as traitors and enemies of their country. They were Antiboul, Boilleau the younger, Boyer-Fonfrêde, Brissot, Carra, Duchastel, the younger Ducos, Dufriche de Valazé, Duprat, Fauchet, Gardien, Gensonné, Lacaze, Lasource, Lauze-Deperret, Lehardi, Lesterpt-Beauvais, the elder Minvielle, Sillery, Vergniaud and Viger, of whom five were deputies from the Gironde. 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.
Trial of Girondists
The trial of the 21, began before the Revolutionary Tribunal on 24 October 1793. The verdict a foregone conclusion. On 31 October, they were borne to the guillotineGuillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
in five tumbrils, the corpse of Dufriche de Valazé—who had killed himself—was carried with them. They met death with great courage, singing the refrain Plutôt la mort que l'esclavage, "rather death than slavery".
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
Marquis de Condorcet
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de Condorcet , known as Nicolas de Condorcet, was a French philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist whose Condorcet method in voting tally selects the candidate who would beat each of the other candidates in a run-off election...
, Grangeneuve, Guadet, Kersaint, Pétion, Rabaut de Saint-Etienne
Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Etienne
Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne was a French revolutionary.-Biography:Rabaut de Saint-Étienne was born at Nîmes, Gard, the son of Paul Rabaut, the additional surname of Saint-Étienne taken from a small property near Nîmes....
and Rebecqui. Roland had killed himself at Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
on 15 November 1793, a week after the execution of his wife. Very few finally escaped, including Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat.-Early life and literary works:...
, whose Mémoires give a thrilling picture of the sufferings of the fugitives. They also prove that the sentiment of France was against the Girondists, who were proscribed even in their chief centre, the city of Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
.
Girondists as martyrs
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 reinstated. On October 3 of the same year (11 VendémiaireVendémiaire
Vendémiaire was the first month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word vendange .Vendémiaire was the first month of the autumn quarter . It started on the day of the autumnal equinox, which fell between 22 September and 24 September, inclusive. It thus ended...
, year III) a solemn fête in honour of the Girondist "martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...
s of liberty
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
" was celebrated in the Convention.
Further reading
Of the special works on the Girondists Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins (2 volumes, Paris, 1847, new edition 1902, in 6 volumes) is rhetoric rather than history and is untrustworthy; the Histoire des Girondins, by A. Gramier de Cassagnac (Paris, 1860) led to the publication of a Protestation by J. Guadet, a nephew of the Girondist orator, which was followed by his Les Girondins, leur vie privée, leur vie publique, leur proscription et leur mort (2 volumes, Paris, 1861, new edition 1890), with which compare Alary, Les Girondins par Guadet (Bordeaux, 1863); also Charles Vatel, Charlotte CordayCharlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont , known to history as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and...
et les Girondins: pièces classées et annotées (3 volumes, Paris, 1864–1872).
- A new addition to this theme is Prof. Leigh Ann Whaley's book, Radicals-Politics and Republicanism in the French Revolution (2000), Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire, which has elicited several pungent reviews, some of which are noted in this text via direct link citations. Supplementary reading that helps separate the Jacobins from the Girondins (but are not specific works about the Girondins):
- Schama, Simon. Citizens - A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989,(hardcover; ISBN 0-394-55948-7).
- Scott, Otto. Robespierre, The Fool as Revolutionary - Inside the French Revolution. Windsor, NY, The Reformer Library, 1974 (softcover; ISBN 9-781887-690058)
- Loomis, Stanley. Paris in the Terror. New York, NY, Dorset Press, 1964 (hardcover; ISBN 0-88029-401-9). This work relates in detail (1) the relationship of Charlotte Corday to the Girondins and the subsequent assassination of Marat and (2) the love-hate relationship between Danton and the Girondins.
- Furet, François and Mona Ozouf, eds. La Gironde et les Girondins (Paris: éditions Payot, 1991).
External links
- History of the Girondists, Volume I, by Alphonse de LamartineAlphonse de LamartineAlphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
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