Revolt of Lyon against the National Convention
Encyclopedia
The revolt of Lyon against the National Convention was a counter-revolutionary movement in the city of Lyon
. It involved a revolt against the revolutionary
government, breaking out in June 1793 and ending in December of the same year.
was the only city in France other than Paris with a population above 100,000. The city was a regional focus for banking, commerce and manufacturing. In terms of employment it's leading industry was silk weaving
, which directly supported a third of the population. The silk industry in 1789 was in crisis, reflecting the wider economic crisis afflicting France at that time. The city was visited by the keen eyed English documentary writer Arthur Young in December of that year: he estimated that 20,000 people were living from charity and starving.
Tax
riots broke out in June 1789 and again in July 1790. Citizens hoped that the recalled Estates General (parlement) of 1789
would cancel the taxation privileges of the city's merchant oligarchs whereby the burden of taxation fell on those least able to pay, by means of the octroi, a tax on basic necessities. However, city elections returned a local government that retained the Octroi, triggering a new riot in the city. Continuing mutual intransigence over the taxation issue led to fresh riots accompanied by the ransacking of several of the houses belonging to Lyon's richest citizens along with a continuation of the taxation on necessities.
These social conflicts bound together the interests of the old royalist elite under the leadership of Jacques Imbert-Colomès with those of the revolutionary patriots surrounding the local industrialist turned politician Jean-Marie Roland
. Lower down the social scale, small-scale employers were opposed to taxation that increased living costs of employees whose salaries could therefore not be further cut, and the affected employees thereby felt closer affinity with their bosses and with the manufacturing interest in the city than with the desperate plight of the large numbers of unemployed.
established 32 revolutionary societies to which they gave the name "Peoples' associations of friends of the [revolutionary] constitution" («Sociétés populaires des Amis de la Constitution»). These were established in opposition to more bourgeois revolutionary societies such as "The association of friends of the revolution" («Société des Amis de la Révolution»), membership of which was restricted to "active citizens", and the "Friends of the constitution" («Amis de la Constitution»), which was affiliated to the network of Jacobin Club
s springing up around France in the wake of the revolution
. A central committee, which quickly became known as the "Central Club" («Club central»), provided a meeting point for delegates from the city's many sectional revolutionary societies. The "Central Club" was initially controlled by the Rolandin faction
, but quickly came under the direction of the more dynamic elements around Joseph Chalier
.
At this time each department was governed under a local version of the national directoral
structure, and the departmental directory of Rhône-et-Loire
, which since 1790 had been the department centred on Lyon, was dominated by constitutional royalists. The Rolandin Louis Vitet became mayor of Lyon in 1790. The "Central Club", headed up by Chalier, was strongly opposed to the approach taken by the local regime.
In the summer of 1792, the troop of revolutionary volunteers
passed through on their way from Marseilles to Paris, which radicalised the mood in Lyon. While the local manufacturer Roland was in Paris, serving as the nation's Interior Minister
, eight officers and four priests were killed.
In November 1792, the girondin Nivière-Chol was elected mayor of Lyon in place of Vitet who had been elected to sit in the National Convention in Paris. Confronted by economic stagnation, he persuaded the assembly to agree an interest free loan of three million francs to be divided between the citizens in proportion to their wealth. This enraged the bourgeoisie but gained approval from royalists.
Matters came to a head in February 1793 when Chalier's "Central Club" called for the creation of a Revolutionary Tribunal
. The mayor was not in favour of this idea and set about mobilising troops. which provoked a popular insurrection.
In order to try and defuse the crisis, Mayor Nivière-Chol now resigned and was re-elected. Meanwhile allies and opponents of Chalier argued in the various "Peoples' Associations" which were now finding themselves opposing the "Central Club". Mayor Nivière-Chol resigned again, and was replaced by the moderate Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert who was elected in a contest against an ally of Chalier's named Antoine-Marie Bertrand. However, as news came through of the treason (in Jacobin
eyes) of Dumouriez, Gilibert's position became unsustainable and he was succeeded as mayor on 9 March 1793 by Bertrand: this ushered in a period of 80 days during which the city hall operated under the control of Chalier's
faction.
A series of radical enactments followed, starting on 14 March 1793 with the establishment of a municipal bakery. Taxation was imposed on food (which disappeared from the shops) and a volunteer force was recruited. A seven man Lyon Committee of Public Safety (taking its name and inspiration from the national institution of that name
established under Robespierre
a few weeks earlier in Paris) was set up on 8 April 1793. Urging further progress down the revolutionary path, on 4 May the "Central Club" proposed the guillotine
become a permanent fixture, together with the "Popular Associations" and called again for the creation of a Revolutionary Tribunal
. They also called for a Committee of Revolutionary Surveillance and of a Revolutionary Army to replace the National Guard
which had itself been established only in 1789 as a force for stability. And they called for a forced cash levy on the rich. A few days later, on 14 May 1793, the city council duly voted to create a Revolutionary Army and a 6 million franc fund, to be created from taxing the rich, to pay for it all.
They also voted for a joint meeting, every day, for representatives from the department, the district and the commune. This last measure triggered a counter-offensive. During the days that followed a growing proportion, and ultimately a majority, of delegates at these meetings opposed the municipal law of 14 May. Meanwhile in Paris, the Girondist
deputy Chasset persuaded the revolutionary government
to annul the laws originating with locally based extraordinary "tribunals". Events in Lyon, France's second city, were of particular concern to the national government which now sent four of its own members to Lyon, these being the deputies Albitte, Dubois-Crancé
, Gauthier and Nioche. Their doubts thus endorsed, virtually the entire Lyon tribunal voted down the law of 14 May 1793.
, arrived and were placed under guard. During the night Chalier's
partisans were arrested and a moderate named Bénami was nominated as provisional president. The following day a man named Coindre became mayor and Judge Ampère (better remembered by posterity as the father of the electricity pioneer, André-Marie Ampère
) received instructions to launch the trial of Joseph Chalier and his friends.
Meanwhile events in the capital were moving fast, and the violent events of 31 May – 2 June 1793
saw the girondist
s ejected from the national government, under pressure from Paris based extremists. The newly extremist national government saw the events in Lyon as part of a more widespread Girondist revolt threatening the authority of central government: Such concerns proved well justified a couple of weeks later, as during June 1793, the municipal leaders in Lyon were linking up both with neighbouring departments and with other "insurgent cities" in the French south, Marseille
, Nîmes
and Bordeaux
. Lyon now insisted on a meeting among the potentially separatist municipalities and departments to be convened at Bourges
, as a form of alternative to the National Convention meeting in Paris. The municipality also had command of an army of approximately 10,000 which, though largely popular in its composition, was commanded by royalists led by the Count of Précy, with an aristocratic group of officers including Clermont-Tonnerre, Virieu, Pantigny, Nolhac, Villeneuve, La Roche d'Angly and de Melon.
The National Convention
sent Robert Lindet
to negotiate with the leaders in Lyon, but he found the local representatives in the Arsenal Building in an uncompromising mood: intransigence was stiffened by the presence at Lyon of Jean Bonaventure Birotteau, one of the girondist deputies whom the government had so recently expelled from their own National Convention. On 30 June 1793, 207 delegates representing nearby cantons, the department and the urban districts appointed a "Popular Republican Commission for the Public Safety of Rhône-et-Loire
", which published an "Address from the authorities duly constituted at Lyon to the armies, the citizens and all the departments in the republic". The National Convention, its orders having been ignored by the leaders in Lyon, now promulgated a series of decrees on 12 and 14 July 1793. They declared Birotteau an outlaw, dismissed the Lyon leaders, confiscating their assets; and they ordered the Revolutionary
Army of the Alps to re-establish in Lyon the Laws of the Republic.
It was in this context of exacerbated conflict that Chalier found himself condemned to death on 16 July 1793. He was guillotined the next day, followed on 31 July 1793 by Ryard, the man who had commanded the commune troops on 31 May 1793. A partisan of Chatelier's called Higgins killed himself in prison, and another of the local montagnard
leaders was cut down in the street. At the same time within the city leadership moderate republicans were being progressively replaced by royalists.
The Army of the Alps, under the command of Kellermann
, was engaged in a campaign in Savoy
against the Piedmontese
when it received the assignment to head west in order to re-establish central government authority in Lyon
, and was able to turn its attention to its new mission only a month later, on 10 August 1793. Two days after that, on 12 August 1793, the rebellious department
was split into two, creating on the western side of the river
the department of Loire
with its capital at Feurs
and, on the eastern side, the department of Rhône. Just over a week later, on 21 August, the Paris government
sent to Lyon a high level team that included Georges Couthon
, a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety
and a close colleague of Robespierre
himself. The next day the revolutionary army began its bombardment. During September Lyon was encircled, and on 29 September 1793, on the south-western side of the city, the fort at Sainte-Foy
was destroyed.
On 3 October 1793 Couthon called upon the Lyonnais to surrender, and a truce was observed until 7 October. The various representatives leading the city held a succession of group discussions, and on 8 October they sent a team to negotiate with the government representatives, albeit in the face of the opposition of Précy. At the same time two more of the defenders' forts fell, at Saint-Irénée and Saint-Just.
The next day, at dawn, Précy escaped via a district in the north-west of Lyon called Vaise
, and went into hiding, turning up shortly afterwards in Switzerland
. The city's civil authorities surrendered to the central government representatives at midday.
On 11 October the government delegates decided on the destruction of the city walls. On 12 October Barère
, a leading member of the government, put a decree through the convention that Lyon
was to lose its name, and would instead be known as Ville-Affranchie (Liberated City) and would be destroyed. All the properties occupied by rich people would be demolished, leaving just the houses of the poor and the homes of duped or banished patriots, buildings specially dedicated to industry and monuments dedicated to humanity and public instruction. On the ruins of Lyon would be erected a commemorative column which would testify to posterity the crimes committed and the punishment received by the city's royalists, with the inscription "Lyon made war on liberty: Lyon is no more!". In the event, of 600 houses scheduled for demolition, only about fifty were actually destroyed.
itself decided to created a five member "Extraordinary Commission" which they tasked with imposing "immediate military punishment" on the "criminal counter-revolutionaries of Lyon".
The "Military Commission" began work on 11 October and ordered the shooting of 106 people who had served the rebels' military leader, Précy. The "Commission of Peoples' Justice" got off to a slower start, beginning its work only on 21 October: it ordered the guillotining of 79 people including three of the moderates who had replaced Chalier back at the end of May, Bénami, Coindre and Judge Ampère. Both these commission disappeared on 9 December, by which time the centrally mandated "Extraordinary Commission" had taken over the application of retributive justice in Lyon.
The "Extraordinary Commission" sat between 30 November 1793 and 6 April 1794. It was presided over by General Parein, and decided early on to substitute collective shootings for the individual firing squad killings and guillotinings which had been imposed by the earlier commissions. On 4 December 1793 60 of the condemned were killed using three canons loaded with grape shot, and a further 208 or 209 were killed in the same way the next day. The killings ordered by the Commission took place on open ground in the Les Brotteaux
quarter, near to the granary at La Part-Dieu
. This method of killing was abandoned on 17 December 1793, however.
These massacres have been blamed both on Commission Chairman Parein and on the government representatives Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
and Joseph Fouché
whom the Convention had appointed the previous month when they recalled Coulthon to Paris. The victims of the commission were a diverse and in many cases distinguished group, including a former president of the department
called Debrost, a former member of the Revolutionary Constituent Assembly
called Merle, the architect Morand, the executioner who had executed Chalier, the Canon Roland, Feuillants
, Rolandins
, priests and other members of religious orders, merchants and manufacturers along with other aristocrats and commoners. The list also includes counter-revolutionaries sent to the Commission at Lyon from Feurs
, from Montbrison, from Saint-Étienne
and from the neighboring departments of Loire, Ain, Saône-et-Loire, Isère and Allier. This variety makes an objective quantification of the executions difficult. At its final sitting on 6 April 1794 the "Extraordinary Commission" itself reported that it had ordered the execution of 1,684 and the detention of a further 162: however, 1,682 were reported as having been acquitted.
The bones of the 209 Lyonnais shot dead on 3 December 1793 at Brotteuax
have been conserved in the crypt of the Chapel of Brotteaux in the sixth arrondissement
, in the north-eastern part of central Lyon since the Bourbon restoration
.
In 1989 France celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of the French revolution
, and two organisations named Lyon 89 and Lyon 93 brought together descendants of the victims of the siege and of the ensuing repression. A third organsiation, called Rhône 89, though overtly republican and secularist, also placed a greater priority on historical understanding of the events
The siege of Lyon also inspired several popular songs.
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
. It involved a revolt against the revolutionary
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...
government, breaking out in June 1793 and ending in December of the same year.
The city confronts economic crisis
In 1789 LyonLyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
was the only city in France other than Paris with a population above 100,000. The city was a regional focus for banking, commerce and manufacturing. In terms of employment it's leading industry was silk weaving
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, which directly supported a third of the population. The silk industry in 1789 was in crisis, reflecting the wider economic crisis afflicting France at that time. The city was visited by the keen eyed English documentary writer Arthur Young in December of that year: he estimated that 20,000 people were living from charity and starving.
Tax
Octroi
Octroi is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption.-Antiquity:Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in Roman times as vectigalia...
riots broke out in June 1789 and again in July 1790. Citizens hoped that the recalled Estates General (parlement) of 1789
Estates-General of 1789
The Estates-General of 1789 was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the nobility, the Church, and the common people...
would cancel the taxation privileges of the city's merchant oligarchs whereby the burden of taxation fell on those least able to pay, by means of the octroi, a tax on basic necessities. However, city elections returned a local government that retained the Octroi, triggering a new riot in the city. Continuing mutual intransigence over the taxation issue led to fresh riots accompanied by the ransacking of several of the houses belonging to Lyon's richest citizens along with a continuation of the taxation on necessities.
These social conflicts bound together the interests of the old royalist elite under the leadership of Jacques Imbert-Colomès with those of the revolutionary patriots surrounding the local industrialist turned politician Jean-Marie Roland
Jean-Marie Roland, vicomte de la Platière
Jean-Marie Roland, de la Platière was a French manufacturer in Lyon and became the leader of the Girondist faction in the French Revolution, largely influenced in this direction by his wife, Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platiere...
. Lower down the social scale, small-scale employers were opposed to taxation that increased living costs of employees whose salaries could therefore not be further cut, and the affected employees thereby felt closer affinity with their bosses and with the manufacturing interest in the city than with the desperate plight of the large numbers of unemployed.
Political opposition 1790–1793
During September 1790 the city's working class activistsSans-culottes
In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...
established 32 revolutionary societies to which they gave the name "Peoples' associations of friends of the [revolutionary] constitution" («Sociétés populaires des Amis de la Constitution»). These were established in opposition to more bourgeois revolutionary societies such as "The association of friends of the revolution" («Société des Amis de la Révolution»), membership of which was restricted to "active citizens", and the "Friends of the constitution" («Amis de la Constitution»), which was affiliated to the network of 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...
s springing up around France in the wake of the 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...
. A central committee, which quickly became known as the "Central Club" («Club central»), provided a meeting point for delegates from the city's many sectional revolutionary societies. The "Central Club" was initially controlled by the Rolandin faction
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
, but quickly came under the direction of the more dynamic elements around Joseph Chalier
Joseph Chalier
Joseph Chalier was a French Revolutionist.As a young man, Chalier's family hoped he would take a career in the church. But instead he became a partner in a law firm in Lyon. Because of his job with the firm, he traveled to Levant, Italy, Spain and Portugal. While living in Paris in 1789, he became...
.
At this time each department was governed under a local version of the national directoral
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
structure, and the departmental directory of Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire was a département of France whose préfecture was Lyon. Created on March 4, 1790 like the other French départements, Rhône-et-Loire was abolished on August 12, 1793 when it was split into two départements: Rhône and Loire...
, which since 1790 had been the department centred on Lyon, was dominated by constitutional royalists. The Rolandin Louis Vitet became mayor of Lyon in 1790. The "Central Club", headed up by Chalier, was strongly opposed to the approach taken by the local regime.
In the summer of 1792, the troop of revolutionary volunteers
Fédéré
The term "fédérés" most commonly refers to the troops who volunteered for the French National Guard in the summer of 1792 during the French Revolution...
passed through on their way from Marseilles to Paris, which radicalised the mood in Lyon. While the local manufacturer Roland was in Paris, serving as the nation's Interior Minister
Minister of the Interior (France)
The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions, responsible for the following:* The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes...
, eight officers and four priests were killed.
In November 1792, the girondin Nivière-Chol was elected mayor of Lyon in place of Vitet who had been elected to sit in the National Convention in Paris. Confronted by economic stagnation, he persuaded the assembly to agree an interest free loan of three million francs to be divided between the citizens in proportion to their wealth. This enraged the bourgeoisie but gained approval from royalists.
Matters came to a head in February 1793 when Chalier's "Central Club" called for the creation of a 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....
. The mayor was not in favour of this idea and set about mobilising troops. which provoked a popular insurrection.
In order to try and defuse the crisis, Mayor Nivière-Chol now resigned and was re-elected. Meanwhile allies and opponents of Chalier argued in the various "Peoples' Associations" which were now finding themselves opposing the "Central Club". Mayor Nivière-Chol resigned again, and was replaced by the moderate Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert who was elected in a contest against an ally of Chalier's named Antoine-Marie Bertrand. However, as news came through of the treason (in Jacobin
Jacobin (politics)
A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...
eyes) of Dumouriez, Gilibert's position became unsustainable and he was succeeded as mayor on 9 March 1793 by Bertrand: this ushered in a period of 80 days during which the city hall operated under the control of Chalier's
Joseph Chalier
Joseph Chalier was a French Revolutionist.As a young man, Chalier's family hoped he would take a career in the church. But instead he became a partner in a law firm in Lyon. Because of his job with the firm, he traveled to Levant, Italy, Spain and Portugal. While living in Paris in 1789, he became...
faction.
A series of radical enactments followed, starting on 14 March 1793 with the establishment of a municipal bakery. Taxation was imposed on food (which disappeared from the shops) and a volunteer force was recruited. A seven man Lyon Committee of Public Safety (taking its name and inspiration from the national institution of that name
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
established under 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...
a few weeks earlier in Paris) was set up on 8 April 1793. Urging further progress down the revolutionary path, on 4 May the "Central Club" proposed the guillotine
Guillotine
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...
become a permanent fixture, together with the "Popular Associations" and called again for the creation of a 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....
. They also called for a Committee of Revolutionary Surveillance and of a Revolutionary Army to replace 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...
which had itself been established only in 1789 as a force for stability. And they called for a forced cash levy on the rich. A few days later, on 14 May 1793, the city council duly voted to create a Revolutionary Army and a 6 million franc fund, to be created from taxing the rich, to pay for it all.
They also voted for a joint meeting, every day, for representatives from the department, the district and the commune. This last measure triggered a counter-offensive. During the days that followed a growing proportion, and ultimately a majority, of delegates at these meetings opposed the municipal law of 14 May. Meanwhile in Paris, the Girondist
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
deputy Chasset persuaded the revolutionary government
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...
to annul the laws originating with locally based extraordinary "tribunals". Events in Lyon, France's second city, were of particular concern to the national government which now sent four of its own members to Lyon, these being the deputies Albitte, Dubois-Crancé
Edmond Louis Alexis Dubois-Crancé
Edmond Louis Alexis Dubois-Crancé was a French soldier and politician.-National and Constituent Assemblies:Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he was at first a musketeer, then a lieutenant of the Marchaux , and embraced Liberalism...
, Gauthier and Nioche. Their doubts thus endorsed, virtually the entire Lyon tribunal voted down the law of 14 May 1793.
Chalier's fall
On 29 May a meeting at the Arsenal building of the various sectional delegates decided to replace the radical municipal government, which in military terms was only lightly defended. Gauthier and Nioche, two of the high-level representatives from the national governmentNational 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...
, arrived and were placed under guard. During the night Chalier's
Joseph Chalier
Joseph Chalier was a French Revolutionist.As a young man, Chalier's family hoped he would take a career in the church. But instead he became a partner in a law firm in Lyon. Because of his job with the firm, he traveled to Levant, Italy, Spain and Portugal. While living in Paris in 1789, he became...
partisans were arrested and a moderate named Bénami was nominated as provisional president. The following day a man named Coindre became mayor and Judge Ampère (better remembered by posterity as the father of the electricity pioneer, André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him....
) received instructions to launch the trial of Joseph Chalier and his friends.
Meanwhile events in the capital were moving fast, and the violent events of 31 May – 2 June 1793
Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793
The Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793 were a series of urban revolts in Paris during the French Revolution. They saw the fall of the Girondists under pressure from the people of Paris....
saw the girondist
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
s ejected from the national government, under pressure from Paris based extremists. The newly extremist national government saw the events in Lyon as part of a more widespread Girondist revolt threatening the authority of central government: Such concerns proved well justified a couple of weeks later, as during June 1793, the municipal leaders in Lyon were linking up both with neighbouring departments and with other "insurgent cities" in the French south, Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
and 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...
. Lyon now insisted on a meeting among the potentially separatist municipalities and departments to be convened at Bourges
Bourges
Bourges is a city in central France on the Yèvre river. It is the capital of the department of Cher and also was the capital of the former province of Berry.-History:...
, as a form of alternative to the National Convention meeting in Paris. The municipality also had command of an army of approximately 10,000 which, though largely popular in its composition, was commanded by royalists led by the Count of Précy, with an aristocratic group of officers including Clermont-Tonnerre, Virieu, Pantigny, Nolhac, Villeneuve, La Roche d'Angly and de Melon.
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...
sent Robert Lindet
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. His brother, Robert Thomas Lindet, became a constitutional bishop and member of the National Convention...
to negotiate with the leaders in Lyon, but he found the local representatives in the Arsenal Building in an uncompromising mood: intransigence was stiffened by the presence at Lyon of Jean Bonaventure Birotteau, one of the girondist deputies whom the government had so recently expelled from their own National Convention. On 30 June 1793, 207 delegates representing nearby cantons, the department and the urban districts appointed a "Popular Republican Commission for the Public Safety of Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire was a département of France whose préfecture was Lyon. Created on March 4, 1790 like the other French départements, Rhône-et-Loire was abolished on August 12, 1793 when it was split into two départements: Rhône and Loire...
", which published an "Address from the authorities duly constituted at Lyon to the armies, the citizens and all the departments in the republic". The National Convention, its orders having been ignored by the leaders in Lyon, now promulgated a series of decrees on 12 and 14 July 1793. They declared Birotteau an outlaw, dismissed the Lyon leaders, confiscating their assets; and they ordered the Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Army
The French Revolutionary Army is the term used to refer to the military of France during the period between the fall of the ancien regime under Louis XVI in 1792 and the formation of the First French Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary...
Army of the Alps to re-establish in Lyon the Laws of the Republic.
It was in this context of exacerbated conflict that Chalier found himself condemned to death on 16 July 1793. He was guillotined the next day, followed on 31 July 1793 by Ryard, the man who had commanded the commune troops on 31 May 1793. A partisan of Chatelier's called Higgins killed himself in prison, and another of the local 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...
leaders was cut down in the street. At the same time within the city leadership moderate republicans were being progressively replaced by royalists.
Siege of Lyon
François Christophe de Kellermann
François Christophe Kellermann or de Kellermann, 1st Duc de Valmy was a French military commander, later the Général d'Armée, and a Marshal of France...
, was engaged in a campaign in Savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
against the Piedmontese
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
when it received the assignment to head west in order to re-establish central government authority in Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
, and was able to turn its attention to its new mission only a month later, on 10 August 1793. Two days after that, on 12 August 1793, the rebellious department
Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire was a département of France whose préfecture was Lyon. Created on March 4, 1790 like the other French départements, Rhône-et-Loire was abolished on August 12, 1793 when it was split into two départements: Rhône and Loire...
was split into two, creating on the western side of the river
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
the department of Loire
Loire
Loire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
with its capital at Feurs
Feurs
Feurs is a commune in the Loire department and in the Rhône-Alpes region in central France.The inhabitants of Feurs are called Foréziens.-History:The name Feurs derives from the Roman name of the town Forum Segusiavorum...
and, on the eastern side, the department of Rhône. Just over a week later, on 21 August, the Paris government
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...
sent to Lyon a high level team that included Georges Couthon
Georges Couthon
Georges Auguste Couthon a French politician and lawyer in the French Revolution. Couthon would befriend Robespierre and serve on the Committee of Public Safety with him from 30 May 1793 until his and Robespierre’s deaths in 1794...
, a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
and a close colleague of 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...
himself. The next day the revolutionary army began its bombardment. During September Lyon was encircled, and on 29 September 1793, on the south-western side of the city, the fort at Sainte-Foy
Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon
Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon is a commune in the Rhône department in eastern France.It is a suburb of the city of Lyon, being located to the west of the city. It is thus a component of the metropolitan Urban Community of Lyon....
was destroyed.
On 3 October 1793 Couthon called upon the Lyonnais to surrender, and a truce was observed until 7 October. The various representatives leading the city held a succession of group discussions, and on 8 October they sent a team to negotiate with the government representatives, albeit in the face of the opposition of Précy. At the same time two more of the defenders' forts fell, at Saint-Irénée and Saint-Just.
The next day, at dawn, Précy escaped via a district in the north-west of Lyon called Vaise
Vaise
Vaise is a quarter of the City of Lyon , located along the Saône at the foot of the plateau Duchère, north-west of the city. Former commune of the Rhône department, Vaise was linked to Lyon on 24 March 1852, to form part of the 5th arrondissement. Vaise was then attached to the 9th arrondissement...
, and went into hiding, turning up shortly afterwards in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The city's civil authorities surrendered to the central government representatives at midday.
On 11 October the government delegates decided on the destruction of the city walls. On 12 October Barère
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac was a French politician and journalist, one of the most notorious members of the National Convention during the French Revolution.-Early career:He was born at Tarbes in Gascony...
, a leading member of the government, put a decree through the convention that Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
was to lose its name, and would instead be known as Ville-Affranchie (Liberated City) and would be destroyed. All the properties occupied by rich people would be demolished, leaving just the houses of the poor and the homes of duped or banished patriots, buildings specially dedicated to industry and monuments dedicated to humanity and public instruction. On the ruins of Lyon would be erected a commemorative column which would testify to posterity the crimes committed and the punishment received by the city's royalists, with the inscription "Lyon made war on liberty: Lyon is no more!". In the event, of 600 houses scheduled for demolition, only about fifty were actually destroyed.
Retribution
Moving quickly, on 9 October, the government representatives had created both a "Military Commission", charged with judging people who had taken up arms, and a "Commission of Peoples' Justice" which was to judge the other "rebels". Three days later, however, the National ConventionNational 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...
itself decided to created a five member "Extraordinary Commission" which they tasked with imposing "immediate military punishment" on the "criminal counter-revolutionaries of Lyon".
The "Extraordinary Commission" sat between 30 November 1793 and 6 April 1794. It was presided over by General Parein, and decided early on to substitute collective shootings for the individual firing squad killings and guillotinings which had been imposed by the earlier commissions. On 4 December 1793 60 of the condemned were killed using three canons loaded with grape shot, and a further 208 or 209 were killed in the same way the next day. The killings ordered by the Commission took place on open ground in the Les Brotteaux
Les Brotteaux
Les Brotteaux is a quarter in the 6th arrondissement of Lyon. It is situated between the Rhône and the track railway which leads to the Gare de la Part-Dieu. The urbanization of this area began in the late eighteenth century under the leadership of architect and urban planner Jean-Antoine Morand...
quarter, near to the granary at La Part-Dieu
La Part-Dieu
The district of La Part-Dieu is located in the 3rd arrondissement of the City of Lyon. It is the second most important area of the city after the Presqu'île. This district is the second-largest business district of France after La Défense in the Paris area, with over 1,600,000m² of office space...
. This method of killing was abandoned on 17 December 1793, however.
These massacres have been blamed both on Commission Chairman Parein and on the government representatives Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois was a French actor, dramatist, essayist, and revolutionary. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and, while he saved Madame Tussaud from the Guillotine, he administered the execution of more than 2,000 people in the city of...
and Joseph Fouché
Joseph Fouché
Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante was a French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte. In English texts his title is often translated as Duke of Otranto.-Youth:Fouché was born in Le Pellerin, a small village near Nantes...
whom the Convention had appointed the previous month when they recalled Coulthon to Paris. The victims of the commission were a diverse and in many cases distinguished group, including a former president of the department
Rhône-et-Loire
Rhône-et-Loire was a département of France whose préfecture was Lyon. Created on March 4, 1790 like the other French départements, Rhône-et-Loire was abolished on August 12, 1793 when it was split into two départements: Rhône and Loire...
called Debrost, a former member of the Revolutionary Constituent Assembly
National Constituent Assembly
The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.-Background:...
called Merle, the architect Morand, the executioner who had executed Chalier, the Canon Roland, Feuillants
Feuillant (political group)
The Feuillants were a political grouping that emerged during the French Revolution. It came into existence from a split within the Jacobins from those opposing the overthrow of the king and proposing a constitutional monarchy. The deputies publicly split with the Jacobins when they published a...
, Rolandins
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
, priests and other members of religious orders, merchants and manufacturers along with other aristocrats and commoners. The list also includes counter-revolutionaries sent to the Commission at Lyon from Feurs
Feurs
Feurs is a commune in the Loire department and in the Rhône-Alpes region in central France.The inhabitants of Feurs are called Foréziens.-History:The name Feurs derives from the Roman name of the town Forum Segusiavorum...
, from Montbrison, from Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...
and from the neighboring departments of Loire, Ain, Saône-et-Loire, Isère and Allier. This variety makes an objective quantification of the executions difficult. At its final sitting on 6 April 1794 the "Extraordinary Commission" itself reported that it had ordered the execution of 1,684 and the detention of a further 162: however, 1,682 were reported as having been acquitted.
Commemoration
A list of the victims of Parein's commission is kept in a Carthusian Chapel of Penitence erected on the site of the mass shootings. It was compiled using the commission's own records.The bones of the 209 Lyonnais shot dead on 3 December 1793 at Brotteuax
Les Brotteaux
Les Brotteaux is a quarter in the 6th arrondissement of Lyon. It is situated between the Rhône and the track railway which leads to the Gare de la Part-Dieu. The urbanization of this area began in the late eighteenth century under the leadership of architect and urban planner Jean-Antoine Morand...
have been conserved in the crypt of the Chapel of Brotteaux in the sixth arrondissement
6th arrondissement of Lyon
The 6th arrondissement of Lyon is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon and one of the poshest.This zone is served by the metro lines , and Tramway T3-Streets and squares:* Boulevard des Belges* Rue de Créqui* Rue Duguesclin...
, in the north-eastern part of central Lyon since the Bourbon restoration
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
.
In 1989 France celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of 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...
, and two organisations named Lyon 89 and Lyon 93 brought together descendants of the victims of the siege and of the ensuing repression. A third organsiation, called Rhône 89, though overtly republican and secularist, also placed a greater priority on historical understanding of the events
The siege of Lyon also inspired several popular songs.
Main source
- Albert SoboulAlbert SoboulAlbert Marius Soboul was a French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was Chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential works of history and historical interpretation.-Early life and education:Albert Marius Soboul...
, Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Quadrige/PUF, 1989, p. 688-696, entrée « Lyon » de Jean-René Suratteau