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The Legislative Assembly
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. After the National Assembly closed its doors on September 30, 1791, French revolutionary politics took zero days off because the next morning, October 1, 1791, the new Legislative Assembly convened for the first time. Elections for the Assembly had started up at the end of August and run through September […]
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The Constitution of 1791
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. In the wake of the massacre at the Champ de Mars, it very much appeared that the Republican movement had been permanently suppressed. The radical leaders of the radical Paris districts were in hiding, and everyone else was busy putting the finishing touches on the Constitution of 1791. A constitution […]
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Massacre of the Champ de Mars
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So, last time, the Royal Family tried to break out of their de facto jail cell in the Tuileries Palace but were busted along the road and dragged ignobly back to Paris. The fate of the monarchy was suddenly on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Could it be saved? Would […]
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The Flight to Varennes
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Since being dragged down to Paris in October 1789, King Louis XVI had publicly played the part of citizen King, and he was convincing enough in this role to still be regarded as a benevolent father figure by the average French citizen. But privately, he was sinking deeper and deeper […]
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A Temporary Summit
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. After the great feast of the Federation, France passed into a period of outward calm as everyone went through the motions of trying to make the new order they had just celebrated work in practice. But as I hinted earlier, beneath the surface, there were surprisingly few people dedicated to […]
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The Society of 1789
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So we left off last time with the National Constituent Assembly moving forward with its plans to nationalize the French Catholic Church. Today, that process will take another huge step forward. But the Church was not the only thing on the table in the spring and early summer of 1790. […]
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Birth of the Jacobins
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. The Women’s March on Versailles fundamentally changed the course of the French Revolution. By dragging the King back to Paris, the political dynamic is about to shift dramatically. For one thing, no one was quite sure whether the King was there of his own free will or whether he was […]
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The Women’s March on Versailles
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So last time we talked about the conservative-ish reaction in the National Assembly to the chaos of the Summer 1789. The Declaration of the Rights of Man had been passed, sure, but as France’s new political constitution began to take shape, the moderately conservative Monarchian, led by Jean Joseph Mounier, […]
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The Rights of Man
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. On the morning of August 5, 1789, the delegates of the National Assembly woke up with a bit of a legislative hangover. The night before had turned into a raucous orgy of bold and far reaching declarations, denunciations, and renunciations. But now that it was morning and whatever the Bretton […]
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The The Great Fear
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So we left off last time with Paris rising up in armed revolt and then storming the Bastille. But as I hinted at the end of last week’s episode, it was the response to this unexpected turn of events that puts the Fall of the Bastille at the center of […]
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The The Great Fear
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So we left off last time with Paris rising up in armed revolt and then storming the Bastille. But as I hinted at the end of last week’s episode, it was the response to this unexpected turn of events that puts the Fall of the Bastille at the center of […]