“From this place and from this day forth commences a new era in the world’s history, and you can all say you were present at its birth!” By September 1792, the Prussians, under the leadership of the formidable Duke of Brunswick, were closing in on revolutionary Paris. There, the streets roiled with the clanging of church bells, thousands of volunteers, patriotic songs and slogans, and of course; the dead bodies of all those killed during the September Massacres. It was against this feverish backdrop that on the 20th, the new National Convention - the most democratic of the assemblies yet, with unlimited powers to remake the nation - met at the famous Riding School. And though it was riven by internal rivalries under the contentious three headed triumvirate of Danton, Marat and Robespierre, remake the nation it did. Voting to abolish the monarchy once and for all, the Convention declared the institution of a new world and a new beginning for France, with all state documents from that day forth bearing the immortal words, ‘Year One’. But, with their Prussian enemies baying at the gates, would revolutionary France survive to see more than one year? A great military reckoning was approaching, which would decide the fate of the new Republic and perhaps, universal liberty. As the armies of France and Prussia met for what would prove to be one of the most ideologically significant battles of all time, political tensions were mounting in Paris… Join Dominic and Tom for this crucial, tremulous episode of the French Revolution. With Prussia closing in, bodies littering the streets, and the revolutionary leaders hungry for each other's blood, would the Revolution survive? EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/restishistory Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett + Aaliyah Akude Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the significance of the National Convention abolishing the monarchy?
The National Convention, trusting in your courage, hereby accepts your oaths of loyalty. The liberty of your homeland will be the reward for your efforts. And while you defend your liberty with the force of your arms, the National Convention will defend it by the force of the laws. The monarchy is hereby abolished.
So that Dominic was yet another person shouting loudly, one of many in our ongoing history of the French Revolution. And it was specifically Jérôme Pétillon, who was president of the National Convention on the 21st of September 1792. And obviously, the abolition of the French monarchy after centuries and centuries and centuries.
This is a seismic moment, isn't it, in the history of France, but also of Europe.
It's a massive moment, Tom, and I think the only voice that really is appropriate to the moment is the one you did there. I mean, because I detected more than a hint of our old friend, Jeremy Corbyn. Is that right?
Yes, because I think that Jeremy Corbyn, he would definitely be on the side of abolishing the monarchy had he been in the French Revolution. I think he probably regrets that he wasn't part of the French Revolution.
Yes, I imagine that is. Well, he's always got Cable Street, hasn't he? So yes, this is a massive moment in French and European history, isn't it? Because the French monarchy, I guess, one of the oldest in Europe. If you take it back to Clovis, who we talked about just before Christmas, didn't we? So yeah, I mean, that's the end of that story. Yes, it is. So it sends shockwaves across Europe.
We will be talking about what it means. And of course, we'll be talking about what it means for Louis XVI. And we'll get to his story in our final episode. Nothing good. Nothing good. But before we get to the moment when they actually do abolish the monarchy, we should set the scene a little bit, Tom. We love setting the scene on this podcast. Well, we did in the previous episode.
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Chapter 2: How did the political atmosphere in Paris set the stage for the Revolution?
We set it in the context of the role of women, didn't we? But shall we go back to the lads?
What are the lads up to? Let's set it in the context of Prussians and cannons. Oh, Prussians. So the situation in Paris, people will remember from the last episode, but one, Paris is preparing for an attack. There are church bells ringing. There are cannons on the River Seine that are calling people to prepare for war.
The streets are packed with volunteers who are streaming towards the gates of the city to the front. People are pulling down the grills of churches. They're digging up their coffins to use as lead for musket shots. There are everyday contingents of troops marching through the National Assembly, singing patriotic songs and shouting slogans and stuff. So it's all excitement.
Jeremy Corbyn would actually have loved it. But it's not a Sandbrook vibe, is it? Not really a Sandbrook vibe, I would say. Although slightly more Sandbrookian, somewhere out there...
Doer, defenders of reaction. Yes. The woods and valleys to the east are my people, are the Prussians. The Duke of Brunswick, the real hero of this story.
So on the 20th of September, so that's the day before the reading that you began with, the new national convention meets for the first time. Now, some listeners, if they've made it all the way through the series, may be like, I've lost track of all the different assemblies and whatnot. So if you remember, There had been the stormy of the Tuileries in August.
And since then, France has been in political limbo. And they have basically summoned yet another semi-constituent assembly. This one has unlimited powers to remake the nation. And it is by far the most democratic yet. So all men over the age of 21, except for servants, can vote. Because we talked about that last time and you said that you weren't in favour of it.
Yeah, I don't agree with this at all. I mean, I'm with the Duke of Brunswick on this. I think it's a dangerous innovation. Failed experiment. Yes, exactly. So it's a very complicated electoral system, a series of electors and kind of almost like an electoral college, and then they choose the 749 deputies. But as you said, Tom, Their turnout is really poor.
So in some places it might be a fifth, but generally it's probably one in ten. And the reason for that, I think, is there's a war on. So it's, you know, people have got other things in their mind. But it's also harvest time. So in the countryside... People have definitely got other priorities. And actually, a lot of people are now completely confused.
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Chapter 3: Who were the key figures and factions in the National Convention?
Because they know that 140 miles away, the Prussians are there and that their troops, their Francis troops, have basically caught up with the Prussians.
And the Duke of Brunswick, just to remind people, has said that he is going to inflict a biblical fate on Paris.
He has, yeah. A vengeance which will be forever remembered, or words to that effect. So, yes. Now, of these guys who've turned up to register... About half of them are lawyers. We've got a lot of lawyers who are members of Arrested History Club, so they will love all this. They will say this is a very good sign. There's also loads of doctors, loads of civil servants, loads of actors, journalists.
They're very young by and large. About half of them are under 40. About a quarter of them are under 35. The younger they are, the more committed and more militant they are by and large. So these aren't A lot of them have got experience in kind of local governments and stuff, but these aren't incredibly seasoned people. They are excited and excitable. I think it's fair to say.
Kind of quite a student union vibe. Definitely. I mean, this is the birth of the student union, really, isn't it? I think it probably is. Yeah. Motions, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, they love it. And they're there all night, you know, just endlessly arguing and showing off in that student union. And drinking. Exactly.
Next day, 21st of September, they assemble at the riding school, the Manège, for their first proper session. And this is the bit that you started with, Jérôme Pétillon, because they've come straight to the central question. Let's reboot France. And it must be a republic. There's an actor, of course, called Colu de Bois. He ends up on the Committee of Public Safety later on.
He says, let's just abolish the monarchy right away. No need for referendums and all that stuff. Let's just go for it. Some of the deputies say, really? No, no. You wouldn't let the people have a say on this? Such a massive question. And then the Bishop of Blois.
So this is an interesting thing, because again, it complicates the slightly sort of stereotypical sense of the French Revolution, because it's a bishop, Henri Gregoire, who says, kings are in the moral world what monsters are in the physical world. Their courts are the workshops of crime and the lairs of tyrants. In other words, No referendum. Let's just get rid. And they vote.
And then, of course, as so often happens in these kinds of scenarios, very student union, once people work out which way the wind is blowing, they all pile in. Yeah, they all pile in. So they make the vote unanimous. They all start shouting, vive la nation. They're all terribly excited. The world has started again.
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Chapter 4: How does the Battle of Valmy impact the French Revolution?
It is what they do. Anyway, for the French, this is massive. So there's a peasant soldier who writes to his father and he says, I've been electrified with a new courage that will make despots tremble. Oh, liberty. Oh, equality. Oh, my country. What a wonderful transformation.
I mean, if peasants are writing like that after the battle, then maybe Goethe is saying that kind of thing. Maybe, Tom. I mean, maybe they're all massive effusions. They all feel that this is Titanic.
I don't know. Yeah, no, fair. That's fair. So lots of people say, gosh, this is a tremendous victory for the new republic, for our revolutionary virtue. And of course, when the news reaches the convention, they're all waving their hats in the air and delighted. And they say, absolutely brilliant. History has begun again. It is a new chapter in the story of the human race.
And Dominic, I've got a question, which is that the news, reaches Paris after the monarchy has been abolished, is there a feeling that this victory has been won because France is now a republic? Do you think there's something like that?
Yeah.
We've got rid of the king and the traitors. And immediately we start winning.
Yeah, as soon as we took those blokes into the courtyards of various prisons and dispensed summary justice, and as soon as we locked the king up in the temple fortress, surprise, surprise, we start winning battles. You know, quadrat demonstrandum, the king was a traitor and was undermining the war effort.
And that is what happened with the first democracy when Athens establishes its democracy having thrown out its tyrants. They immediately start winning battles and presumably people would have been aware of this.
Maybe this is an ironclad law of history, Tom. Or maybe it's just a coincidence. Anyway. Well, it is because they actually win the battle before the proclamation of the Republic, right? Yeah. Well, it's not that they don't really win the battle. It's just a draw. So you would think that this would fill them all with great bonhomie, sense of harmony.
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Chapter 5: What role did young deputies and radical ideas play in the French Revolution?
What's on the Girondins' mind as well, by the way, is the fact that during the September massacres, there is some evidence that Robespierre and Marat had actually toyed with the idea of killing them too.
So Robespierre, on the day the massacres had broken out, the 2nd of September, he had been giving a speech in the commune, the sort of city council of Paris, in which he had said that the Girondins were secret agents of the Prussians and perfidious intriguers working against French liberty.
Now, anyone who's listened to the whole of this series will know how bonkers that is because the Girondins were the key people in getting France into the war in the first place. But of course, at the time, everybody believes in this idea of the mask of patriotism, that the more patriotic you appear to be, the more likely it is that you are in fact a traitor.
So the commune had issued a warrant for some of the Girondins' arrests, which was never carried out. But Brissot and Roland and these people, they know about this and they say, my God, Robespierre wants to kill us. He wanted to kill us and it's just luck that he didn't. And so they become convinced, well, they are now convinced that basically it's kill or be killed.
So in that sense, right from the moment the convention meets, which is 21st of September, It's not like a normal parliament that we would know today because there is no sense of pluralism. There's no sense that they're going to be having discussions and you win some, you lose some, all that kind of thing. No sense of a loyal opposition. None.
So by definition, this is about virtue versus corruption. It's about the Republic versus counter-revolution. To be a dissenter is to be a traitor. And so I think from the very first moment they take their seats, it is obvious there is absolutely going to be a showdown and that whoever loses that will probably end up on the guillotine.
And if you had to put your money on somebody at this point, September 1792, you would probably put it on the Girondeau. They have a bit more of a majority. They have a bit more self-confidence. They control the presidency of the convention. And so right from the beginning, with the September massacre so fresh in their minds, they say, right, let's settle this once and for all. Let's do this.
And right away, they go for the Montagnards' throats.
Wow. Well, I think that is too much excitement for one half of an episode. So I think we should take a break here. And when we come back, we will see what the upshot of this Girondin attempt to take down the Montagnard actually is. Hello, welcome back. We left you at a moment of high drama. The Girondins are about to take on the Montagnards in the National Convention.
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Chapter 6: How did political dynamics between Girondins and Montagnards shape the Revolution?
You just become very impatient with all this. And I think that Jean don't know this. So towards the end of October, they decide to have another go. And this time they will just go for Robespierre and they'll go for him personally. And they get a newspaper editor called Jean-Baptiste Louvet to stand up and accuse Robespierre of trying to make himself dictator, of having a personality cult.
Now, again, they reach for a Roman parallel, interestingly. Of course they do. So Louvet deliberately models his speech on Cicero unveiling the Catalan conspiracy. And of course, that's the analogy that everybody knows. They've all grown up with it. They've all done it at school. It's been on their minds. How long will you abuse our patience, Robespierre? All of that stuff. Exactly.
And Louvet says, come on, France has a choice. There are only two parties and France must choose. There is the party of us, the Girondins. We're the party of philosophers. Exactly.
and on the other hand there is the mountain they're the party of murderers put like that yeah exactly if i was facing attack from the prussians and i had to choose one of those two parties to represent me i definitely wouldn't choose the philosophers but you know who's there for this well you do know because i know you've got the notes but also i know this uh because i'm a big fan of his um it's the great pert william wordsworth he's basically on his gap year isn't he yeah he is he's on a holiday because
Well, he's not on holiday. He's graduated and doesn't know what to do with himself. So he's gone off to France, supposedly to improve his knowledge of French. But actually, he's having an affair with a woman in Orléans, got her pregnant.
Well, that would improve your French though, surely. Yes, it would. Give us a bit of poetry, Tom. I know you love a bit of Wordsworth.
When a dead pause ensued and no one stirred in silence of all present from his seat, Louvet walked single through the avenue and took his station in the tribune saying, I, Robespierre, accuse thee. Now that line is actually a bit confusing, isn't it? Because... It makes it sound like Rose Pierre is claiming to be... Exactly. I don't want to diss Wordsworth, one of our greatest ever poets.
Wordsworth lets himself down there with his lack of clarity. So this is in the prelude, which he writes much later when he's become a counter-revolutionary and a massive reactionary. Shall I carry on? Do. We'd love that. A bit more poetry? Yeah, I love it.
Well is known the inglorious issue of that charge and how he who had launched the startling thunderbolt, so that's Louvet, the one bold man whose voice the attack had sounded, was left without a follower to discharge his perilous duty and retired lamenting that heaven's best aid is wasted upon men who to themselves are false, which is a long way of saying that Louvet's attack doesn't work and he doesn't get the support that he'd been expecting.
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