Flight to Varennes
The royal Flight to Varennes (
This incident was a turning point after which popular hostility towards the
The escape failed due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations and poor judgments.[1] The king's decisions on a number of matters, including the means and timing of the journey, allowed seemingly small matters to escalate. Furthermore, he overestimated popular support for the traditional monarchy, mistakenly believing only Parisian radicals supported the revolution and that the populace as a whole opposed it. He also mistakenly believed that he enjoyed particular favor with the peasantry and other commoners.[2]
The king's flight was traumatic for France, inciting reactions ranging from anxiety to violence and panic. Everyone was aware that foreign intervention was imminent. The realization that the king had effectually repudiated the revolutionary reforms made up to that point came as a shock to people who had seen him as a well-intentioned monarch who governed as a manifestation of God's will. Republicanism quickly evolved from being merely a subject of coffee-house debate to the dominant ideal of revolutionary leaders.[3]
The king's brother also fled on the same night, by a different route. He successfully escaped, and spent the French Revolution in exile, later returning to be crowned King Louis XVIII.
Background
Objectives of flight
The intended goal of the unsuccessful flight was to provide the king with greater freedom of action and personal security than was possible in Paris.
The long-term political objectives of the royal couple and their closest advisors remain unclear. A detailed document entitled Declaration to the French People prepared by Louis for presentation to the National Assembly and left behind in the Tuileries indicates that his personal goal was a return to the legal revolution of summer 1789; he no longer rejected the abolition of orders, as in his Declaration of June 23, 1789, and he accepted civil equality.[9] Private correspondence from Marie Antoinette takes a more reactionary line looking to a restoration of the old monarchy without concessions; though referring to pardons for all but the revolutionary leadership and the city of Paris "if it does not return to its old order".[10]
The flight attempt
Prodded by the queen, Louis committed himself and his family to a disastrous escape attempt from the capital to the eastern frontier on 21 June 1791. With the dauphin's governess, the
Unmasking and arrest
Due to the cumulative effect of slow progression, time miscalculations, lack of secrecy, and the need to repair broken coach traces,
Whether De Bouillé's army would have been numerous or reliable enough to change the direction of the revolution and preserve the monarchy can never be known.[15][16]
Confinement to Tuileries Palace
When the royal family finally returned under guard to Paris, the revolutionary crowd met the royal carriage with uncharacteristic silence and consequently, complete shock rippled throughout the crowd at the sight of their king. The royal family was confined to the Tuileries Palace. From this point forward, the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an ever-increasing possibility. The credibility of the king as a constitutional monarch had been seriously undermined by the escape attempt.
After they returned, the National Constituent Assembly agreed that the king could be restored to power if he agreed to the constitution. However, various factions in Paris like the Cordeliers and the Jacobins disagreed, and this led to a protest at the Champ de Mars; the protest turned violent, resulting in the
From the autumn of 1791 on, the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the dubious prospects of foreign intervention. At the same time, he encouraged the
Abolishing the monarchy
The king's failed escape attempt alarmed many other European monarchs, who feared that the revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries and result in instability outside France. Relations between France and its neighbors, already strained because of the revolution, deteriorated even further with some foreign ministries calling for war against the revolutionary government.[18]
The outbreak of the
This attack led in turn to the suspension of the king's powers by the
Convicted, Louis was sent to the guillotine on 21 January 1793. Nine months later, Marie Antoinette was also convicted of treason, and was beheaded on 16 October. (She asked the prosecutor to kill her as well, as she couldn't "suffer for long").[23]
References
- ^ Thompson, J. M. (James Matthew) (1943), The French Revolution, Oxford, retrieved 5 April 2017
- ^ Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight (2003) ch. 3
- ^ Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight (2003) p. 222
- ^ Thiers, Marie Joseph L Adolphe (1845). The History of the French Revolution. pp. 61–62.
- ISBN 0881623385.
- ISBN 0-330-48827-9.
- ISBN 9780813938332.
- ISBN 0-330-48827-9.
- ^ De Saint Victor, Jacques (20 May 2009). "Le testament politique de Louis XVI retrouvé". Le Figaro. Retrieved 26 November 2023.
- ISBN 0-330-48827-9.
- ^ Richard Cavendish, page 8, "History Today", June 2016
- ^ a b Richard Cavendish, p. 8, "History Today", June 2016
- ISBN 0-330-48827-9.
- ^ Drouet, Jean-Baptiste (1791). Récit fait par M. Drouet, maître de poste à Ste Menehould, de la manière dont il a reconnu le Roi, et a été cause de son arrestation à Varennes: honneurs rendus à ce citoyen et à deux de ses camarades. Les archives de la Révolution française. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
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ignored (help) - ISBN 0-330-48827-9.
- ISBN 9780813938332.
- ^ Woodward, W.E. Lafayette.
- ISBN 0-670-81012-6.
- ISBN 0-199-24414-6.
- ISBN 0-710-06525-6.
- ISBN 0-670-81012-6.
- ISBN 0-670-81012-6.
- ^ "The final days of Marie Antoinette".
Further reading
- Dunn, Susan. The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination (1994).
- Esmein, Jean Paul Hippolyte Emmanuel Adhémar (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 854–855.
- ISBN 0-931933-33-1
- Timothy Tackett, When the King Took Flight, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.
- Thompson, J. M. The French Revolution (1943) 206–27, detailed narrative with explanation of what went wrong
- The article also draws material from the out-of-copyright History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet (1824), as made available by Project Gutenberg.
External links
- Fuite de Varennes – the French Wikipedia article
- The Flight to Varennes • Memoir by the Duchesse d'Angoulême