National Constituent Assembly (France)
National Constituent Assembly Assemblée nationale constituante | |
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National Legislative Assembly | |
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The National Constituent Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale constituante) was a constituent assembly in the Kingdom of France 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.[1]
Background
Estates-General
The
Tennis Court Oath
There were soon attempts by King
The Assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July and began to function as a governing body and a constitution-drafter.[6] However, it is common to refer to the body even after then as the "National Assembly" or the "Constituent Assembly".
Structure in summer 1789
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2018) |
Following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, the National Constituent Assembly became the effective government of France. In the words of historian François Mignet:
The assembly had acquired the entire power; the corporations depended on it; the national guards obeyed it... the royal power, though existing of right, was in a measure suspended, since it was not obeyed, and the assembly had to supply its action by its own.[7]
The number of the Estates-General increased significantly during the election period, but many deputies took their time arriving, some of them reaching Paris as late as 1791. According to Timothy Tackett, there were a total of 1,177 deputies in the Assembly by mid-July 1789. Among them, 278 belonged to the nobility, 295 to the clergy, and 604 were representatives of the Third Estate. For the entire duration of the Assembly, a total of 1,315 deputies were certified: 330 clerics, 322 nobles, and 663 deputies of the Third Estate. Tackett noted that the majority of the Second Estate had a military background, and the Third Estate was dominated by men of legal professions.[8][page needed]
Some of the leading figures of the Assembly at this time were:
- The conservative foes of the revolution, later known as "The Right":
- Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès – a forthright spokesman for aristocracy
- the abbé Jean-Sifrein Maury – a somewhat inflexible representative of the Church
- The British constitution model with a House of Lords and a House of Commons:
- Pierre Victor, baron Malouet
- Trophime-Gérard, marquis de Lally-Tollendal
- Stanislas Marie Adelaide, comte de Clermont-Tonnerre
- Jean Joseph Mounier
- "Charlesalso belonged to this group.
- Patriotic Society of 1789
One must add the role played by the Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, especially in regard to the proposition of legislation in this period, as the man who, for a time, managed to bridge the differences between those who wanted a constitutional monarchy and those who wished to move towards more democratic, even republican directions.
Proceedings
For a detailed description of the proceedings in the National Constituent Assembly and related events, see the following articles:
- French Revolution from the abolition of feudalism to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
- French Revolution from the summer of 1790 to the establishment of the Legislative Assembly
For a list of presidents of the National Constituent Assembly, see List of presidents of the National Assembly of France.
For a partial list of members of the National Constituent Assembly, see
Restoration of king
In the summer of 1791, the National Constituent Assembly decided that the king needed to be restored to the throne if he accepted the constitution. The decision was made after the king's failed
Dissolution
After surviving the vicissitudes of a revolutionary two years, the National Constituent Assembly dissolved itself on 30 September 1791. The following day, the
References
- ^ Gershoy, Leo (1964). The French Revolution and Napoleon. pp. 107–171.
- ^ OL 26882885M.
- ^ Gershoy 1964, pp. 100–107.
- OL 28429256M.
- OL 6560302M.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4617-1606-8.
- ^
Mignet, François (1856). History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814. France. p. 61.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Tackett, Timothy. Becoming a Revolutionary: The Deputies of the French National Assembly and the Emergence of a Revolutionary Culture (1789–1790). Princeton University Press, 1996
- ISBN 978-90-04-08961-7.
- ^ Woodward, W. E. Lafayette.
- ISBN 978-0-19-924863-6.
This article incorporates text from the public domain History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet (1824), as made available by Project Gutenberg.
Further reading
- Fitzsimmons, Michael P. The remaking of France: the National Assembly and the Constitution of 1791 (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Hampson, Norman. Prelude to Terror: The Constituent Assembly and the Failure of Consensus, 1789–1791 (Blackwell, 1988)
- Tackett, Timothy. "Nobles and Third Estate in the revolutionary dynamic of the National Assembly, 1789–1790." American Historical Review (1989): 271–301. in JSTOR
- Thompson, Eric. Popular Sovereignty and the French Constituent Assembly, 1789–91 (Manchester University Press, 1952)
- Whiteman, Jeremy J. "Trade and the Regeneration of France, 1789–91: Liberalism, Protectionism and the Commercial Policy of the National Constituent Assembly." European History Quarterly 31.2 (2001): 171–204.
- von Guttner, Darius. The French Revolution [1] (2015).
Primary sources
- Stewart, John Hall. A documentary survey of the French Revolution (Macmillan, 1951). pp. 101–270
External links
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen 1789, 1791 public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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