History of Savoy of 1792 to 1815

So in 1789 Savoy, integrated into the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, is not touched directly by the French revolution (See Histoire of Savoy of 1416 to 1792), it is plunged in the revolutionary adventure as from 1792 and knows a de facto situation rather near to those of many French provinces. Until 1815, Savoy become department of Mont Blanc knows its first fastening in France, is a prelude to with that of 1860.

Savoy before 1792

From 1789, Savoy follows very close the events which constitute the French revolution by the channel of the Savoyard emigrants established in Paris or to Lyon which correspond with their compatriots who are held with the current of the events and are familiarized with the revolutionary ideas. In Paris, François Amédée Doppet, born in Chambéry (Savoy), but appointed of Isere in 1791, militates for the fastening of Savoy in France. In July 1792, it takes part in the creation of a Légion of Allobroges of which it is named lieutemnant colonel. In Chambéry, the population which attends the arrival or with the transit of the emigrants who flee the French revolution E In addition, the situation with the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia is hardly different from that which France at the same time knows. On the economic plan, bad harvests of the Eighties impoverished the countryside. On the cultural level, Savoy lives in osmosis with France, and one sees, in Chambéry, for example a proliferation of the maconnic cabins, to which affiliate even a Joseph de Maistre classically taxed with reactionary. Savoy however has specificities compared to the French provinces: From 1770, there exists a process of abolition of the feudal rights, but it implies the repurchase of these rights by the country communities. The kingdom of Victor-Amédée III of Sardinia can appear in advance over its time, but in Savoy everyone is more or less dissatisfied: The noble ones want some with the middle-class man to have encroached on their privileges and they always require their farmers. The middle-class men whose rise is however undeniable become aware of the shift between Savoy and marked Piedmont to monopolize with its only profit unquestionable progress of the kingdom and they denounce the increasing indifference of the dynasty towards its " the oldest subjects and most faithful. " .

The invasion of Savoy in 1792

In the night from September 21st to 22nd 1792, the French Armed with the Alps, ordered by Montesquiou, is some 15 000 men in which one finds the Légion of Allobroges invades Savoy. The Sardinian troops are practically withdrawn without fighting on the peaks of the Alps. No doubt the Kingdom of Sardinia lived for a long time in peace with its French neighbor, and Constituante had declared peace in the world, but the French revolutionists are in war against the Emperor of Austria, and are wary of the Sardinian sovereign Victor-Amédée III combined of Austria since July 25th. It is thus a question for the French of preventing a possible arrival of the Austrian armies by South-east, but the invasion of Savoy is also related to the aimings which can have the French Minister for Finance Clavière on Geneva, its town of origin. A club Jacobin the very same day opens in Chambéry entry of the French in the city which sees arriving, a few days later, four police chiefs of which Philibert Simond sent by the Convention. They are charged to set up the election of a Assemblée of the Communes.

The revolutionary period, of 1792 to 1802

The National Assembly , still called Assemblée of Allobroges meets in the cathedral of Chambéry before the end of October and, with the image of France, demolishes the bases of the old mode at the meetings of the October 26th and 27th: Suppression of the rights souvetains of the House of Savoy, suppression of the nobility, suppression of the feudal royalties (without compensation), suppression of the dîme and confiscation of the goods of the clergy. Dice on October 29th, the assembly dissot not without to have been emitted the wish of one fastening in France. Doppet and Simond are charged to go to carry the wish to the Convention of Paris, and it is on the intervention of the abbot Gregoire that Convention proclaims the Annexation of Savoy which consequently constitutes the department of Mont Blanc (See Décret of November 27th, 1792 meeting of Savoy in France). Four police chiefs are appointed to organize Savoy: Gregoire, Simond, Herault de Séchelles and Jagot.

The installation of the new mode is thus carried out in the almost general euphoria. It is obviously the middle-class, and in particular the class of the robins which one finds with the avant-garde of the movement whereas the nobility which did not emigrate with Turin or with Lausanne remains on the reserve and which the representatives of the Church show a certain benevolence. However, it well will be necessary to apply the civil Constitution of the clergy which is a stone of obstacle in many French provinces and which will be it especially in Savoy.

The religious question is one of the major causes of the movement counter-revolutionary which one observes during the year 1793 and which results in riots in Haut-Faucigny .et in the valley of Thônes. These revolts are also in relation to the presence of the Sardinian troops remained on the Alps. Victor-Amédée III inserted the Royaume of Sardinia in the European coalition in April 1793. and a reconquest in August 1793 tries. The latent state of war with the old sovereign power ceases only in 1796, when the victories of Bonaparte force Victor-Amédée III to sign the treated of Paris by which he recognizes French sovereignty on Savoy and the Comté of Nice.

To fight against the Sardinian reconquest, a levy in masse is issued in the department of Mont Blanc in September 1793. Generally, the Savoyard ones always answered very timidly the various mobilizations which marked out the first fastening in France.

The period of Terror is personalized in France by Antoine Louis Albitte, Representing on mission which takes its functions in Chambéry as from January 1794, which replaces to some extent Simond, recalled to Paris. Terror will be more verbal than real. Guillotines were indeed built, but the chopper did not make fall any head. Priests nevertheless were shot, because it is on the religious level that the dictatorship of Albitte was shown most severe. The collective memory preserved of it the memory of the shortening of all the bell-towers. The “proconsulat” of Albitte lasts nine months. Affected with l´armée of the Alps in May, it is only in September, after the Chute of Robespierre (“Thermidor”) that Convention sends a new representative on mission, Gautier .

If Albitte fills the prisons, it him arive also to empty them, for example when after having noted during one of its rounds the extreme misery of the Maurienne, it releases from the suspect plowmen so that they can go to work the ground. Gautier and the others representatives on mission sent by convention will be more moderate.

The religious question of 1793 until the legal settlement

One can estimate at a third the proportion of the priests who accept the civil Constitution which between in force on February 8th, 1793. In Chambéry, where one has statistics more precise, one counts 77 Jureur S against 47 refractories, of which the bishop. The relations between the Church and the revolutionary capacity will worsen ineluctably, and what it is necessary well to call of religious persecutions will perdureront until the legal settlement of 1801. Most of the refractory clergy emigrates, to start with the bishops of Annecy and Moûtiers, and the bishop of Chambéry, Mgr the Council, is blocked in his episcopal palate until his death, in September 1793. As for the constitutional bishop, Panisset elected in March 1793 and crowned in Lyon, it will require to give up its sacerdotal functions dice February 1794. The refractories which are organized in Turin send “missionaries”, clandestine who celebrate masses the night in barns and manage sacraments. When there are no missionaries, they are the laic ones which organizes ceremonies what is not without worrying the clergy returned being wary only elsewhere by the proximity of the Protestants of Geneva.

Albitte does not return in these subtleties. It quickly will attempt to eliminate as the priests swearers at the same time as it orders the shortening of the bell-towers and the recovery of all the bells to melt their bronze. February 22nd, 1794, a priest is shot in Thonon. There will be many others of it. The Thermidor 9 mark the end of repression with respect to the noble ones and the various political opponents, and if the legislation anticlerical remains, a lull in repression makes it possible to the refractory priests to circulate more quickly. Under the Directory, the anticlericalism redoubles violence as from 1797: patrols of national guards track the clandestine missionaries and arrive to éradiquer the network of missions. The priests are not any more shot, but are off-set. 174 Savoyard priests are directed towards the bagnes of the Ile de Ré and the Île of Oléron, and so only 13 arrive to Guyana, it is because of the English blockade. During the preparation of the legal settlement of 1801, at the same time as of the gendarmes assemble a guard of honor for the envoy of the pope who crosses Savoy, other gendarmes thread shackles with priests to send them in prison.

In-outside direct repression against the priests, the sale of the national goods among which liturgical objects could be as the vestments took face of many village communities which felt despoiled goods that they had produced and that they felt like their own goods.

Economic life and social

The suppression of the seigneuriaux rights will contribute to generate in Savoy as in other French provinces a social base which will support the Revolution and the Republic, but in Savoy, it also causes the frustrations caused by the fact that the process of repurchase of these rights had been engaged for ten years. Some profit, but those, individuals or communities which already repurchased the rights feel floués.

The multiplication of the civil service posts gets another social base with the Revolution, this is not particular in Savoy, and it is the sale of the national goods which will get for the State the resources to maintain its way of life civil and military. The sale of the national goods is spread out over seven years and constitutes with the supply with the armies the commercial main activity. In Savoy, certain purchasers are the peasants already owners who increase their piece, but especially of the town middle-class men of any category in the forefront dequels has a presentiment of the notaries

Savoy under the Empire

In February 1800, at the time of the referendum on the consular constitution, only 7 877 électeurssur 58 do 958 registered voters vote YES, against 165 not? Two years later, they are 36 607 to approve the Consulate with life, votes that one can interpret like the approval of the consular will of resequencing, appeasing and reonciliation of the French.

Savoy which was near to the insubordination generalized at the end of the Directory knows under the empire a certain appeasing even if the Conscription imposed by the Napoleonean wars never meets the adhesion of the population. After the economic period of regression of the end of the century which saw, for example, the population of Chambéry to crumble 16 000 with 6 000 inhabitants, Savoy knows a few years of good harvests at the end of the century. In this context of resumption of prosperity and need for order, the system of the prefects set up by Napoleon is completely adapted to the situation. The trade opens in an unhoped-for way with the opening of the road of the Mount-Cenis which makes it possible to cross the collar without having to dismount the cars.

The legal settlement of 1801 naturally has its place in the appeasing and the rallying of broad layers of the population. The State takes responsibility for its treatment of the clergy, and in exchange, the pope accepted that one does not reconsider the confiscation of the goods of the Church, with the great relief of the purchasers of national goods. " the many town purchasers, strengthened in their country properties become the supports of the mode, and rather quickly, socially speaking, of the conservatives " . In the final analysis, the revolutionary period reinforced the movement started at the XVIIIeme century of the middle-class towards the land property.

Return to the Sardinian kingdom

The Austrian general Bubna returns to Geneva on December 30th, 1813 and makes ensuitre main of Savoy. The Savoyard ones accommodate as united enemies among whom the legion of Sonnaz made of royalist Savoyard volunteers. The treaty of Paris of 1814 envisages a partition of France by keeping the major part, with Chambéry and Annecy whereas the Sardinian States take again Maurienne and the valley of Isere until Montmélian. This partition meets the hostility as well Savoyard peasants, as of the republican elite like the chemist Berthollet or of the royalists like Joseph de Maistre.

After the return of Napoleon, during the hundred days, the Savoyard ones wearied remain indifferent, but the generals like Dessaix or Savoyard the Curial devote to a last-ditch struggle at the time of the final irruption of the Austrians. The treaty of Paris gives the whole of Savoy to Victor Emmanuel 1 {{er}}, returned of its exile of Cagliari to Sardinia to recover Piedmont and Savoy.

Chronology of the revolutionary period

1770 Setting on sale of the seigneuriaux rights under Victor-Amédée III

1792

spring: Foundation in Paris of the Club of Allobroges.
August: Creation of the Legion of Allobroges directed by Doppet.
Alliance July 25th enters Austria and the Kingdom of Sardagne
September 22nd: A French Army ordered by Montesquiou invades Savoy.
at the end of September: Arrival of the four police chiefs of the Convention of which Simond. October 6th, they convene an assembly of the communes of the duchy.
October 6th: The police chiefs of Convention convene an assembly of the communes.
October the National Assembly known as of Allobroges meets in Chambéry.
October 26th: l´Assemblée confiscates the goods of the clergy, prohibited the monastic vows and fixes a treatment for the clergy.
October 27th: l´Assemblée abolishes the titles of nobility and the privileges.
October 29th: l´Assemblée dissolves. Doppet and Simond go back to Paris to carry the wish of Allobroges of their meeting to France.
November 27th: On intervention of the abbot Gregoire, the French Convention issues the Annexation of Savoy in France.

1793

February: Election of the Savoyard deputies to Convention,
February 8th: Reduction of the number D évéchés Savoyard with only one. Imposition of the oath to the priests.

February 16th: General decree ordering l´inventaire goods d´Église.

March 6th: Election of l´abbé Panisset like évèque constitutional of Mont Blanc.

March 10th: Entry pursuant to the levy in masse issued by the Convention.

March 23rd: Liquidation and disappearance of the Senate.

April 25th: Victor-Amédée III inserts the Royaume of Sardinia in the European coalition.

April 28th - May 3rd: Riots counter-revolutionaries in Haut-Faucigny.

4 May 10th: Revolt counter-revolutionary of the valley of Thônes.

August: Offensive of the Sardinians to the collar of Balme (August 11th) and the Collar of the Small-Saint-Bernard (August 15th).

August 31st: Alliance anglo-Sardinian.

September 11th: Levy in masse (theoretical) of the department of Mont Blanc.

September 18th: Removal of the signs external of religion and worship.

September 29th: Victoire of the French on the Sardinians with the Mirabel bridge close to Sallanches.

November 8th: Confiscation of the bells of the churches.

November 25th: Destruction of the public crosses.

1794

January 8th: Nomination d´ Albitte, Representing on mission in l´Ain and Mont Blanc.

February 2nd: arrival d´Albitte in Chambéry.

February 7th: Arrest of all the suspects and immediate confiscation their goods.

March 5th: deportation of all the suspect priests.

March 18th: D urbanism plan for Chambéry.

April 24th: The French Army takes the Col of the Small-Saint-Bernard.

May 19th: Assignment of Albitte with l´armée of the Alps. Nomination of Favre-Bush like Public prosecutor with the revolutionary tribunal.

June 14th: Massena s´empare of the Collar of the Mount-Cenis.

July: revolutionary government in Geneva.

July: Arrival of the first priests missionaries in Savoy.

July 27th: (Thermidor 9 Year II) Fall of Robespierre

1795

June: Second selling campaign of the national goods

August: Closing of the clubs by the representative on mission Cassanyès.

October 26th: In Paris, the Directoire succeeds the national Convention.

1796

March: Bonaparte takes the command of l´ Armée with Italy in the Alps of the south.

12 April 21st: French Victoire with Montenotte in Piedmont of the south.

May 15th: Treaty of Paris: Victor-Amédée III recognizes l´annexation of Nice and Savoy in France.

June: Garin, moderate becomes police chief of the executive Directory.

June: Resumption of the sale of the national goods

June: Creation d´une central School in Chambéry

October 16th: Died of Victor-Amédée III. His/her son Charles-Emmanuel IV succeeds to him.

1797

September 4th: Coup d'etat of the 18 fructidor year V

September: Resumption of the arrests and deportations of priests.

April 15th, 1798: Entry of French in Geneva.

December 8th, 1798: Charles-Emmanuel IV leaves Turin and takes refuge in Sardinia.

January 1799: Mobile column in Maurienne to subdue the refractory priests and the unsubdued consrits.

Sources of the article

Henri Menabrea History of Savoy , joined together Printing works of Chambéry, 1976 (1st edition, Grasset, 1933)
R. Avezou, History of Savoy , PUF, 1949
Jacques Lovie, Art and Histoire , in Savoy , Christine Bonneton editor, 1978
Jean-Pierre Leguay, History of Savoy Ouest-France, 1986.

See too

References

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