Preludes of the French revolution

Be a prelude to: the financial crisis (1770 - 1787)

All begins with a crisis in royal finances of Louis XVI. The Crown of France, which does only one with the kingdom of France, collapses under the debts, which will push the king to require more taxes of the third-state.

During the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, several ministers, among whom Turgot, vainly proposes to reform the Fiscalité by imposing the noble ones. Such measurements meet a strong resistance on behalf of the Parlement S, then dominated by the Noblesse.

In addition, the France had engaged in the war of American independence initially by the supply of material and assistances in favor of the insurrectionists (1776), then in an official war in 1778. The naval and terrestrial French assistance allowed the American victory, in particular with the Bataille of Yorktown, and concludes by the prestigious Traité from Paris from 1783. But this had an appalling cost: more than one billion Book tournaments which was added to the already catastrophic situation of French finances.

Like the need to increase the taxes places the king in a difficult position with the nobility, Maurepas, then Prime Minister, chooses as Ministers for the “new men” according to the expression of François Mignet. Christian Turgot, of Malesherbes, and Jacques Necker tries one after the other to reform the system of imposition and to proceed to other reforms, like decreasing the extravagance of the court, but none succeeds. To note that the extravagant expenditure represents less than 1% of the public revenue, and that the Servicing the debt absorbs 80% of them. This enormous debt comes primarily from the Guerre of American independence.

Contrary, Calonne, named Minister for Finance in 1783, again allows extravagant expenditure worthy of the time of Louis XIV. When Calonne made meet a Parliament of notable the the February 22nd 1787 to tackle the question of the financial position, France is almost in bankruptcy: nobody any more is ready to lend money to the king to satisfy the expenditure of the court and government. According to Mignet, the loans rise with “a billion six hundred and forty six million… and… there was an annual deficit… of 140 million books” . Calonne is then replaced by its principal opponent Etienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne, archbishop of Direction, but the situation remains unchanged: the government does not have any more possible loans. To try to cure it, the Assemblée of notable the approves the establishment of the provincial assemblies, a regulation of the trade of corn, the abolition of the Corvée S, and a new tax on the stamp; then it withdraws the May 25th 1787.

The fight which follows with the Parlement S , to make apply these decisions, shows one of the first signs of the end of the company of the Ancien Mode. In front of these problems,

the Protestants are restored in their rights;
Louis XVI promises an annual publication of the financial statement of the kingdom;
Louis XVI promises to convene the General states in the five years which follow.

The Parliaments of provinces express their opposition to the ministerial tyranny . In answer, several noble whose Louis Philippe II of Orleans is banished what starts a series of contradictory and conflict decisions between the king and the Parliaments. Disorders burst in Dauphiné, Brittany, Provence, Flanders, Languedoc, and Béarn.

In spite of the doctrines of the old mode according to which France is a Absolute monarchy, it becomes clear that the royal government cannot carry out the changes necessary without the agreement of the nobility. The financial crisis became a political crisis.

Be a prelude to: Convocation of the General states (1788 - May 1789)

The July 13rd 1787, after the meeting of the assembly of the States of Dauphine, the Parliament and the nobility require of the king that he convene the General states with Vizille. The December 18th 1787, the king promises to convene the General states in the five years.

In 1788 takes place the “Journée of the tiles of Grenoble”: the protests of the families touched by the economic catastrophe multiplying since May, these agitations push the garrison to intervene on June 7th. This one is received by jets of Tuile S launched by the inhabitants of Grenoble assembled on the roofs. After the “day of the tiles”, an assembly of the three orders (nobility, clergy, third state) meets in the castle of Vizille and decides the Grève taxes as long as the General states of the province will not have been convened by the king to vote them.

After the failure of Brienne the August 25th 1788, then in charge of the control of Finances of the Nation, and with the return of Necker instead of Brienne, Louis XVI, incompetent to restore the order, yields in August 1788.

The prospect for the General states relights the conflict of interest between the Noblesse and the Tiers state (in theory, all the men of the people; in fact, the Middle-classes, the Middle-class). The company changed since 1614. The clergy and the nobility account for only 2% of the population together. The Tiers state, which accounts for the 98% remainders theoretically, holds in fact an increasingly important proportion of the richness of the country. It was seldom associated with the two other Orders in Consultative Assembly of the king. Indeed, only the Clergy and the Noblesse could vote before. Many middle-class sees nevertheless the convocation of the General states like a chance to gain capacity.

According to the model of 1614, the General states must be composed of the same number of representatives of each kind. The third state requires a double representation, which they already have in the assemblies of province. Does this request become a subject for the authors of lampoons, of which most remarkable of the abbot Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès What is that the third state? . Necker, hoping to avoid the conflict, convenes a second Assemblée of notable the the December 6th 1788; but, with its regret, they reject the idea of a double representation. By convening this assembly, Necker simply underlined the opposition of noble to a forced policy.

A royal Décret of the November 27th 1788 announces that the General states must bring together at least thousand deputies; this guarantees in fact the double representation. Moreover, the Protestants can be appointed for the third state. According to Mignet, after honest elections, “the delegation of the nobility included/understood two hundred forty-two aristocrats and twenty-eight members of the Parliament; that of the clergy, forty-eight archbishops or bishops, thirty-five abbots or seniors, and two hundred and eight priests; and that of the third state, two ecclesiastics, twelve noble, eighteen magistrates of the cities, two hundred members of counties, two hundred and twelve lawyers, sixteen physicists, and two hundred and sixteen merchants and peasants. ” Of other sources propose slightly different data.

The strong proportion of priests is due to the reduction of the adequate portion in the years 1770-1780. The adequate portion (which wants to say: the sufficient share) is the share of the Dîme, the tax taken by the Church, that évêchés leave the priests so that they can live. The reduction of this adequate portion was such as the priests is sometimes poorer than their parishioners, and is thus found very close to their concerns. The subject makes debate several times, the priests trying to obtain a rebalancing, but the episcopate camps on its positions. The priests thus benefit from the convocation of the General states to elect, not their hierarchy as usual, but their pars, hoping well to discuss this problem. As of the election of the representatives, the privileged people thus find themselves in minority, even by preserving the traditional voting system.

Companies start to be constituted, as the Société of the friends of the Constitution in Versailles in April 1789 (which will become the Club of the Jacobins) and the patriotic Société of 1789.

to see General states.

The confusion of the Madness-Titon (April 28th, 1789) and its repression.

The May 5th 1789 open with Versailles the General states.

General states with the Constituent Assembly (May 5th, 1789 - June 17th, 1789)

When the General states meet in Versailles the May 5th 1789 surrounded by many festivities, of many representatives of the third state see, at the beginning, the double representation like a revolution already peacefully finished. However, with the label of 1614 strongly observed, the badges royal of the clergy and the nobility, the placement of the deputies of the three orders according to the protocol of olden days, all lets appear, in fact, that nothing was finished.

When Louis XVI and Barentin (Minister of Justice) address to the deputies the May 6th, the third state discovers that the royal decree guaranteeing the double representation is somewhat an imposture. Of course, they have more representatives than the two other joined together orders, but the process of vote must be by order : the 578 representatives of the third state, after deliberation, will see their collective vote weighing exactly as heavy as that of each other kind.

The apparent intention of the king and Barentin is that each one comes directly to the matter of the taxes. The greatest representation of the third state must be only symbolic system, without their giving any additional capacity. Necker is more sympathizing towards the third state, but on this occasion he speaks only about the tax situation, leaving the care to Barentin to speak in the way in which the General states must function.

Trying to avoid the question of the representation and to concentrate only about the taxes, the king and his ministers very badly judged the situation. The third state wants that the orders meet as a unit and that one counts a voice by deputy ( voter by poll rather than by order ). Whereas they want to denounce the royal absolutism, the two other orders believe - and the History was going to prove it - that they will lose more capacity on the third state than to gain some on the king. The Necker minister was sympathizing towards the third state in this direction but the astute financier is a less gifted politician. He decides to leave the problem in the dead end. Thus, before even as the king anything grants to the third state, it seems that the decision of the king is connected with a concession made by monarchy, rather than a gift which would have convinced the people of the possibility of a hope.

The dead end is immediate. The first concern of the General states is the verification of the credentials. Mirabeau, noble itself but selected to represent the third state, tries without success to join together the three orders in only one part to discuss it. Instead of discussing the taxes of the king, the three orders start by discussing separately not the taxes but the organization of the legislature. The diplomatic shuttle thus continues without result until the May 27th 1789, when the noble ones firmly decide to keep the verification system separate. The day next, the abbot Sieyès (a member of the clergy, but - as Mirabeau - chosen to represent the third state) declares that the third state, which meets now in communes, continues the checking and invites the two other orders to take part in it, but does not await them any more.

The June 17th 1789, with the failure of reconciliation the three orders, the communes set up their own process of checking, becoming thus the only field whose capacities are suitably legalized. The communes vote almost immediately a measurement much more radical: they are constituted in an National Assembly, an assembly not of the orders but of the people. They invite the other orders to join them, but state clearly that they intend to deal with the nation, with or without them.

The Constituent Assembly and the storming of the Bastille (June 17th, 1789 - July 14th, 1789)

The coldly elected Parliament deals immediately of finances - to find the appropriations necessary to the filling of the national debt - and with the people. The national debt is consolidated, and the existing taxes are declared illegal, but temporarily renewed for the duration of the exercise of the assembly. That restores the confidence of financial and a strong interest for its maintenance in place gives them. For the third state, committees are created to solve the problems of lack of food.

The preceding plan of Necker - of conciliation, an arrangement complexes whose principal idea was to accept some points in favor of the Third while remaining firm on the others - was deviated by events.

More interested by the councils of Necker, Louis XVI, under the influence of the courtiers of his private council, solves of going to the Parliament, to cancel his decrees, to order the separation of the orders, and to dictate the reforms to be carried out by the reconstituted General states.

However Louis XVI remains in Marly and makes close the room, to prevent the Parliament from meeting a few days, time to be itself ready. The Parliament moves her deliberations in the room of the play of palm, where the deputies lend the Serment of Jeu de Paume it (June 20th 1789), not to separate as long as they will not have given to France a constitution.

Two days later, private of the entry in the room of the play of palm, the National Assembly meets in the church of Saint-Louis, where it is joined by the majority of the representatives of the clergy: the efforts to restore the old order were only used to accelerate the events. When, the June 23rd 1789, in agreement with its plans, the king is addressed finally to the representatives of the three orders, it is received in a leaded silence.

He concludes while ordering with all to disperse, and is obeyed by the noble ones and the clergy; the deputies of the third state remain sitted in a silence which is finally broken by Mirabeau:

“a military force surrounds the Parliament! Where are the enemies of the nation? Is this Catilina with our doors? I require that by investing you with your dignity, with your legislative power, you be locked up in the respect of your oath. It is not allowed to separate you until you formed a constitution. ”

The deputies remain faithful to their promise.

The history brings moreover this reply that would have made Mirabeau with the marquis de Dreux-Brézé, envoy of the king:

“say to those which send to you that we are here by the will of the people and that we will leave there only by the force the bayonets”

Necker, noticed for its absence of the royal festival of the day, falls in disgrace, but returns in the good graces of the National Assembly. Members of the clergy and forty seven members of the nobility, whose duke of Orleans, which joined the Parliament with the Saint-Louis vault, remain near the Third.

The king makes come from the troops of number around Paris and Versailles. Many messages of support arrive at the Parliament of Paris. July 9th, 1789 the Parliament, reconstituting itself as a national constituent Assembly, addresses to the king in respectful but firm terms, asking the displacement of the troops (of which the foreign regiments, whose obedience with the king is larger by far than that of the French troops), but for Louis XVI declares that only can consider the need for troops to him, and ensures the Parliament that the troops are strictly a conservative measure. Louis XVI offers to move the Parliament with Boundary-line or Soissons: i.e., to place it between two armies and to deprive it of the support of the people Parisian, unanimous in his support for the Parliament and close to the insurrection.

The pressure modifies the discussions of the Parliament; the political conversation overflows of the Parliament in the places and the public halls of the capital. The Royal palace and its neighborhoods became the site of a continuous meeting. Parisian crowd opens the prisons of the Abbey to release some pomegranates of the French guards which were imprisoned because they had refused to make fire on the people. The Parliament recommends them to the leniency of the king; they turn over to the prison, and receive forgiveness. Their regiment joined the popular cause.

The July 11th 1789 with troops in Versailles, Sevres, to the Champ de Mars, and Saint-Denis, the king, acting under the influence of the noble conservatives of its private council, returns Necker (which left for Brussels), and composes a new ministry. The marshal Victor Francois, duke of Broglie, Galissonnière, the duke of Vauguyon, the baron Louis de Breteuil, and the intendant Fuller, are named to replace Puységur, Armand Marc, count de Montmorin, the Alfalfa, Saint Priest, and Necker.

The news of the reference of Necker reaches Paris in the afternoon of Sunday July 12th 1789, where she is interpreted like a coup d'etat of the conservatives. Crowd constitutes meetings in all the city, with more than ten thousand people at the Palais Royal. Camille Desmoulins, according to Mignet, rejoins crowd around him, assembled on a table, gun with the fist, exclaiming:

“ Citizens, it does not have there time to lose; the reference of Necker is the signal of a St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of the patriots! This night, the German and Swiss regiments will leave the field of Mars for all to massacre us; our only resource is to take the weapons! ”

A growing crowd, holding up busts of Necker and the duke of Orleans, moves until the Place Vendôme, where a detachment of the Royal-German was placed, and drowns it under a stone rain. On the Place Louis XV, the dragons of the prince de Lambesc draw on the carrier from one from the busts; a soldier is also killed. of Lambesc and its soldiers continue them, attacking not only the demonstrators but also those which they cross on their way.

The regiment of the French Guard favorably laid out towards the popular cause, is confined in its barracks. With Paris transformed into general riot, of Lambesc, not making confidence with the regiment to obey this order, item sixty dragons in front of its deposit of Roadway-in Antin. Again, a measurement designed to prevent is only used to cause. The French Guards arrive, kill two dragons, wound three, and put the remainder of them in escape. The rebellion citizen acquired with her cause an trained regiment.

The rebels meet in and around the Town hall and sound the Tocsin. Mistrust between the advisers gathered in the Town hall and the crowd which surrounds it is worsened by the incapacity of the municipality to provide weapons to the Parisian people. Between the political insurrection and opportunist plundering, Paris is a chaos. In Versailles, the Parliament holds firmly on her positions, and starts a session continues in order not to be again private of her space of meeting.

See too

External bonds

History of the French revolution by F.A. Mignet
E-book of the project Gutenberg

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