Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western Seth Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety one. The Women's March The March of October fifth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine did not erupt suddenly. It was a
Speaker 1: culmination of weeks of mounting tension in Paris and Versailles.
Speaker 1: The summer's promise of liberty and reform, symbolized by the
Speaker 1: fall of the Vast Deal in July, had not in
Speaker 1: any way solved the practical crisis most pressing to ordinary
Speaker 1: Parisians hunger. Bread, that staple of life in the pre
Speaker 1: modern world, remained scarce and expensive. As Autumn arrived, supplies
Speaker 1: faltered once more. Lines lengthened at bakeries, and the price
Speaker 1: of a loaf reached levels that pushed families to desperation.
Speaker 1: Women who were often the ones who were standing in
Speaker 1: line for said bread, felt this burden most directly. At
Speaker 1: the same time, political suspicion ran high. The royal family
Speaker 1: had moved to Versailles, seemingly insulated from the people's daily struggles.
Speaker 1: Rumors spread through Paris that the King and Queen were
Speaker 1: encouraging resistance to the revolution. These whispers intensified after a
Speaker 1: lavish banquet at Versailles on October the first, when officers
Speaker 1: of the King's bodyguard allegedly trampled on the new National Cockade,
Speaker 1: the red, white and blue symbol of popular sovereignty. What
Speaker 1: many Parisians saw his proof of royal contempt for the
Speaker 1: revolution inflamed anger, especially among those already embittered by hunger.
Speaker 1: The radical press gave voice to these grievances. Jean Paul Morant,
Speaker 1: through his fiery newspaper La du Predillu, warned that the
Speaker 1: revolution was being betrayed by the court in the aristocracy.
Speaker 1: Each new rumor or insult seemed to confirm his warnings. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the National Assembly, though still in Versailles, was debating sweeping reforms,
Speaker 1: but its deliberations brought little to no relief to Parisian
Speaker 1: bread markets. By early October, the convergence of shortages, rumor,
Speaker 1: and anger at the court's perceived arrogance created an atmosphere
Speaker 1: that was positively explosive. The insult of the cockade was
Speaker 1: the final spark. When Maraaut called for action, Thousands of
Speaker 1: women took to the streets, transforming their hunger into a
Speaker 1: march that would bring the king to Paris and place
Speaker 1: him face to face with his people. The weeks before
Speaker 1: the march had shown just how quickly riots, political rumor,
Speaker 1: and radical journalism could turn to a revolutionary force. Indeed,
Speaker 1: Marat had claimed that the Court had insulted the revolution itself,
Speaker 1: that officers of the World Bodyguard had trampled the tricolored cockade,
Speaker 1: that small but potent badge of the people's sovereignty. Marat
Speaker 1: would write, quote a crime that Paris cannot ignore. That morning,
Speaker 1: thousands of women, fishwives, market women, lawn dresses, carrying pikes,
Speaker 1: kitchen knives, or muskets gathered in the sleets and rain.
Speaker 1: What began as a protest against bread shortages became something larger,
Speaker 1: a march to bring the king to Paris to make
Speaker 1: him feel the hunger of his subjects. The procession was
Speaker 1: long and it was ragged, winding its way twelve miles
Speaker 1: to Versailles. Lafayette, the commander of Paris the National Guard itself,
Speaker 1: hesitated at first, but then ultimately he followed with twenty
Speaker 1: thousand citizen soldiers, both to support and also to restrain
Speaker 1: the crowd. By dawn on October the sixth, the demonstration
Speaker 1: had truly turned chaotic. A mob of women stormed into
Speaker 1: the palace, breaking into the Queen's apartments and nearly seizing
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette. Herself guards were killed. Panic reigned until Lafayette
Speaker 1: and his troops restored order, But the women's demands were
Speaker 1: simple and relentless. The king must come to Paris, cornered
Speaker 1: and truly, with two options, come to Paris or die.
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth agreed that same afternoon, Interestingly, amid cheers
Speaker 1: of Vivi Lera live the King. The royal family was
Speaker 1: escorted in triumph, yet effectively as prisoners, to the Tularise
Speaker 1: Palace in Paris. The National Assembly promptly voted to follow
Speaker 1: uprooting itself from Versailles, resettling in the capital city. Once
Speaker 1: in Paris, the Assembly moved quickly to solidify revolutionary authority.
Speaker 1: On October the tenth, Lafayette's position was strengthened. He was
Speaker 1: named commander of the regular army units stationed around Paris,
Speaker 1: effectively making him the guardian of both the king and
Speaker 1: the people. The Assembly simultaneously struck at a royal prerogative,
Speaker 1: altering Louis the sixteenth traditional title, no longer the King
Speaker 1: of France and Navarre. He was now styled King of
Speaker 1: the French, a subtle but radical change, meaning now that
Speaker 1: sovereignty flowed upward from the nation rather than downward from God. Interestingly,
Speaker 1: not that same day, doctor Joseph Ignace Guillotine introduced a
Speaker 1: chillingly practical proposal, a new device for executions, swift and
Speaker 1: equal for all. He insisted mechanism that spare suffering and
Speaker 1: treats every condemned man for the same. The Guillotine was
Speaker 1: born not from cruelty, but for a demand for equality
Speaker 1: and death. And before we go any further, I think
Speaker 1: it's worth taking a moment in talking a little bit
Speaker 1: about doctor Guillotine, who, in many ways remains I think
Speaker 1: a bit of a tragic figure, Doctor Joseph Guillotine. His
Speaker 1: life is often remembered through the shadow of the machine,
Speaker 1: of course, that bears his name. Yet Guillotine was not
Speaker 1: an executioner by temperament. He was a physician. He was
Speaker 1: a reformer, and he was a son of the Revolution
Speaker 1: who believed in rationality, equality and the alleviation of suffering
Speaker 1: even in death. His story reveals the irony of a
Speaker 1: really humane man who would be forever linked to a
Speaker 1: symbol of terror. Guillotine was born on May the twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: seventeen thirty eight and cents a small town in western Friends.
Speaker 1: His family came from respectable but not wealthy roots, and
Speaker 1: he was steered early on towards the priesthood. For a
Speaker 1: time he studied with the Jesuits, even earning the title
Speaker 1: of abbey, but his interests gravitated less towards theology and
Speaker 1: more towards new sciences, particularly medicine. He abandoned a clerical
Speaker 1: career and turned to medicine and the other medical arts,
Speaker 1: studying at Bordeaux before he eventually did move to Paris.
Speaker 1: In the capital, Guillotine distinguished himself as a student of
Speaker 1: anatomy and physiology. He traveled abroad, spending time in Ireland,
Speaker 1: where he practiced medicine and eventually earned his medical doctorate.
Speaker 1: In Paris, he established himself as a physician of good reputation,
Speaker 1: with a particular interest in public health and preventative medicine.
Speaker 1: Unlike many of his contemporaries, Guillotine was more fascinated by
Speaker 1: the broader welfare of society than by the prestige of
Speaker 1: treating the wealthy. Alone. Guillotine's rise happened to coincide with
Speaker 1: the height of the Enlightenment. He joined circles of reform
Speaker 1: minded men who believed that reason and science should guide
Speaker 1: political and social life. He was admitted to the Academy
Speaker 1: of Medicine in Paris and developed a reputation as a bontful,
Speaker 1: humane physician. By the late seventeen eighties, as crisis loomed
Speaker 1: over France, Uilletine's reforming spirit drew him into politics. Elected
Speaker 1: as a deputy for Paris to the Estates General of
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, he sat with a third estate and
Speaker 1: soon became an active participant in debates that reshaped the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Was calm, deliberate, and respectful, which won him the trust
Speaker 1: of colleagues, even when he was the most fiery of orators.
Speaker 1: On October tenth, seventeen eighty nine, amid sweeping reforms of
Speaker 1: justice and sovereignty, Guillotine introduced a measure that would define
Speaker 1: his place in history, capital punishment. In the old regime,
Speaker 1: the Anzian regime, notoriously brutal and unequal. Nobles were decapitated
Speaker 1: with the sword, while commoners might be hanged broken on
Speaker 1: the wheel or burned to death. Guillotine insisted this was
Speaker 1: unjust punishment. He argued should be equal for all, and
Speaker 1: execution should be made swift and painless as possible. He
Speaker 1: proposed a mechanical device that would decapitate quickly without a torture,
Speaker 1: sparing both the condemned and the executioner needless suffering. At
Speaker 1: the time, his idea was one among men any reforms
Speaker 1: under discussion, but his words struck a chord. He assured
Speaker 1: the assembly gathered, quote, with my machine, I make the
Speaker 1: head fly off in the twinkling of an eye, and
Speaker 1: the condemned will feel nothing. Though he never actually designed
Speaker 1: or built the device himself, engineers later constructed what became
Speaker 1: known as the guillotine, which by seventeen ninety two would
Speaker 1: become France's official method of execution. To Guillotine's total dismay,
Speaker 1: his name fused with the machine, forever linking him to
Speaker 1: the symbol of revolutionary blood. Said. Despite this association, it's
Speaker 1: important to point out Guillotine himself played no part in
Speaker 1: the reign of terror. He actually continued to work as
Speaker 1: a physician, serving as a secretary of the Academy of Medicine,
Speaker 1: and promoting welled reforms in vaccination, public health, and medical education.
Speaker 1: His reputation as a humanitarian remained strong even among his peers,
Speaker 1: despite the fact as the wider audience in public increasingly
Speaker 1: identified him with what would become known as the National Razor. Ironically,
Speaker 1: Guillotine himself was never guillotined. That's a myth that spread
Speaker 1: widely in the nineteenth century. In fact, he died peacefully
Speaker 1: of natural causes on March to twenty sixth, eighteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: at the age of seventy five. His family, embarrassed by
Speaker 1: the macabre association of his name, even petitioned the government
Speaker 1: to rename the machine, though without success. Joseph Ignace Guillotine's
Speaker 1: legacy is one of paradox, and it's so typical of
Speaker 1: the time. He was a physician who wanted to reduce
Speaker 1: human suffering, but he became immortalized in an instrument of death.
Speaker 1: His name, once associated with the Enlightenment reform ideals, is
Speaker 1: now bound to an icon of terror. Yet to those
Speaker 1: who knew him, Guillotine was not the architect of bloodshed,
Speaker 1: but a man of moderation and reason who tried. However,
Speaker 1: fate twisted the result to make even punishment subject to
Speaker 1: the principles of equality and humanity that the revolution proclaimed. Now,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, the royal family plotted. On October the twelfth,
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth secretly appealed to his cousin, Charles the
Speaker 1: fourth of Spain, lamenting his humiliation. His brother, the fiery
Speaker 1: Count of Artois, turned to Austria for support, urging the
Speaker 1: Emperor Joseph the Second to intervene militarily. The revolution, it
Speaker 1: was already clear, was no longer purely a French matter, was,
Speaker 1: from the perspective of the crowned heads, a European crisis now. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Assembly settled into its new home on October the
Speaker 1: nineteenth that held its first meeting in Paris in the
Speaker 1: chapel of the archbishop's residence near Notre Dame. But unrest
Speaker 1: in the capital forced further action. On October the twenty first,
Speaker 1: Fearful of renewed popular violence, the deputies declared martial law,
Speaker 1: authorizing officials to suppress uprisings with force. The Revolution, which
Speaker 1: had thrived on popular demonstrations, now sought to contain them. Now.
Speaker 1: The month of November then saw some decisive blows land
Speaker 1: against the old order. On November two, the Assembly voted
Speaker 1: to place all property of the Catholic Church at the
Speaker 1: disposal of the nation, monasteries, lands and revenues. Nearly a
Speaker 1: tenth of the total land mass of France was seized,
Speaker 1: both to weaken the Church's power and to shore up
Speaker 1: a bankrupt state, And at the same time, revolutionary Paris
Speaker 1: was already reshaping its world as a place of clubs
Speaker 1: and pamphlets. On November the ninth, the Assembly moved into
Speaker 1: the Sala de Menajerra, a riding hall near the Tuileries,
Speaker 1: which soon echoed with debates on sovereignty, rights and reform.
Speaker 1: Later that month, Camille Desmoulin's Friarrie, friend of Dantin and Marant,
Speaker 1: launched his Historias des revolution de France de braband, a
Speaker 1: savage weekly lampooning aristocrats and royalists with wit as cutting
Speaker 1: as an eguillotine. Let's take a second and talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about the clubs. When the French Revolution erupted,
Speaker 1: it did not just transform government. It created whole new
Speaker 1: spaces for politics. Among the most influential of these were
Speaker 1: the political clubs, which became the training ground the echo
Speaker 1: chamber and often the engine of revolutionary thought and action.
Speaker 1: At their core, the clubs were voluntary associations where citizens
Speaker 1: could meet to debate the issues of the day. They
Speaker 1: were open to men who could pay the dues, sometimes modest,
Speaker 1: sometimes steep, and they functioned as both social circles and
Speaker 1: ideological battlegrounds. Newspapers reported their speeches, pamphlets circulated their declarations.
Speaker 1: Their influence often reached far beyond the walls within which
Speaker 1: they met. Of all, the most famous club was the
Speaker 1: Jacobin Club. Originally the Society of the Friends of the Constitution,
Speaker 1: it began in seventeen eighty nine as a gathering place
Speaker 1: for the deputies of the National Assembly who favored radical reform.
Speaker 1: Their meetings were held in a monastery belonging to the
Speaker 1: Dominican nicknamed the Jacobins in France, and the name stuck.
Speaker 1: By seventeen ninety, the Jacobins branches had sprouted up across France,
Speaker 1: creating a kind of national network members like Robespierre, Seez
Speaker 1: and later Dantin and Marunt. This is what made the
Speaker 1: Jacobins so powerful. It wasn't just their Paris debates, but
Speaker 1: their ability to link Paris to the provinces, spreading revolutionary
Speaker 1: ideas like an organized modern day political party, and opposing
Speaker 1: them were groups like the Fuiance, formed in seventeen ninety
Speaker 1: one when more conservative deputies would split off from the Jacobins.
Speaker 1: As we'll see, they wanted to preserve a constitutional monarchy
Speaker 1: and avoid growing radicalism. This club tended to be much
Speaker 1: more prestigious with aristocrats and moderates, but it lacked the
Speaker 1: same fervor in mass connection. Another crucial circle was the
Speaker 1: Cordiers Club, which was cheaper to join and thus attracted artisans,
Speaker 1: small tradesmen, and radical journalists. Charles Danton, Camille Desmalion, and
Speaker 1: Jean Paul Morant were eventually among its leading voices. They
Speaker 1: prided themselves on being closer to quote unquote the people
Speaker 1: than the other clubs, and their speeches often pressed for
Speaker 1: forms of direct democracy, universal male suffrage, and social equality.
Speaker 1: The Cordeliers also pioneered mass petitioning and street mobilization, tools
Speaker 1: that would become essential in revolutionary politics. Clubs were not
Speaker 1: just debating halls, they became engines of mobilization. When bread
Speaker 1: prices spiked, it was often the clubs that drew up petitions.
Speaker 1: When the monarchy hesitated, it would be the clubs that
Speaker 1: would coordinate protests. They lobbied the National Assembly, pressured ministers,
Speaker 1: and rallied the crowns. By the early seventeen nineties, clubs
Speaker 1: also sent delegates to one another's meetings, forming webs of
Speaker 1: influence that made them more powerful than any single faction
Speaker 1: within the legislature. In short, political clubs during the French
Speaker 1: Revolution were a law more than just discussion groups. They
Speaker 1: were the laboratories of ideology, the networks of power, and
Speaker 1: sometimes the spark behind insurrection. They taught citizens to speak
Speaker 1: politically and act collectively, and imagine themselves as something totally new,
Speaker 1: as participants in politics in a new democratic life. Now,
Speaker 1: while the clubs were forming, the revolution continued, and in
Speaker 1: fact this is the stage where the revolution finally starts
Speaker 1: to spread beyond Paris. On December, the first sailors at
Speaker 1: Toulon mutinied, arresting the Admiral de Albert and seizing control
Speaker 1: of their ships. Royal authority had now started to crumble
Speaker 1: across the kingdom. The Assembly pressed on then with institutional reform.
Speaker 1: On December the ninth, it voted to erase the patchwork
Speaker 1: of historic provinces Brittany, Burgundy, Provence and replace them with
Speaker 1: new rationally drawn departments. No longer would feudal boundaries dictate
Speaker 1: political identity. France was now going to be remade on
Speaker 1: a grid of reason. Finances, however, remained desperate. On December
Speaker 1: the nineteenth, the Deputies introduced the Asagnant, a revolutionary paper
Speaker 1: currency backed not by gold or silver, but by the
Speaker 1: confiscated lands from the Catholic Church. According to Mirabou quote,
Speaker 1: national property is the nation's wealth end quote. But the
Speaker 1: seeds of inflation, speculation, and financial distas trust were already
Speaker 1: being sown. Finally, on December twenty fourth, the Assembly struck
Speaker 1: another blow against the religious monopoly of the old regime.
Speaker 1: Protestants were now officially allowed to hold public office. Jews,
Speaker 1: I should say, however, remained excluded, an uneasy reminder that
Speaker 1: revolutionary tolerance had its limits. By the close of that
Speaker 1: first revolutionary year seventeen eighty nine, the revolution had remade
Speaker 1: France in ways unimaginable. Just a few months before, the
Speaker 1: king was in Paris, subject to the watchful eyes of
Speaker 1: the people and their guards. The Assembly had claimed the
Speaker 1: Church's property redrawn the nation's map and created a paper
Speaker 1: currency from confiscated land. Political clubs multiplied, the press flourished,
Speaker 1: and the very words of sovereignty were rewritten. Yet beneath
Speaker 1: these triumphs lurked tension. The king plotted with foreign monarchs,
Speaker 1: the streets of Paris simmered with unrest, and the revolution's
Speaker 1: own children, Maraunt Desmoulins and the Jacobins, were already sharpening
Speaker 1: their rhetoric. The revolution had begun with bread, but by
Speaker 1: the years and it had become something much larger, a
Speaker 1: contest over the very meaning of sovereignty, religion, and nationhood.
Speaker 1: Seventeen eighty nine had opened with a king summoning the
Speaker 1: Estates General. It closed with the people who had brought
Speaker 1: him to Paris, stripped him of his sacred titles, and
Speaker 1: put the fate of France in their own hands. For once,
Speaker 1: the year of beginnings was over, but the true storm
Speaker 1: of the revolution was only still gathering over the world.
Speaker 1: Time