Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western civ Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety five, The Downfall of the King. The year seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety two began with France still a monarchy, a constitutional
Speaker 1: monarchy in theory but fragile in practice. By December of
Speaker 1: that year, the king will be imprisoned, the republic will
Speaker 1: have been proclaimed in Europe a flame in war. Seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety two was in fact one of the most dramatic
Speaker 1: years in French history. On February the first, seventeen ninety two,
Speaker 1: the Legislative Assembly, which again remembers replaced the National Assembly,
Speaker 1: decreed that all French citizens must carry passports to travel
Speaker 1: within the country. Now this was not mere bureaucracy. It
Speaker 1: was a decision that was born out of fear. Fear
Speaker 1: of emmigres, those zornobles fleeing abroad to rally the enemies
Speaker 1: of the revolution, fear of royalists plotting insurrection. In fact,
Speaker 1: one deputy quickly explained the traders who leave France do
Speaker 1: so not as travelers, but as conspirators, and indeed the
Speaker 1: fear was to a large extent justified. Just days later,
Speaker 1: on February the seventh, Austria and Prussia signed a military
Speaker 1: convention in Berlin. They pledged to defend the monarchy against
Speaker 1: the French Revolution, although with the proviso that the other
Speaker 1: crowned heads of Europe join as well. Knowing this, on
Speaker 1: February ninth, the Assembly struck back, decreeing that the property
Speaker 1: of Emigre's nobles and clergy who had fled abroad were
Speaker 1: now to be confiscated quote for the benefit of the
Speaker 1: nation end quote. The battle lions were now clearly being drawn,
Speaker 1: and these laws so division at home. On February the
Speaker 1: twenty third and bit Dune soldiers clashed with angry crowds
Speaker 1: demanding grain. The revolution was not just political, but also
Speaker 1: just a battle for daily bread. On March seventh, the
Speaker 1: Prussians named the Duke of Brunswick to command their forces.
Speaker 1: Charles William Ferdinhand, the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbolten, was one
Speaker 1: of the most celebrated German generals of the eighteenth century.
Speaker 1: Born into the noble House of Brunswick, he was educated
Speaker 1: at the University of Geneva before embarking on a military
Speaker 1: career that quickly earned him distinction in the armies of
Speaker 1: Frederick the Great of Prussia during the Seven Years War,
Speaker 1: gained fame for his courage and tactical skill, particularly at
Speaker 1: the Battle of Krefold in seventeen fifty eight, where he
Speaker 1: distinguished himself as a rising commander. Though he later served
Speaker 1: both Prussia and his own duchy, he cultivated a reputation
Speaker 1: as an intellectual soldier, admired for his knowledge of classical literature, mathematics,
Speaker 1: and the art of war. By seventeen eighties, he was
Speaker 1: recognized across Europe as a model of an Enlightenment prince
Speaker 1: and professional general. Although, as we're about to see, his
Speaker 1: behavior in the war against France would alter that significantly. Still,
Speaker 1: his reputation was formidable, and Europe trembled at the thought
Speaker 1: of his armies marching into France. Now. Meanwhile, as the
Speaker 1: Prussians were assembling their forces, the National Assembly struck a
Speaker 1: blow against privilege. On April fourth, they granted equal rights
Speaker 1: to the free people of color back in San Daman.
Speaker 1: The decree proclaimed, quote, they are French citizens and entitled
Speaker 1: to all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution end quote.
Speaker 1: As we talked about last time, for many planters this
Speaker 1: was absolutely intolerable. But for many men of color. It
Speaker 1: was a vindication, though, as we also talked about last time,
Speaker 1: it did absolutely nothing to staunch the flow of blood
Speaker 1: in the Haitian Revolution. The very next day, on April fifth,
Speaker 1: the Sarbonne Long, a bastion of conservative theology, was permanently closed,
Speaker 1: another indication that France was trying to move on from
Speaker 1: the ancien regime, that it was trying to cast off
Speaker 1: the weight of an old what it saw as medieval
Speaker 1: order to move into the modern age. Now, the break
Speaker 1: truly came on April the twentieth, when the Legislative Assembly
Speaker 1: declared war on the King of Bohemia Hungary and the
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor Brisseau, leader of the Vanger, cried out,
Speaker 1: quach war against kings is the only way to end
Speaker 1: war with them. Essentially, the crown heads of Europe were
Speaker 1: clearly throwing in their lot with the hope of saving
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth. Those in the Legislative Assembly were not
Speaker 1: willing to tolerate that. And remember, the Legislative Assembly is
Speaker 1: a lot more radical than the National Assembly had been,
Speaker 1: because all of those who had been part of the
Speaker 1: National Assembly during the early moderate days of the revolution
Speaker 1: had sworn that they could not run for the legislative Assembly.
Speaker 1: So the new body that was running France, which is
Speaker 1: both executive and legislative to a large extent, is much
Speaker 1: more radical, much more inclined to throw in with the
Speaker 1: egalitarian elements of the French Revolution. And we'll see exactly
Speaker 1: what the consequences of that are now. Days later, in Strasburg,
Speaker 1: Captain Claude Joseph r Go composed to a hymn for
Speaker 1: the Army of the Rhine, first sung on the twenty
Speaker 1: fifth of April. It would later become La Marseille. When
Speaker 1: eyewitness would recall quote, the whole hall trembled with the
Speaker 1: power of the song, a hymn that seemed to announce
Speaker 1: a new world. On April the twenty eighth, French armies
Speaker 1: marched into the Austrian Netherlands. But the French armies were unprepared.
Speaker 1: They were badly led and often unwilling to proceed. Rochambeau's
Speaker 1: campaign quickly faltered and desertion spread. To finance the war,
Speaker 1: the French government issued three hundred million ausignants on April
Speaker 1: the thirtieth, which was paper money backed by confiscated church lands.
Speaker 1: Inflation only crept higher at this announcement, and discontent within
Speaker 1: the capitol deepened. The spring brought more humiliation. On May
Speaker 1: the sixth, the Royal alemand Cavalry regiment deserted over to
Speaker 1: the Austrians. On May the twelfth, the Saxon and Berchini
Speaker 1: hussars followed. Suddenly, the revolutions soldiers were simply fleeing directly
Speaker 1: over to its enemies. In response, on May the twenty seventh,
Speaker 1: the Legislative Assembly ordered the deportation of priests who had
Speaker 1: refused the oath to the civil constitution of the clergy.
Speaker 1: These refractory priests to remain influential in rural France and
Speaker 1: were symbols of resistance to revolutionary change, as we often
Speaker 1: see in revolutions around the world. As the revolutionary armies
Speaker 1: of France met difficulty, suddenly the impulse was to crack
Speaker 1: down on dissent at home, but the clash with the
Speaker 1: king was the bigger issue and kind of inevitable at
Speaker 1: this point. On June the eighth, the Assembly decreed a
Speaker 1: camp of twenty thousand volunteers outside Paris to be mobilized,
Speaker 1: and on June the eleventh, still operating under the Constitution.
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth vetoed this proposal, along with the deportation
Speaker 1: of priests from the month earlier. Jean Marie Laurand, Minister
Speaker 1: of the Interior, protested in a famous letter, calling the
Speaker 1: king's veto quote a betrayal of the people's will, and
Speaker 1: he was consequently dismissed from office on June the thirteenth.
Speaker 1: But by the twentieth of June, Paris was re literally
Speaker 1: boiling with anger. Crowds invaded the tou Lories Palace, forcing
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth to don the red liberty cap and
Speaker 1: drink to the nation's health. Sire. One observer noted the
Speaker 1: king was compelled to show himself in citizen, if only
Speaker 1: in costume end quote. The Assembly tried to restore order,
Speaker 1: banning armed gatherings altogether on June the twenty first, but
Speaker 1: the genie was kind of out of the bottle now. Meanwhile, Lafayette,
Speaker 1: who was now General again of the People's Guard and
Speaker 1: still a hero of seventeen eighty nine, was doing his
Speaker 1: best to call order. He denounced the Jacobins, who were
Speaker 1: becoming increasingly radical in the Assembly. On June the twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: he called for discipline, order and the defensive constitutional monarchy,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately Paris had moved on. Robespierre, who I introduced
Speaker 1: several episodes ago, denounced him him being Lafayette as it
Speaker 1: would be dictator, and his effigy was now burned in
Speaker 1: the streets, which is quite the come uppance for a
Speaker 1: man who styled himself as the hero of both worlds.
Speaker 1: By June the thirtieth, Lafayette had fled Paris to rejoin
Speaker 1: his army, his influence forever broken. And then came a
Speaker 1: major thunderclap. On July the eleventh, as enemies on the
Speaker 1: board advanced, the Assembly declared la patrier and danjerre, the
Speaker 1: fatherland is in danger. The calls for volunteers rang out,
Speaker 1: and a new radical patriotism began to spread throughout France.
Speaker 1: By July, the twenty fifth of the sections of Paris
Speaker 1: neighborhood assemblies, increasingly dominated by two groups, the Jacobins and courtliers,
Speaker 1: were authorized to sit permanently in the Assembly. Now. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: it was the news of a foreign announcement that really
Speaker 1: caused the final division between the king and his people.
Speaker 1: Some period before the Duke of Brunswick, one of the
Speaker 1: Austrian generals had declared that if the royal family and
Speaker 1: so Louis the sixteenth, Marie Antoinette and the rest Paris
Speaker 1: would face quote an exemplary and externally memorable revenge. On
Speaker 1: July the twenty fifth, news spread of that announcement throughout Paris,
Speaker 1: to the people of the capital of France, a red
Speaker 1: lake proof that their king was now conspiring with foreign enemies,
Speaker 1: even though every historical source seems to indicate that Louis
Speaker 1: the sixteenth had absolutely nothing to do with that pronouncement.
Speaker 1: On July the thirty of working class citizens, those who
Speaker 1: paid no taxes, were admitted to the National Guard. All
Speaker 1: this was going to do was make the armed forces
Speaker 1: as radical as Paris was quickly becoming. And again the
Speaker 1: momentum continued to shift. On August third, forty seven of
Speaker 1: Paris's forty eight sections demanded that the king be removed
Speaker 1: from his constitutional position. By August the ninth, dan Ton
Speaker 1: and his allies had seized the Hotel de Ville, establishing
Speaker 1: it now as the Revolutionary Paris Commune, which it would
Speaker 1: continue to be throughout much of the rest of the revolution. Suddenly,
Speaker 1: on dawn on August tenth, the National Guard marched on
Speaker 1: the Tularis Palace. The Swiss guards, who were still protecting
Speaker 1: the royal family, fought valiantly, but the numbers were overwhelming.
Speaker 1: By mid afternoon, the palace was stormed. Hundreds of Swiss slaughtered,
Speaker 1: their bodies strewn across the courtyards. The king and his
Speaker 1: family quickly fled to the Assembly for protection. The monarchy
Speaker 1: was then suspended. Elections were called for a new body,
Speaker 1: the National Convention. As all this was going on, foreign
Speaker 1: armies continued to press into France along the borders. On
Speaker 1: September the second ver Dunn surrendered without resistance. Panic swept
Speaker 1: throughout Paris. That same day, mob invaded the city's prisons.
Speaker 1: For nearly a week, between fourteen hundred and two thousand
Speaker 1: prisoners were massacred. A witness would later recall quote the
Speaker 1: gutters ran with blood, the shouted that they were cleansing
Speaker 1: the city of traders. But then fate turned. In the
Speaker 1: summer of seventeen ninety two, the revolution seemed imperiled. In fact, abroad,
Speaker 1: Austria and Prussia had joined forces to invade France, hoping
Speaker 1: to crush the revolution and restore Louis the sixteenth full authority,
Speaker 1: and though the monarchy had fallen, it seemed the Duke
Speaker 1: of Brunswick, commanding the Prussian led coalition, was going to
Speaker 1: march steadily into France. His troops were well drilled, professional
Speaker 1: and confident. They crossed the frontier in the path to
Speaker 1: Paris seemed open, but the French armies, once in chaos,
Speaker 1: began to recover. Now under the leadership of Generals Charles
Speaker 1: Dumrans and Francois Christophe Kellerman du Morns, an ambitious but
Speaker 1: skillful commander, lured the Prussians into a deep trap in Champag,
Speaker 1: stretching their supply lines and mud slowed the invaders, and
Speaker 1: dysentery began to plague their camp. Meanwhile, Kellermann concentrated about
Speaker 1: thirty six thousand French troops near the village of bal Maay,
Speaker 1: positioned on gently rolling hills dotted with windmills, and there
Speaker 1: on the morning of September the twentieth, they awaited the
Speaker 1: advancing Prussians. This was the battle that would change the
Speaker 1: course of the French Revolution, and the battle itself didn't
Speaker 1: begin with a furious cavalry charge, as we might have expected,
Speaker 1: but with a cannonade. Around nine o'clock, Brunswick's Prussians deployed
Speaker 1: opposite the French lines. For hours, the two sides traded
Speaker 1: artillery fire across the misty fields. Gotha, the German writer
Speaker 1: serving as a volunteer in Brunswick's army, later recalled the
Speaker 1: uncanny atmosphere as follows. From this place and from this
Speaker 1: day forth commences a new era in the history of
Speaker 1: the world. And you can say all were present. The
Speaker 1: French army, largely composed of raw volunteers mixed with veterans,
Speaker 1: held firm under the barrage. When the Prussian infantry began
Speaker 1: to advance. Kellerman is said to have ridden forward, wounded
Speaker 1: in the leg, but unshaken. He called out to his men,
Speaker 1: long live the nation. His soldiers took up the cry,
Speaker 1: their shouts echoing across the fields, banners of liberty waving
Speaker 1: in defiance. This display of determination unsettled the Prussians. Their
Speaker 1: assault faltered, and Brunswick, cautious and aware of his worsening
Speaker 1: supply situation, declined to press the attack. By late afternoon,
Speaker 1: the cannonatees spluttered out. The French had stood their ground,
Speaker 1: and the Prussians withdrew. Casualties were light Braybe one hundred
Speaker 1: on both sides, but the psychological impact of the victory
Speaker 1: for France was enormous. Valmay was no decisive military triumph
Speaker 1: in the conventional sense of the term, but it was
Speaker 1: a moral and political victory. For the first time, the
Speaker 1: revolutionary armies had faced the old monarchies of Europe and
Speaker 1: they had not crumbled. And most critically, a volunteer national
Speaker 1: army had stood up against a disciplined and drilled, professional
Speaker 1: paid force and held their ground. This was a major
Speaker 1: change in the history of Europe, and one that was
Speaker 1: going to portend a lot of innovations in military planning
Speaker 1: that going to culminate in World War One. Now, news
Speaker 1: of Elmey race to Paris, where on the same day
Speaker 1: the National Convention convened and ultimately then declared the abolition
Speaker 1: forever of the monarchy. France had now become a republic
Speaker 1: in Valmat seemed like a divine sign that this new
Speaker 1: order could survive. Back on the frontier, Brunswick's army, weakened
Speaker 1: by disease and poor supplies, soon retreated out of France altogether.
Speaker 1: The revolution was saved, and a new chapter of European
Speaker 1: warfare was now about to begin, and it didn't take
Speaker 1: long for France to recognize the advantage they now held.
Speaker 1: French armies positively surged outward. On September the twenty ninth.
Speaker 1: They occupied Nice on October the third, Basel, on October
Speaker 1: the twenty third, Frankfurt. By November the fourteenth, Brussels was
Speaker 1: in French hands. The revolution suddenly became militant. On November
Speaker 1: the nineteenth, the convention to clarity it would aid all
Speaker 1: people seeking liberty, the decree reading quote wherever people desire
Speaker 1: to recover freedom, our armies shall carry for ti tnity
Speaker 1: and assistance. Then, on November the twentieth, came a devastating discovery,
Speaker 1: the Armois de Faire, the iron chest hidden in the Tuileries,
Speaker 1: containing Louis the sixteenth's secret correspondence with emigres and foreign monarchs.
Speaker 1: It confirmed, as it was open and read, every single
Speaker 1: Frenchman's suspicion that their king was treasonous. On December the third,
Speaker 1: Robespierre demanded the king's death, writing Louis must die because
Speaker 1: the nation must live. Finally, on December the sixth, Jean
Speaker 1: Paul Moraut proposed, and the Convention agreed that each deputy
Speaker 1: must publicly declare his vote on the king's fate. There
Speaker 1: would be no secrecy, there would be no refuge. As
Speaker 1: we will see next time. The stage was now set
Speaker 1: for the final trial of Louis the sixteenth