Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western SIEV Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety seven, The Terror Begins. The winter of seventeen ninety
Speaker 1: three had been bitter, both in weather and in politics.
Speaker 1: The execution of Louis the sixteenth on January the twenty
Speaker 1: first had shocked Europe and hardened the resolve of France's enemies,
Speaker 1: who now formed the First Coalition. In early March, the
Speaker 1: revolution entered a new and much more violent phase. On
Speaker 1: March tenth, seventeen ninety three, the National Convention established the
Speaker 1: Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris, an extraordinary court designed to try
Speaker 1: political crimes. Its creation reflected the fear and suspicion that
Speaker 1: now dominated revolutionary politics. Jacques Rue, a fiery, enraged priest, warned,
Speaker 1: quote the rich plot against the revolution. They must be
Speaker 1: struck without mercy, lest they strangle liberty in its cradle.
Speaker 1: The Tribunal, staffed by judges and jurors chosen by the Convention,
Speaker 1: could condemn suspects to death with few safeguards. It marked
Speaker 1: a decisive turn toward institutionalized terror. Now, at the same time,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, France faced disaster and pressure all along
Speaker 1: its borders. The First Coalition Britain, Spain, the Dutch Republic,
Speaker 1: Austria and Prussia slowly tightened the noose around the Kingdom.
Speaker 1: De Moreyes's army, which had once so gloriously triumphed at
Speaker 1: the Battle of Valmey, faltered. Invasion of the Dutch Republic
Speaker 1: quickly collapsed, and in March his troops were driven back
Speaker 1: into France. A deputy of the Convention wrote, our armies
Speaker 1: retreat in disorder, and the Republic is in danger, not
Speaker 1: from her enemies, but from her General's suspicion soon fell
Speaker 1: on de Marie, who defected quickly thereafter to the Austrians.
Speaker 1: His betrayal would quickly become a scar on revolutionary confidence.
Speaker 1: But the gravest threat of all came from within. The
Speaker 1: spark came from the Convention's decree in February of seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety three of what's called the levee En mass. It
Speaker 1: was a levy of three hundred thousand men who are
Speaker 1: essentially going to be conscripted for the first time to
Speaker 1: defend the nation. Now again, I want to point out
Speaker 1: that if we're talking about like huge levy like this,
Speaker 1: you really almost have to go back to the days
Speaker 1: of Rome to find a moment when this was done
Speaker 1: on this scale. All right, You know, you have sort
Speaker 1: of finite time periods when in a siege or in
Speaker 1: the need to, let's say, defend a given region, sure
Speaker 1: a lord might call up a certain number of men,
Speaker 1: but generally speaking, from the time of really almost the
Speaker 1: end of Republican Rome to right now, which was in
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century, you have this incredible time period in
Speaker 1: European history when the fighting was done by and large
Speaker 1: by a select few. Now again, if you know your
Speaker 1: medieval history, what you understand is that that doesn't mean that,
Speaker 1: you know, the burden of war only fell on a
Speaker 1: select few. In fact, it was the peasants who dealt
Speaker 1: with a lot of the corves, a lot of the
Speaker 1: attacks that were going on on these rural villages and areas,
Speaker 1: because it was really little more than pillaging. And if
Speaker 1: you remember the One Hundred Years War, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of that time was just sieges and pillages, but the
Speaker 1: occasional epic battle in between, but those were few and far,
Speaker 1: and so the idea that suddenly you would just call
Speaker 1: up three hundred thousand men is really a foreign concept
Speaker 1: to Europe because it's been foreign for so incredibly long,
Speaker 1: and so that's why France reacted in part the way
Speaker 1: that it did, because conscription fell hardest on the rural regions,
Speaker 1: where resentment against Paris and the Revolution was already pretty high.
Speaker 1: In the western countryside of Vinde, where Catholicism remained deeply rooted,
Speaker 1: and the Revolution's attacks on the church had bred little
Speaker 1: bit hostility, this draft, this levee En mass became intolerable.
Speaker 1: A peasant song preserved from the region captured the mood
Speaker 1: quote we want our King, our priests and Sundays end quote.
Speaker 1: In March of seventeen ninety three, villages in the Vende
Speaker 1: refused to deliver conscripts. Armed bands attacked revolutionary officials. The
Speaker 1: uprising spread rapidly, coalescing into what eventually became known as
Speaker 1: the War of the Vende. Rebels rallied under the white
Speaker 1: banner of the Bourbons, crying vive le Rah, long live
Speaker 1: the King, and calling for the restoration of their priests.
Speaker 1: Local nobles like Enrie de la Rochambeau releaged as leaders.
Speaker 1: Relochimbau was only twenty one years old. He told his men, quote,
Speaker 1: if I advance, follow me, if I retreat. Kill me
Speaker 1: if I die, avenge me. By mid March, tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of peasants had risen. They seized towns like Colt
Speaker 1: and Sainmeur. In some places, revolutionary officials were lynched. The Convention, alarmed,
Speaker 1: declared the Vendet in rebellion. On March the nineteenth Deputies
Speaker 1: thundered in Paris that, quote, the Vendet is the wound
Speaker 1: in the side of the republic end quote. The insurrection
Speaker 1: divided France rather starkly. The revolution had promised liberty and equality,
Speaker 1: but in the Vendet peasants saw only confiscated churches, absent priests,
Speaker 1: and now their sons conscripted and dragged off to a
Speaker 1: war they didn't want to fight. The war there would
Speaker 1: become a civil war of truly unparalleled ferocity, neighbor against neighbor,
Speaker 1: patriot against loyalists. While the Venda burned, Paris continued to
Speaker 1: simmer with tension. Food shortages and inflation drove the Sansculos
Speaker 1: to desperation. On March tenth, enraged crowds invaded the Convention,
Speaker 1: demanding price controls and harsher measures against the quote unquote traitors.
Speaker 1: The deputies yielded, though for the moment only partially. On
Speaker 1: March the eighteenth, they opposed the maximum on grain prices,
Speaker 1: but popular anger did not abate. Radical journalists like Morale
Speaker 1: fanned the flames. In his paper Ahmi de Pepe, he warned, quote,
Speaker 1: the revolution is betrayed by moderates, by cowards in the Convention. People,
Speaker 1: we must rise again as on the tenth of August
Speaker 1: to save liberty. Marat's words were not empty rhetoric. They
Speaker 1: translated into direct action. On March the ninth through the tenth,
Speaker 1: crowds attempted an insurrection but failed to seize power. Yet
Speaker 1: their pressure was felt. The Jacobins, led by Robes, Pierre Danton,
Speaker 1: and Marat, increasingly dominated the political stage. The giron Din rivals,
Speaker 1: advocates of a more moderate revolution came under fierce attack.
Speaker 1: The giron Din's condemned Marat as the quote unquote drinker
Speaker 1: of blood, and on April thirteenth, seventeen ninety three, the
Speaker 1: Convention invoted to indict him before the revolutionary tribunal. Marat
Speaker 1: appeared in court on April to twenty fourth, pale and
Speaker 1: weakened by what was a chronic skin disease that he
Speaker 1: suffered from basically his entire life. He nonetheless exuded confidence, declaring,
Speaker 1: I alone defended the people, I alone denounced the traitors.
Speaker 1: My crime is to have told the truth. The jury
Speaker 1: acquitted him unanimously. He was carried home in triumph by
Speaker 1: the people of Paris, crowned with Laurel like a hero.
Speaker 1: Amid military defeats, rebellion in the Vendee and unrust in Paris,
Speaker 1: the Convention realized it needed a more centralized authority, and
Speaker 1: so on April sixth, seventeen ninety three, the Deputies took
Speaker 1: a historic action, creating the Committee of Public Safety, perhaps
Speaker 1: not really understanding what they were doing at first, the
Speaker 1: Committee of Public Safety was a modest body of nine
Speaker 1: members tasked with coordinate war and internal security. George Dantin,
Speaker 1: with his booming voice and pragmatic energy, became its dominant figure.
Speaker 1: In the early weeks. He declared, audacity, more audacity, always audacity,
Speaker 1: and the fatherland is saved. The Committee was granted sweeping
Speaker 1: powers over ministers, generals, and even local administrators. It could
Speaker 1: direct armies, oversee diplomacy, and supervise internal security. Though conceived
Speaker 1: of as temporary The Committee of Public Safety quickly became
Speaker 1: the executive engine of the revolution, and one of its
Speaker 1: members later wrote it was a war cabinet, a sword
Speaker 1: suspended over the republic's enemies, and his shield for liberty.
Speaker 1: But to many it was also dictatorship. Now the rivalry
Speaker 1: between the Girondins and the Jacobins now reached its breaking point.
Speaker 1: Remember these were the two most important political clubs that
Speaker 1: had come to dominate Paris. The Girondins, alarmed by the
Speaker 1: growing influence of Parisian radicals, denounced the Commune of Paris
Speaker 1: and the Jacobin leaders as anarchists. Robespierre, the leader of
Speaker 1: the Jacobins, retorted that the Girondins were the tools of
Speaker 1: counter revolution. The decisive blow came in May. On May
Speaker 1: thirty first, seventeen ninety three, tens of thousands of san
Speaker 1: Culos surrounded the Convention, demanding the arrest of the Girondin deputies.
Speaker 1: The Convention hesitated, but on June the second, under the
Speaker 1: pressure of armed crowds and the National Guard, led by Anri,
Speaker 1: it decreated the arrest of twenty nine leading Girondins. One
Speaker 1: of the greatest orders of the time, Verenn side allowed quote, citizens,
Speaker 1: we perish innocent, but what matter, our blood will be
Speaker 1: the torch of liberty. Now. Ultimately, the fall of the
Speaker 1: Girondins left the Jacobins unchallenged. And so now the revolution
Speaker 1: had truly entered its most vicious phase, in which faction
Speaker 1: after faction would be fed into the meat grinder of
Speaker 1: the revolution in the name of patriotism, and faction after
Speaker 1: faction would be devoured. With the Girondins crushed, the Jacobins
Speaker 1: sought to consolidate their legitimacy. They pushed forward a new
Speaker 1: democratic constitution, heavily influenced by Robespierre, adopted on June the
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, seventeen ninety three. Read the Constitution of year
Speaker 1: one promised universal male suffrage, social rights, and popular sovereignty.
Speaker 1: Article thirty five declared quote, when the government violates the
Speaker 1: rights of the people, insurrection is for the people the
Speaker 1: most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
Speaker 1: It was the most radical constitution France ever adopted, yet
Speaker 1: it was also a dead letter. With war raging and
Speaker 1: revolutions spreading in the West, the convention suspended its implementation.
Speaker 1: The constitution became a symbol of republican virtue, but the
Speaker 1: real power rested with the Committee of Public Safety. Now
Speaker 1: this fervored atmosphere, Marat stood as the absolute idol of
Speaker 1: the san Culo. His newspaper thundered daily against moderates and trade.
Speaker 1: He lived modestly, often confined to his bath because of
Speaker 1: his disease, yet wielded enormous influence. To his enemies, he
Speaker 1: was a monster. The Girondin sympathizer Madame Roland wrote bitterly,
Speaker 1: quote he is the wild beast of the revolution, vomiting
Speaker 1: fire and blood, calling for heads, sowing terror end quote.
Speaker 1: But to the poor in Paris, he was their champion.
Speaker 1: He was their voice, at least in theory. He spoke
Speaker 1: for everything that they wanted. They called him the friend
Speaker 1: of the people, with genuine affection. It was a contrast
Speaker 1: that would in the end lead directly to his death.
Speaker 1: On July the thirteenth, seventeen ninety three, a young woman
Speaker 1: from Normandy, Charlotte Corday, gained entry into Marat's apartment. Corday
Speaker 1: had been associated with Girondin's circles and believed that martz
Speaker 1: death would halt the revolution's descent into bloodshed. She found
Speaker 1: him in his bath, writing notes. She presented a petition
Speaker 1: on behalf of red bulls in Cayenne. As he glanced
Speaker 1: at it, she plunged a kitten knife into his chest.
Speaker 1: Maraut cried, help my beloved friends, before collapsing dead. Corday
Speaker 1: was seized immediately later. At her trial, she declared, I
Speaker 1: killed one man to save one hundred thousand. She died
Speaker 1: at the guillotine on July seventeenth. Marat's assassination sent shockwaves
Speaker 1: through Paris. His death transformed him into a martyr. The
Speaker 1: painter Jacques Luis Davide organized a grand funeral, turning Maraunt
Speaker 1: into a revolutionary saint. His body lay in state, draped
Speaker 1: in the tricolor. Speeches hailed him as the friend of
Speaker 1: the people, slain by the enemies of David's painting. The
Speaker 1: death of Maraunt, depicting him in his bath quill still
Speaker 1: in his hand, became one of the revolutions most enduring icons.
Speaker 1: Robes Pierre declared, Maraudt's blood will be the cement of
Speaker 1: our freedom, but in truth his death only deepened the
Speaker 1: revolution's spiral into violence. The Jacobins, now unopposed, turned more
Speaker 1: decisively toward terror, and so between March and July seventeen
Speaker 1: ninety three, the revolution truly crossed a freshold. The Vende
Speaker 1: rose in bloody rebellion, pitting Frenchmen against Frenchmen. The Committee
Speaker 1: of Public Safety was born, an oregon that next time
Speaker 1: will dominate the republic. The Girondins fell herged from the
Speaker 1: convention under the pressure of the Sans Kulos. A radical
Speaker 1: constitution was proclaimed but suspended, and Maraunt, the voice of
Speaker 1: the public fury, was struck down to be exalted by
Speaker 1: a martyr. It was the Revolution at its most dramatic,
Speaker 1: idealist and violent. Liberty and terror all entwined inextricably. The
Speaker 1: months ahead would see these forces unleashed. It's a terrible intensity.