French Revolution: The Legislative Assembly (1791–92)
The Legislative Assembly’s brief, turbulent existence saw the Revolution transform from a domestic political reform movement into a continental war, and ultimately witnessed the fall of the French monarchy itself. This article traces the Assembly’s composition, its political clubs and parties, its key legislative measures, its collision with the monarchies of Europe, and the causes that brought down the Bourbon crown — a key theme in the UPSC History Optional syllabus on the French Revolution.
The Legislative Assembly (1791–92)
- The Legislative Assembly met for the first time on 1 October 1791, in accordance with the provisions of the new constitution.
- It was composed of 745 members, all new men, without any prior experience.
The Self-Denying Ordinance
- At the time of its dissolution, the Constituent Assembly had passed a self-denying ordinance, excluding its own members from the coming Legislative Assembly.
- The result was that the experience of the past two years was thrown away, and the new constitution was entrusted to hands quite different from those that had fashioned it.
- This was a grave danger, especially since many of the new members were infected with the extreme views of the republicans — views spread by the political clubs that had sprung up across the country.
- Of these, the most conspicuous were the Jacobin Club and the Cordelier Club. Both had originated at the very beginning of the Revolution, but it was under the Legislative Assembly and its successor that they showed their true power.
The Jacobin Club
- The Jacobin Club was at first moderate, offering a meeting place for constitutionalists and educated elements. But as the Revolution progressed, it grew increasingly radical, and conservative members like Lafayette and Mirabeau were dropped or displaced.
- This left the field clear for the ascendancy of Robespierre, a radical democrat, who skilfully used the club to bind together the radical opinion of the country.
- The Jacobin Club had daughter societies spread across France, and soon developed great power for organisation and concerted action — gradually becoming a rival to the Legislative Assembly itself, so great was its influence.
The Cordelier Club
- The Cordelier Club, led by Danton, was radical from the very beginning. Its members were recruited from the lower orders of society, making it the hotbed of republicanism.
Influence of the Clubs
- The political questions of the day were keenly debated in these clubs, which became potent instruments for influencing public opinion.
- They would support the Legislative Assembly so long as its conduct met their wishes — but they were self-willed and determined enough, on occasion, to try to dominate it.
Parties in the Assembly
The Constitutionalists (Feuillants)
- Members of the Legislative Assembly soon began to group themselves into parties.
- The Constitutionalists, called the Feuillants, favoured supporting the newly framed Constitution of 1791, wanting to retain the monarchy, with limitations imposed on the king’s power.
The Girondists
- The republicans did not form a homogeneous body, and were sharply divided into two groups.
- The Girondists — so called from the district of Gironde, from which many of their leaders came — were moderate republicans: eloquent young men sincerely enthusiastic about establishing a republic in France, but quite unpractical in conduct.
- Theirs was a bookish outlook on the world. They were anxious to observe legal forms and processes, held a strong faith in revolution, but disliked frequent appeals to brute force.
The Jacobins (the Mountain)
- The Jacobins — called the “Mountain” from the raised seats they occupied — were the extreme section of the democratic party.
- They considered all measures, fair or foul, legal or illegal, legitimate, provided these contributed to the safety of the republic.
- At first, the Girondists held the majority in the Legislative Assembly, but outside it, the influence of the Jacobins was rapidly spreading through the Jacobin Club.
- With the inexperience of its members and the prevalence of bitter party feeling, the Legislative Assembly was destined for a stormy career — and to witness the fall of the monarchy in irreparable ruin.
Measures of the Legislative Assembly
Decree Against Non-Juring Clergy
- The Assembly passed a decree requiring all priests to abide by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
- Non-juring clergy — those who refused to accept the Civil Constitution — were to be deprived of their pensions, and regarded as suspicious characters liable to removal from their districts in case of any disturbance.
Decree Against the Émigrés
- The Assembly passed a decree requiring the émigrés (those who had emigrated from France and were trying to influence foreign powers to suppress the Revolution) to return to France by a fixed date, on pain of the death penalty and confiscation of their property.
The King’s Veto
- The king vetoed the decree against the non-juring priests as well as that against the émigrés, the only exception being his own brother, whom he ordered to return.
- This vetoing of measures offended public opinion, and shook popular faith in the sincerity of the king’s promise to support the constitution.
- The result was that, on 20 June 1792, the mob of Paris broke into the palace of the Tuileries and tried to coerce the king into withdrawing his vetoes — mob violence had begun.
The Revolution at War with Europe and the Downfall of the Monarchy
- The French Revolution soon ceased to be purely a domestic concern of the French nation.
- The principles proclaimed by the Revolutionists were general in their application, tending to subvert the existing order in every European country.
- The French did not remain satisfied with realising their ideas at home; they grew eager to disseminate them abroad, becoming increasingly propagandist. It was this fear of the spread of revolutionary principles that bound the powers of Europe together against France.
Causes of War
- Besides the common danger arising from French attempts to propagate their doctrines, many states had specific grievances against the revolutionists’ aggressive attitude.
Abolition of Feudalism in Alsace
- France had declared the total abolition of tithes and feudal dues; but in Alsace and other border provinces that had once belonged to the German Empire, many German princes held rights and possessions.
- These princes were hard hit by the French decree abolishing all feudal dues and tithes. They refused France’s offer of compensation, and appealed instead to the German Diet.
Annexation
- Another aggressive act was the annexation of Avignon, which, though geographically part of France, had been subject to the Papacy.
- This was a breach of international law, and an unwise reversal of a European settlement — bringing the Revolution into conflict with Europe.
- Underlying these specific causes was the new temper of the French people, seized with a crusading zeal to carry their democratic doctrines through all Europe and challenge the Old Regime everywhere.
- This militant temper received its final impulse from the conduct of the Queen and the émigrés, who appealed to foreign powers for help — precipitating the war.
Conflict with Austria
- There were many causes of friction between France and Austria. The chief French grievance was that, despite their representations, Emperor Leopold had not dispersed the French émigrés from German soil.
- Many nobles and royal princes had fled the Revolution in fear or disgust, taking up residence in bordering German states — where, safe from the revolutionists, they collected troops and tried to induce foreign powers to intervene in French affairs and restore the Old Regime.
- This exasperated the French, who held Austria responsible for sheltering the émigrés and abetting their designs. Republicans believed the king and court sympathised with the émigrés’ plans — a belief strengthened by the king’s veto of the Assembly’s measures against the émigrés and non-juring clergy.
- Leopold of Austria, brother of Marie Antoinette, could hardly remain indifferent to events in France, and was anxious for his sister’s safety.
- Hence, in conjunction with the King of Prussia, he issued the famous Declaration of Pillnitz on 27 August 1791, declaring that the cause of the French king was the cause of all Europe’s monarchs, and expressing Austria’s and Prussia’s willingness to undertake armed intervention.
- This threat of foreign intervention infuriated the French, deepening their distrust of the king, suspected of secret machinations with foreign rulers — and served the purpose of the Girondists, who desired immediate war, expecting it would overthrow the monarchy.
- The warlike French attitude alarmed Leopold II, who concluded an alliance with the King of Prussia. The Legislative Assembly, where the Girondists preponderated, compelled Louis XVI to declare war against Austria in April 1792.
- Since Austria was allied with Prussia, this automatically brought war with Prussia too. Robespierre and the Jacobins were opposed to this war.
The War Begins and the King Is Suspended
- The war began disastrously for the French. The immediate result of these defeats was the exasperation of public opinion against the king — the people believed him to be sympathetic to Austrian troops, whose victory, they feared, would lead to his liberation from the Parisian mob.
- Perceiving the king’s critical position, the Duke of Brunswick, advancing toward Paris at the head of the Prussian army, issued a senseless proclamation declaring that if the least violence were offered to the royal family, he would wreak vengeance on the citizens of Paris.
- This proclamation only confirmed the people’s suspicions. On 10 August, the mob attacked the Tuileries; the royal family fled the palace to seek safety in the Legislative Assembly, while the Tuileries were sacked and the king’s Swiss guards butchered in the street.
The King Suspended from Office
- The Legislative Assembly then voted the suspension of the king, and ordered the election of a National Convention to consider the basis of a new constitution.
Supremacy of the Mob of Paris
- The Assembly was forced to pass this measure under pressure from the mob, which now became supreme in Paris.
- The mob, led by the Jacobins, overthrew the former municipal government of Paris and organised a new Commune, or City Council.
- The middle-class bourgeoisie had dominated the Revolution thus far, but the Commune now assumed control — led by Danton, Marat, and Robespierre — leaning on the support of the Parisian populace, which was now to play a decisive part.
- Until the National Convention met, the Commune’s leaders were, in effect, the real sovereign of France.
The Jacobins Take Drastic Measures to Defend France
- The revolutionary Commune of Paris now controlled the capital, and the Jacobins set about energetic steps to defend the country against the advancing Austro-Prussian army.
- To terrorise those attached to the royalist cause, and suspected of aiding the foreign army’s advance, the Jacobins, in a fit of insane passion, carried out a series of organised massacres.
- An armed band of assassins, regularly hired by the municipality, burst open the prisons where suspected royalists had been dragged, hacking to pieces more than a thousand men and women. These atrocities became known as the September Massacres (2 & 3 September 1792).
- Responsibility for these hideous acts rested chiefly with Marat, whose influence in the Commune was supreme — these massacres left a dark stain on the history of the Revolution.
- With the traitors within got rid of or effectively cowed, the Mountain sent troops to oppose the advancing Prussian army.
- The Prussians were defeated at Valmy, and their advance checked — France was saved from her immediate danger (20 September 1792).
- The battle was small, but pregnant with great results: it gave revolutionary armies confidence for the first time, leading them from victory to victory, and showed Europe that the Revolution was capable of self-defence.
- With Valmy, the tide turned. The Austrians were repulsed, and France conquered the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). Similar success attended French arms elsewhere: by 1793, the armies of the Republic held Belgium, Savoy, and Nice, and had a firm grip on the middle Rhine.
The Revolution Degenerates into Anarchy
- The outbreak of war with Austria destroyed the cause of the monarchy, while the September Massacre discredited the cause of the Revolution itself.
- The struggle against the Old Regime now degenerated into anarchy, and France experienced the worst consequences of mob rule — the mob interpreted reform as anarchy, and liberty as licence.
- This explains the extreme lawlessness and atrocities that stained a Revolution that had, at its outset, been a generous movement.
Causes of the Fall of the Monarchy
- The French people were, by tradition, attached to the monarchy, and the Revolution, in its beginning, was not a republican movement.
- The target of attack was not the Bourbon monarchy as such, but Privilege in all its forms. Circumstances, however, combined first to discredit the monarchy, and then to end it altogether.
- The intrigues of the émigrés, who sought to rouse Europe against the Revolution, made the king suspect, since their conduct was widely believed to be inspired by his own machinations.
- This suspicion was heightened by the king’s attempted flight, and by the threat of foreign intervention. The revolutionists believed, rightly, that the king was looking beyond the frontiers for help — and the menacing manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick confirmed their suspicions, identifying the king with the enemies of the Revolution.
- Hence followed mob violence — the sack of the Tuileries, and the suspension of the king.
- War, and its initial failure, worsened the situation further. The people, realising the extreme danger menacing the Revolution and all it stood for, saw a resolute minority — the Jacobins — determined to overthrow the king, who served as the focus of foreign intervention.
- It was under their pressure that the newly elected Convention abolished kingship and set up a republic. Foreign war, therefore, was the immediate cause of the fall of the monarchy in France.
- Hence it has been remarked that “the republic in France in 1792 was the result of two factors — the Prussian invasion and Parisian Jacobinism.”
- Lastly, the weakness of Louis XVI and his wavering policy did much to bring about the collapse of the monarchy.
