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On July 17, 1791, members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette opened fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris during the French Revolution. Up to 50 people were killed. An excerpt from the article:
"The Jacobin petition
The republican faction of the Jacobin club, which had grown in size and outspokenness since the flight to Varennes, issued a similar petition. The “outraged nation”, this petition warned, “cannot entrust its interests and the reins of its empire to a perfidious, traitorous fugitive”.
The republican faction of the Jacobin club, which had grown in size and outspokenness since the flight to Varennes, issued a similar petition. The “outraged nation”, this petition warned, “cannot entrust its interests and the reins of its empire to a perfidious, traitorous fugitive”.
On the morning of Sunday, July 17th, a crowd began to assemble on the Champ de Mars (‘Field of Mars’), a huge parade ground on the western fringe of Paris, where the Eiffel Tower now stands. The second Fête de la Fédération, an annual celebration of the storming of the Bastille and the achievements of the revolution, had been held there three days before.
Now, several thousand people were gathering on the Champ de Mars in defiance of the National Constituent Assembly, which had decreed that “no club or society could meet without a certificate”. Those assembled heard speeches from radical orators while around 6,000 people signed or put their mark to the Republican petitions.
The National Guard arrives
The morning was punctuated by insults and scuffles between republican protestors, gendarmerie and members of the National Guard, but with no significant violence.
By the afternoon, the crowd on the Champ de Mars had swelled significantly (conservative reports suggest it reached 25,000, some have claimed as many as 50,000). The mayor of Paris, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, received police reports suggesting the assembly at the Champ de Mars was relatively peaceful, however, an apparently unrelated incident – the lynching of some itinerants by a local gang – convinced Bailly to call out a battalion of the National Guard and declare martial law.
Bailly and Lafayette led the National Guard to the Champ de Mars late in the afternoon. On arrival, they were mobbed, insulted and, according to some reports, pelted with stones. This fracas became deadly when several National Guard soldiers opened fire. It is unclear if soldiers were ordered to fire and, if they were, who gave them. Within an hour between 30 and 50 people lay dead, while dozens more nursed gunshot and powder wounds.
Aftermath and ramifications
The deaths on the Champ de Mars caused a pivotal shift in the French Revolution. The National Constituent Assembly’s response to the Champ de Mars incident was to blame it on political radicals and the gutter press. Several newspapers were forcibly closed, some radical leaders were arrested and provocateurs like Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins were forced into hiding.
The violence caused an enduring split in the Jacobin club. Its constitutional monarchists abandoned the club to form the Feuillants, while those who remained were further radicalised.
The Champ de Mars incident also ended the unspoken between the people of Paris, the Commune and the National Guard. Whatever respect and affection Parisians still felt for Bailly and Lafayette had been shattered. Bailly, in particular, was condemned for his betrayal of the people, for calling out armed troops against civilians exercising their freedom to assemble. He later fled Paris.
Later, Bailly was spotted and arrested as the Reign of Terror was unfolding. At his trial, he was accused of directing the Champ de Mars killings due to his “thirst for blood”. Found guilty in November 1793, Paris’ first mayor was guillotined on the Champ de Mars, an act of symbolic retribution.
A historian’s view:
“Even though the incident at the Champ de Mars may have united the patriot deputies, the violence unquestionably tarnished those who favoured the constitution. The killings and the wave of arrests that followed made a mockery of Barnave’s exhortation: to make France a nation in which all patriotic citizens could live in peace, irrespective of their opinions… The massacre at the Champ de Mars underscored the need to complete the constitution, for political life was frozen and, for the first time, an alternative course had arisen from outside the Assembly.”
Michael P. Fitzsimmons"
"The Jacobin petition
The republican faction of the Jacobin club, which had grown in size and outspokenness since the flight to Varennes, issued a similar petition. The “outraged nation”, this petition warned, “cannot entrust its interests and the reins of its empire to a perfidious, traitorous fugitive”.
The republican faction of the Jacobin club, which had grown in size and outspokenness since the flight to Varennes, issued a similar petition. The “outraged nation”, this petition warned, “cannot entrust its interests and the reins of its empire to a perfidious, traitorous fugitive”.
On the morning of Sunday, July 17th, a crowd began to assemble on the Champ de Mars (‘Field of Mars’), a huge parade ground on the western fringe of Paris, where the Eiffel Tower now stands. The second Fête de la Fédération, an annual celebration of the storming of the Bastille and the achievements of the revolution, had been held there three days before.
Now, several thousand people were gathering on the Champ de Mars in defiance of the National Constituent Assembly, which had decreed that “no club or society could meet without a certificate”. Those assembled heard speeches from radical orators while around 6,000 people signed or put their mark to the Republican petitions.
The National Guard arrives
The morning was punctuated by insults and scuffles between republican protestors, gendarmerie and members of the National Guard, but with no significant violence.
By the afternoon, the crowd on the Champ de Mars had swelled significantly (conservative reports suggest it reached 25,000, some have claimed as many as 50,000). The mayor of Paris, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, received police reports suggesting the assembly at the Champ de Mars was relatively peaceful, however, an apparently unrelated incident – the lynching of some itinerants by a local gang – convinced Bailly to call out a battalion of the National Guard and declare martial law.
Bailly and Lafayette led the National Guard to the Champ de Mars late in the afternoon. On arrival, they were mobbed, insulted and, according to some reports, pelted with stones. This fracas became deadly when several National Guard soldiers opened fire. It is unclear if soldiers were ordered to fire and, if they were, who gave them. Within an hour between 30 and 50 people lay dead, while dozens more nursed gunshot and powder wounds.
Aftermath and ramifications
The deaths on the Champ de Mars caused a pivotal shift in the French Revolution. The National Constituent Assembly’s response to the Champ de Mars incident was to blame it on political radicals and the gutter press. Several newspapers were forcibly closed, some radical leaders were arrested and provocateurs like Jean-Paul Marat, Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins were forced into hiding.
The violence caused an enduring split in the Jacobin club. Its constitutional monarchists abandoned the club to form the Feuillants, while those who remained were further radicalised.
The Champ de Mars incident also ended the unspoken between the people of Paris, the Commune and the National Guard. Whatever respect and affection Parisians still felt for Bailly and Lafayette had been shattered. Bailly, in particular, was condemned for his betrayal of the people, for calling out armed troops against civilians exercising their freedom to assemble. He later fled Paris.
Later, Bailly was spotted and arrested as the Reign of Terror was unfolding. At his trial, he was accused of directing the Champ de Mars killings due to his “thirst for blood”. Found guilty in November 1793, Paris’ first mayor was guillotined on the Champ de Mars, an act of symbolic retribution.
A historian’s view:
“Even though the incident at the Champ de Mars may have united the patriot deputies, the violence unquestionably tarnished those who favoured the constitution. The killings and the wave of arrests that followed made a mockery of Barnave’s exhortation: to make France a nation in which all patriotic citizens could live in peace, irrespective of their opinions… The massacre at the Champ de Mars underscored the need to complete the constitution, for political life was frozen and, for the first time, an alternative course had arisen from outside the Assembly.”
Michael P. Fitzsimmons"
The Champ de Mars massacre
Posted from alphahistory.com
World History
Military History
Riots
Protest
Death
Posted >1 y ago
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