After reading History at Oxford University, Richard Ballard taught at Eton College, Haileybury College and Westminster School. Since 2003 he has lived in the Charente-Maritime in France. He has researched the French Revolution extensively in the region and published a number of articles on the subject.
The Unseen Terror
The French Revolution in the Provinces
Richard Ballard
Published in 2010 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2010 Richard Ballard
Th
e right of Richard Ballard to be identifi ed as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 84885 325 6
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham
To my friends in the
Charente-Maritime
Contents
List of Illustrations
ix
Acknowledgements
xi
Chronology of Events at National Level
xiii
Notes on Money and Government
xvii
Map of the Charente-Inférieure
xx
Preface
xxi
Introduction: A Revolution Led by Lawyers
1
Part I: An Unforeseen Revolution
1. The Old Order Changes
13
2. Elections, Grievances, and Feudal Dues
24
Part II: Revolution Becomes Terror
3. A Representative of the People
43
4. The Terror in Saintes
58
5. La Rochelle Becomes a Frontier Town
69
6. La Rochelle in Wartime
84
7. Lequinio’s Rochefort
97
8. Internment in Brouage
116
Part III: A Redundant Church
9. The End of the Bishop of Saintes
129
10. A Tribulation of Oath Takers
142
11. National Property and Closed Convents
155
12. Disappearing Priests
167
13. Persecution and Reinstatement
178
vii
viii Th
e Unseen Terror
Part IV: Revolution in One Village
14. Hope and Disillusion
193
15. War and Education
208
Conclusion: An Eye to the Future
218
Notes
229
Bibliography
251
Index
257
Illustrations
1.
Th
e serving plate from Bouquet’s festival
dinner service (reproduced by permission
of the Musée Orbigny-Bernon at La Rochelle).
17
2. Saintes: Hôtel de Monconseil.
21
3. Saintes: Th
e Présidial.
40
4. Two views of Saintes showing the Newly Built Quays:
Prints from 1791
50
5. J.-L. David’s pen and ink portrait of Bernard de Saintes.
55
6.
Th
e Medieval Bridge, Hotel de Monconseil and
Cathedral: Prints from 1791.
66
7. La Rochelle: Tour de la Chaine, 21 March 1793.
76
8. Portrait of Joseph-Marie Lequinio
(reproduced by permission of the Musée Ernest
Cognacq at Saint-Martin-de-Ré).
106
9. Crazannes: Th
e Château.
130
10. Saintes:
Cathédrale de Saint-Pierre.
143
11. Saint-Savinien-sur-Charente:
Th
e Church.
146
12. Saintes:
Abbaye aux Dames.
158
13. Saint-Saturnin de Séchaud: Th
e Church.
197
14. Port
d’Envaux:
Château de Panloy.
204
15. Portrait of Regnaud de Saint-Jean-d’Angély (reproduced from Jean-Noël Luc (ed.), La Charente-Maritime, L’Aunis et La Saintonge des origines à nos jours (Saint-Jean-d’Angély, 1981), by permission of the publishers, Éditions Bordessoules).
219
Note: Line Drawings are by the Author
ix
Acknowledgements
My thanks are due to many people for the help they gave me so willingly. Th
e librarians of the Médiathèque municipale François-Mitterand in Saintes introduced me to François-Guillaume Marillet’s diary and gave me permission to use it in this study, together with the local history journals of which they are the guardians. Th
ey and the habitués of the reading room
were never stinting on their time and support. Th
e staff at the Archives
départementales de la Charente-Maritime generously guided me to information about Regnaud de Saint-Jean-d’Angély and to documents written by leading local revolutionary lawyers, together with the minutes of the various administrative bodies in the revolutionary era. Th
e staff at the Service
Historique de la Défense – Département Marine at Rochefort gave me a fascinating focus on the activities of the French Navy. Th
e late Tom Pocock,
historian of British concerns contemporary with the French Revolution and Empire, made time to read several of my chapters and then provided very signifi cant guidance towards my presentation of events. Mr Nicholas Blake advised me on British naval strategy in the revolutionary years. Professor and Mrs Richard Cooter took the time and trouble to read and comment in detail upon my text.
Th
e Marquis de Grailly started this project off in his Château at Panloy by telling the story of a member of his family during the revolutionary years and lending me important books . M. Christian Gensbeitel, then Director of the Atelier du Patrimoine Saintonge, generously off ered me information about conditions in and personalities of the town of Saintes in the pre-revolutionary period. Maître Didier Bréjon de Lavergnée informed me of the misfortunes of his antecedent relation, the Abbé François Levesquot, at Saint-Saturnin de Séchaud. M. Claude Morain told me about Le Chevalier de Limouzin at Nieul lès Saintes.
M. Henri Texier pointed the way for me as the editor of the bicentenary book on the Revolution in Saintes, M. Dominique Droin’s history of the naval centre of Rochefort, and Maître Claudy Valin’s magisterial work on La Rochelle have all three been inspirational. Th
ey are worthy successors to
writers like Louis Audiat, Pierre Lemonnier, and Charles Dangibeau in the xi
xii Th
e Unseen Terror
nineteenth century and, further back, to authors of journals and memoirs contemporary with the Revolution itself, especially François-Guillaume Marillet and Claude Legrix.
Mrs Mary Critchley unstintingly gave all the time and skill needed to compile the index. Mrs Cecilia Cussans most generously made the complete 1868 edition of Jules Michelet and Chateaubriand’s Mémoires d’outre-tombe available to me . M. et Mme Claude Teulet found and gave me a nineteenth-century map of the Charente-Inférieure.
Dr Lester Crook, Ms Liz Friend-Smith and Mrs Jayne Ansell at I.B.
Tauris, together with Ms Hema Latha and her colleagues at Integra, gave vital advice and support.
Th
anks are also due for their support to Mme Paola Authier, Mme Gilliane Broome, Mrs. Lisa Crane, M. et Mme G. Fontenoy, Mr Julian Ford-Robertson, Mr and Mrs Donald Fry, M. et Mme Gerard Gaillard, Dr Jean Gaud, M. Th
omas Humeau, Mme Philippe Humareau, M. et
Mme Jacques Japhet, M. François Julien-Labruyère, Mme Nicole Moine, M. Georges Nascas, Mr and Mrs Edward Newland, Mr Mark Norris, M. Jean
Peyrondet, Mr and Mrs Terry Piner, Mme Charles
Rivière,
Mrs Valerie St. Johnston, Mme. Lucette Salomon, M. Luc Smets, Mr and Mrs Kit Th
ompson, and Mme Béatrice de Vergie.
I alone, of course, am responsible for whatever errors may be found.
Richard Ballard, Saint-Sorlin de Conac, 2009
Chronology of Events at
National Level
1778 France joins American colonists in their War of Independence against Britain.
1783
Peace of Paris. War expenditure has crippled France
fi nancially.
1787
Assembly of Notables fails to agree on a solution to the
fi nancial crisis
1788
August
Faced with the fi nancial crisis, Louis XVI calls the Estates-General to meet on 8 May 1789.
1789
February
Lists of grievances are drawn up by the nobles, the clergy, and the third estate in every administrative unit in France.
March
French provincial assemblies elect deputies for the Estates-General.
June
Th
e Estates-General unite to become the National
July
Grain prices at peak in Paris. Th
e seizure of the Bastille.
Louis XVI visits Paris from Versailles and appears to accept the Revolution by wearing the tricolour cockade in his hat.
‘Th
e Great Fear’.
August
Abolition of seigneurial power and the Church tithe.
Th
e Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
October Th
e king and the National Assembly are compelled to move
to Paris.
November
Nationalization of church lands to be sold to pay off the
national defi cit.
December Th
e Assignat introduced as a means of facilitating sales of church lands.
xiii
xiv Th
e Unseen Terror
1790
February
Vows for monks and nuns abolished.
March
Issue of laws about seigneurial dues misunderstood in rural areas.
July
Th
e Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
November
Bishops and priests required to take the Oath to the Civil
Constitution or be regarded as having resigned their sees
and incumbencies. Most bishops refuse.
1791
February
Election of a constitutional bishop for each of the 83 new
departments.
June
Th
e king’s fl ight to Varennes.
October
Constituent Assembly is dissolved. Sitting deputies cannot
be re-elected.
November
New Legislative Assembly meets. First of many decrees
against emigrés and priests who refuse to take the oath.
1792
April
France declares war on Austria.
June
Sans-culottes enter Tuileries to make Louis XVI wear a bonnet of liberty.
August
Sans-culottes storm the Tuileries. Overthrow of the monarchy.
Royal family in prison. Republic declared. Invasion of
France by Prussia.
September
Massacre of nobles, bishops, and priests in Paris prisons.
French Republican army victorious over Prussians at
Valmy.
Th
e National Convention replaces the Legislative Assembly.
1793
January
Trial of Louis XVI in the Convention. His execution.
February
France declares war on Britain and Holland. Th
e National
Convention orders 300,000 military conscripts. Th
e
Vendée rebellion gathers momentum.
March
France declares war on Spain. Th
e National Conven-
tion decrees the Revolutionary Tribunal. Committees of
Surveillance set up all over France.
Chronology of Events at National Level
xv
April
Committee of Public Safety set up in Paris. ‘Federalist’
rebellion in Marseille.
May
‘Federalist’ rebellion in Lyon.
June
Girondins expelled from National Convention by Jacob-
ins. Vendéans take Saumur.
July
Robespierre made a member of Committee of Public
Safety.
August
Marseille retaken by Republican troops.
recognition of King Louis XVII.
September Offi
cial Terror begins. Convention passes Law of Suspects.
Full powers accorded to representatives on mission. Maxi-
mum on prices and wages decreed.
October
Revolutionary calendar adopted. Lyon retaken with stern
reprisals. Queen Marie-Antoinette executed. Vendéans
defeated at Cholet.
November
Vendéans fail to take Granville, no British support arrives.
December
British evacuation of Toulon.
Vendéans defeated at Savernay.
1794
February
Execution of Reversaux in Paris.
April
Execution of de La Tour du Pin.
June
Law of 22 prairial: Unrestricted powers to Revolutionary
Tribunals.
July
Fall of Robespierre. Th
ermidorean Convention begins to
dismantle the Terror and the economic Maximum.
1795
April
Prussia makes separate peace with France.
June
Death of Louis XVII.
July
Invasion by emigrés, supported by British, defeated at
Quiberon.
September
Spain makes separate peace with France.
November Th
e Directory replaces Th
ermidorean Convention.
Renewed laws against the clergy.
1796
February
Assignat abolished.
March
Bonaparte in command of Army of Italy.
xvi Th
e Unseen Terror
October
Spa
in allies with France against Britain.
1797
February
Metal currency restored.
1798
June
Bonaparte takes Malta.
July
Bonaparte in Egypt.
1799
August
Bonaparte leaves Egypt.
November
Bonaparte seizes power and replaces Directory with
Consulate.
1801
July
Bonaparte signs Concordat with Pope Pius VII.
Notes on Money and Government
Money
In the old order, the monarch had the monopoly of issuing money, and the standard unit was the livre tournois, divided up into 20 sous (or sols), and each sou was worth 12 deniers (hence l. s. d. also used in the United Kingdom until 1971). During the revolutionary period, both livres and francs were spoken of. Th
e change was made offi
cial when currency became metric on
7 April 1795 and the franc comprised 100 centimes. However, just as French people nowadays think in francs and pay in euros, it is likely that men and women during the Directory still tended to do their sums in livres.
Assignats were certifi cates or bonds devised to simplify the sale of nationalized church property when it was sold off to meet the national defi cit.
Th
ey were introduced in September 1789, and accepted as paper currency in April 1790. Th
eir issue ceased in February 1796 and the printing presses
for making them were broken on government orders. France offi cially
returned to metal money in February 1797.
Successive Forms of Government
Th
e Estates-General. Th
is was a national elected body not unlike the British
parliament, summoned by the kings of France at various times down the centuries to consult with them about policy, especially taxation. Its function was entirely diff erent from that of the 13 non-elected provincial parlements sitting in Paris and other towns like Bordeaux and Grenoble, which registered and promulgated the king’s edicts. Th
e Estates-General last met before 1789
in 1614. It was made up then of 300 deputies from each of the three orders or estates of the nation – the Clergy, the Nobility (only called ‘aristocrats’
pejoratively after the Terror began), and the Th
ird Estate – which included
everybody else, from wealthy ship-owners in La Rochelle to tenant farmers everywhere. It was decided before the 1789 meeting that the number of deputies of the third estate should be doubled (‘doubling the third’) so that they would not be outvoted automatically by the clergy and nobility acting xvii