The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution

476 Pages·2015·4.37 MB·English

by  Timothy Tackett

THE COMING OF THE TERROR
IN THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION

The Coming of the Terror
in the
French Revolution
Timothy Tackett
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, En gland
2015
Copyright © 2015 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Tackett, Timothy, 1945–
Th e coming of the terror in the French Revolution / Timothy Tackett.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 73655- 9 (alk. paper)
1. France— History—Reign of Terror, 1793– 1794. 2. France— History—Revolution,
1789– 1799. I. Title.
DC183.T26 2015
944.04—dc23
2014023992
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Maps ix
Introduction: Th e Revolutionary Pro cess 1
1 Th e Revolutionaries and Th eir World in 1789 13
2 Th e Spirit of ’89 39
3 Th e Breakdown of Authority 70
4 Th e Menace of Counterrevolution 96
5 Between Hope and Fear 121
6 Th e Factionalization of France 142
7 Fall of the Monarchy 172
8 Th e First Terror 192
9 Th e Convention and the Trial of the King 217
10 Th e Crisis of ’93 245
11 Revolution and Terror until Victory 280
12 Th e Year II and the Great Terror 312
Conclusion: Becoming a Terrorist 340
Abbreviations 351
Notes 353
Sources and Bibliography 419
Ac know ledg ments 447
Index 449

Illustrations
Th e Tennis Court Oath 50
Attack on the Bastille 56
Market women leave Paris en route to Versailles 67
Federation Ball 93
Confrontation between Catholics and Protestants in Montauban 106
Th e king’s fl ight halted by the national guard in Varennes 115
Maximilien Robespierre 156
Jacques-Pierre Brissot 157
Storming of the Tuileries Palace 189
A pro-Montagnard image of the people entering the
Legislative Assembly 194
Memorial ser vice for the patriots killed in the attack
on the Tuileries 201
Enrollment of volunteers in Paris 218
Trial of Louis XVI 237
Th e representative on mission, Jean-Baptiste Milhaud 266
A surveillance committee during the Terror 269
Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday 290
Brissot and the Girondins sentenced to death by the
Revolutionary Tribunal 310
Festival of the Supreme Being 318
Nine emigrants are guillotined after they had returned to France 331
9 Th ermidor Year II in the Convention 337

Maps
France in 1789 14
Revolutionary France in 1791 15
Paris in 1792 143