The royal Flight to Varennes (french: Fuite à Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant event in the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
in which King
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
, Queen
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
, and their immediate family unsuccessfully attempted to escape from
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
in order to initiate a
counter-revolution at the head of loyal troops under royalist officers concentrated at
Montmédy near the frontier. They escaped only as far as the small town of
Varennes-en-Argonne, where they were arrested after having been recognized at their previous stop in
Sainte-Menehould.
This incident was a turning point after which popular hostility towards the
French monarchy as an institution, as well as towards the king and queen as individuals, became much more pronounced. The king's attempted flight provoked charges of treason that ultimately led to
his execution in 1793.
The escape failed due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations and poor judgments. Much was due to the king's indecision; he repeatedly postponed the schedule, allowing small problems to become much larger. Furthermore, he overestimated popular support for the traditional monarchy, mistakenly believing only Parisian radicals supported the revolution and that the populace as a whole opposed it. He also mistakenly believed that he enjoyed particular favor with the peasantry and other commoners.
The king's flight was traumatic for France, inciting reactions ranging from anxiety to violence and panic. Everyone was aware that foreign intervention was imminent. The realization that the king had effectually repudiated the revolutionary reforms made up to that point came as a shock to people who had seen him as a well-intentioned monarch who governed as a manifestation of God's will.
Republicanism
Republicanism is a political ideology centered on citizenship in a state organized as a republic. Historically, it emphasises the idea of self-rule and ranges from the rule of a representative minority or oligarchy to popular sovereignty. ...
quickly evolved from being merely a subject of coffeehouse debate to the dominant ideal of revolutionary leaders.
The king's brother also fled on the same night, by a different route. He successfully escaped, and spent the French revolution in exile, later returning to be crowned King
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
.
Background
Louis XVI's indecisive response was one of the causes of the forcible transfer of the royal family from the
Palace of Versailles to the
Tuileries in Paris on 6 October 1789 after
The Women's March on Versailles. The relocation seemed to have emotionally paralyzed the king, which left many important decisions to the politically untrained queen. On 28 February 1791, while the
Marquis de Lafayette was handling a conflict in
Vincennes, hundreds of royalists
came to the Tuileries to demonstrate in support of the royal family, only to be expelled from the palace by National Guards.
Objectives of flight
The intended goal of the unsuccessful flight was to provide the king with greater freedom of action and personal security than was possible in Paris. At Montmédy, General
François Claude de Bouillé, the marquis de Bouillé, had concentrated a force of 10,000 regulars of the old
royal army who were considered to still be loyal to the monarchy. De Bouillé himself had shown energy in suppressing a serious mutiny in
Nancy in 1790. The troops under his command included two
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
*Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
*Swiss, North Carolina
* Swiss, West Virginia
*Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
* Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
* Swiss Internation ...
and four German mercenary regiments who were perceived as being more reliable in a time of general political unrest than their French counterparts.
In a letter drafted for presentation to the Diet of the Swiss Cantons at Zurich, the royalist baron de Breteuil stated that "His Majesty desires to have such imposing forces at his disposition, that even the most audacious rebels will have no other option than to submit". The court expectation was that "numerous faithful subjects of all classes" would then rally to demand the restoration of the rights of the throne and that order would be restored without the need for civil war or foreign invasion.
The long-term political objectives of the royal couple and their closest advisors remain unclear. A detailed document entitled
Declaration to the French People' prepared by Louis for presentation to the National Assembly and left behind in the Tuileries indicates that his personal goal was a return to the concessions and compromises contained in the declaration of the Third Estate on 23 June 1789, immediately prior to the outbreak of violence in Paris and the
storming of the Bastille. Private correspondence from Marie Antoinette takes a more reactionary line looking to a restoration of the old monarchy without concessions; though referring to pardons for all but the revolutionary leadership and the city of Paris "if it does not return to its old order".
The flight attempt
Prodded by the queen, Louis committed himself and his family to a disastrous escape attempt from the capital to the eastern frontier on 21 June 1791. With the dauphin's governess, the
Marquise de Tourzel, taking on the role of a Russian baroness, the queen and the king's sister
Madame Élisabeth playing the roles of governess and nurse respectively, the king a valet, and the royal children her daughters, the royal family made their escape leaving the Tuileries Palace at about midnight. The escape was largely planned by the queen's favourite, the Swedish
Count Axel von Fersen and the
Baron de Breteuil Le Tonnelier de Breteuil was a French surname, held by:
* Louis Nicolas Le Tonnelier de Breteuil (1648–1728), officer of the household of Louis XIV
* François Victor Le Tonnelier de Breteuil
François Victor Le Tonnelier de Breteuil (17 April ...
, who had garnered support from Swedish
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Gustavus III. Fersen had urged the use of two light carriages that could have made the 200-mile journey to Montmédy relatively quickly. This would have involved the splitting up of the royal family, however, thus Louis and Marie-Antoinette decided on the use of a heavy and conspicuous coach drawn by six horses.
[Richard Cavendish, p. 8, "History Today", June 2016]
Unmasking and arrest
Due to the cumulative effect of slow progression, time miscalculations, lack of secrecy, and the need to repair broken coach traces, the royal family was thwarted in its escape attempt after leaving Paris. Louis himself chatted with peasants while horses were being changed at
Fromentieres and Marie Antoinette gave silver dishes to a helpful local official at Chaintrix. At
Châlons townspeople reportedly greeted and applauded the royal party. Finally,
Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the postmaster of
Sainte-Menehould, recognized the king from his portrait printed on an
assignat in his possession. Seven detachments of cavalry posted along the intended route had been withdrawn or neutralized by suspicious crowds before the large and slow moving vehicle being used by the royal party had reached them. The king and his family were eventually arrested in the town of
Varennes
Varennes-en-Argonne (, literally ''Varennes in Argonne'') or simply Varennes (German: Wöringen) is a commune in the Meuse department in the Grand Est region in Northeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 639.
Geography
Varennes-en-Ar ...
, 50 km (31 miles) from their ultimate destination, the heavily fortified royalist citadel of
Montmédy.
Whether De Bouillé's army would have been numerous or reliable enough to change the direction of the revolution and preserve the monarchy can never be known.
Confinement to Tuileries Palace
When the royal family finally returned under guard to Paris, the revolutionary crowd met the royal carriage with uncharacteristic silence and consequently, complete shock rippled throughout the crowd at the sight of their king. The royal family was confined to the
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...
. From this point forward, the
abolition
Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to:
*Abolitionism, abolition of slavery
* Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment
*Abolition of monarchy
*Abolition of nuclear weapons
*Abolit ...
of the monarchy and the establishment of a
republic became an ever-increasing possibility. The credibility of the king as a constitutional monarch had been seriously undermined by the escape attempt.
After they returned, the National Constituent Assembly agreed that the king could be restored to power if he agreed to the constitution. However, various factions in Paris like the Cordeliers and the Jacobins disagreed, and this led to a protest at the Champ de Mars; the protest turned violent, resulting in the
Champ de Mars Massacre.
From the autumn of 1791 on, the king tied his hopes of political salvation to the dubious prospects of foreign intervention. At the same time, he encouraged the
Girondin faction in the
Legislative Assembly in their policy of war with Austria, in the expectation that a French military disaster would pave the way for the restoration of his royal authority. Prompted by Marie Antoinette, Louis rejected the advice of the moderate constitutionalists, led by
Antoine Barnave, to fully implement the
Constitution of 1791, which he had sworn to maintain. He instead secretly committed himself to a policy of covert counter-revolution.
Abolishing the monarchy
The king's failed escape attempt alarmed many other European monarchs, who feared that the revolutionary fervor would spread to their countries and result in instability outside France. Relations between France and its neighbors, already strained because of the revolution, deteriorated even further with some foreign ministries calling for war against the revolutionary government.
The outbreak of the
war with Austria in April 1792 and the publication of
a manifesto by the Prussian commander,
Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, threatened the destruction of Paris if the safety of the royal family was again endangered. Upon hearing this, Parisian radicals stormed the Tuileries Palace on
10 August 1792. This was the event that sounded the death knell for the monarch.
This attack led in turn to the suspension of the king's powers by the
Legislative Assembly and the proclamation of the
First French Republic
In the history of France, the First Republic (french: Première République), sometimes referred to in historiography as Revolutionary France, and officially the French Republic (french: République française), was founded on 21 September 1792 ...
on 21 September. In November, proof of Louis XVI's secret dealings with the deceased revolutionary politician,
Mirabeau, and of his counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreigners was found in a secret iron chest, the ''
armoire de fer
L'armoire de fer (French: 'iron chest') in general refers to an iron chest used to house important papers. A notable and frequent use of the term refers to a hiding place at the apartments of Louis XVI of France at the Tuileries Palace where some ...
'', in the Tuileries. It was now no longer possible to pretend that the reforms of the French Revolution had been made with the free consent of the king. Some
Republicans called for his deposition, others for his trial for alleged treason and intended defection to the enemies of the French Nation. On 3 December, it was decided that Louis XVI, who together with his family had been
imprisoned since August, should be brought to
trial for treason. He appeared twice, on 11 and 23 December, before the
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nation ...
.
Convicted,
Louis was sent to the guillotine on 21 January 1793. Nine months later, Marie Antoinette was also convicted of treason, and was beheaded on 16 October. (She asked the prosecutor to kill her as well, as she couldn't "suffer for long").
References
Further reading
* Dunn, Susan. ''The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination'' (1994).
*
*
Loomis, Stanley, ''The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes'', Avon Books, 1972.
*
Timothy Tackett, ''When the King Took Flight'', Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.
* Thompson, J. M. '' The French Revolution'' (1943) 206–27, detailed narrative with explanation of what went wrong
* ''The article also draws material from the out-of-copyright''
/www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9602 History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 by François Mignet (1824), as made available by
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
.''
External links
*
Fuite de Varennes - the French Wikipedia article
The Flight to Varennes • Memoir by the Duchesse d'Angoulême
{{Authority control
1791 events of the French Revolution
1791 in France
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
History of Meuse (department)