The term "''fédérés''" (; sometimes translated to English as "federates") most commonly refers to the troops who volunteered for the French

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

in the summer of 1792 during the French Revolution. The ''fédérés'' of 1792 effected a transformation of the Guard from a constitutional monarchist force into a republican revolutionary force. ''"Fédérés"'' has several other closely related meanings, also discussed in this article.

Origin and terminology

The term "fédérés" derives from the '' Fête de la Fédération'', the annual celebration during the revolutionary era, celebrated at the

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on the anniversary of the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...

on 14 July 1789. However, the term ''"fédérés"'' as used by historians today almost always refers to the volunteer troops of 1792. The third ''fête'' of 1792 was of a far more radical nature than that of 1790, and prefigured the militant insurrections later in the year.

1790 celebration

At the first ''fête de la Fédération'' in 1790, Talleyrand said

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

, Lafayette addressed the crowd, and King Louis XVI gave a secular sermon. The attendees, known as ''fédérés'', came from all over France and brought the spirit of the revolution back to the provinces.

Provincial militia in Paris – 1792

In early May, 1792, the Girondin Minister of War Joseph Servan made the proposal to bring armed volunteers from the provinces to Paris. The citizen-soldiers were to be invited to the city for the third ''fête'', but they were also intended to become an effective supplement to the regular army. They were to receive military training in Paris and eventually take their place at the frontlines in the French Revolutionary War.Schama, pp.604–605. The prospect of thousands of new militiamen descending upon the capital for an indeterminate length of time was a highly contentious one. Some, like the king, saw it as a plot to stack Paris full with anti-monarchists, while others, like

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre ferv ...

, feared the outsiders might be used as a provincial counterweight to the radical Parisian '' sans-culottes''. King Louis employed his constitutional prerogative to quash the proposal, and this use of the greatly unpopular royal

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

was met with a storm of protest from all quarters. In the ensuing political struggle, the king dismissed the entire Girondin ministry. With the government in disarray, radical agitators seized the issue and it rapidly became the source of massive citywide unrest. Eventually thousands of the provincial volunteers arrived regardless of the king's disapproval, and they were given a warm welcome by members of the Legislative Assembly. Robespierre himself, now fully supportive, greeted the provincial “defenders of liberty” as the "last hope of the country." (Meanwhile, 20,000 Fédérés entered the city for the celebration of 14 July; Pétion was reinstalled.) At the end of July more than 3,000 had entered Paris useful in provoking various measures, notably the overthrow of the king. They were allowed to join the National Guard, and would focus on the "enemy within". A significant maneuver took place during the night when volunteers from Marseille led by Charles Barbaroux moved into the Cordeliers Convent. On 7 August, Pétion proposed that Robespierre assist in facilitating the departure of Fédérés to pacify the capital, suggesting their more effective service at the front lines. The ''fédérés'' issue helped lead to a series of Parisian insurrections throughout the spring and summer, culminating in the assault on the Tuileries Palace on 10 August. The ''fédérés'' themselves played a large part in the Tuileries assault, and afterwards they contributed further to the climate of republican solidarity by adopting an uncommonly grateful public posture towards the female participants of the Revolution. In a post-victory ceremony, leaders of the ''fédérés'' honored their female colleagues and awarded civic crowns to three who displayed outstanding conduct in the assault – Louise Reine Audu, Claire Lacombe, and Théroigne de Méricourt.Godineau, pp. 110–111.

Other meanings

Antiquity

* ''Fœderati'', any one of several outlying nations providing military assistance to

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

in exchange for payment, often in the form of grants of land, serving as monoëthnic units under native leaders (as opposed to traditional polyethnic “

auxilia The (; ) were introduced as non-citizen troops attached to the citizen Roman legion, legions by Augustus after his reorganisation of the Imperial Roman army from 27 BC. By the 2nd century, the contained the same number of infantry as the ...

ries” commanded by Roman officers).

1815

The term ''"Fédérations"'' was revived during the Cent-Jours. It was an anti-royalist movement intended to repress local revival of monarchists after the flight of the Bourbons.

1871

The term ''"fédérés"'' was revived during the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

. The Communards' Wall is known in French as the ''Mur de Fédérés''.

1964

* ''Fœderatio Internationalis Una Voce'', a

federation A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

lay organizations founded in 1964.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Federe 1790 events of the French Revolution 1792 events of the French Revolution Paris Commune