The Unseen Terror Read online

  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
<
br />   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

  Constituent Assembly.

  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.

  Toulon taken over by British Admiral Hood in return for

  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