The Reign of Terror 1793–1794: Leading the Angry Mob and Murdering Political Rivals. Part 5: Les Sans-Culottes
Compared to the massive upheaval in 1789 France from July to October, the years 1790 and half of 1791 appeared rather calm for the angry mob. Jacobin clubs and similar political clubs were on the rise, and it seemed the National Assembly was fully capable of bringing France towards a peaceful society. Yet, by June 1791 the concept of a constitutional monarchy imploded when the King and the royal family attempted to flee the country. The French army experienced mutinies, the clergy and church lands became subject to the Revolutionary government, and several cities and towns witnessed small counterrevolutions. Overall, from the women’s march on Versailles to the King’s flight to Varennes, France turned into a powder keg waiting to explode. Although the angry mob experienced a lull in action, there was still one man who consistently stirred up trouble and called for the execution of political rivals: Jean-Paul Marat.
For the next three years, Marat effectively evaded police warrants for sedition, coming in and out of hiding and regularly changing locations. His writings during this time appeared overtly radical, outlandish, and conjectured, yet his keen ability to foretell events which came true earned him a prophet’s notoriety. Although Marat tried to coerce the angry mob to violence, the period in the Revolution following the October Days witnessed a hiatus in the angry Parisian mob due to an absence of fear. The King did not appear to enforce a return to the ancien regime, bread prices appeared stable, égalité appeared achievable, and hope reappeared within the angry mob’s ranks. It is exceedingly difficult to sustain the angry mob once it has achieved its initial goals, motivation runs out because the angry mob is incapable of stability and only craves society’s destruction and the role reversal of oppression, and citizens eventually grow tired of constant turmoil. Only during the Reign of Terror was the angry mob sustainable because of the high propensity for government sanctioned murder of political rivals while under threat from foreign invasion. Politicians did not call upon the angry mob when they attempted to build society, they used them as a means to pass their desired political agendas quickly. Throughout the French Revolution the angry mob was used as a political weapon, feeding off injustices and fear, and often called when a political rival’s opinion needed “correction.” Historically, angry mobs are easily dispersed with severe ironfisted action from the monarchy such as the June Rebellion in 1832 and the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, but since Louis XVI tolerated the angry mob’s existence; they lingered. Unlike other angry mobs before them, politicians and journalists supported and defended them, which is why the French Revolution witnessed a more organized and unified angry mob: The Sans-Culottes.
The term sans-culottes (literally: without breeches) started out as a societal fashion joke in the mid to late 18th century. Pants worn down to the ankles, a waistcoat, and a Phrygian cap symbolized the old Roman Republic’s freed slaves. Representing the 18th centuries fashion epicenter, highbrow fashionista Parisians saw the sans-culottes’ attire as lowly and nonconformist with the current fashion trends. Author Michael Sonenscher (2008, 8) explains, “Before 1789, Phrygian bonnets, pikes, or liberty trees all had a recognizable republican pedigree. They could be associated either with the ancient Roman republic and the liberty cap, or pileus, that was used to mark the emancipation of a slave, or with the popular militias, patriotic spirit, and egalitarian political arrangements.” Thus, once the Revolution began the Phrygian cap with a tricolored cockade and long pants not only represented the dawning of a republic, but freedom from monarchical serfdom and a countercultural revolution on fashion. Before the Revolution noblemen wore knee breeches and powdered wigs, while noblewomen’s hair ranged from short curly tête de mouton (sheep’s head) to a very high pouf supported by cushions and jewelry (first designed by Marie Antoinette’s hairdresser, Léonard-Alexis Autié). Because the nobility loved this fashion trend, the sans-culottes’ rags became more like a badge of honor for the counterculture. During the Reign of Terror in 1793–1794, those who still wore knee breeches were viewed and suspected of treasonous activity (Robespierre was the exception). From this point in history men’s fashion evolved into a pants suit with natural hair due to peer pressure, shame, guilt, and fear of the guillotine. Another characteristic inaugurated in the Revolution was the removal of formal greetings such as monsieur and mademoiselle for the class neutral citoyen and citoyenne (citizen). Similar to fashion, those who still used the old greetings of monsieur and mademoiselle instead of citizen were viewed and suspected of treasonous anti-republic activity. Seeing that fashion was tied to social class and social class to monarchical despotism, it was only natural for the revolutionaries to adopt the countercultural fashion while it toppled the government.
Since Marat consistently represented the sans-culottes in his journal, Ami du Peuple, he often found refuge with them while hiding from police and national guardsmen. He continued to attack government officials in his journal even though they made significant progress in constructing a constitutional monarchy. Viewed as a bourgeoisie revolution, Marat railed against government officials for not supporting the urban poor, which he explains, “we should be talking to the victims of oppression, not their oppressors…to educate and organize the sans-culottes to fight their enemies” (Conner 2012, 66). Marat often wanted the sans-culottes to take a further step with the Revolution, which already took down the clergy and nobility, and crush the rich bourgeoisie to achieve true égalité. Because of Marat’s stance during the Revolution, he was often praised by Marxist followers and blamed for inspiring Marxist followers in the late 19th century.
While the country celebrated the fall of the Bastille’s anniversary on July 14, 1790 on the Champs de Mars, which included oaths from the National Assembly delegates and the monarchy in support for a new constitution, the façade of stability soon dismantled by August. Supported by the local Jacobin club, soldiers began to mutiny against their noble officers in many northeastern cities. Along with societal and governmental upheavals, the military experienced major changes as well. Author Gunther Rothenburg (2006, 29) explains, “Even before the Revolution intellectuals had attacked professional armies as ineffective but expensive tools of royal absolutism, contrary to natural order and reason, and advocated their replacement with citizen soldiers.” The French National Guard led by Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette replaced the professional army, which called upon the local population to settle local issues instead of ironfisted monarchical despotism to squash rebellion. Even though the country established a national guard, it still adhered to the Prussian officer corps model exclusively held by nobility. With every aspect of society being torn down, it only made sense that local national guardsmen would mutiny against their noble officers. The most significant mutiny occurred in Nancy, where General Bouillé stormed the city, seized control and “twenty-three mutineers were executed and savage punishments imposed on over a hundred more” (Doyle 2002, 147). This ironfisted action caused a split in the National Assembly, pitting Lafayette and the monarchist right against those who sat on the Assembly’s left side, particularly those who sat on the far-left side. Marat biographer, Clifford D. Conner (2012, 74), explains the events in Nancy when he writes, “Marat’s response in Ami du peuple was to advise soldiers to assert the right to elect their officers. If their present officers dared resist that reasonable measure, he added, the soldiers should kill them.” Marat’s persistent called for blood shed, especially on government officials, caused several warrants of sedition against him.
Marat garnered a loyal following, especially the sans-culottes, because he not only listened and supported the people but because he openly attacked inequality. Yet, the greatest gauge of leadership ability is the character of the followers. In the French Revolution’s case, Marat rationalized, justified, and encouraged murdering political rivals and those who did not put the sans-culottes’ needs first. The vilification of government officials in his journal made hatred easy and necessary for change to occur, and the character of Marat’s followers demanded not only a complete societal upheaval, but a role reversal of oppression. The Reign of Terror in 1793–1794 was only possible because Marat cultivated the rationale that the formerly oppressed must now ensure the nobility and bourgeoisie feel their pain. By 1794, the radical left-wingers successfully eliminated their right-wing opposition with the guillotine, but instead of stability the angry mob was only capable of further bloodshed and turned on themselves. Although 1790 appeared rather peaceful in comparison to other years in the Revolution for the angry mob, the King’s flight to Varennes in June 1791 reignited the sans-culottes’ fears, especially the Austro-Prussian invasion.
References
Conner, Clifford D. 2012. Jean Paul Marat: Tribune of the French Revolution. New York: Pluto Press.
Doyle, William. 2002. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 2nd ed. New York: University of Oxford Press.
Rothenberg, Gunther E. 2006. The Napoleonic Wars. Edited by John Keegan. Smithsonian History of Warfare. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Sonenscher, Michael. 2008. Sans-Culottes: An Eighteenth-Century Emblem in the French Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
