April to August 1792
France declares war
In the Legislative Assembly the deputies around Jacques Pierre Brissot campaign for a war against Austria, to carry political liberty and popular sovereignty beyond France. Queen Marie Antoinette and the conservatives also favour war, which they expect to restore royal authority. On 20 April 1792 the Assembly votes for war on Austria after the foreign minister, Charles François Dumouriez, presents a long list of grievances. Prussia, allied with Austria since February, declares war on France in June.
Dumouriez plans an invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expects the population to rise against Austrian rule. But the Revolution has disorganised the army, many of its experienced officers have emigrated, and in the first actions the troops flee and desert. On 28 April General Théobald Dillon, sent from Lille against Tournai, is murdered by his own soldiers, who accuse him of treason.
On 11 July the Assembly declares the nation in danger. An allied army, mostly Prussian, gathers at Koblenz on the Rhine under the Duke of Brunswick. On 25 July Brunswick issues a manifesto that threatens Paris with “unforgettable vengeance” if the royal family is harmed. The news reaches Paris on 1 August.
French caricature of 1792 on the foreign powers and the Brunswick ManifestoWikimedia Commons, unknown author, Public domain (Manifeste de Brunswick caricature 1792.jpg)
On 10 August the Paris National Guard and fédérés from Marseille and Brittany storm the Tuileries Palace, defended by the Swiss Guards. Hundreds of the guards and about 400 of the attackers are killed. The royal family takes refuge with the Assembly, which suspends the king and calls elections for a National Convention.
The storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August 1792, painting by Jacques Bertaux, 1793Wikimedia Commons, Jacques Bertaux, Public domain (Jacques Bertaux - Der Tuileriensturm am 10. August 1792.jpg)
Sources
- T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars 1787–1802 (1996).
- William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution (1990).
- Munro Price, The Fall of the French Monarchy (2002).
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