Browse Items (78 total)
Refractory (Clergy) Going to the Promised Land 1791-1792
Many refractory clergy left France to join other detractors, as this print shows, or wishfully encourages. However, this is an ambiguous image, which leaves open the possibility that rather than joining foreign monarchies, the clergy are crossing the…
Report by the Jacobin Society of Besançon on Refractory Priests January 8, 1792
A Jacobin club in Besançon in the Franche–Comté on the eastern borders of France sent this report to the Jacobin Club of Paris on 8 January 1792. The club sees the continuing presence of those who did not take the clerical oath to the new regime…
Rise of the Right Leading to the Coup of 18 Fructidor: Proclamation of 9 September 1797 September 9, 1797
The Directorial legislatures were formed in 1795 primarily of holdovers from the Convention, so the elections in the fall of 1797 were the first open legislative elections since 1792. The result, to the consternation of the executive council of the…
Royal Decree Convoking the Estates–General and the Parlementary Response (1788) 1788
The "Princes of the Blood" were the King’s brothers and cousins, who traditionally served as both the King’s closest advisers and as his leading opponents in politics. In late 1788, on behalf of the second Assembly of Notables, they issued this…
Royalists Desecrate the Revolutionary Cockade (3 October 1789) October 3, 1789
Military officers in several regiments of the royal army favored a military strike to dispel the National Assembly, but by the fall of 1789 they saw clearly that this order would not be given. Their frustration with the National Assembly’s affront to…
Son of Saint–Louis Going Up to Heaven . . . January 21, 1793
Many scholars would argue that Louis XVI’s finest moment came from his bravery at his execution. Even when he was forbidden from saying a last few words to those gathered to see him executed, he remained unflinching, retaining his composure. Here one…
The Annoyance of Walking 1805
Nobles had been used to riding in carriages or on horseback. Now, so radicals hoped, they could no longer afford to do so either financially or politically. The imagined response of this social elite reveals clearly to their attackers the…
The Assembly Complains to the King about the Émigrés November 29, 1791
Having received news of the alliance of Prussia and Austria with émigré French nobles against the Revolution, the Legislative Assembly considered itself threatened by invasion. Fearing that the King, despite his public acceptance of the constitution,…
The Blood of the Murdered Crying for Vengeance 1793
Yet another English image promising that the death of Louis will bring havoc on the Revolution. This engraving indicates that the very blood of the King requires vengeance.
The Contrast, 1793 British Liberty/French Liberty 1793
In this color print from 1793, the height of the Terror, two circular drawings appear next to each other, contrasting two types of liberty. English liberty exists, as the figure suggests, but based on the Magna Carta, calm prevails. Representing…