Browse Items (48 total)
Establishing a New Administrative Order (1800–1801) 1800
Naming his brother Lucien to the key post of minister of the interior, Bonaparte quickly moved to establish his political control over the country. He set up “prefects” for every administrative region known as a department; these appointees had final…
Fleeing by Design or the Perjurer Louis XVI 1791
Another engraving of the King’s arrest portrays the guard apprehending Louis and his family in their flight from Paris in June 1791. From Varennes, the royal family is brought back to Paris accompanied by three deputies of the National Assembly,…
French Victory at the Battle of Jemmappes 1792
This engraving first appeared in the newspaper Révolutions de Paris and shows the French General Charles–François Dumouriez entering the city of Mons after having led French forces to their first truly decisive victory of the war on 6 November 1792.…
Fusillades at Lyon, Ordered by Collot–D’Herbois 1802
Lyon’s rebellion against the central government in September 1793 had terrible repercussions that seemed only to worsen with the initiation of collective trials and immediate executions by firing squad. The one depicted here on 4 December 1793 took…
Jemmapes, 6 November 1792 1838
This engraving of the battle of Jemappes, preromantic in its composition and style, depicts a group of French citizen–soldiers bravely risking themselves under the banner of liberty and overcoming all foes in marching to victory—a motif that would…
John Locke, "Of Political or Civil Society" 1689
John Locke (1632–1704) wrote his Second Treatise of Government early in the 1680s and published it in 1690. In it Locke proposed a social contract theory of government and argued against the idea of "divine right," which held that rulers had a…
Letter from Rabaut de Saint–Étienne to the Minister of the Interior (27 February 1791) February 27, 1791
In this document, Jean–Paul Rabaut de Saint–Étienne, a Protestant pastor from Nîmes who had been a deputy to the National Assembly and who would later be elected to the National Convention, warns the central government of the ongoing violence in the…
Louis XVI Stopt [sic] in his Flight at Varennes 1796
This romantic English painting of the King’s flight suggests only a few feet separated the King from escape.
Louis XVIII to Charette July 8, 1795
The "Central Committee" organizing royalist efforts in 1795 was led by François–Athanése de Charette de la Contrie, a former nobleman. He had participated in the Vendéan uprising in 1793, with the goal of restoring to the throne the nearest living…