The Context
Through the first part of 1792, France had been moving slowly toward the first of the French Revolutionary Wars. In April, the king had taken the unprecedented step of forming a cabinet of revolutionary Girondins. On 20 April, war was declared against Austria.
The initial battles were a disaster for the French, and Prussia joined Austria in active alliance against France (see First Coalition). However, a delay in their preparations gave France an opportunity to improve its army.
The Revolution at this time was moving into a more radical phase. The Legislative Assembly passed several decrees, notably one against non-juring priests, which the king insisted he would veto. The King furthermore vetoed the Assembly's proposed creation of a 20,000-strong national guard outside Paris, composed of volunteers known as the Fédérés. This led in early June to a break between the king and his Girondist ministers, whom he dismissed. When the king formed a new cabinet mostly of constitutional monarchist Feuillants, this widened the breach between the king on the one hand and the leaders of the Assembly and the majority of the common people of Paris on the other. Events came to a head on 16 June when monarchist general Lafayette sent a letter to the National Assembly, read two days later in that body, recommending the suppression of the Jacobins and other political clubs.
The King's veto of the Legislative Assembly's decrees was published on 19 June, just one day before the 3rd anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath which had inaugurated the Revolution. On 20 June, the armed populace invaded the hall of the Assembly and the royal apartments in the Tuileries, but were pacified by the King. The failure of the insurrection encouraged a movement in favour of the king. Lafayette attempted to use this opportunity to heal the breach, but was suspected by people, legislature, and court alike of mere personal ambition.
A last Girondist advance to Louis was rebuffed, and the Feuillants were in collapse. The Girondins now made a turn to the left and joined those ready to use force to overthrow the monarchy. Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, in a speech to the Assembly, directed toward the king the following rhetorical questions: "Did the constitution leave you the choice of ministers for our happiness or our ruin? Did it place you at the head of our army for our glory or our shame? Did it give you the right of sanction, a civil list and so many prerogatives, constitutionally to lose the empire and the constitution?" Jacques Pierre Brissot was even more direct:
I tell you to strike at the Tuileries… you are told to prosecute all factious and intriguing conspirators; they will all disappear if you once knock loud enough at the door of the cabinet of the Tuileries, for that cabinet is the point to which all these threads tend, where every scheme is plotted, and whence every impulse proceeds. The nation is the plaything of this cabinet. This is the secret of our position, this is the source of the evil, and here the remedy must be applied.
Read more about this topic: 10 August (French Revolution)
Famous quotes containing the word context:
“Parents are led to believe that they must be consistent, that is, always respond to the same issue the same way. Consistency is good up to a point but your child also needs to understand context and subtlety . . . much of adult life is governed by context: what is appropriate in one setting is not appropriate in another; the way something is said may be more important than what is said. . . .”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)