10th August 1792

In the summer of 1792 Louis XVI was using his constitutional right to veto several of the Legislative Assembly’s new laws. Their plans to deport non-juring priests were vetoed.  Their plans to remove the King’s bodyguard were vetoed.  Their plans to assemble 20,000 fédérés (troops from across France) around Paris were also vetoed although this did not stop the troops assembling.  With the King reaching an impasse with his ministers he decided to remove them.   On the 20th June on the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath crowds had entered the Legislative Assembly to complain as to what they thought were the despotic tendency of the King.  The crowd then surged into the King’s residence who met them with a calm exterior as he refused their demands to cease his vetoes although he did incongruously wear a phrygian cap and drank from a proffered glass of wine.

Instability in Paris also mirrored problems on the front against Austria and Prussia.  Desertions and disorganisation was rife amongst the French troops and it seemed to many only a matter of time before the revolution would be snuffed out.  Lafayette raged in the Assembly against the radicals in June but his authority seemed diminished and he was sent off to the front to command the Army of the North in July.  In early July more National Guards were assembling on Paris for the Federation ceremony.  In July it was declared in the Assembly that the fatherland was in danger this would then lead to Vergniaud on the 3rd stating that the King was organising the attacks on France.  The assembled Fédérés had also radicalised the atmosphere in Paris as they were often the most committed of provincial revolutionaries. Soon Fédérés leaders were meeting with section leaders from the Paris Commune and assorted other revolutionaries.

On 1st August the Duke of Brunswick issued what became known as his manifesto (although it had been written by emigres). It stated that if the royal family were hurt then Paris would be held responsible and would be destroyed.  It did not have the response he wished for.  It stoked Revolutionary ardour.  The sections of Paris threatened to rise in revolt and overthrow the King with violence if necessary.  As leaders of the section met on the night of August 9th   their frustrations rose to the surface and the decision came to storm the Tuileries.

The Tuileries was defended by Royalist volunteers, National Guardsmen and nearly a thousand Swiss Guard.  It might have been feasible for the Royal side to survive the attack.  There was no clear leadership to hold the disorganised storm that was heading their way.  The King would review the troops but he decided to flee the scene (much against the Queen’s advice) and ask the Assembly for sanctuary where they would sit in the reporters gallery.

With his flight many of the National Guardsmen would leave their posts and head off into the crowd. When the revolutionary crowd reached the Tuileries many of the National Guardsmen would flee or join the mob.  The Swiss Guard however would not surrender.  The two sides stood facing each other until violence erupted.  The King heard the battle raging and wrote a noted to his Swiss guard urging them to surrender.  When the Swiss started to run out of ammunition they backed away from Palace during this process many were shot or hacked down by the crowd.

As people gazed out amongst the devastation of the morning it did not take long for radical change to occur.  The King was suspended from his duties by the Legislative Assembly he and his family were then sent under guard to the Temple prison.  The Assembly itself would change and would adopt the revolutionaries’ demand to be elected by universal male suffrage.  A line had been crossed where it could be seen that direct violence could achieve great political ends.

Jean-Baptiste Cléry (the King’s valet) reports on details of the occurrences on August 10th 1792 from A Journal of the Terror, The Folio Society, London (1955) p4-7.

I again went out. And walked along the quays as far as the Pont-Neuf, everywhere meeting bands of armed men, whose evil intentions were very evident; some had pikes, others had pitchforks, hatchets or iron bars.  The battalion of the Marseillais were marching in the greatest order, with their canon and lighted matches, inviting the people to follow them, and assist as they said, “in dislodging the tyrant, and proclaiming his deposition to the National Assembly”.  I was but too well convinced of what was approaching, yet impelled by a sense of duty, I hastened before this battalion, and made immediately for the Tuileries, where I saw a large body of National Guards, pouring out in disorder through the garden gate opposite to the Pont Royal.  Sorrow was visible on the countenances of most of them, and several were heard to say: “We swore this morning to defend the King, and in the moment of his greatest danger we are deserting him.”  Others, in the interest of the conspirators, were abusing and threatening their fellow soldiers, whom they forced away.  Thus did the well-disposed suffer themselves to be overawed by the seditious, and that culpable weakness, which had all along been productive of the evils of the Revolution, gave birth to the calamities of this day…..

Roederer (Procurator-General-Syndic law officer of the Directory of the Department of Paris), doubtless in concert with the conspirators, strongly persuaded the King to go with his family to the Assembly, asserting that he could no longer depend upon the National Guard and declaring that if he remained in the Palace, neither the Department nor the Municipality of Paris would any longer answer for his safety.  The King heard him without emotion, and then retired to his chamber with the Queen, the Ministers, and a few attendants, whence he soon returned to go with his family to the assembly.…..

Compelled to remain in the apartments, I awaited with terror the consequences of the step the King had taken, and went to a window that looked upon the garden.  In about half an hour after the Royal Family had gone to the Assembly, I saw four heads carried on pikes along the terrace of the Feuillants, towards the building where the Legislative Body was sitting.  This was, I believe, the signal for attacking the Palace, for at the same instant there began a dreadful firing of cannon and musketry.  The Palace was everywhere pierced with balls and bullets.  As the King was gone , every man endeavored to take care of himself , but all the exits were blocked, and certain death seemed to await us.  I ran from place to place, and finding the apartments and staircases already strewn with dead bodies, took the resolution of leaping from one of the windows in the Queen’s room down upon the terrace, whence I made across the parterre with utmost speed to reach the Pont-Tournant.

Germaine De Staël on the events of the 10th August 1792 .  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p322

Several battalions of the National Guards, and amongst others that of Les Filles St. Thomas, were full of zeal and ardour; but the King, on quitting the Tuileries, could no longer rely on that enthusiasm which constitutes the strength of armed citizens.

Many republicans believe that if Louis XVI had triumphed on the 10th of August, the foreign troops would have arrived in Paris and have re-established the ancient despotism, rendered still more odious by the means from which it would have been derived its force.  It is possible that things might have come to his extremity; but what would have led them to it? In civil commotions a crime may always be rendered politically useful; but it is by preceding crimes that this infernal necessity is caused.

Barère on the events of August 10th 1792.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p15-17

The 9th was stormy, and marked by distrust and gloomy forebodings. The nobles armed themselves, and the patriots met together. The tocsin sounded at midnight. I awoke with a start in my lodging in the Rue de Richelieu, whence I could hear all the bells of Paris from the third story overlooking the boulevard. The tocsin rang all night. The battalions of Brest and Marseilles were in motion at daybreak. The inhabitants of the suburbs were armed with pikes and courage. The different parties were face to face after nine o'clock ; the artillery on both sides was ready to go into action ; the Swiss regiments were in arms in front of the railings and the booths which they used as a rampart. At ten o'clock the roar of cannon and the fusillade of small arms began, and the engagement commenced. It was not noon when all was over. The Swiss were exterminated. The nobles and the knights fled from the Tuileries by the galleries of the Museum, and escaped by the courts of the Louvre. The men of Brest, Marseilles, and Paris, entered the castle pell-mell. The King had already left, and had made his way into the hall of the Legislative Assembly with M. Roederer, procurator- general of the department, and two Swiss generals. When the King left the Tuileries the action was at its fiercest. The King was placed in the reporter's box which was behind the president's chair. When he had entered the box, the Swiss generals asked his Majesty what orders he desired to give them. " Return to your posts and do your duty," replied Louis XVL, coldly. The deliberations of the Assembly continued with the deputies of the minority ; the majority had been insulted and had fled. Everyone is acquainted with the melancholy events of that terrible day, the 10th of August, which destroyed at one blow the monarchy, the constitution, and the prosperity of France for many years. On the evening of that sad day the King and his family were conducted to the Temple. A report made to the Assembly was followed by the fall of Louis XVI The people in their anger overthrew the four equestrian statues of Louis XIII., Louis XIV., Louis XV.The hatred of royalty had reached its climax, and public opinion no longer knew where to fix its hopes, or to go for advice.