The Demonstration of 20 June 1792

The war between France and Austria as well as Prussia which had been declared on the 20th April 1792 was not going well for the French some two months later.  France was beset by military setbacks characterised by disorganisation and mass defections to their opponents.  Economically France suffered at the sudden restrictions on trade and growing inflation.  Many revolutionaries had lost any faith they had in the monarchy.  This was exacerbated when the King threatened to veto an assembly of fédérés (soldiers from across France) who had assembled to help the war effort around Paris.  The King also used the threat of a veto when the Legislative Assembly voted to deport any priests who had not sworn the oath of Civil Constitution.  The King dismissed his Girondin ministers as political stability began to collapse.

Groups assembled in Paris on the anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath.  Some wished to march on the Assembly and present them with a petition outlining their issues.  The initial peaceful protest soon took a more armed turn as people turned up carrying swords and clubs.  They would reach the Legislative Assembly who after much debating decided to let them enter and present their petition something which most likely they would have been forced to do. They criticised what they saw as the King’s despotic actions.  They then moved towards Louis’ residence.

The crowd managed to gain access to the personal rooms of Louis XVI and met the King.  Who remained calm despite the tension in the air.  He rejected the demands of the crowd to pass the legislation on non-juring priests and the fédérés.  He did manage to appease the mob by wearing a phrygian cap and downing a glass of wine.  As the prospect of tragedy faded farce entered as Assembly members and mayor Pétion told the people to leave, which they did.

The event did not appear to change anything as the King remained intransigent with his veto.  Many would criticise the crowd across France and Europe.  Some would note the ease which the mob had reached the King.  Some would also begin to note how he still remained in power and continued to use his veto.  They concluded he would have to be removed.

Germaine De Staël on the events of the 20th June 1792.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p314

These twenty thousand men made their way into the palace; their faces bore marks of that coarseness, moral and physical, of which the disgusting effect is not to be supported by the great philanthropist.  Had they been animated by any true feeling, they had come to complain against injustice, against the dearness of corn, against the increases of taxes, against compulsory service in the army, in short, against any suffering which power and wealth can inflict on poverty, the rags which they wore, their hands blackened by labour, the premature old age of the women, the brutishness of the children, would all have excited pity.  But their frightful oaths mingled with cries, their threatening gestures, their deadly instruments, exhibited a frightful spectre, and one calculated to alter forever the respect that ought to be felt for our fellow creatures.

Lord Gower British Ambassador on the storming of the Tuileries Palace on June 20th.  Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p165

The Jacobins to intimidate His Most Christian Majesty has failed entirely and has served only to impress more strongly on the minds of those who wish for order and good government an abhorrence of their principles and practices.  The majesty of the throne was sullied, but it gave the king a happy opportunity of displaying an extraordinary degree of calmness and courage.