Feuillants

The Feuillants Club were a political faction during the early days of the French Revolution.  They were largely drawn from more conservative members of the Jacobins who worried about the instability of the revolution.  The split became a permanent one when more radical Jacobins campaigned for a petition to remove the monarchy and the Feuillants pushed for a more constitutional monarchy.  The signing of the petition ended in bloodshed on the Champ de Mars on July 17th 1791 when National Guardsmen fired on the crowd.  This resulted in the 264 Jacobins joining the Feuillants.

The group’s meetings were held in a former monastery which had been previously occupied by the Feuillant monks.  They referred to themselves as the Amis de la Constitution (friends of the Constitution).  They were led by what was known as the “Triumvirate”: Barnave, De Lameth and Duport.  Their power seemed complete as the King increasingly relied on them with Barnave penning his speech for the opening of the Assembly and they formed the majority of the King’s ministerial appointments.

However with the increasing unpopularity of the monarchy and the coming of war the Feuillants increasingly became an irrelevance.  Their anti war pro monarchy stance made them increasingly unpopular in Parisian society.  When the monarchy fell after the attack on the Tuileries Palace so did the Feuillants with many of the members including Barnave being executed.