Flight to Varennes

On the night of the 20th to the 21st of June 1791 Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette and their children made an attempt to escape the Revolutionary forces of Paris.  The royal family had been brought to Paris after the events of the 5th October 1789 when a mob stormed the Versailles Palace.  It had appeared that there was some of conciliation between the King and his people.  There was however increased tension between the Parisians and their King as his power was mostly swept away.  Some disliked his obvious distaste of the Civic Oath that all clergy were meant to sign.  Others wondered how Louis could be loyal to the constitution when some many of his family had fled France and were now ensconced in countries known to be openly hostile to the revolution.  There had been plans to escape however the King was loathed to escape on his own or the Queen to depart with the children.  Events escalated however when Parisians stopped the King trying to leave the Tuileries Palace and attend mass at Saint Cloud.  The event was even more alarming when the National Guard refused to follow Lafayette’s orders and did not disperse the crowd but supported the mob and blocked the royal family.

The plan of escape was to head towards the eastern frontier of France and thence to rally loyal royalist garrisons to the cause and return to Paris in triumph and reinstate the King’s former powers.  So their entourage left the palace under cover of nightfall with Marie Antoinette narrowly missing Lafayette.  The desire to keep the family together alongside the dauphin’s governess Marquise de Tourzel (pretending to be a Russian baroness) and the King’s sister made it necessary to travel in a heavy and slow coach.  Count Axel von Fersen the Queen’s favourite (and many would say lover) drove the first leg of the journey.

Unfortunately for the royal family they were beset by a series of delays including a broken harness and taking longer than they thought to leave Paris.  As morning broke the royal family’s escape was discovered and troops rapidly dispatched across the country to hunt them down.  The royal family had made their torturous progress to within 50 miles of Montmedy their final destination.  Whilst stopping in Sainte Menehould the King was spotted by the local postmaster Jean-Baptiste Drouet.  It has gone down in history (though possibly apocryphally that he recognised the King’s visage from an assignat.  He alerted the nearby authorities who stopped the King in Varennes.  At this point a troop of royalist hussars who had meant to meet the King earlier arrived and contemplated an attempt to rescue the King.  They worried that the King might be killed in the ensuing bloodshed so turned around and left the monarch to his fate.

The royal family were returned once again to Paris under armed guard.  There was an unsettling silence as they made their way to the capital.  On their return Joseph Barnave was one of the politicians who rode in with the royal family.  It seems he became enamoured with the Queen and struck up an unlikely political partnership.  Others would not be so cordial to the royal family.  Now no one believed that the King was loyal to the constitution or revolution.  Soon groups would emerge who no longer wished to maintain the King at all.  The Flight to Varennes had made the possibility of a constitutional monarchy all but impossible.

The Marquis de Bouille recounts the King informing him of his intention to flee Paris in January 1791.  Taken from Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution by the Marquis de Bouille, Cadell and Davies, London (1797) p267-269

About the latter end of January I received notice from the king, that he hoped to be able to accomplish his departure from Paris in the month of March March or April ; he desired me to inform him what route he must pursue to arrive at Montmedy, and what plan I had adopted to secure his retreat to that place. I wrote him word, that there were two roads which led from Paris to that fortress ; one through Rheims and Stenay, upon which there were very few towns which it was essential to avoid ; the other through Chalons, Saint Menehoud, and either Varennes, or Verdun, a fortified town the more dangerous, as its garrison, inhabitants, and municipalities were debatable. To avoid this inconvenience then, it was necessary to take the road of Varennes, in which town however no post-horses were to be procured ; another disagreeable circumstance which must be submitted to. I next urged his majesty to engage the emperor to march a body of troops to the frontier of Luxembourg near Montmedy, in order that I might have a pretext for assembling an army on my side, and for making all the preparations necessary for the camp I had projected ; this would likewise, I observed be an additional security to his majesty,  when he should arrive at the place of his retreat.

In a few days I received an answer to this from his majesty,. in which he informed me, that he preferred the road to Varennes, wishing to avoid Rheims, where he had been crowned, and where he was more known to the people; he at the fame time told me, that he had received a formal promise from the emperor to march a body of twelve or fifteen thousand men to the frontiers, on the shortest notice.

What his majesty's projects were on his arrival at Montmedy, or what conduct he intended to adopt towards the assembly, I never could learn ; though whoever is acquainted with the religious character of the king can entertain no doubt, that when his majesty solemnly engaged to support the constitution, it was his intention scrupulously to observe his oath…

I imagine then that his majesty would have been guided in his conduct by the disposition of the people and army, and that he would not have employed force, unless he found it impossible to make any reasonable arrangement with the assembly, which, however, was earnestly desired by several of its principal members, at the head of whom were Mirabeau, Duport, and even the Lameths. These clearly perceived the defects of their constitution ; they faw that it naturally paved the way to a republic, which they did not desire, and, perhaps, to an anarchy, which they dreaded; the greater part of them confessed that they had followed no plan in the fabrication of their government, and had been unavoidably carried farther than they intended.

The Marquis de Bouille relates how he was sent a letter from the King relating his plans for escape in spring 1791.  Taken from Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution by the Marquis de Bouille, Cadell and Davies, London (1797) p304-307

A few days afterwards, I received a letter from the king in cypher; which informed me, that he had fixed on the latter end of April or the beginning of May for the time of his departure from Paris. Having determined to take the road of Varennes for Montmedy, he desired me to establish a chain of posts from Chalons to that place. He informed me that he proposed travelling with his whole family in a single coach, which he had ordered to be constructed expressly for that purpose. In the answer which I returned his majesty, I took the liberty of representing to him, that the road he had chosen would be attended with great inconvenience, from the circumstance of being obliged to place relays of horses to supply the defeat: of post-houses; this I observed would either compel me to impart the secret to some person, or would be the means of exciting suspicions.

I endeavoured then to persuade his majesty to go to Montmedy by the way of Rheims or Flanders, passing through Chimay and crossing the, Ardennes: I represented to him the impropriety of travelling with the queen and his children in a carriage of peculiar construction, which could not fail of attracting general observation; I advised him, on the contrary, to make use of two English diligences for himself and family.  taking with him some person of approved fidelity, who might if necessary show himself, and at the same time serve as a guide, neither the queen nor himself being acquainted with the road I proposed for this purpose, the marquis d'Agoult, major of the French guards, a man of good sense, courage, and firmness, and extremely proper for such an undertaking. I likewise objected to his majesty, the great inconvenience which might result from placing a chain of posts upon the road: if they were weak, they would answer no other purpose than exciting distrust in the minds of the people, who already began to entertain sentiments of that kind, the Jacobins labouring with all their might to alienate their affections as much as possible from the king; if, on the contrary, these detachments were considerable, they would give cause to the most violent suspicions, and even, in some manner, make known the project of his majesty: besides, it was not in my power to put in motion complete corps, but by an order from the king.

The Marquis de Bouille relates how waiting for the news or indeed arrival of the King on his flight from Paris he instead was greeted with different news.  Taken from Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution by the Marquis de Bouille, Cadell and Davies, London (1797) p340-341

I waited till it was four o'clock, when day-light beginning to appear, without having heard any news of the king, I hastened back to Stenay, that I might give my orders to general Klinglin and the regiment of royal Allemand, in case any accident had happened to the king which it was in my power to remedy. In about half an hour I arrived at Stenay, when just as I reached the gate, the two officers whom I had sent to Varennes, and (to my great astonishment) the commander of the squadron of hussars stationed in that town, came to inform me, that about half past eleven the king had been arrested there.... On questioning them relative to the causes which had led to this event, all I could learn was, that the troops employed had been seduced, and had not done their duty:  they told me, that the people on hearing the alarm had flown to arms, and that the national guards were flocking from all parts to Varennes.

Gouverneur Morris on hearing first reports on the royal family's flight from Paris in June 1791.  Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p138

We hear that the king and queen of France have effected their escape from the Tuileries and have got six or seven hours the start on their keepers.  This will produce some considerable consequences.  If they get off safely a war is inevitable, and if retaken, it will probably suspend for some time all monarchical government in France.

Madam Campan (one of the Queen’s lady in waiting) on the flight to Varennes.  Taken from Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Complete Madame Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, Echo Library, Teddington (2007) p206

The Queen mainly attributed the arrest at Varennes to M. de Goguelat; she said he calculated the time that would be spent in the journey erroneously.  He performed that from Montmedy  to Paris before taking the King’s last orders, alone in a post-chaise, and he founded all his calculations upon the time he spent thus.  The trial had been made since, and it was found that a light carriage without any courier was nearly three hours less in running the distance than a heavy carriage preceded by a courier.

The Queen also blamed him for having quitted the high road at Pont-de-Sommevelle, where the carriage was to meet the forty hussars commanded by him.  She thought that he ought to have dispersed the very small number of people at Varennes, and not have asked the hussars whether they were for the King or the nation; that, particularly, he ought to have avoided taking the King’s orders, as he was previously aware of the reply M.d’Inisdal had received when it was proposed to carry off the King.

Madam De La Tour Du Pin on the Flight to Varennes. Escape from the Terror The Journal of Madam De La Tour Du Pin, The Folio Society, London (1979) p128

I will not describe here the the details of the unfortunate flight, so clumsily organised.  Memoirs of the day have described it in all its aspects.  But what I did learn from Charles de Damas was that, at the moment of the arrest, he has asked the Queen to let him take the Dauphin up on his horse, that he could in this way have saved him, but that the Queen would not consent.  Unhappy Princess, mistrustful of even the most faithful among her servants!

Before the King left Paris, it had been suggested to him that it might be better to take two trustworthy young men used to riding post, rather than the two soldiers of the Garde du Corps who did, in the event, accompany him and who had never ridden anything but troop horses.  The king refused.  The entire flight, organised by M. de Fersen, who was a fool, was a succession of blunders and imprudences.

Barère on the royal families attempted flight from Paris in June 1791.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 1, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p269-271

The month of June offered a fresh excuse for the acceptance of the constitution by the flight of the King and Queen, with their children, to the frontier towns of the north, while Monsieur, the King's brother, also took flight to another part of the frontier. M. d'Artois and his family had left France on Sunday evening, the I2th of July, 1789, and had taken refuge at Coblentz.

The first news of the departure of the King and his family during the night of the 2ist of June, 1791, caused a general impression of astonishment, to which succeeded a feeling of anger at the violation of the royal promises and of so many pledges to form the constitution. But, little by little, public opinion was reassured, and by midday nothing survived but universal joy. Everyone felt delivered from what was then called " the evil of kings." A republic was not called for, but the people had republican sentiments without knowing it….

When the news of the King's arrest reached the Assembly a profound depression ensued. It was felt that the royal yoke, till then believed to be broken, would again weigh upon all, and the enforced return of a fugitive King at once annoyed the nation, which blushed at it, and the Assembly, which found it embarrassing. Two days afterwards, when the King and his family, whose dress and following are as difficult as annoying to describe, reached the Tuileries by the revolving bridge, a raging crowd surrounded the carriage with awful hoots, cat-calls, yells and execrations. The Assembly, being advised of this, and fearing lest some fatal accident would happen, immediately sent thirty deputies to escort the carriages of the King and his family through the garden to the palace, and to repress the fury of the populace.

Marat on the King being brought back after his failed flight from Paris in 1791.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p157-158

Behold him brought once again within our walls, this crowned brigand, perjurer, traitor, and conspirator, without honour and without soul! In the very midst of the procession which led him prisoner, he seemed insensible to the infamy of being dragged in a chariot filled with the criminal accomplices of his misdeeds, to the infamy of being exposed to the eyes of a countless number of his fellow-citizens, formerly his slaves. Any other would have died of sorrow and shame, but he only understands animal sufferings. The whole time that he was in the hands of the soldiers of the country, he did not cease to entreat them to do him no harm, and he thought of nothing but of begging them for food, and above all for drink.