The Brunswick Manifesto

After France’s Declaration of War on Austria on 20th April 1792 and Prussia joining the conflict the two Allies appeared to about to invade France and end the Revolution.  On the 25th July Charles William Ferdinand Duke of Brunswick (who was commander of the two forces) issued what has become known as the Brunswick Manifesto.  The Manifesto itself was thought to have been penned by several French emigres.

The Manifesto stated that if the French Royal family were unharmed then the Allied armies would abstain from looting and French citizens would be able to rest assured their lives would be sacrosanct.  However if the Royal Family were in any way abused or humiliated then the whole of Paris maybe razed to the ground in revenge.

The point of the Manifesto appeared to be to frighten the French population into surrender and send the nascent Revolution into reverse. It did not have this effect, on the contrary many citizens saw this as evidence of further collusion between Louis and his wife with the enemies of France.  It served as a rallying call for the raising of arms and men that led to the victory at Valmy on the 20th September 1792.

Germaine De Staël on the Duke of Brunswick’s Manifesto.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p319

It has been strongly asserted that the terms in which the manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick was expressed were one of the principal causes of the rising of the French nation against the allies in 1792.  I do not believe this: the first articles of that manifesto contained what most papers of the kind since the Revolution have expressed; that is, that the foreign powers would make no conquest from France, and that they were not inclined to interfere with the interior government of the country.  To these two promises, which are seldom observed, was added, it is true, the threat of treating as rebels such of the national guards as should be found with arms in their hands; as if, in any case, a nation could be culpable in defending its territory! But had the manifesto even been more moderately couched, it would not, at that time, have at all weakened the public spirit of the French.  It is well known that every armed power desires victory, and has nothing more at heart than to weaken the obstacles which it must encounter to obtain it.  Accordingly, the proclamations of invaders addressed to the nations whom they attack all consist in saying: “Do not resist us”; and the answer of a spirited people should be: “We will resist you.”

Barère on the Duke of Brunswick Manifesto.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p10-11

This Prusso-German insulter outrages the French nation in his insolent letter. In the same breath he attacks the Revolution, its principles, its supporters, its authors, and its defenders. He threatens liberty, and comes to destroy the sovereignty of the people and to punish the national representation. He does not dissimulate any of the evil designs of the absolute kings of the North. The foreigner declares himself the enemy of the French and the friend of their King, who henceforth must appear to the minds of all only as the friend of the enemies of France. Brunswick's manifesto enlightens the nation, and decides it to make the most energetic resistance.