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Ten myths about the French Revolution
BY MARISA LINTON (HTTP://BLOG.OUP.COM/AUTHORS/MARISA-LINTON) JULY 26
T
Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship, and Authenticity in the French Revolution
he French Revolution was one of the most momentous events in world history yet, over 220 years since it took place, many myths ab
it are still firmly entrenched in the popular psyche. Some of the most important and troubling of these myths relate to how a revolution
that began with idealistic and humanitarian goals resorted to the “Terror”. It is a problem that is as pertinent for our own world as it wa
or the people of the late eighteenth century.
BUY NOW
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1. The French Revolution was made by the poor and hungry.
False. Or not initially, though they were certainly involved later. The Revolution was begun by members of the elite, many of them nobles, follow
a financial crisis which led to state bankruptcy, loss of confidence in the monarchy, and political destabilisation. Almost every successful revoluti
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095835115) begins with divisions amongst the ruling elite and loss of contr
he army. If revolutions were made by the poor, the hungry, and the desperate, they would happen far more often.
2. Marie-Antoinette, on being told that the people had no bread, replied, “Let them eat cake”.
No, she didn’t. Nor did she suggest they might try brioche, croissant, or any other culinary delicacy. It is true, though, that she was supremely
gnorant of, and indifferent to, the lives of the poor. She didn’t have all the affairs her enemies credited her with either – just one, with the Swedi
noble, Fersen. But it was true that she was a big spender, lavishing money on a select group of her favourites. It is also true that during the
Revolution, in 1792, she betrayed the battle plans of the French to the Austrian invaders in the hope that the French armies would be defeated
he monarchy restored.
mage Credit: ‘Marie-Antoinette, Portrait with a Rose’,
by Élizabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1783); from the Musée
National du Château de Versailles. Public Domain via
Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_Adult4.jpg).3. The French Revolution of 1789 and the fall of the Bastille led directly to the overthrow of the monarchy.
False. The revolutionaries of 1789 set up a constitutional monarchy
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095633946). This lasted three years. In the end the constitutional monarch
ell in large part because it became obvious that the king himself didn’t accept it, when in June 1791 he attempted with his family to flee France
he flight to Varennes, a plan largely orchestrated by Marie-Antoinette
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100134146) and Fersen. Suspicion of the monarchy was a big factor in the
declaration of war on the foreign powers in April 1792. It was a war that went very badly for France and led to a second revolution, on 10 Augus
1792, that overthrew the monarchy. A National Convention was instated, voted for on the basis of a democratic male franchise. Its deputies
declared France to be a republic.
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4. Brissot’s Girondin faction were the moderates, opposed to Robespierre’s bloodthirsty Jacobins.
Not true in 1791-1792, when Brissot (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095527877) was the voice of the radi
Revolution, calling for war with the foreign powers, in the hope that the turmoil of war would expose the treason of the king. Brissot’s war plan w
opposed by Robespierre (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100424522) who thought it a crazy idea, which c
go badly for France and lead to increased militarisation. But at the time Brissot’s war policy was popular, and Robespierre was marginalised as
prophet of doom. The situation only changed because events proved Robespierre right. As he had predicted war destabilised the political situat
t generated panic and the search for conspirators. The Girondins (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.201108030958536
were caught up in that downward political spiral, were outflanked, and became moderates. They were overthrown at the demand of the Paris
popular militants, the sans-culottes, and condemned as traitors in league with the foreign powers – though their real faults were incompetence,ambition, and recklessness.
5. The Jacobins installed a “system of terror” in September 1793.
A contentious statement. Many historians contest it, pointing out that it wasn’t just the Jacobin deputies in the Convention who voted for terror –
was a policy supported by many deputies. They passed a series of laws which enabled them to use terror. They saw it as justice – albeit the ha
ustice of wartime. It was chaotic, ad hoc, and violent certainly, but not a coherent system.
6. The guillotine was the principal means of execution, routinely used from the early stages of the Revolution to hack off the heads o
counter-revolutionaries.
No. The revolutionaries of 1789 did not foresee the recourse to violence to defend the Revolution and some, like Robespierre in 1791, wanted t
death penalty abolished altogether. Execution by guillotine (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192807007.001.0001/acre
9780192807007-e-1567) began with the execution of the king in January 1793. A total of 2,639 people were guillotined in Paris, most of them o
nine months between autumn 1793 and summer 1794. Many more people (up to 50,000) were shot, or died of sickness in the prisons. An
estimated 250,000 died in the civil war that broke out in Vendée in March 1793, which originated in popular opposition to conscription into the
armies to fight against the foreign powers. Most of the casualties there were peasants or republican soldiers.
mage Credit: ‘The Death of Marat’ by Jacques-Louis
David (1793), from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts,
Brussels. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Death_of_Marat_by_David.jpg).
7. Nobles were subject to execution simply for being nobles.
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False. Though nobility was abolished in June 1790 it was never illegal to have been a noble. Some high-profile nobles did die, and many more
came under suspicion. Those who fled the country, and became émigrés were subject to execution if they returned. But most held tight and wa
or the tide to turn.
8. Robespierre was a dictator who masterminded the ‘Reign of Terror’.
Robespierre’s time in power lasted just one year, from July 1793 to his death in July 1794 in the coup of Thermidor and even in that time he wa
never a dictator. He shared that power as one of twelve members of the Committee of Public Safety
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095627323), its members elected by the Convention, which led the
evolutionary government. He defended the recourse to terror, but he certainly didn’t invent it.
9. Once you were sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal you had no chance of acquittal – the only outcome was the guillotine.
Nearly half the people sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris were acquitted. Even after the Law of Prairial in June 1794 expedited the
work of the Revolutionary Tribunal, nearly a quarter of the accused escaped with their lives. Ironically, an exception was the revolutionary leade
hemselves – all the revolutionary leaders who were sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal between autumn 1793 and summer 1794 were
condemned to death.
10. The overthrow of Robespierre in Thermidor (July 1794) was brought about to end the Terror and instil democracy.
No. Robespierre’s fall and execution was engineered by a group of his fellow Jacobins, some of whom were more extreme terrorists than he wa
because they thought he was about to call for their arrest and feared for their own lives. They assumed that the terror would continue. As one
deputy admitted, Thermidor (http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803103905268) was not about principles, but abo
killing. In the turmoil that ensued, moderates were able to regain the initiative and after over 100 of Robespierre’s supporters were guillotined,
slowly the terror laws began to be wound down. Successive regimes (the Thermidoreans and the Directory) were not interested in democracy b
keeping the middle classes in power. The Constitution of 1795 reinstated a franchise restricted to men with property.
Featured Image Credit: ‘The Taking of the Palace of the Tuileries, 10 August 1792’, by Jean Duplessis-Bertaux, from the National Museum of th
Chateau de Versailles. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques_Bertaux_-
_Prise_du_palais_des_Tuileries_-_1793.jpg).
Marisa Linton is Reader in History at Kingston University (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/faculty/staff/cv.php?staffnum=116). She has
written extensively on the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. Her latest book is a study of the genesis of the political terror in
the French Revolution; Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution
(https://global.oup.com/academic/product/choosing-terror-9780199576302?q=choosing%20terror&lang=en&cc=gb) (OUP, 2013).
Or subscribe to articles in the subject area by email (http://blog.oup.com/subscribe-oupblog-via-email/) or RSS
(http://blog.oup.com/follow/)
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What Can We Learn From The
French Revolution?
(Http://Blog.Oup.Com/2013/07/French-
Revolution-Democracy-Terror/)JULY 6 2013
A Reading List On The French
Revolution For Bastille Day
(Http://Blog.Oup.Com/2014/07/French-
Revolution-Bastille-Day-Reading-
List/)JULY 14 2014
The Reign Of Terror
(Http://Blog.Oup.Com/2013/09/Fr
Revolution-Reign-Of-Terror/)SEPTEMBER 6 2013
Recent Comments
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Fatimah Zahrah 30 JULY 2015
Dear Dr.Linton, I find your insights are quite enlightening. I wish to let you know that I’m translating your article to Bahasa Indonesia, like the
other two articles about Saint-Just and Robespierre. I hope you don’t really mind. I will put the original source, like previous two.
Have a good day, Dr. Linton.
Marten Douma 7 AUGUST 2015
I’d like to make an infographic about nr.6, to start with. Could you split for me the 50,000 in persons shot vs died of sickness in prisons?
Thanks a lot!
Marisa Linton 8 AUGUST 2015
The figures are complicated, and we can’t be sure of the final numbers as not all the deaths were recorded. The total executed in Paris was
2,639 – they died by the guillotine. A total of 16,594 death sentences were handed out (including Paris), some by guillotine though many
more were shot. But to that total you have to add people who were killed without trial, or who died of sickness in the crowded prisons. The
overall total (including the official death sentences) is estimated to be between 40,000 and 50,0000.
Ariane 11 SEPTEMBER 2015
Thank you very much for your exposing of these myths.
I’d like to tell you that your book on Choosing Terror was very helpful to me for preparing my own studies about the role of the references
taken from the antiquity in the proces leading to the politicians terror. About the installation of a system of terror in September 1793, I’d like
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to add my opinion. I think that you’re right in arguing that there wasn’t really a system. The decision to create these laws was, in my view, a
shortterm reaction to the leading Girondins’ campaign of delegitimating the Montagnards claim to power, by means of calumny that lead to
civil war. A reaction of terror to meet terror maybe? What do you think?
Marisa Linton 17 SEPTEMBER 2015
You are right that the tactics of the Girondins played a part in leading to what I call the politicians’ terror – that is, the terror directed by
revolutionary politicians against one another. But the laws that enabled the wider terror, including the Law of Suspects, were voted for unde
pressure from the sans-culottes. And it wasn’t only Montagnards who voted for these laws but the deputies in the Convention. The point is
that this choice – to use terror – was a collective one, made under pressure from circumstances,war and popular pressure, not one made
by the Montagnard leaders alone.
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