Episode 31: The Thermadorian Reaction

Living the French Revolution and Age of Napoleon

Dr Suzanne M Desan

Film Review

Although the Revolution continued five more years after Robespierre was guillotined, the new government shifted significantly to the right. With close ties to the conservative Theradorians in the National Convention, the so-called “Gilded Youth” dressed like former members of the nobility, led sumptuous lives of decadence, rejected egalitarianism and smashed revolutionary statues. Elegant salons replaced most of the political clubs. In November 1794, members of the Gilded Youth started a brawl in the Jacobin Club, leading to its closure by the Convention.

In December 1794, the Girondins reappeared in the Convention, which eliminated price controls and closed munitions workshops employing the poor. Food prices shot up due to a poor harvest and and a cold winter in which ice and snow made it impossible to transport food to Paris. Large numbers died of starvation and suicide.

In February 1795, Gracchus Babeuf, a journalist who started a new revolutionary newspaper, was arrested for calling for insurrection to demand bread, reinstatement of the 1793 constitution and release of all political prisoners.

The final insurrection of the French Revolution occurred on 1 Prairial of Year 3 (May 20, 1795). During the uprising, protestors seized weapons from the the few remaining munitions workshops and occupied the Convention or three days. The Convention arrested several thousand Jacobins and Sans-culottes. 154 were tried and 13 leaders (including six Jacobin deputies) were guillotined as the Convention closed down more clubs. They also passed a new law forbidding women to attend the Convention gallery or gather in public in groups larger than 10. During the White Terror in southern France, conservative vigilantes engaged in a campaign to assassinate and massacre Jacobins.

In June 1795 Louis XVI’s son died of scrofula at age 10, and Louis XVI’s brother in exile in Italy declared himself Louis XVII. He also promised to bring back back the full power of the military and Catholic Church. The same month, the Republican Army put down a British-supported émigré invasion and counterrevolutionaries began organizing again in Vendée.

In the Convention Boissy d’Anglas, who chaired the committee charged with writing a new constitution, maintained it needed to safeguard the property of the rich by limiting political rights to those without property. It called for new deputies to be chosen by 30,000 property owning electors, for a bicameral legislature (with a new Council of Elders) and an executive (the Directory) of five people. France’s male voters approved the new constitution with a very low turnout.

Film can be viewed with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/149323/149383