The Grenelle camp affair was an event of the French Revolution which occurred under the Directory, on the night of 9 to 10 September 1796.
The Grenelle camp affair was an event of the French Revolution which occurred under the Directory, on the night of 9 to 10 September 1796.
The affair was the decisive episode in the Conspiracy of the Equals led by Gracchus Babeuf. Advocating agrarian communism, he prepared a plot with a number of Montagnards. After the failure of the Insurrection of 12 Germinal Year III and the Revolt of 1 Prairial Year III (1 April and 20 May 1795), Babeuf abandoned the strategy of inciting a popular uprising.
On 10 May 1796, Babeuf and the members of the Conspiracy of the Equals were arrested. Faced with the repression that then fell on Parisian democratic circles, several of his associates tried to provoke an uprising, first within the Police Legion and then, after its dissolution on 13 Floréal Year III (May 2, 1795), among the soldiers of the 21st Dragoon Regiment, who were camped at Grenelle. [1]
Already responsible for the arrest of Babeuf and his comrades, the double agent fr: Georges Grisel was at the origin of the police plot prior to the Grenelle affair. [2] Perhaps warned by Grisel, Lazare Carnot is said to have warned Malo, the unit commander. According to other sources it was in fact Malo who warned Carnot, who decided to take advantage of the situation to get rid of the last remaining Jacobins. [3]
200 to 500 conspirators arrived at the camp on the night of 23 to 24 Fructidor (9 to 10 September). They were met with gunfire, leaving around twenty dead and many wounded. [1] 132 conspirators were captured in the camp and the surrounding area.
Among the directors, while Carnot and Étienne-François Letourneur were organizing the defense of the Luxembourg Palace against an expected attack, Paul Barras is said to have helped some of his compromised friends to flee. As for La Révellière-Lépeaux, then president of the Directory, he was not informed until the last moment, [3] and Reubell left for his country house in Arcueil. [4]
The Directory decided on a campaign of merciless repression. On 24 Fructidor, the Council of 500 and the Council of Ancients voted for a law modifying the existing law of 22 Messidor (12 July) and allowing the use of the measures of 30 Prairial Year III (18 June 1795), which had originally been adopted to counter the Vendéen and the Chouan rebels captured under arms. Consequently, the Grenelle prisoners were brought before a military tribunal. [3]
In Vendémiaire year V (October 1796), the tribunal, meeting at the Temple, [5] pronounced about thirty death sentences, although sources differ on the number of convictions and the names of those condemned. [6] [7] Those executed included General fr:Maximilien Henri Nicolas Jacob. [1] Contrary to the Fructidor law, which allowed an appeal to the court of cassation, thirty of the condemned were shot without delay. Two others were sentenced in absentia, and another committed suicide. Three former members of the National Convention, Javogues, [8] Cusset [9] and Huguet [10] were among those shot, as well as the former mayor of Lyon Bertrand and several former revolutionary commissioners. [6]
On 22nd of Germinal (11 April 1797), the Court of Cassation annulled the other convictions. Sent before the Criminal Court of the Seine, all were acquitted. [6]
François-Noël Babeuf, also known as Gracchus Babeuf, was a French proto-communist, revolutionary, and journalist of the French Revolutionary period. His newspaper Le tribun du peuple was best known for its advocacy for the poor and calling for a popular revolt against the Directory, the government of France. He was a leading advocate for democracy and the abolition of private property. He angered the authorities who were clamping down hard on their radical enemies. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was executed for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals.
The Directory was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 26 October 1795 until November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by the Consulate. In mainstream historiography, the term Directoire is also used to refer to the period, coinciding with the final four years of the French Revolution.
Camille Jordan was a French politician born in Lyon of a well-to-do mercantile family.
Augustin Alexandre Darthé was a French revolutionary.
Filippo Giuseppe Maria Ludovico Buonarroti, more usually referred to under the French version Philippe Buonarroti, was an Italian utopian socialist, writer, agitator, freemason, and conspirator; he was active in Corsica, France, and Geneva. His History of Babeuf’s Conspiracy of Equals (1828) became a quintessential text for revolutionaries, inspiring such socialists as Blanqui and Marx. He proposed a mutualist strategy that would revolutionize society by stages, starting from monarchy to liberalism, then to radicalism, and finally to communism.
Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux was a deputy to the National Convention during the French Revolution. He later served as a prominent leader of the French Directory.
The Council of Five Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of the French First Republic under the Constitution of the Year III. It operated from 31 October 1795 to 9 November 1799 during the Directory period of the French Revolution.
The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders was the upper house of the French legislature under the Constitution of the Year III, during the period commonly known as the Directory, from 22 August 1795 until 9 November 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution.
The Constitution of the Year III was the constitution of the French First Republic that established the Executive Directory. Adopted by the convention on 5 Fructidor Year III and approved by plebiscite on 6 September. Its preamble is the Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
The Conspiracy of the Equals of May 1796 was a failed coup d'etat during the French Revolution. It was led by François-Noël Babeuf, who wanted to overthrow the Directory and replace it with an egalitarian and proto-socialist republic, inspired by Jacobin ideals.
Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier was a major French politician of the French Revolution. He is sometimes called the "Great Inquisitor", for his active participation in the Reign of Terror.
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Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognized as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fervently campaigned for the voting rights of all men and their unimpeded admission to the National Guard. Additionally, he advocated the right to petition, the right to bear arms in self-defence, and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. He was a radical Jacobin leader who came to prominence as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, an administrative body of the First French Republic. His legacy has been heavily influenced by his actual or perceived participation in repression of the Revolution's opponents, but is notable for his progressive views for the time.
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot was a French mathematician, physicist, military officer, politician and a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution. His military reforms, which included the introduction of mass conscription, were instrumental in transforming the French Revolutionary Army into an effective fighting force.
The Panthéon club was a French revolutionary political club founded in Paris the 6 November 1795. Its official name was Reunion of Friends of the Republic. It was composed of former terrorists and unconditional Jacobins coming from the petite bourgeoisie.
Guillaume-Charles Faipoult was a French aristocrat, soldier and politician who was Minister of Finance during the French Revolution. He then represented France in Italy, where he organized the newly formed republics. During the First French Empire he was prefect of the Scheldt department, and then Minister of Finance in Spain under Joseph Bonaparte. Faipoult was prefect of Saône-et-Loire during the Hundred Days.
Louis-Joseph Lavallée marquis de Boisrobert, called Joseph Lavallée was an 18th–19th-century French polygraph and man of letters.
The Manifesto of the Equals was a document written in 1796 and recited at a meeting of the Society of the Pantheon, a political group that sought to challenge the new repressive government of France and the Constitution of 1795. This group championed radical leftist ideals of ‘perfect equality’ and ‘communal happiness’ over everything. The authorship of the Manifesto is attributed to a radical atheist, journalist, and playwright named Sylvain Maréchal. However, it is commonly suspected that the document had multiple authors. One man that Maréchal worked closely with was the political journalist François-Noël Babeuf. Babeuf is often referred to as the leader of the Conspiracy of the Equals. The letter was a failed insurrection that attempted to combat the undemocratic policies of the new government, which included limiting voting rights, and banning the right to assembly and free expression. Despite the political failure of this coup d’état, which ended with the conviction and execution of several of its participants, including Babeuf, it did have significant ideological impact on the history of France and socialist ideals. The Manifesto in particular was very influential as the first political manifesto. It was written not just as a theory or declaration, but a relatable and public response to the perceived failure of the existing constitutions and legal documents. The Manifesto, addressed to the "PEOPLE OF FRANCE!", proclaimed the need to remove the revolution from legal procedure, establish greater communal equality, and abolish capitalist ideas like private property. Ultimately, this was intended to continue revolution and incite tremendous political change.
Legislative elections were held in France between 21 March and 2 April 1797 to elect one-third of the members of the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Ancients, the lower and upper houses of the legislature, which were under the Directory.