The Fall of the King
While the march of the sansculottes failed in the short term, there power had been obvious and Paris sections began working together to form a Republican revolt, some making a petition for the king's immediate deposition. Alarmed courtiers began openly carrying arms; both sides were readying themselves for a further confrontation. In addition, National Guardsman from across the nation were now arriving to take part in a parade on the Champ de Mars. Many were drafted in to support the Jacobins, the sectional assembly and their republican ideas. There was talk across Paris of storming the king’s rooms and declaring a republic.
On July 28th news reached Paris that the Duke of Brunswick had issued a statement threatening Paris with 'forever memorable vengeance' if the King was harmed, an act which caused the Legislative Assembly to arm all of Paris' citizens, not just the 'active' ones who formed the National Guard. They also agreed to discuss the issue of deposing the king on June 9th. In reality the Assembly was losing control of Paris and the movement, which Brissot and his fellows had hoped would force the king to reinstate them, had developed a massive momentum for removing the king entirely.
When the 9th came the central committee of the Paris sections seized power, declaring itself an insurrectionary commune and ordering all the National Guard to march to the Tuileries. They did. There they arrived to find that the king had fled to the Legislative Assembly, but they also found the palace guard, around 2000 National Guardsman and 900 Swiss guards. The National Guardsman immediately switched and joined their fellows on the commune’s side, but the Swiss opened fire, were attacked and massacred. The royal palace thus fell and with it the last vestiges of royal power. Crowds across Paris attacked royal symbols.
The Legislative Assembly responded by declaring the monarchy suspended until a National Convention (which would replace the legislative assembly) had met to decide the future, restoring the ministers and making a sectional politician called Danton Minister of Justice.
Power Struggle and the September Massacres
In practice the Insurrectionary Commune had taken power from the Legislative Assembly and they now followed a threefold agenda: revenge on those who has aided the king, action against refractory priests and action against Lafayette who they blamed for the Champs de Mars massacre and suspected of seeking power; he fled to Prussia. Suspicions, arrests and paranoia were rampant. On August 1st a tribunal was set up to try those suspected of political crimes and it was soon sending people to the guillotine but the commune grew frustrated with the perceived lack of speed.
Danton ordered a search of all Parisian dwellings for hidden weapons and suspects leading to 3000 more arrests. The Assembly passed a decree giving all those who had not taken an oath a fortnight to leave France or face deportation, while sansculottes began arresting clergymen. Meanwhile the Assembly tried to nullify the commune by calling new sectional elections, but this outraged the sections’ supporters and the commune refused to disband. Marat, a bloodthirsty writer whose solution to most problems was massacre, now rose to prominence as his works struck a cord.
On September 2nd news reached the capital that the last major fortress before Paris had fallen to the Prussians. The response was at first spontaneous attacks on prisoners whom people were afraid would be freed from prison and leave a counter-revolution at the head of Prussian armies. This developed over the afternoon as the commune took control to organise a massacre of half the prisoners in Paris via hastily convened ad hoc courts. Political and common criminals alike died, perhaps over 1500.
The National Convention
The National Convention was called on August 10th 1792 and was to be elected by universal manhood suffrage. It was to have 749 deputies and elections were held on August 27th and, crucially for the result, September 2nd. Only one in four of the electorate actually voted and less than half of the Legislative Assembly were returned. Brissot and the Girondins were voted in, as were Danton, Marat and Robespierre and members of the Paris commune. Like its predecessors the Convention was dominated by bourgeois lawyers, many of which were anti-king and pro-republic. There were fewer nobles and clergy than ever before.
The Abolition and Execution of the King
On September 21st 1792 the Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic; when the country later introduced the revolutionary calendar, this was day 1. This soon led to a debate about what to do with the king. Many Girondins wanted to keep him as a prisoner, perhaps to be used as a bargaining tool in the wars, although many Jacobins suspected the Girondins of wanting the option to restore the monarchy. Another group, at whose core was the commune and Parisian deputies and who became known as the Montagnards, wanted him executed. Indeed, they argued that a trial was unnecessary as the king had already been tried by the French people.
A motion by Petion was passed to try the king before the Convention itself, and the former King Louis XVI was indicted in December 1st, with the trial beginning on December 26th. There was only ever going to be one verdict and on January 15th 1793 693 out of 749 deputies voted him guilty. Any other result would have brought the sansculottes out again. An appeal took place, gaining 310 votes against execution but 380 votes for and Louis was executed by guillotine on January 21st 1793. The old regime was wholly and irreversibly ended, while France's enemies across Europe became more firmly set on their course.
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