How and why did Parisian perceptions of Lafayette change during the liberal revolution of 1789-1791?
Introduction
Lafayette was a true revolutionary throughout his life, having participated in the American Revolution, the French Revolution of 1789, and the French Revolution of 1830. Most people in America know him more for his work alongside George Washington’s Continental Army in the American Revolution, which made him an international hero, but he accomplished so much more in the following years that often goes unnoticed by many. After he returned to France with his newly gained status, he soon made his mark on the revolution in his home country. A true advocate for liberalism and the initial ideals of the revolution, his star only rose in the first couple years after the Estates General was summoned in 1789. In 1791, however, two critical events in French history led to his plummet down to Earth, which ended with an arrest warrant and an attempted escape to America: Louis XVI’s famous Flight to Varennes and the Champ de Mars massacre. Throughout this exhibit, I will use published engravings from before and after that fateful summer of 1791 to demonstrate the shift in how Lafayette was perceived by the Parisian public throughout the time period in question and explain why he became an enemy of the people.
July of 1789
Lafayette had an incredible week in the middle of July during the first year of the revolution. First, on the 11th of that month, he proposed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. With assistance from Thomas Jefferson and inspiration from America’s Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, Lafayette created a document which made a statement about the values of the revolution, as well as liberty and democracy, which continues to impact France and the world even today. Lafayette united most of the National Assembly and much of France as a whole behind his ideas, and laid the groundwork for the rights of Frenchmen to be sought after in the revolution (Armbruster, 131).
Just three days later, the Bastille was famously stormed by a Parisian mob. Paris during this period was chaotic, with tensions high between the King and the people because of the removal of liberal minister Jacques Necker and royal troop movements that led to fears of a counter-revolution (Llewellyn & Thompson). The day after, the milice bourgeoise, a citizen’s militia loyal to the National Assembly and comprised of many of its members, named Lafayette their commander-in-chief. The National Guard, as Lafayette renamed it, acted as a mediating force that could protect Paris from any foreign, counter-revolutionary threats, while also controlling and reducing rioting and crime in the city. Lafayette was an exceptional choice for this group, because he was a nobleman and a liberal, which put him in a position to be appealing to both royalists and revolutionaries (Llewellyn & Thompson). As shown by the
Fig 1. Unknown publisher. Mr de la Fayette commandant de la Garde nationale parisienne, reçoit des mains de la Ville l'epée de la deffense de la liberte (1789-1792). Held by the National Library of France.
caption of Figure 1 which loosely translates to “Lafayette receives the sword of the defense of freedom from Paris,” Lafayette had broad support from the whole of Paris, which he was trying to keep free by maintaining the values of the revolution amidst counter-revolutionary threats and radical-run riots (Fig 1) (Llewellyn & Thompson). Lafayette often had to walk a fine line between the King and his supporters and the increasingly radical commoners of Paris (Llewellyn & Thompson). He walked it very well for almost two years, although Paris continued to become increasingly unstable and increasingly radical despite his efforts.
The Day of Daggers
In February of 1791, just four months before Lafayette’s popularity tanked, he reached what may have been his highest point. The Day of Daggers is quite possibly the best example of Lafayette’s duty to keep order between two starkly opposite sides and managing to do so with grace. The first task of the day was to disperse a mob of radicals that were descending on the prison of Vincennes, hoping to make it into “a new Bastille” (Thiers, 62). After doing so with ease, he was called back to the Tuilleries Palace to deal with a new situation involving the King himself.
Hundreds of nobles, fearing for the safety of the King after learning of the mob activity, flooded the Tuilleries with daggers and knives, with the intent to defend the King from harm—or, as the radicals claimed, they were trying to capture the king and place him at the head of a counter-revolution (Thiers, 62). Regardless of intent, Lafayette showed up as his National Guardsmen were harassing the nobles after having disarmed them. In order to prevent a violent escalation with possibly major consequences for the revolution, Lafayette had the nobles evacuated and the King was protected.
Fig 2. Unknown publisher. La Nation française assistée de Mr de la Fayette terrasse le despotisme et les abus du regne feodal qui terrassaient le people (1789-1792). Held by the National Library of France.
The Day of Daggers boosted Lafayette’s popularity because he clearly showed that he did not pick favorites and he did not seek power for himself. He ended a radical and violent attempt on Vincennes, while also keeping the former nobility, to which he was himself a part, in check. This check on nobility and symbolic rejection of the Old Regime is likely what is being represented in Fig 2, which says, in essence, “Lafayette, with the help of the Nation, destroyed the despotism and abuse of the feudal reign against the people” (Fig 2). Instead of siding with the nobility, he sided with the revolution—the nation. He showed his support for the King and constitutional monarchy by choosing to protect the King when he could have attempted to seize power for himself with the King’s men unarmed and outnumbered by his own forces (Thiers, 63).
Flight to Varennes
The first of Lafayette’s two blunders was the Flight of Louis XVI. As Lafayette was in charge of the custody of the royal family, the idea that the King could sneak past his watch made him look either incapable of the job or a royalist with ambitions to aid Louis in starting a counter-revolution (Thiers, 66). What is more, however, is that Lafayette did send the National Guard after the family right after the news broke of their flight to save face and give the appearance of a kidnapping. Despite his efforts to cover up the true story of the Flight, Lafayette angered the common people and the radicals who claimed he wanted the King to flee (Thiers, 66). Although the Assembly did support Lafayette in this issue, it was out of necessity, because if the King left willingly it created problems for constitutional monarchy while boosting the then radical idea of republicanism (Thiers, 66). The trust and popularity he had built up with the people, however, never recovered.
Champ de Mars Massacre
The massacre at the Champ de Mars, the future site of the Eiffel Tower, confirmed what the people saw as Lafayette’s betrayal after his complicity in the Flight to Varennes. After Varennes, popular dissent directed against both the government and National Guard, generally, and the King, Mayor Bailly and Lafayette, specifically, were common. The National Guard was suspected of having “let the king leave” (Andress, 192). Some radicals even went so far as to harass National Guardsmen and proclaim that “M. Bailly and M. Lafayette should be hanged” (Andress, 191). Those two were important in granting the King forgiveness after the Flight to Varennes, as they strongly believed in the idea of a constitutional monarchy. To protest the King after his seeming betrayal of the people, the Cordeliers, led by Danton and Camille Desmoulins, gathered a mob of thousands in the Champ de Mars to sign a petition for his removal.
After two men were killed by the mob, supposedly for being spies, Mayor Bailly proclaimed martial law which the National Guard would enforce. Lafayette’s troops fired warning shots into the air, but the mob did not disperse, leading Lafayette to order the Guard to fire into the crowd (Thiers, 71). This resulted in many casualties amongst the people, who now viewed
Lafayette and Bailly as enemies of the people with royalist ties. Fig 3 shows
the public mood surrounding those two
men, who were maybe the most prominent moderate leaders of the time. By combining them into the “man with two faces,” it concludes that they are essentially the same person, but also adds the negative connotations associated with being “two-faced” or ingenuine, as Bailly and Lafayette were held responsible for the massacre at the Champ de Mars (Fig 3). Without the support of the people, Lafayette soon resigned from his position and returned to his home disgraced.
Fig 3. Unknown publisher. L' Homme à deux face
(ca 1791). Held by the National Library of France.
Conclusion
The evolution of Lafayette’s esteem among the people is a statement to the changing values of the revolution, as it constantly shifted away from the moderate, liberal ideals which he himself had laid out in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It also shows how difficult Lafayette’s role was to perform—asked to always keep a steady middle course between two unagreeable parties, it comes as no surprise that eventually one or two mistakes could mean the end for his career. A man that was, and continues to be, extremely important in world history and the creation of Western ideals of liberty and natural rights, was cast aside by his own countrymen for trying to uphold those same principles.
Works Cited
Andress, David. 1999. "The Denial of Social Conflict in the French Revolution: Discourses around the Champ de Mars Massacre, 17 July 1791." French Historical Studies 22 (2): 183-209. https://doi.org/10.2307/286746. http://www.jstor.org/stable/286746.
Armbruster, Ian. 2019. "The Doctor of the Rights of Man." Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research (MJUR) (10): 130-147. http://ezproxy.csbsju.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=138427400&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Llewellyn, Jennifer, and Steve Thompson. 2018. The National Guard. Accessed April 21, 2020. https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/national-guard/
Thiers, M. J. L. A. 1845. The history of the French revolution, tr. with notes. https://books.google.com/books?id=yDIEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
La Nation française assistée de Mr de la Fayette terrasse le despotisme et les abus du regne feodal qui terrassaient le peuple. 1789-1792? Paris. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/frenchrevolution/catalog/nq991ry8455
Mr de la Fayette commandant de la Garde nationale parisienne, reçoit des mains de la Ville l'epée de la deffense de la liberte. 1789-1792? Paris. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/frenchrevolution/catalog/qm093ky2714
L' Homme à deux faces. ca 1791. Paris. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/frenchrevolution/catalog/yh511hr9759
I really enjoyed reading about this topic. It was interesting to compare/contrast the perception toward Lafayette in real life and in our revolution simulation. The idea of public perception is incredibly important to influential political figures and this example can be a historical lesson. I liked your second image and how it showed the publics power to dispose of Lafayette through perception.
I really appreciated that your research question was so clear as well as I had no idea that Lafayette worked with George Washington during the revolution. I like your choice of pictures and the headings above each of your sections. I think you did a really great job!
The perspective of Lafayette being a man stuck in the middle is interesting because, maybe due to the game, I saw him as just a man who defended the king almost as much as he defended himself. Nice choice of topic.