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Micheline's Blog

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Tag Archives: Levée en masse or Conscription

The Tennis Court Oath

08 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in History, The French Revolution

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

France attacked, Jeu de Paume or Tennis Court, Levée en masse or Conscription, Merit, Tennis Court Oath, The war in the Vendée

The National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath (sketch by Jacques-Louis David). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath (sketch by Jacques-Louis David). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
feudalism

Feudalism (Micheline’s images)

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Tennis Court Oath: 20 June 1789

The Estates General (May-June 1789)
The Tennis Court Oath (17-20 June 1789)
The Storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789)
The End of Feudalism (4 August 1789) 
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 August 1789)
The Abolition of Slavery (4 February 1794)
 

We owe Revolutionary France the abolition of feudalism (4 August 1789), the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), a rather ugly separation of State and Church, the abolition of the tithe (one tenth of one’s yearly income paid to the Church) and a temporary abolition of slavery (4 February 1994). Napoleon revived slavery, but the struggle for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery had acquired a momentum of its own. It could not be stopped. Haiti declared its independence in 1804.

In other words, Revolutionary France adopted John Locke‘s theory of the natural rights of man to life, liberty and property. The Estates General were convened for the first time since 1614. However, one morning, the delegates to the already embattled Estates-General found themselves locked out of the room where the future of France was being discussed.

Undeterred, the delegates regrouped in an indoor jeu de paume: a tennis court, and made an oath that may well have ended Absolute Monarchy. It happened unofficially, but the people of France (peasants and a growing middle-class, i.e. the Third Estate), made an oath that showed genuine resolve.

I rather doubt that the delegates realized the importance of their oath, but they were of a mind that precluded the continuation of absolutism. Never again would l’État be the king’s playground: “l’État, c’est moi” (Louis XIV). Let me tell that story.

The 'Oath of the Tennis Court' painted by Auguste Clouder. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Oath of the Tennis Court, by Auguste Clouder. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Tennis Court Oath: Jeu de paume (June 1789)

Tennis Court Oath
Le Serment du Jeu de paume
L’Assemblée générale
Church, Nobility and the Third Estate (le tiers-état)
 

On 20 June 1789, 577 members of the Third Estate, the first and second being the Church (l’Église) and the Nobility (la noblesse), took refuge in an indoor tennis court, a jeu de paume[i] and, fearing the worst, 576 of the 577 delegates to the Estates General constituted a General Assembly and made an oath of solidarity remembered as the Tennis Court Oath. They swore

not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and affirmed on solid foundations. Such was the ‘spirit’[ii] of the Revolution.

(See Tennis Court Oath, Wikipedia)

Prise de la Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël

Prise de la Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houël (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789

 
The Storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (26 August 1789) 
The Abolition of Feudalism (4 August 1789)
The Convention (1792 – 1795)
The “Terror”
 

The Revolution had just begun, and it had begun peacefully. This would change. On 14 July 1989, citizens stormed the Bastille in disorderly fashion, but a few weeks later, on 26 August 1789, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was proclaimed, in orderly fashion. The pendulum had swung but it would swing again culminating in the “Terror” (1793 – 1794).

During the “Terror,” heads fell incessantly; approximately 16,000 citizens were guillotined in a period of nine months, in Paris alone. By the summer of 1894, the Revolution had in fact, turned into the tyrant it was pursuing. The Convention (1792-1795) dissolved itself on 26 October 1795 having ended the “Terror.”  Some view the execution of Maximilien de Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794 and Louis-Antoine-Léon de Saint-Just (25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794), called Saint-Just, as the end of the Revolution. But France had guillotined Louis XVI, so its Revolution could no longer lead to the constitutional monarchy envisaged by the signatories of the Tennis Court Oath.

The Republic’s next government would be the Directoire, the Directory (1795-1799), which is currently looked upon as the last phase of a revolution that both betrayed and served the ideals of the Enlightenment. France did not have a constitution “established and affirmed on solid foundations,” so the program set forth by the Tennis Court Oath was still unfolding. In fact, the fledgling Republic was at war.     

The Levée en masse: Conscription

The Royal family had attempted to flee, but was arrested at Varennes on 21 June 1791. (See Flight to Varennes, Wikipedia.) However, France was being attacked by ‘enemies,’ outside and inside its boundaries. Therefore, on 23 August 1793 a levée en masse (conscription) of some 800,000 men was called. European countries, monarchies, opposed the French Revolution and, particularly, the detention of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their two children. Marie-Antoinette was the sister of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. Leopold did little for his sister. Yet France was attacked and it was on the attack. Moreover, the Revolution was a civil war.

A levée en masse may have seemed a duty to some, but to others, Royalists, it was an affliction. The people of the Vendée could not be persuaded to betray the monarchy. They therefore opposed levées en masse such as the conscription ordered on 23 August 1793, thereby causing other levées en masse. It is at this point that Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, or Alex Dumas, would be called upon to suppress Monarchist rebellions in the Vendée, Brittany. The War in the Vendée or la Chouannerie is now considered the first modern genocide.  

The End of the First Republic

Thermidorian Reaction (end of the “Terror”)
The Directory (November 1795 – November 1799)
18 Brumaire (9 November 1799; coup d’état)
The Consulate 
 

In short, the Revolution played itself out beyond the Thermidorian Reaction (27 July 1794) that ended the Convention (1792-1795). It continued through the Directory,  from November 1795 until 10 November 1799, at which point Napoléon’s coup d’état of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799) created the Consulat, with Napoleon as first Consul. So the French Revolution ended officially on 18 Brumaire, or 9 November 1799, except that, in 1804, Napoleon made himself an emperor.

General Bonaparte during the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud, painting by François Bouchot, 1840

General Bonaparte during the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud, painting by François Bouchot, 1840 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conclusion

The French Revolution shook Europe profoundly, the “Terror” especially. That was a sin. Yet l’Ancien Régime was deeply flawed. Feudalism alone dictated a new order and the Third Estate had to be heard.

Therefore, although Napoleon made himself an Emperor, the Ancien Régime ended in both 1799 and June 1789, the day 576 delegates, members of the Third Estate, called themselves an Assembly and swore “not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the kingdom is established and affirmed on solid foundations.” (See the Tennis Court Oath, Wikipedia.)

On 4 August 1789, the Assembly, called the Constituent National Assembly, “decreed the abolition of the feudal regime and of the tithe.” On 26 August 1789 “it introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming liberty, equality, the inviolability of property, and the right to resist oppression.”[iii] Finally, on 4 February 1994, slavery was abolished.

The Tennis Court Oath, was a strong expression of the indomitable “spirit” of Revolutionary France and much had been achieved. But the ideals of the Revolution, i.e. liberté, égalité, fraternité were perhaps too lofty. Or is it that humankind is too imperfect?

Moreover, what of Napoleon who was about to turn himself into an Emperor? Had anything changed? Allow me to close by quoting Britannica:

“The Revolutionary legacy for Napoleon consisted above all in the abolition of the ancien régime’s most archaic features—“feudalism,” seigneurialism, legal privileges, and provincial liberties.”

“Napoleon also accepted the Revolutionary principles of civil equality and equality of opportunity, meaning the recognition of merit.”[iv]    

RELATED ARTICLES

  • “La Marseillaise”
  • Ninth Thermidor: the End of the “Terror”

Sources:

  • Fordham University: Levée en masse, 23 August 1793
  • F. A. M. Miguet’s History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #9602]

____________________

[i] The word paume, the palm of the hand, would suggest that tennis had rather humble, and somewhat painful, beginnings.

[ii] I seldom mention Montesquieu, but if liberalism were to be given a father, Montesquieu would be shortlisted. His full name was Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu.

[iii] “French Revolution.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219315/French-Revolution>.

[iv] “France.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 07 Feb. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/215768/France>.

—ooo—

Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73
“Emperor”: Adagio un poco mosso”
Hélène Grimaud (piano)
Paavo Järvi (conductor)
Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Joséphinr
Joséphine (Photo credit: Google Images)
© Micheline Walker
8 February 2014
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“La Marseillaise”

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Music, The French Revolution

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Hector Berlioz arrangement, Levée en masse or Conscription, Rouget de l'Isle composer, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Ouverture, The Estates-General, The French Revolution

Rouget de Lisle singing  La Marseillaise for the first time, at the Townhall in Strasbourg or at Dietrich's home.
Rouget de Lisle singing “La Marseillaise” for the first time, at the Town hall in Strasbourg or at Dietrich’s home. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

*Isidore Pils (19 July 1813 – 3 December 1875)

La Marseillaise written by Rouget de Lisle 

Rouget de Lisle 
The Army of the Rhine
Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)
Dinner in Strasbourg
25 April 1792 (composed)
14 July 1795 (National Anthem)
 

I would like to commemorate a event, the birth of La Marseillaise.[i] La Marseillaise, adopted by the Convention on 14 July 1795, is the current national anthem of France, but it was composed in 1792, in Strasbourg, by Rouget de Lisle (10 May 1760, Lons-le-Saunier – 26 June 1836, Choisy-le-Roi). There would be modifications to the Marseillaise, but it outlived the French Revolution and had an interesting career.

Rouget de Lisle was asked to compose a Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin (a War song for the Army of the Rhine) by the mayor of Strasbourg, Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (14 November 1748-29 – December 1793; by guillotine). Rouget de Lisle composed La Marseillaise on 25 April 1792, during one night of patriotic enthusiasm. La Marseillaise as national anthem was suppressed during certain periods, such as the Napoleonic era (Napoleon I), and there would be modifications, but La Marseillaise is the current national anthem of France. La Marseillaise was published in Rouget’s Essays in Verse and Prose, 1797.

Ironically, Rouget de Lisle was a Royalist who was jailed in 1793 and not released until the Thermidorian Reaction, i.e. when Maximilien de Robespierre and Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just were guillotined, on 28 July 1794. Rouget was not guillotined, due, perhaps, to his composition: La Marseillaise.

La Marseillaise as represented on the Arc de Triomphe
La Marseillaise as represented on the Arc de Triomphe
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Strasbourg to Marseilles

Levée en masse
Provençal volunteers
Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)
 

Composed in Strasbourg (northeast France), Rouget de Lisle’s anthem was entitled La Marseillaise, which doesn’t make much sense, geographically speaking. But it so happens that the anthem had been adopted by Provençal volunteers led by Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux. Barbaroux went to Paris and the song spread. It was inspirational and compelling. volunteers led by Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux. Barbaroux went to Paris and the song spread. It was inspirational and compelling.

Barbaroux and the Provençal volunteers

Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux: the Provençal volunteers
Strasbourg: Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich (guillotined)  
 

The naming of La Marseillaise had little to do with geographical location. Provençal volunteers, under the command of Charles-Jean-Marie Barbaroux, had adopted the Marseillaise as their chant de guerre, their war song. Armies have always marched to of the sound music. Barbaroux (6 March 1767 – 25 June 1794), a Freemason and a victim of the guillotine, went to Paris and dissemination of La Marseillaise, by that title, began. Given that the above-mentioned dinner, when Dietrich asked Rouget de Lisle to write an army song for the Army of the Rhine, took place in Strasbourg, at the mayor’s house, the house of Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich, but the song had acquired a life of its own. 

The Official Anthem of France: 1879 & 1887

1879
1887
Valérie Giscard d’Estaing (1974 until 1981)
 

In 1879, La Marseillaise became the official anthem of France (Third Republic) and an official version was composed in 1887. Former French President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing (b. 2 February 1926; in office from 1974 to 1981) criticized it and asked that the rhythm of the national anthem be slower (see L’Élisée, France and L’Express).

Hector Berlioz, however, composed an orchestrated version of the Marseillaise that gave it dignity. In fact, there were many delightful arrangements, transcriptions and quotations of La Marseillaise, despite its rather gruesome lyrics. 

Arrangements, Transcriptions and Quotations

Rouget de Lisle is remembered for his Marseillaise. However, what is particularly interesting is the career of that one piece of music. Wikipedia’s entry La Marseillaise has a long list of arrangements, transcriptions and quotations of Rouget’s composition.

Among arrangements of La Marseillaise, Hector Berlioz‘s 1830 arrangement for soprano, chorus and orchestra is very dramatic and has a Russian flavour. I wish I had found a better recording—better sound—than the one inserted below.

Berlioz’s Marseillaise was ‘quoted’ by Daniel Barenboim in the version of the Marseillaise inserted in my last post, 2 February 2014. We also have a piano transcriptions by Liszt and other pieces.

Musical Quotations

La Marseillaise has in fact been quoted frequently. Tchaikovsky‘s use of the Marseillaise in his 1912 Ouverture is masterful. I have included a movement of Tchaikovsky’s at the bottom of this post.

La Marseillaise has inspired millions. But would that the French Revolution had ended with the Tennis Court Oath, a meeting of representatives of the Third Estate that took place in a jeu de paume, an indoor tennis court. It didn’t. From the moment it began, the Revolution could not be contained.  It had gathered the momentum that led to the “Terror.”

So we had best close with the Marseillaise.

RELATED ARTICLES:

  • Ninth Thermidor: the End of the “Terror” (michelinewalker.com) 
  • “C’est mon ami,” composed by Marie-Antoinette (michelinewalker.com)
  • Resilience: from the French Revolution to the Interstate Highway System… (michelinewalker.com)
Sources:
  • Fordham University, Modern History Sourcebook: La Marseillaise
  • French Government L’Élisée, France
  • F. A. M. Miguet’s History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 is a Project Gutenberg publication [EBook #9602]
  • La Marseillaise, Wikipedia: words and translation

_________________________

[i] “La Marseillaise”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366458/La-Marseillaise>.

Liberty Leading the People (1830), Louvre-Lens
Liberty Leading the People, Eugène Delacroix, 1833, Louvre-Lens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rouget de L’Isle /Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869)

La Marseillaise

Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky – 1812 Overture (Finale)

01-022460UniteetindivisibilitedelaRepublique-RMNpourCarnavalet3

© Micheline Walker
5 February 2014
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