In October 1794, General Canclaux commanding the
main Republican force in the West, i.e. involved in the
Vendee, estimated the nominal strength of the three armies
there as 136,000, out of which after deduction of the
garrisons, left some 50,000 men to be employed as active
forces in the field. In contrast, the two Republican armies
one conquering Holland and the other advancing on the
Rhine had respectively some 67,000 and I 11,000. In 1796,
when the Vendee was finally pacified, Hoche's army of the
West was about 117,000 strong, about 45,000 of which were
sent as reinforcements to the frontiers. In addition, the toll
of the struggle between the "Blues" (Republicans) and the
"Whites" (the Vendeans) was extremely heavy and caused
an estimated 600,000 casualties. Indeed a very heavy drain
since, in 1789, France had a population of about 26 millions.
The theater of war was not limited to the actual
department of the Vendee which is located in the West of
France and part of the province of Poitou (see Map). As it
will be seen the conflict area extended much further to
Poitou, Brittany, Anjou, Maine, Touraine and even to
Normandy. Like most of France in 1789, the Vendee was
largely agricultural. It was somewhat of an economically
backward region with few large towns, and somewhat
isolated from the rest of France by its poor roads.
It may come to a surprise that the Revolution of 1789
was received in the Vendee with few disturbances. The
majority of the Vendean peasants were even favorable to
the new revolutionary government. The Vendean gentry
was not particularly close to the peasants, nor religious
[2]
in a province highly pious, but a rather ignorant bunch
trying to cling to their privileges. Of course the great
majority of the nobles were Royalist and only very few
joined the Revolution. From the beginning they tried to
reverse the course of events. Consequently, in 1789, like in
the rest of France, a certain rivalry existed between the
peasants and the nobles but in Vendee the peasantry
preserved a certain respect for the old families and no
excesses were committed.
In the Vendee country, the peasants were fervently
religious and were very close to the sincere and high faith of
the local country priests which were sympathetic to
democratic instincts. Hence, when the Revolution started,
the later welcomed the coming of egalite proclaimed by the
Convention as the fulfillment of the scriptures. In addition,
the elimination of the feudal taxes was a welcomed relief for
the Vendean peasants. For them, the real leader to follow
was the local priest as the local noble did not yet inspire
their trust or respect. If the local priests had remained on the
side of the Revolution, the revolt of the Vendee would not
have taken place.
The rising of the west of France in 1793 was caused
mainly by two measures voted by the Convention. The first
one was the attempt to implement the Civilian Constitution
of the Clergy which had been pushed by Camus. In this
document, Camus, an uncompromising and strict Jansenist,
decided to reform the discipline of the Catholic church. He
did not realize that the changes to be brought up were a
fuse on a powder keg!. The reforms required the priests to
take an oath to the new constitution and were equated to
the imperilment of religious freedom. The immediate
consequences were that the local priests deserted the
Revolution and the local people supported the priests who
refused to take the oath. The arrest of the local priests who
refused to take the oath and other provocations did the rest
and resulted in local open hostility and mass
demonstrations. The second measure that broke the camel's
back was the introduction by the Convention of the military
laws of February 20 and 24, 1793 calling to arms an
additional levy of 300,000 men.
The full fledged insurrection did not start
immediately. It should be realized that the armed resistance
to the Convention was not limited to the west. All over
France, the royalist party was stronger that it is generally
realized. Two large cities Toulon and Lyon were already in
open rebellion and had to be reduced by
regular sieges. In addition, Brittany was already ablaze by
the action of the Chouans.
[3]
Of course, as the nobles of the West were royalists,
like everywhere else, they had started to plot against the
Revolution. In the Vendee that resulted in several attempts
to start an open revolt. As early as June 1791 a conspiracy,
in which most of the local nobles took part and met at the
castle of the Proutiere, had for objective the taking of the
city of Les Sables d'Olones. The local government was
informed in time and sent the National Guard that burned
the castle and made a number of arrests. The prisoners were
soon released by a general amnesty of the Convention. But
the nobles did not give up and continued to work up the
local peasants.
From June 1791 to the end of August 1792, no less
than nine attempts to insurrection took place. In January
1793, the judgment of Louis the XVIth did not help the
situation. If the country folks had been pro-revolutionary
and for reforms that did not mean they were against the
King.
They simply were, like most, against the outdated
privileges and the overbearing taxes. In fact they were
deeply royalist. Consequently, worked on by the local
priests and the gentry they became increasingly hostile to
the Convention.
As a general rule, the people of large town and cities
where the bourgeois were numerous
[4] were more
progovernment, but the country folks less so. It was in the
west that the rivalry between the cities and towns and the
country was the greatest. Consequently, these larger towns
and cities were pro-government strongholds and never rose
against the Republic.
La Vendee Napoleonic French Rebellion 1793
I could not let 1993 go by without covering the
Vendee [1] rising as
two hundred years ago, in March 1793 to be exact, the
tragic, confused slaughter called the war of La Vendee
started. Like all civil wars, it was to mark France for years to
come and by its massacres put another black mark on the
already discredited French Revolution. The Vendee
insurrection is too important of consequences to be ignored
by anyone interested in the wars of the French Revolution
and of the Empire, as the struggle heavily affected the
armies facing the enemy on the frontiers of France. The war
in La Vendee took a heavy share on the French resources at
a time when the Republic needed all the available forces to
check the invasion by the Allies.
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