Strauss 1

Josephine R. K. Strauss

Prof. Jonas

HSTEU 422

23 November 2015

Causes of the Counter-Revolution in the Vende

During the initial years of the French Revolution many pro-Royalist followers chose to

remain silent, especially in the outlying provinces of France. With the calling of the Estates

General in 1789, the purpose the deputies came to accomplish was to administer reforms to the

monarchy not create a Revolution. However, with the oath made amongst deputies of all three

Estates at the tennis court in Versailles, revolution, it seemed, was inevitable. Many radical

changes were made to the social structure in France; amongst them, the Civil Constitution of the

Clergy, which essentially secularized religion and caused great turmoil among avid believers and

worshippers of the Catholic religion. A Constitutional Monarchy for France seemed to be on the

horizon; however, with the Kings failed flight to Varennes and a disgraceful escort back to Paris

by the National Guard, that hope began to wane from the minds of the people as distrust in the

Baker and the Bakers wife rose. With the coming of what is known as the second revolution of

10 August, the monarchy was officially removed and a republic established. This event was

followed a few months later by the conviction of Louis XVI (Louis Capet) of treason, and his

subsequent execution. Shortly thereafter, a counter-revolution of loyalists in the Vende region

began against the new Republic, illustrating that popular opinion was not entirely in favor of the

radical and sacrilegious decisions of the National Assembly. Religious suppression of

Catholicism and the introduction of conscription drove previously silent pro-Royalist citizens of

the Vende region to insurrection, leading to one of the largest counter-Revolutionary

movements of the French Revolution and ending in tragedy with the deaths of hundreds of

thousands of people.

In decades prior to the Revolution, France had been one of the most devout countries in

the western world, ruled by a king from one of the most powerful Catholic families in Europe

the Bourbons. In recent years this devotion had dwindled as a result of new popularized concepts

that accompanied the Enlightenment, such as the rejection of faith over reason. Revolutionary

policy and goals upheld this trend. However, it was this concept of religious deconstruction that

was immensely unpopular in the Vende region, as the Loire Region was massively opposed to

the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and rural people found themselves in conflict with the new

institutions represented by the presence of the districts and departments.1 Before the start of the

Revolution, the Vende region was extremely Catholic, but with the imposition of the Civil

Constitution of the Clergy, their ability to practice their beliefs was greatly limited. This decision

was largely unpopular, as it forced people to change the way they ran their daily lives, as well as

their religious lives. In some regions, Revolutionary administrators had few hesitations about

closing nineteen parish churches (out of a total of fifty-two), as the additional churches were

seen as excessive and unnecessary.2 This greatly impacted rural populations in the Vende region

as the reduction in accessible churches inhibited people from attending meetings of worship and

other community gatherings. Attending church in the Vende region was more than just a display

of religious devotion, as Sunday mass was the occasion when, on coming to the bourg [village

center], the community felts its parochial identity, made decisions, and heard news conveyed by

the priest.3 Religious gatherings held communities together as well as supported peoples

1 Jean- Clment Martin, The Vende, Chouannerie, and the State, 1791-1799, in Companion
to the French Revolution ed. Peter McPhee. (Somerset: John Wiley &Sons 2012) 247.
2 Peter McPhee, The French Revolution 1789-1799 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002),
111.
3 Ibid., 110-111
 Strauss 3

religious needs. Parish priests were trusted members of communities that not only provided

religious services to their flocks, but also passed on information about current events happening

elsewhere in the country.

With the implementation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, there was now a legal

distinction between those priests that abided by the new laws (juring priests) and those that did

not (non-juring priests). The distinction in classification of priests created a schism amongst the

faithful who wished to remain devout in the traditional way in which they were raised, while still

maintaining livelihoods in France. In an Encyclical sent by Pope Pius VI on the Civil

Constitution of the Clergy, those who abided by it were considered sacrilegious consecrators

and not true clergy of the Church and thus may not behave as such.4 The Popes rejection of

juring priests incited those who worshipped in the Vende as this decree formally confirmed

fears on the legitimacy of the constitutional priests, and forced them to make a choice between

Church and the Revolutionary state. The result was illegal and clandestine church practices

where non-juring priests in hiding could preach to the populace.

The regulation of religious practice by the Revolutionary government was the first major

factor that pushed the Vende to counter-revolution. While no physical acts of rebellion were put

forth at this time, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy laid the seed for discontent as people saw

an imminent threat to their religious upbringing and perceived salvation. Fear of

excommunication by the Pope, who made his opinion on juring priests clear, would have been

enough for malicious feelings within the Vende to form towards the radical Revolutionary

government. In fact, as cited in a 1791 report to the National Assembly, it was religious changes

4 On the Civil Oath in France, Charitas, Encyclical of Pope Pius VI promulgated on April 13,
1791, Papal Encyclicals Online, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius06/p6charit.htm
(accessed Nov. 21, 2015).
 Strauss 4

that were agitating the West.5 Unlike the population of Paris, the people of the Vende were on

the coast and thus were not as deprived of necessary resources due to their proximity to shippers

and imports, as well as access to arable land. The tithe, a percentage of the produced owed to the

Church, was not as burdensome to the people of the Vende as it was to those in other places. For

instance, In the Vende, the priests were poor and devoted and the nobility, scarcely richer than

the clergy, were equally attached to the people who therefore had no desire to reform the

manners of the one nor to curtail the privileges of the other.6 This unique relationship amongst

the three Estates in this region made it much more difficult for the Revolution to gather steam as

it did in other departments. In fact, The Revolution brought the peasants of the Vende no

obvious benefits, as taxes rose and replaced the tithe and the corve.7 The Vende was unusual

in that the three estates interacted relatively amicably in relation to the rest of the country. The

manner in which land was utilized and taxes collected demonstrated a certain level of

interdependence among the people of the Vende. Therefore, there was a decreased sense of

animosity between the peasants the Church leadership. While suppression of Church practices

was an important factor in leading to the counter-revolution in the Vende, the ultimate

determining factor was the conscription levy imposed by the National Assembly on the eve of

1793 to provide soldiers for the war.

In the early parts of 1793, France was at war with essentially the entirety of Europe Russia as

the exception resulting in a 300,000 man-levy imposed on France by the National Assembly in

order to strengthen numbers in the army. This was the breaking point for the Vende region: the

forced conscription placed citizens as either for or against the Revolution depending on their

5 Charles Tilly, The Analysis of a Counter Revolution, History and Theory, no. 1 (1963): 37
6 Vende Catholics During the French Revolution, AD 2000,
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/1996/jul1996p12_799.html (accessed Nov. 21, 2015).
7 McPhee, 111.
 Strauss 5

desire to submit themselves to the army. Despite the common theme of division between the

peasants and the monarchy during this part of the Revolution, many peasants in the Vende were,

in fact, loyalist. According to one memoire by Madam de Sapinaud, a wife of a Vende Army

general, she describes the scene in which peasants came to recruit her husband saying These

brave peasants, far from surrendering to [M. Sapinaud de Bois-Huguet] rationale, argued that

they could never submit themselves to a government which had cast out their preists, and

imprisoned their king. We have been deceived, they said.8 Madame de Sapinaud illustrates that

displeasure with the Revolution was not just something the nobles and clergy felt, but even the

common people of the region. In this region, it seemed that a measure of loyalty still remained

for the executed king. However, the deception claimed by these peasants expanded beyond

religious impacts and exiled priests. The National Assemblys Conscription policy had been

something more reminiscent of the Old Regime and inconsistent with expectations of patriotic

ardor.9 By implementing conscription, the Assembly essentially denounced the very ideals they

were working towards. In the setting of the Vende, not only would this be a betrayal for those

who held some loyalty to the Revolution, but, for die-hard loyalists, this could be interpreted as

the Assembly taking advantage of its power, assuming it to be equal to that of a king.

The concept of a king held particular significance to those in religious orders and from religious

backgrounds. In an area with a largely established, popularized Catholic religious foundation, the

king held special symbolic religious importance, labeled as the anointed one and the

8 Memoire of Madame de Sapinaud (1824). History of Modern Europe 422 The French
Revolution.
http://www.raymondjonas.org/_text/_course_pages/HSTEU422/Text/readings/Sapinaud%20and
%20Turreau.pdf (accessed Oct. 8, 2015).
9 Raymond Jonas, France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2000), 102.
 Strauss 6

supernatural importance that came with anointing a King.10 In an era fraught with some form of

conflict and constantly evolving politics, the Vende faced issues, being traditional and

conservative and, like many rural areas, resistant to change, it was not a region that pushed for

support of the Revolution.11 Thus the monitoring of religion and the subsequent beheading of

King Louis XVI not only sent shock waves across the Vende and all of Europe, but countered

the practices of an entire region and threatened their spiritual beliefs. This intersection of

religious beliefs and the secular practices that the Assembly was trying to mandate would have

been major blows to the population in the conservative Vende region.

The loyalty of the Vende to past traditions was a contributing factor to their refusal to

submit to conscription, thus leading to insurrection. It was thus that when The levy of men for

the war against foreign rival forces arrived, it became the signal for a general rising.12 This

decision represented a huge shift in opinion of the Revolution, as it no longer represented the

wants of all the common people of France. The act of Conscription essentially forced the

Vendeans to make a choice: to abide by the Assemblys requirement of conscription would be to

agree with the Assemblys choice to kill the king, which, many people of the Vende did not

inherently agree to, but to denounce the levy would mean to be in open rebellion against the

state. Just as the Revolution itself became popularized in the streets of Paris, the counter-

revolution became popularized in the fields of the Vende, as peasants took up arms to fight for

their loyalist beliefs.

It was not just loyalty to the deceased monarchy that encouraged Vendeans to revolt

against the conscription measures. In the Vende region there was a general aversion to military

10 Sergio Bertelli and R. Burr Litchfield, The Kings Body: Sacred Rituals of Power in Medieval
and Early Modern Europe (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001), 26.
11 Lessons of the Vende, HistoryNet, http://www.historynet.com/lessons-of-the-Vende.htm
(accessed Nov. 21, 2015).
12 Peter Kropotkin, The Great French Revolution (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989), 386.
 Strauss 7

service, especially service that took men abroad, and thus fueled aversion to conscription.13 The

Vende, like many rural regions was comprised of farmers whose livelihoods depended on the

crops they grew and harvested each year. The conscription threatened this idea of living as it

would force many men to abandon their fields to travel abroad to fight (and in most likelihood)

die for the Revolution. Another important aversion that Vendeans felt toward the Assemblys

conscription was the exemption of public officials. Public officials, ergo Patriots. The National

Guard, likewise Patriots, were mobilized in place, and so stayed home.14 Not only was placing

National Guard soldiers at home stations verse abroad a direct contradiction to the phrase

Libert, Egalit, Fraternit, but it also put a strained on the already weak relationship between

the revolutionary government and Vendean citizens, as favor was shown to those deemed

patriots. As discussed by Peter McPhee in his book on the French Revolution, there was already

a general dislike of Revolutionary administrators and their associates following the

implementation and execution of the Civil Constitution of the clergy. Essentially, conscription

not only added salt to the wound left by the execution of the king, but also provided the breaking

blow to already hostile relations between Revolutionary representatives in the Vende region and

the citizens of the Vende region itself.

As seen, suppression of Catholicism and the forced juring of priests, combined with the

Conscription of 1793, drove the inhabitants of the Vende to the edge, leading to a counter-

revolution. Through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, the Assembly alienated the traditionally

religious communities leading too early discontent in the region. Execution of the King which

many Vendeans still held sympathy for and the enactment of conscription provided the final

motives for citizens of the Vende to revolt. Though full-blown armed insurrection and counter-

13 Charles Tilly, The Vende (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), 308.
14 Ibid., 309.
 Strauss 8

revolution did not officially start until 1793, it is clear that the foundation for rebellion was being

built when religious suppression was introduced into the Revolution. These factors fueled a

powerful force, with Vendean armies winning decisive victories over the Revolutions National

Guard. However, these victories were short lived, and ended in tragedy. Despite being a popular

movement, the counter-revolution ended with a major defeat in Nantes, causing hundreds of

thousands of people to be murdered in mass executions.

Bibliography

Bertelli, Sergio and R. Burr Litchfield. The Kings Body: Sacred Rituals of Power in Medieval

and Early Modern Europe. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.

Jonas, Raymond. France and the Cult of the Sacred Heart. Berkeley: University of California

Press, 2000.

Kropotkin, Peter. The Great French Revolution. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989.

Lessons of the Vendee. HistoryNet. http://www.historynet.com/lessons-of-the-vendee.htm

(accessed Nov. 21, 2015).

Martin, Jean- Clment. The Vendee, Chouannerie, and the State, 1791-1799. In Companion to

the French Revolution, edited by Peter McPhee. Somerset: John Wiley &Sons, 2012.

Memoire of Madame de Sapinaud (1824). History of Modern Europe 422 The French

Revolution.

http://www.raymondjonas.org/_text/_course_pages/HSTEU422/Text/readings/Sapinaud

%20and%20Turreau.pdf (accessed Oct. 8, 2015).

McPhee, Peter. The French Revolution 1789-1799. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

On the Civil Oath in France, Charitas, Encyclical of Pope Pius VI promulgated on April 13,

1791. Papal Encyclicals Online, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius06/p6charit.htm

(accessed Nov. 21, 2015).

Tilly, Charles. The Analysis of a Counter Revolution. History and Theory, no. 1 (1963): 38-58.

Tilly, Charles. The Vendee. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964.

Vendee Catholics During the French Revolution. AD 2000.

http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/1996/jul1996p12_799.html (accessed Nov. 21, 2015).