Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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The Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick
In July 1792 there was a revolution in France; the "citizen Capet", as the deposed King Louis XVI. is now generally called and his wife Marie-Antoinette, the "Austrian" (the "Austrian" or also "the other bitch/whore") are still alive, but after their failed attempt to flee to Varennes (June 21, 1791) they are not free people more!
In the meantime, the young republic is at war with the monarchies in Prussia and Austria, who want to turn back the wheel of history and restore the king to his old absolutist rights.
The former Louis XVI. stands above the journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan...
...in secret contact with the enemy and lets it be known that he approves of the war and wants to use it to regain his former power.
The situation on the fronts does not look good for the republic!
The enemy is in the country, is superior and the French army is shattered and disorganized by the upheavals of the revolution and the flight of many noble officers
Despite this, the leaders of the republic want to fight and on July 11th they proclaim with the decree "La patrie est en danger!" ("The fatherland is in danger!") something like total war - with moderate success!
The turnaround brings, of all things, a proclamation from the enemy that was actually intended to achieve the opposite:
On July 25, 1792, the notorious "Manifeste de Brunswick" is published, a declaration by Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel...
...a Prussian field marshal who is in command of the Prussian-Austrian intervention troops.
The manifesto (here the first page of the original)...
...threatens the French with the complete destruction of their capital and the extinction of the Parisian population if the deposed royal couple is harmed even ONE hair and even ONE further insult. Instead, they would do better to submit to "the good will of their rightful monarch"!
The duke did not write the manifesto himself, but the author was a fanatically pro-king émigré named Jérôme-Joseph Geoffroy de Limon...
... a former henchman of the Counts of Artois and former mayor of the city of Pont-l'Évêque, who had fled to Koblenz before the revolution.
And although the text seemed "too sharp" to the man from Braunschweig, he nevertheless approved its publication under his own name - a serious mistake, as soon became apparent.
The "Manifeste de Brunswick" is THE spark for French morale and readiness for defence!
The following contemporary cartoon sums it up...:
Suddenly a unified spirit flows through the people and the army and thousands of volunteers rush to the flags!
The ragged, hungry, ill-trained but highly motivated French will be victorious on all fronts!
Field Marshal Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel will not even see Paris from afar and will limp back to Prussia, defeated...
In July 1792 there was a revolution in France; the "citizen Capet", as the deposed King Louis XVI. is now generally called and his wife Marie-Antoinette, the "Austrian" (the "Austrian" or also "the other bitch/whore") are still alive, but after their failed attempt to flee to Varennes (June 21, 1791) they are not free people more!
In the meantime, the young republic is at war with the monarchies in Prussia and Austria, who want to turn back the wheel of history and restore the king to his old absolutist rights.
The former Louis XVI. stands above the journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan...
...in secret contact with the enemy and lets it be known that he approves of the war and wants to use it to regain his former power.
The situation on the fronts does not look good for the republic!
The enemy is in the country, is superior and the French army is shattered and disorganized by the upheavals of the revolution and the flight of many noble officers
Despite this, the leaders of the republic want to fight and on July 11th they proclaim with the decree "La patrie est en danger!" ("The fatherland is in danger!") something like total war - with moderate success!
The turnaround brings, of all things, a proclamation from the enemy that was actually intended to achieve the opposite:
On July 25, 1792, the notorious "Manifeste de Brunswick" is published, a declaration by Duke Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel...
...a Prussian field marshal who is in command of the Prussian-Austrian intervention troops.
The manifesto (here the first page of the original)...
...threatens the French with the complete destruction of their capital and the extinction of the Parisian population if the deposed royal couple is harmed even ONE hair and even ONE further insult. Instead, they would do better to submit to "the good will of their rightful monarch"!
The duke did not write the manifesto himself, but the author was a fanatically pro-king émigré named Jérôme-Joseph Geoffroy de Limon...
... a former henchman of the Counts of Artois and former mayor of the city of Pont-l'Évêque, who had fled to Koblenz before the revolution.
And although the text seemed "too sharp" to the man from Braunschweig, he nevertheless approved its publication under his own name - a serious mistake, as soon became apparent.
The "Manifeste de Brunswick" is THE spark for French morale and readiness for defence!
The following contemporary cartoon sums it up...:
Suddenly a unified spirit flows through the people and the army and thousands of volunteers rush to the flags!
The ragged, hungry, ill-trained but highly motivated French will be victorious on all fronts!
Field Marshal Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel will not even see Paris from afar and will limp back to Prussia, defeated...
