How French Political History Presented a Stable Republican Government

Ada Pinkston

Mr.Meyers

Birth of Modern Europe

    The French government has continually been the beneficiary (or the victim) of change. From the fall of the Holy Roman Empire in 58 B. C to the election of Napoleon Bonaparte I, there were at least seven political shifts in power. The first five changes were in the family of the monarch and the last two were changes in the new Republic. The shift from a monarchy to a Republic, which did not occur until after the Enlightenment, was the most significant of all the changes in the history of French government. The reason for this is because the transition between a history of monarchical rule, absolutism, and feudalism to any sort of democratic government is extremely tumultuous.

            In 58 BC, the Holy Roman Empire gained control of France. When the Empire fell in the 5th century, there were continual territorial shifts and political disunity in France that followed on up to the 11th century. The founder of the French kingdom was Clovis (481-511). His family, the Merovingians remained in power from 431-751. He maintained a rather unified state for his time. Through defeating the Visigoths he extended French rule over Burgundy and the entire southern region to the Pyrenees. The capital during his reign was Paris. When he died in 511 his heirs continually battled with each other and outsiders for land; thus the Merovingian power had lost its stability.

            The last century of their rule was even more unstable and the Merovingians’ authority diminished. Aristocratic powers chipped away at royal power in political matters; agriculture and trade were in shambles; commerce was declining. As a result of this decline in the power of the Merovingians, a shift in power occurred. The Carolingians, who had once been palace mayors (also known as advisors), became the new ruling family of France.

The Carolingians’ reign was from 747-987. One of the most important monarchs of this family was King Charlemagne who began his rule in 768. He waged many wars and acquired much of Europe from the Vistula to the Pyrenees. In his capital of Aachen and in other cities, he encouraged the intellect by gathering religious figures and scholars. Through his establishment of an organized feudal structure, his government foreshadowed the way that France would be ruled for years to come.

The beginnings of feudalism began during his reign. Lords of manors gave military and judicial services to the king in exchange for nonhereditary land grants. Feudalism was a system that made the competition between the king and the aristocracy a more apparent. The lower class of these manors provided labor on public works. Charlemagne sent out a bishop and a count, who were called  “missi dominici”, to inspect the districts that were run by the lords. This was an important step in the organization of a feudal state.

Another important change in the way the government ran were the two assemblies held each year in which noblemen would discuss their problems and the king would present his programs for the realm. These assemblies could be a possible precursor for a representative branch of the government that existed later on, the Estates-General. Although these changes in the government were important blueprints for later French government, it was not as great as the revolt that changed the monarchy to a republic.

The decline of the Charlemagne and the Merovingian family were both very similar to each other. Carolingian power ebbed after Charlemagne’s death which led to the partition of land between his descendants. France was weak to the invasion of the Vikings and feudalism began to flourish. The Capetian dynasty began in 987 over a smaller French state.

            Direct lines of Capetian kings ruled France from 987 to 1328. Later branch families of the Capet house (those were the Valois and the Bourbons) ruled France. Hugh Capet was elected by the local lords of the feudal system in 987. This was a great variation in the manner in which the monarch of this state gained control. However, this election did not stray too far away from the way in which every feudal government functioned. It was not the entire populace but only the lords who were able to vote for the ruler. The monarch, even though he was in a different family and was elected, remained the same: the supreme ruler of the land.

            The Capetian rule was a time when royal authority was extended and exercised beyond family lands. However, there was a constant threat of feudal lords taking royal power so it was a hard task for a monarch to maintain a large amount of power in a feudalistic state. Therefore, smart Capetian kings aligned themselves with the new middle class whose urban interests often clashed with the rural interests of feudal lords.

            In 1453, by the end of the Hundred Years War, the Valois were the ruling monarchs. At the end of this long war, nationalism soared and feudalism ended. Louis XI was a King of that time who was a force in transforming France from a weak medieval state to a country that would be a dominating force on the continent of Europe 1. A long line of Valois followed the rule of Louis XI. Some of these monarchs succeeded in maintaining control over this unified state while

others failed. In the period from 1328 to 1715 royal power was consolidated. The year 1715 was when the rule of Louis XIV ended and the ancien regime began. The start of the ancien regime was the beginning of the end of monarchical rule. In 1589, in the midst of the Wars of Religion, the Valois line ended because of the assassination of Henry III.

            The Bourbon family followed the Valois line. Starting with Henry IV, these monarchs were the ones who perfected the task of curbing the aristocracy so that they would no longer be a threat to royal power. Through the unlimited control that he maintained over the people of France in many facets, including that of religion, his reign established the roots of absolutism. He was the leader of the Huguenot’s cause. During the Catholic Valois reign the Huguenots, or French Calvinists, were the victims of religious persecution. The main factor behind Henry IV’s acquisition of the throne in 1598 was his ability to dissolve the religious conflict through compromise. The Edict of Nantes was a treaty that appeased the Huguenots by fostering religious tolerance in France. To appease the Catholics, he converted to Catholicism.

            Louis XIV was a divine right absolutist monarch whose reign began in 1643. He disabled the power of the aristocracy by keeping them courtiers in his court, Versailles, on up until his death in 1715. Louis XIV’s mercantilist policies benefited businessmen (merchants, bankers, financiers, and negotiators). However, it was the bourgeoisie who were the ones who were burdened by taxes that would finance wars and other items on Louis XIV’s agenda that needed funding. Naturally, the aristocrats felt neglected by Louis XIV. Because when it came to political matters, he would surround himself with the bourgeoisie.

            The ancien Regime, like Louis XIV’s reign, was one that was an absolutist divine right monarchy. However, it was also one that described by the strict definitions of classes. The aristocracy regained the power that it lost during the reign of Louis XIV. However, the middle class was still the group who felt the burden of taxation. This change in the way that the monarch exerted his power left a bad taste in the mouth of the people.

            The enlightenment that began in 1615 was a philosophical movement that applied scientific method to human behavior, society (including the government). Three main factors for this philosophical movement were individualism, relativism, and rationalism. French philosophers

of the enlightenment include Voltaire, Montesqieu, Diderot, and Rousseau. A phrase written by Voltaire and a direct affront to the monarchy “Popular government is in itself, therefore less (unjust), less (hated) than despotic power.”2 Another phrase that expresses his grievances towards the burden of the tax system is “The art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give it to another.”2 As these phrases and so many others demonstrate most of the intellectuals (who were mostly part of the bourgeoisie) in France were not satisfied with the way that the government was being run. They were discontented by the monarchy and wanted more change in the government than a succession of the throne to whoever may be in line at the time.

            “The history of social thought in France in the eighteenth century is above all the history of the development and diffusion of bourgeois ideology and the history of the ideological preparation of the bourgeois revolution.”3 This quote is in the work of V.P. Volguine’s “L’idealogie revolutionnaire en France au XVIIIe siecle: ses contradictions et son evolution”, La Pensee, LXXXVI (1959). It is the “trenchantly expressed views of a soviet historian”. 4 The enlightenment was an important factor in what made the people restless with the despotic form of government that ruled them. Although, the enlightenment did not include the masses and the revolution did not place the masses in power, it made them one step closer to gaining that political equality that is necessary in a republic.

            The French Revolution of 1789 ended despotic monarchical reign, but began a long line of uncertainty as to what form of government would follow. The representative body of the ancien regime was divided into three groups called the estates. It was not called upon until Louis XVI needed money and thus wanted to create a new tax. The third estate was composed of the bourgeoisie. The third estate was always outvoted and overlooked by the rest of the estates despite the fact that it contained the most amount of people. The third estate initiated the revolution by declaring itself the National Assembly and demanding a constitution.

            The declaration of the Rights of Man reflected the third estate’s enlightened thinking. Although it was simply an outline for the constitution, great changes in the government were envisioned. Of course, an end to titles of nobility actually was carried out. However, a reaffirmation of the political rights of the individual in the Declaration of the Rights of Man was too radical:

Article IV: Liberty consists in being able to do anything as long as it harms no one else. Thus the exercise of each man’s natural rights has no limits other than those which ensure that other members of society may enjoy the same rights. These limits can be determined only by the law.

Article XVI: Any society in which guaranteed rights are not assured, or the separation of powers not determined, cannot be said to have a constitution. 5

Sections of the Declaration like this was something that was not something that actually carried on into the Constitution of 1791. The constitution on 1791 just made the French government a constitutional monarchy.

            Although Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to accept the constitution, there were still sections of the revolutionaries who were not satisfied. In 1792, the National Convention, which consisted of those who wanted a republic without a king declared France a Republic. In January of the next year, Louis XVI was executed. This dramatic turn of events changed the way that France would be governed forever. No longer would shifts in power be from monarch to monarch.

            With the end of monarchical rule, a sort of new instability followed. After France became a republic, she was ruled by a string of more and less liberal forces based on reactions to the government that dissatisfied people at the time. First, the “Mountain”, who were extreme radicals and wanted to switch everything from the bottom up gained power. Their control of the French government was called the Reign of Terror (1793-1794) because they executed everyone whom they saw as dissenters to their radical system. The leader of the “Mountain”, Robespierre, was executed in 1794. After a long history of absolutism and feudalism, the abrupt transition to a radical Republic would not be one that could last.

            The wealthy bourgeoisie (who were also called the Directory) gained power from 1795-1799. All of the radical measures made during the Reign of Terror were reversed and the government made more conservative measures. Napoleon who was a military leader, overthrew the Directory using military force in 1799. The government of France went through a lot of instability after monarchical rule. All of this political change happened in a span of only ten years.

            When Napoleon I lost his wars for imperialism, the Congress of Vienna restored the Bourbon monarchy and the French government went back to where it started from twenty-three years ago.

            The words revolutionnaire and reactionnaire have the similar meanings in the French language. A reactionnaire is also a revolutionnaire. The reason why in the history of the French government, there were no extremely long periods of stability with absolutely no change was because of reactions. At first when the only system of government that seemed possible was a monarchy, the only changes that occurred were within that system. The reaction to a bad royal family was a change to another royal family. Monarchy was a political structure that governed France for many centuries, so what specifically was it that made a long-lasting change from monarchy to Republic? Nothing. Because if reaction, right after France became a Republic, changes in the new Republic occurred. Although reaction is not the only reason for changes in government, (the social and economic state of the country are also large factors), it is still a very important one.

Endnotes

1.) James Cleugh, Chant Royal (Garden City NY, 1970)

2.) The Enlightenment: New Ideas on Government packet, pg 1

3.) T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolution, Class War or Culture Clash? (New York, 1998), pg 18

4.) T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolution, Class War or Culture Clash? (New York, 1998), pg 73

5.) Francois Furet, The French Revolution 1770-1814 (Cornwall, 1988), pg 74

Bibliography

Grolier’s Encylopedia, Grolier’s Electronic Publishing Inc.

Barber, Elinor G., The Bourgeoisie in Eighteenth Century France. Princton NJ: Princeton Universtity Press, 1955 Blanning, T. C. W., The French Revolution, Class War or Culture Clash?. New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 1998

Cleugh, James, Chant Royal. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Comp. Inc., 1970

Furet, Francois, The French Revolution 1770-1814. Cornwall Great Brittain: T.J. Press International Padstow, 1988

Hibbert, Christopher, The Days of the French Revolution. New York: MorrowQuil Paperbacks, 1981

Lefebvre, Georges, The Coming of the French Revolution. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton Universtiy Press, 1988 Seward, Desmund, Marie Antoinette. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981

The Enlightenment: New Ideas on Government packet