The Girondins:
Moderate liberals,
opposed to mob
violence and the
execution of the King
THE GIRONDINS: about 200/740
deputies in the Convention
• Most were originally members of the Jacobin
Club, moderates, independents
• They represented bourgeois commercial interests
in the provinces.
• They were for free trade, reluctant to prosecute
hoarders and speculators, and opposed to wartime
price controls.
• They opposed rule from Paris, the September
massacres, the Terror, Louis’ execution, but were
pro-war and pro republican.
Jacques-Pierre Brissot 1754-93
• Son of a restaurateur,, he
travelled, visiting Britain
and the United States.
• Joined the Jacobin Club,
elected to the Legislative
Assembly and Convention.
• Leader of the Girondin
faction of country deputies;
pro war; for decentralised
government; against the
Terror and Louis’s
execution.
The Marquis de Condorcet
1743-1794
• Scientist, enlightened
thinker, passionate for
the public good.
Member of the Society
of Thirty.
• Became a republican
following the flight to
Varennes, but opposed
Louis’ execution.
• Elected to the
Legislative Assembly
and the Convention.
• Died in prison 1794.
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
1753-1793
• Bourgeois lawyer from
Bordeaux, joined the
Bordeaux Jacobin Club.
• Elected to the Legislative
Assembly and the
Convention.
• Became a leading figure in
Girondin faction and
supported Brissot’s campaign
for war.
• Hated by Marat and
Robespierre; arrested June
2,1793 and executed.
Jean Marie Roland 1734-1793
• Born into the bourgeoisie,
he became Inspector of
Manufactures under Louis
XV1.
• After Louis’ arrest in
1792, he was made
Minister for the Interior as
support for war increased.
• He was arrested with other
Girondins, escaped, but
killed himself on
November 10, 1793, on
hearing that his wife had
been guillotined with the
other Girondin leaders.
Charles-Francois du Perier Dumouriez
1739-1823
• Joined the army in the
Seven Years War against
Britain.
• In 1790, joined the Jacobin
Club. Minister for foreign
affairs in 1792.
• Became a leading supporter
of the Girondins and war,
becoming a General in the
war against Austria.
• In April, 1793, he defected
to the Austrians, was
declared an outlaw and
traitor to France.
The Fall of the Girondins
• The Jacobins and Girondins were united initially
against the Feuillants, because both were opposed
to constitutional monarchy and wanted a republic.
• They became enemies after August 10, 1792,
when the Girondins opposed the violence of the
sans-culottes and this deepened when Danton
claimed responsibility for the September
massacres. Marat’s call for more massacres
deepened the divide.
• Brissot’s followers formed a majority in the
Legislative Assembly, but Danton, Robespierre,
Marat, Desmoulins - the radical Jacobins and
Cordeliers drew their support from the Paris
Commune and the Sections.
• The Girondins thus became enemies of the sansculottes and the Paris Commune.
• In the August elections to the new Assembly, (the
Convention) elected by universal manhood
suffrage, not one Girondin deputy was elected for
Paris.
• The Girondins spoke out against popular violence,
defining themselves as protectors of law and order.
• In February, 1793, they tabled a new constitution,
defending individuals and property. Roland,
particularly, spoke out against violent rule from
Paris.
The trial and execution of Louis XV1
gave extra support to the Jacobins and
Cordeliers and marked the beginning
of the end for the Girondins. Their
resistance to the King’s execution, their
support of moderate liberal principles,
the division in the Convention and the
country, condemned them. As the
dangers of war and civil war increased,
they lost support in the Convention.
In June, 1793, they were expelled from
the Convention, following Vergniaud’s
call for the protection of the
Convention against the radical faction.
On 10 October, 1793, the new
Committee of Public Safety declared its
government ‘revolutionary until the
peace,’a dictatorship under
Robespierre. 31 Girondin deputies
were arrested and executed on 31