The Army in the French Revolution
Megan Parker
“In place of the voracious army that exists, I substitute a national militia of four hundred
thousand men, who, instead of being composed of the scum and dregs of towns, is only
composed of well-regarded city dwellers and of rustic citizens; because the last of the French
peasant is an important citizen.” (44)
The French Revolution brought great changes to the army of France. From the revolution
the National Guard arose as a standing army and major policing force of France. The Royal
Army's, or the line army’s, role shifted and its power diminished under the revolution. The
change in armies helped bring great change to the citizens of France. While the author of The
Year 1789, imagined a strengthened Royal Army that was led, in part, by the king, he also
stressed the importance of the kind of citizen that was permitted to participate in the army. He
noted that every peasant of France was important and mattered. John L. Lynn, Dale L. Clifford,
Samuel F. Scott present three different views that show how the revolution changed the army and
how the army came to reflect the people. 1 The National Guard became an institution that created
citizenship and the French citizen.
In The Bayonets of the Republic, John Lynn presents the idea that the army that resulted
from the French Revolution was one that fully represented the population of France. Through a
series of quantitative analyses Lynn depicts the Royal Army prior to the revolution. It failed to
adequately represent the rural and peasant populations while it over represented the urban
population. Lynn states that the army before the revolution was a group of men who “turned to
1
Dale Lothrop Clifford, “Can the Uniform Make the Citizen? Paris, 1789-1791,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 34,
no. 3 (2001) 363-382; John L Lynn, “The New Soldier: Composition and Character of the Rank and File,” In The
military service because the society and economy offered them little or no alternative.” 2 Through
the revolution, the army began to change. In 1789, the idea of a citizen-soldier began to dominate
the National Guard. Soldiers joined the various militias of their cities because they felt a need to
“preserve their rights as citizens.” 3 Lynn focuses largely on how the army came to represent the
population of France.
Through analyzing the prevalence of different classes, occupations, origins, and age over
the decades preceding the revolution to the years of the revolution, Lynn is able to present both a
social and cultural view of the shifting army. He depicts the changes in the army chronologically,
as the army became increasingly representative of the country as a whole throughout the
revolution. In response to the Great Fear of 1789, cities across France began to create militias
that eventually became the National Guard. The creation of these militias helped weaken the
royal army. The Royal Army suffered from extreme desertion and mutinies. Finally in 1791, the
Assembly noted that the line army had fallen to a mere 120,000 men. This was not nearly enough
for a country that was being threatened by outside forces. The Assembly proposed the creation of
a reserve force, in case foreign threats became a reality.
The reserve army that was created in 1791 continued to misrepresent the demographics of
France. The Assembly voted that only active citizens, or those paying at least three days wages
in taxes, were able to serve in the army. As a result, by mid-1971 the army was made of 90%
shopkeepers, a percentage that contrasted sharply with the fact that 80% of France consisted of a
peasant population. 4 In April of 1792 France went to war and the need to increase the army
Bayonets of the Republic. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984: 43-66; Samuel F. Scott,
“Problems of Law and Order during 1790,” The American Historical Review 80, no. 4 (1975): 859-888.
2
Lynn, “New Soldier,” 43.
3
Lynn, “New Soldier,” 43.
4
Lynn, “New Soldier,” 44-50.
became a pressing matter. In July, the Assembly revised their call for volunteers by removing the
phrase “active citizen;” the army was to be made up of any citizens who were able to bear arms.
This brought roughly 150,000 peasant soldiers into the National Guard, which resulted in a more
realistic representation of France. In 1793, France began to rely on conscription to ensure a
sound army. This resulted in an even, fair representation of the population of France from
peasants to bourgeois.
The revolution allowed the army of France to create a new definition for the soldier.
The army came to represent men who defended their country and their rights as citizens, rather
than as men who defended their king. Lynn states that, “He became a citizen in arms, a defender
of his people, and a paragon of revolutionary mortality.” 5 Soldiers came to represent the new
freedom and citizenship of the revolution. The army led to citizenship, both in society and as
civil responsibility for the defense of the revolution.
Dale L. Clifford takes a different view from Lynn. She depicts the changing army
through the institution of a solider-purchased uniform. She shows that from 1789 to 1791, the
uniform of the National Guard opened the doors to citizenship for any male member of the
French population, if they had the means to afford a uniform. In 1789, Lafayette was appointed
commander of the National Guard and one of his first steps was to begin to organize the army.
This included creating a uniform that created an identity for the army.
The idea of paying for a uniform presented problems in France. Much of the population
believed that any citizen should have the right to join the army and thereby become an active
citizen, while others believed that creating a price for the uniform would prevent the army from
5
Lynn, “New Solider,” 63.
becoming “an ad-hoc citizen guard.” 6 In the end, the uniform came to be a necessary purchase
for any man between the age of 18 and 50 who wanted to join the National Guard. The uniform,
although presented with a variety of prices, likely cost about 41 livres. The average working man
made 1 livre a day so this came to equal far over three days wages in taxes. This helped ensure
that the man who wore the uniform was an active citizen.
There were outlets for men who wanted to purchase a uniform but could not afford the
expensive gear. Pawn shops and thrift stores often carried pieces of uniforms that could be
purchased for a mere 20 livre on average. 7 While this helped bring some peasants and poorer
working men into the army it accounted for only a small amount of the line army. Men who
purchased the uniform were volunteer soldiers who would not be paid for their service; the only
payment they received was active citizenship. The different districts of France were known to
assist men in obtaining uniforms as well. As many as seven districts helped provide uniforms for
their men on a large scale. 8
Immediately following the storming of the Bastille, the city of Paris passed a law that
equated a national guardsman with a citizen. This helped ensure that the National Guard would
have a bounty of eligible men to choose if their service was needed. Paris required that all active
citizens register for the National Guard. In France at the time, citizenship and the soldier were
viewed as inextricably linked. The soldier-citizen was the model citizen. The National Guard
linked the army to the citizen and helped ensure easier access to the army than had ever
previously existed thanks to the new uniform. Clifford summarizes her argument by stating that,
“In Paris between 1789 and 1791, the National Guard Uniform exemplified fully active
6
7
Clifford, “Uniform,” 369.
Clifford, “Uniform,” 363.
citizenship.” 9 In 1790, the National Assembly passed legislation that required the active citizens
of all of France, not just Paris, to register with the National Guard. When this became an active
practice in 1791, it effectively ended the influence of the purchased uniform. While the uniform
appears to have played an important role in the citizenship of soldiers, its effects were short
lived.
Both Lynn and Clifford show how the army came to favor the bourgeoisie for periods of
time. Although they cite different reasons they show that the army failed to represent the
population of France. Clifford claims that the cost of the uniform favored the active citizen,
while Lynn states that legislation prevented peasants and rural populations from serving with the
National Guard. Lynn takes a legal stand while Clifford chooses a more cultural stand. Both
historians agree that more urban citizens became a part of the army, especially in the earlier
years of the revolution. The cost of the uniform and the need for active citizens favored urban
areas of artisans and shopkeepers.
In “Problems of Law and Order during 1790,” Samuel F. Scott describes the relationship
of the armies and citizens through the issues of law and order that France faced throughout the
revolution. The beginning of the revolution helped bring incredible changes to the royal army.
The Royal Army resented the harsh and unfair treatment it received from the aristocratic officers
that led them and the revolution provided an outlet to end this treatment. By 1790, nearly one
third of the Royal Army was suffering from insubordination. 10 Scott explains that relationships
with civilians helped exacerbate defiance of senior officers. Soldiers of the Royal Army were
encouraged to defy the Royal Army and embrace the revolution. In nearly fifty percent of the
8
9
Clifford, “Uniform,” 374.
Clifford, “Uniform,” 379.
cases of insubordination, the soldiers maintained friendly relationships with civilians.
1790 brought great changes to the army as well. The federation movement allowed royal
troops to celebrate and fraternize alongside national guardsmen and civilians. The king passed a
decree that resulted in an examination of regimental spending. This helped further divide the
Royal Army, with soldiers becoming increasingly subordinate. Civilians helped encourage the
royal soldiers to take a stand against the unfair conditions they faced. The revolution gave royal
soldiers the feeling that they were allowed to question their treatment. Scott explains that “the
role of the civilians was of paramount importance in this change of attitude.” 11
While Scott depicts how civilians helped bring an end to the cohesion of the Royal Army
he also shows how they led to divisions in the National Guard. Scott claims that rather than
bringing peace and citizenship to France, the creation of the National Guard in the revolution
helped lead to a period of unrest and increased violence. The National Guard favored peasant
towns and sympathized with their struggles so it often failed to establish any real order.
Scott claims that the divides in both the National Guard and Royal Army led to a division
in civilians. While Lynn and Clifford observe that the National Guard helped establish order due
to the quest for citizenship, Scott depicts widespread disorder as a result of the new army. He
focuses of a political and cultural history of the armies. Different legislation failed to provide any
unity in the armies. The civilians of France helped aggravate these divides. While the army did
develop strong ties civilians, it failed to create any unity in the state.
The changing roles of the armies during the French Revolution helped change the role of
the civilian. It helped restructure the means by which one accomplished citizenship. Through a
10
Scott, “Law and Order,” 863.
series of quantitative analyses, Lynn shows how the army came to reflect the people of France. It
became inclusive and representative of the population of France. Clifford depicts the importance
of purchasing a uniform to citizenship; it created an outlet for citizenship that had not existed
prior to the revolution. Although Scott argues that the revolution created a divide in the army that
did not necessarily create citizenship, he shows that the army became an army of the people. The
revolutionary armies created relationships with civilians and altered the traditional role of the
army.
11
Scott, “Law and Order,” 868.