Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Royal Flight to Varennes

The royal Flight to Varennes(French: Fuite à Varennes) during the night of 20–21 June 1791 wasa significant episode in the French Revolution in which King LouisXVI of France, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate familyunsuccessfully attempted to escape from Paris in order to initiate acounter-revolution at the head of loyal troops under royalistofficers concentrated at Montmédy near the frontier. They escapedonly as far as the small town of Varennes-en-Argonne, where they werearrested after having been recognized at their previous stop inSainte-Menehould.

This incident was a turning point afterwhich popular hostility towards the French monarchy as aninstitution, as well as towards the king and queen as individuals,became much more pronounced. The king's attempted flight provokedcharges of treason that ultimately led to his execution in 1793.

The escape failed due to a series ofmisadventures, delays, misinterpretations and poor judgments. Muchwas due to the king's indecision; he repeatedly postponed theschedule, allowing small problems to become much larger. Furthermore,he overestimated popular support for the traditional monarchy,mistakenly believing only Parisian radicals supported the revolutionand that the populace as a whole opposed it. He also mistakenlybelieved that he enjoyed particular favor with the peasantry andother commoners.

The king's flight was traumatic forFrance, inciting reactions ranging from anxiety to violence andpanic. Everyone was aware that foreign intervention was imminent. Therealization that the king had effectually repudiated therevolutionary reforms made up to that point came as a shock to peoplewho had seen him as a well-intentioned monarch who governed as amanifestation of God's will. Republicanism quickly evolved from beingmerely a subject of coffeehouse debate to the dominant ideal ofrevolutionary leaders.

The king's brother also fled on thesame night, by a different route. He successfully escaped, and spentthe French revolution in exile, later returning to be crowned KingLouis XVIII.

Background

Louis XVI's indecisive response was oneof the causes of the forcible transfer of the royal family from thePalace of Versailles to the Tuileries in Paris on 6 October 1789after The Women's March on Versailles. The relocation seemed to haveemotionally paralyzed the king, which left many important decisionsto the politically untrained queen. On 28 February 1791, while theMarquis de Lafayette was handling a conflict in Vincennes, hundredsof royalists came to the Tuileries to demonstrate in support of theroyal family, only to be expelled from the palace by National Guards.

Objectives of flight

The intended goal of the unsuccessfulflight was to provide the king with greater freedom of action andpersonal security than was possible in Paris. At Montmédy, GeneralFrançois Claude de Bouillé, the marquis de Bouillé, hadconcentrated a force of 10,000 regulars of the old royal army whowere considered to still be loyal to the monarchy. De Bouilléhimself had shown energy in suppressing a serious mutiny in Nancy in1790. The troops under his command included two Swiss and four Germanmercenary regiments who were perceived as being more reliable in atime of general political unrest than their French counterparts. In aletter drafted for presentation to the Diet of the Swiss Cantons atZurich, the royalist baron de Breteuil stated that "HisMajesty desires to have such imposing forces at his disposition, thateven the most audacious rebels will have no other option than tosubmit". The court expectation was that "numerousfaithful subjects of all classes" would then rally to demandthe restoration of the rights of the throne and that order would berestored without the need for civil war or foreign invasion.