Nancy affair
The Nancy affair ( French Affaire de Nancy ) was a mutiny of the garrison in Nancy . It exemplifies the conflict between revolutionary soldiers and counterrevolutionary officers during the time of the French Revolution . It lasted from August 5 to August 31, 1790.
background
Since 1789 there had already been several insubordination in the French army. The reasons were many, be it that promotions and wages did not take place, or that royalists or Jacobins among the soldiers stood up against their officers. On August 5, 1790, a real mutiny began in Nancy. The infantry regiments du Roi , de Châteauvieux and the cavalry regiment Mestre de Camp Général demanded their outstanding wages and placed their officers under arrest, including General Alexandre Ferdinand Thomas Guyot de Malseigne , who had been sent by Lafayette from Besançon to rectify the situation. The Swiss regiment de Châteauvieux played the leading role. De Malseigne was able to escape shortly afterwards and fled to Lunéville.
On August 16, 1790, La Tour du Pin issued a decree of the National Assembly: "... regulating the measures to punish the perpetrators and instigators of the rioting by the regiments stationed in Nancy". On August 18, La Fayette issued the order to put down the revolt and to set an example .
François-Claude-Amour de Bouillé , governor of the Trois-Évêchés , was charged with suppressing the mutiny . The following troops were available to him for this:
- 200 grenadiers and fighters from the d'Auxerrois infantry regiment
- 200 grenadiers and fighters from the d'Auvergne infantry regiment
- 2 battalions (800 men) of the Castella Infantry Regiment (s)
- 1 battalion (470 men) of the de Vigier infantry regiment
- 1 battalion (350 men) of the Royal-Liégeois Infantry Regiment
- 500 men of the Garde Nationale from Metz
- 300 men of the National Guard from Pont-à-Mousson
Total of 3020 infantry and 8 guns
- 3 escadrons (340 riders) of the Régiment Royal Normandie dragons
- 2 escadrons (240 riders) of the Régiment Royal Allemand cavalerie
- 2 escadrons (200 riders) of the Régiment de Lauzun Hussards
- 1 détachement (200 riders) of the Régiment de Royal Dragons
- 1 détachement (200 riders) of the Régiment de Monsieur Dragons
- 1 department (200 riders) of the Régiment de Condé Dragons
- 1 department (100 riders) of the Regiment des chasseurs d'Hainaut
Total 1480 riders .
The fighting left around 300 dead and wounded.
The death of Désilles
At the Porte Stainville, where the troops of Bouillé and the mutineers met, Sous-lieutenant André Désilles from the Régiment du Roi stood between the fighting and is said to have shouted:
"Ce sont des Français, vos amis et vos frères [...] Le boulet ne parviendra que teint de mon sang."
“ They are French, your friends and brothers […] The bullet will reach its destination only if it is stained with my blood. "
He was seriously wounded in this operation and died of these injuries two months later.
Punishments
According to the agreements between the king's army and the Swiss regiments, a court martial was formed from the officers of the Castella and de Vigier regiments , chaired by Lieutenant Colonel François Joseph de Girardier. A total of 138 soldiers of the Regiment de Chateauvieux were charged with the rebellion. In a first trial, all were sentenced to death . In a new hearing, however, the judgments were overturned on September 4 and changed as follows:
- 74 soldiers were sentenced to prison terms
- 41 soldiers were sent to the galleys for 30 years
- 22 soldiers were hanged
- the soldier André Soret of Geneva was one of the five ringleaders whacked .
Effects
The events sparked a strong response in Paris. Jean Paul Marat published a pamphlet "L'affreux réveil" (The terrible awakening) - with the Jacobins he sided with the mutineers. While the National Assembly congratulated de Bouillé in writing on September 3, angry Parisians demanded that those responsible be removed.
On September 20 , an honorary event was held on the Champ de Mars in honor of the citizens who died as members of the National Guard in Nancy. Other ceremonies in honor of the troops of Bouillé took place across France. Two plays were staged in Paris: Le nouveau d'Assas by Jean-Élie Bédéno Dejaure and Henri Montan Berton on October 15, and Le tombeau de Desilles by Desfontaines-Lavallée on December 3 .
The fate of the young officer and the severe punishments for the mutineers moved the whole of France and fed the fear of a military counter-revolution. In the period that followed, the "massacre de Nancy" was spoken of, also from the moderate side, and de Bouillé's excessively harsh actions were assigned to be the main culprit for the deaths.
Web links
- Pierre Le Bastart de Villeneuve: André Desilles, un officier dans la tourmente révolutionnaire, 1977
- Painting in the Musée Lorrain de Nancy
Individual evidence
- ^ A Swiss foreign regiment
- ↑ Mémoires, 1760-1820, de Jean-Balthazar de Bonardi du Ménil, gentilhomme normand
- ^ Procès-verbal de l'Assemblée Nationale, Volume 27
- ^ Memoires, correspondance et manuscrits du general Lafayette
- ↑ LEONARD (de), Relation Exacte et impartiale de ce qui s'est passé à Nancy le 31 août et les jours précédents , Nancy, chez Mme Henry, 1790, 188 p.
- ↑ La mutinerie de Nancy, août 1790
- ↑ since 1867 Porte Désilles
- ↑ restaurations et dépôts , domaine de Vizille
- ↑ the last person in France to receive such a punishment. Un régiment à travers l'histoire, le 76e, ex-1er léger p.373 Henri Victor Dollin Du Fresnel, 1804