Twelve Commission

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The Extraordinary Commission of Twelve (fr. Commission extraordinaire of Douze ), as twelve Commission was known, was an ephemeral body of the national convention at the time of the French Revolution . The committee was set up by the ruling Girondins to counteract the increasingly lively clashes with the Paris sections and the Paris Commune, which were largely dominated by the Mountain Party . The commission existed from May 18th to 31st, 1793. With the fall of the Girondins on June 2nd, 1793 it was dissolved again.

context

Since the safe deposit affair and the associated resignation of Roland on January 23, 1793, the Gironde came under increasing pressure and tried as far as possible to slow down anarchist and revolutionary processes. One of these attempts was the creation of a committee of six in March , which did not last for three weeks. Then, in the spring of 1793, France faced a coalition of European monarchies after declaring war on Great Britain and the United Provinces in February and Spain in March, amid revolts, particularly in the Vendée . The results of the first acts of war were catastrophic. On April 1st, General Dumouriez betrayed France, who had the Gironde's trust, and went over to the Austrians. The news broke shortly afterwards in the capital and on April 15, a petition signed by 35 of the 48 districts of Paris, the Paris City Council and the Jacobin Club called for the departure of 22 Gironde MPs.

The Girondins wanted to find the initiators of this petition and, in a broader sense, to limit the power of the commune and the sections that represented an opposition and a threat to them.

tasks

At the request of Barère , the Commission was to examine all the decrees that the City Council and the Paris neighborhoods had passed last month in order to take note of any plans put in place against freedom in France. It should hear the Home and Foreign Ministers, inform the General Security and Public Security Committees of the facts relating to the conspiracies that have threatened the national representation, and take all necessary measures to secure evidence of conspiracies and around to put the persons concerned on trial.

composition

On May 21st, the commission was elected:

All twelve commissioners were Girondins or were close to the Gironde.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jacque Balossier: La Commission extraordinaire of Douze (18 May 1793-31 May 1793) Presses Universitaires de France, 1986. ISBN 2 13 039 693 3 (French)
  2. ↑ Jacques Balossier: La Commission extraordinaire of Douze (18 May 1793-31 May 1793). Préface de Guillaume Matringe, 1986. Review by Marcel Dorigny, Persée , accessed on February 12, 2020 (French)