Nancy's affair

The Heroic Courage of young Désilles, the , to the Nancy affair, The barber, 1794 (Museum of the French Revolution, Vizille).

L'Nancy's affair is a mutiny of the garrison of the city of Nancy, which took place during the French Revolution, from 5 to . The officer André Désilles finds death there.

Context[edit | change the code]

Since 1789, a more or less latent insubordination has affected the entire French army: advancement and pay are blocked, royalists and Jacobins clash among the officers.

From the , the garrison of Nancy in turn experienced a rebellion, the soldiers convincing themselves that the officers were robbing them due to the absence of accounts relating to certain deductions from their pay; while deductions for linen and shoes were counted every four months.

The Nancy garrison is made up of King's regiment, of Swiss regiment of Châteauvieux and regiment Mestre de Camp General cavalry.

She demanded her pay and had imprisoned her officers whose General of Malsigne, sent from Besançon by Lafayette to restore order1.

THE , The Pine Tower has the Assembly vote for a decree which “regulates the measures to be taken for the punishment of the instigators and perpetrators of the excesses committed by the regiments garrisoned in Nancy”2. On the 18th, Lafayette gives the order to suppress the revolt; to make an example3.

THE Marquis of Bouille, governor of Trois-Évêchés, subdues her after a street fight lasting a few hours on . For this operation it has:

a total of 2820 infantry men and 8 artillery pieces

i.e. a total of 1480 horsepower4. The fighting left three hundred dead and wounded.5.

Sacrifice of Désilles[edit | change the code]

Commemorative plaque on the Désilles door

Close to Stainville door, the officer André Désilles intervenes between his mutinous soldiers and Bouillé's troops, trying to avoid the firing of the cannons. He died two months later from his injuries.6.

Repression[edit | change the code]

In accordance with treated governing the commitment of Swiss soldiers, a military council composed of officers from the Castella and Vigier regiments and chaired by Lieutenant-Colonel François Joseph de Girardier was formed to investigate the accusation of theft and armed rebellion against 138 soldiers. Initially, all are sentenced to death but the sentence is reviewed, and the 7 : two soldiers who managed to escape are condemned in absentia; 72 are imprisoned; 41 are sentenced to thirty years in prison; 22 are hanged. Finally, one of the five members of the rebel committee, a Geneva named André Soret is sentenced to torture of the wheel ; he is probably the last to suffer this torture in France[ref. necessary].

Consequences[edit | change the code]

These events have an important echo in Paris. Jean Paul Marat publishes a pamphlet The awful awakening, with the Jacobins he takes the side of the insurgents. But initially it was Bouillé's troops who were celebrated and the National Assembly ordered Jean-Jacques Le Barbier a commemorative painting6. THE  a funeral party is organized at Field of Mars, in honor of the citizens of the National Guard who died in Nancy8. Many other ceremonies are organized throughout France. Two plays were staged in Paris: the  The new one from Assas of Jean-Élie Bédéno Dejaure And Henri Montan Berton and the  the tomb of Desilles by Desfontaines-Lavallée.

THE , THE regiment of Lauzun hussars, involved in the repression of the Nancy mutiny, is this time the author of an “affair of Belfort » during which drunken officers roam the city shouting “long live the king, long live the aristocrats, long live the rabble, to f. the nation ".

The Nancy episode strengthens Bouillé's prestige over the royalists and convinces Louis XVI of the need to leave Paris, which will lead to the flight from Varennes. After this episode, opinion shifted in favor of the insurgents.

In 1791, Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois defends the mutineers who have been sentenced to forced labor and obtains their rehabilitation. In 1792, after a 25-day march from the Brest prison, they arrive in Paris where a “Liberty Festival” is organized in their honor on . Their red convict cap, assimilated by the Parisian population to Phrygian cap, becomes a emblem of the Republic9.

Porte Désilles in Nancy.

In 1867, the Stainville gate in Nancy, initially built in honor of theAmerican independence, is renowned Désilles door.

Notes and references[edit | change the code]

  1. ↑ Memoirs, 1760-1820, of Jean-Balthazar de Bonardi du Ménil, Norman gentleman [archive]
  2. ↑ Minutes of the National Assembly, Volume 27 [archive]
  3. ↑ Memoirs, correspondence and manuscripts of General Lafayette  [archive]
  4. ↑ LEONARD (of), Accurate and impartial account of what happened in Nancy on August 31 and the preceding days, Nancy, at Mme Henry, 1790, 188 p.
  5. ↑ The mutiny of Nancy, August 1790 [archive]
  6. ↑ Return higher to:has And b restorations and deposits [archive], Vizille estate
  7. ↑ A regiment throughout history, the 76th, ex-1st light p.373 [archive] Henri Victor Dollin Du Fresnel, 1894.
  8. ↑ The National Guard (1789-1871): An ambiguous public force p.91 [archive] Georges Carrot 2001
  9. ↑ Auguste Dupouy, Facing the sunset, Brest, the coast and the islands, The Book Renaissance, 1934, p. 171-170.

Appendices[edit | change the code]

On other Wikimedia projects:

Bibliography[edit | change the code]

  • History of the army and all the regiments from the early days of the monarchy to the present day, second volume, by Adrien Pascal, Paris 1860, pp. 251-255
  • History of infantry in France, volume 3, by Lieutenant-Colonel Belhomme, Henri Charles-Lavauzelle military publisher, Paris
  • The Nancy Affair, Jean Theveny, Edilivre-Aparis 2015
  • Pascal Corpart, “ Riot festival, popular festival: Nancy in August 1790 ", The Lorraine Notebooks, Society of History and Archeology of Lorraine, notbone 2-3-4, , p. 173–177 (read online [archive])
  • Aline Cordani, “ Metz and Nancy’s “affair” ", The Lorraine Notebooks, Society of History and Archeology of Lorraine, notbone 2-3-4, , p. 141–171 (read online [archive])

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