Violence
1789
10 February: Pre-Revolutionary Violence
Although many of the Letters focus on Paris, they also show that the duchess made considerable efforts to stay informed about events elsewhere in the...
16 July: Aftermath of the Fall of the Bastille
The duchess provides an immediate response to the dramatic Revolutionary events of early July 1789. Momentum had shifted from Versailles and the new...
22 July: Revolutionary Paris in July 1789
The duchess reflects on events in the Revolution so far and the rising power of Paris's new municipal government. She castigates a...
8 August: The Duchess Rides Through the Great Fear
The duchess felt trapped in Paris following the Revolutionary events of July 1789. She decided to leave Paris for her provincial estates at Moreuil in...
14 October: A King Imprisoned? The October Days
On 5-6 October 1789, a Parisian crowd led by thousands of women marched out to demonstrate at Versailles and forced the royal family to relocate to...
1790
30 August: Confrontation at Moreuil
This entry details a lengthy confrontation between the duchess and local inhabitants at her Moreuil estate. The new political landscape taking shape...
1791
30 June: Capture at Varennes: The Humiliation of a King
Here the duchess sifts through the wreckage of the royal family's thwarted attempt to escape Paris in June 1791. Before leaving on what would become...
1792
25 May: Revolutionary France Faces Military Disaster
After much triumphalist rhetoric in Parisian political circles ahead of France's declaration of war against Austria on 20 April 1792, the harsh...
14 August: The August Revolution: The Fall of the Monarchy
The summer of 1792 was a perfect storm for the French monarchy, with rising demands for a Republic amid military defeats and the lasting resentment...
4 September: Revolutionary Massacre: Paris in September 1792
At the start of September 1792 Revolutionary tensions boiled over in the capital in the wake of the fall of the monarchy and news of...
15 December: The Criminality of Revolutionary France
The deposed king Louis XVI is going on trial for crimes against the Revolution and the duchess regards this as further evidence of Revolutionary...
1793
21 January: The Execution of Louis XVI
The deposed king's trial before the nation's elected representatives in the National Convention began on 11 December 1792. A guilty verdict was never...
11 March: Terror on the Horizon. Part 1
This entry is dated the same day that the creation of a new Paris Revolutionary Tribunal was announced by the Convention. This was one of the building...
11 May: Counter-Revolution in the Vendée
The civil war in the Vendée region of Western France had become a serious strategic and political concern for the Republic by May 1793. The duchess...
29 May - 31 May: Purge of the Girondins. Part 1
Another entry which speaks to the possible political implications of the military pressure the Republic was under. The duchess believes this to be the...
1 June - 3 June: Purge of the Girondins. Part 2
Popular pressure finally secured the ‘Purge of the Girondins’ from the National Convention on 2 June 1793. A total of twenty-nine deputies were...
5 June: Reflections on Political Repression
The duchess explains how the balance of political power in the capital has recently shifted in a more radical direction, and considers the...
31 July: Revolutionary Justice in the summer of 1793
The duchess offers news and personal reflections on recent developments in the French Revolution (as seen from her home in the heart of the capital)...
22 October: The Execution of Marie-Antoinette
The execution of the former queen Marie-Antoinette on 16 October 1793, after a highly politicised show trial at the Paris Revolutionary Tribunal, was...
6 November: The Terror Gathers Pace
The duchess describes the execution of Brissot and a group of his fellow Girondin deputies. She combines this with broader reflections on the...