It ought to the recalled that Louis
xvi was forced to accept reforms from the national assembly against his
free will. He felt the condition under which he was kept the Tuilleries
were unbearable. He said; I would rather be a king of Metz than remain
king of France in such a position but this will end soon.
Eventually,
he decided to join the émigrés in Austria for a counter-revolution. So,
Louis XVI and the royal family stealthily (secretly) left the
Tuilleries at night and headed for Austria. However, he was detected and
arrested by peasants at Varrenes, a few miles from the boarder of
Austria and France. They were brought back to Paris amidst great
humiliation.
The significance of this abortive flight is as follows.
1.
It depicted King Louis and his family as traitors and conspirators
against the revolution. This event made the revolutionaries to lose the
little trust that they had for the king.
2. It
revealed further the king's inconsistent nature and his wavering
character. This is because he succumbed to ill advice of the queen and
the aristocrats to flee abroad and fight against the reforms he had
endorsed.
3. The event was a serious humiliation to
the king amongst his subject. He was arrested by peasants and escorted
back to Paris as an enemy of France and the revolution. The king and his
family were kept as prisoners in the Tuilleries which was a disgraceful
event.
4. It strengthened the spirit of
republicanism in France. Men like Robespierre and Danton demanded for
the replacement of the monarchy with a republican form of government.
However the National assembly was still dominated by constitutional
monarchists and no action was taken against the monarchy. The king took
an oath of allegiance to the constitution and the matter rested there.
Nevertheless, the spirit of republicanism spread fast and that's why the
monarchy was replaced by a republic the next year (1792). One historian
correctly observed that; At Varrenes, the monarchy had died; all that
Paris had to do a year later was to hurry it
5.
While the Jacobins were agitating for a republican government, a number
of people wanted a constitutional monarchy. This marked the diversion of
opinion and the development of political parties in France. Henceforth,
France entered into an era of multi party politics although it was
short lived.
The humiliation of the royal family
provoked internal protests from the aristocrats add external war that
contributed to the reign of terror.
7. Those who
had acquired the church Land and some revolutionaries, began to fear
that they would be killed if the king got military assistance from
outside, this also contributed to the reign of terror in
France.
8.
Lastly, the event increased the hostility between revolutionary France
and her neighbours. European monarchs condemned the French revolutionary
mistreatment and humiliation of Louis xvi. Prussia and Russia issued
the Pilnitz declaration of August 1791 in which they threatened war
against France in case the king was hurt. This was responsible for war
between France and her neighbours with all its disastrous consequences.
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