The French Revolution: The Collapse of Royal Power — Fexingo History

The Revolutionary Calendar: France's Attempt to Reshape Time

In October 1793, the French National Convention voted to abolish the Gregorian calendar and replace it with a revolutionary system that would measure time anew. The Republican Calendar, or Calendrier Républicain, was a bold attempt to erase the old regime's rhythms and impose a rational, decimal framework on daily life. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how the calendar worked: twelve months of thirty days, each divided into three décades, with five or six supplementary holidays at year-end called sans-culottides. They discuss the poet Fabre d'Églantine, who named the months with evocative seasonal terms like Vendémiaire (harvest) and Brumaire (fog), and the decimal clock that never caught on. The calendar was meant to secularise time and break from Christian traditions, but it also created confusion and resentment. Lucas explains why the calendar was abandoned in 1806 under Napoleon, and what its legacy tells us about revolutionary ambition. The episode touches on the Festival of Reason, the Cult of the Supreme Being, and the tension between ideological purity and everyday practicality. A fascinating look at how revolutionaries tried to reshape something as fundamental as time itself. #FrenchRevolution #RepublicanCalendar #CalendrierRépublicain #FabreDÉglantine #Vendémiaire #Brumaire #Germinal #Thermidor #SansCulottides #DecimalTime #RevolutionaryFrance #NationalConvention #CultOfReason #SupremeBeing #Napoleon #History #FexingoHistory #Timekeeping Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Champ de Mars Massacre: When the Revolution Turned on Its Own

On July 17, 1791, just weeks after Louis XVI's failed flight to Varennes, tens of thousands of Parisians gathered at the Champ de Mars to sign a republican petition. The National Guard, commanded by the Marquis de Lafayette, opened fire on the crowd, killing dozens. This episode explores the massacre that shattered the revolutionary consensus, radicalized the sans-culottes, and pushed France toward the Terror. We follow the political maneuvering of the Cordeliers Club, the Jacobin split at the Feuillants Monastery, the role of Jean-Sylvain Bailly as mayor, and the chilling aftermath where martial law turned Paris into an occupied city. Why did Lafayette obey the Assembly's order? How did the massacre set the stage for the September Massacres a year later? And what does it tell us about the fragility of revolutionary ideals when faced with popular democracy? Lucas and Luna dig into the overlooked turning point that made the Reign of Terror possible. #ChampDeMarsMassacre #RevolutionaryFrance #MarquisDeLafayette #JeanSylvainBailly #CordeliersClub #Feuillants #JacobinSplit #MartialLaw #Republicanism #Paris1791 #SansCulottes #NationalGuard #Danton #Marat #Robespierre #FrenchRevolution #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The September Massacres: Paris in Flames, 1792

In early September 1792, as Prussian armies advanced on Verdun and the fall of Paris seemed imminent, panicked crowds and revolutionary militants turned on the city's prisons. Over four days, roughly 1,200 to 1,400 prisoners — including common criminals, prostitutes, refractory priests, and Swiss Guards from the August 10 uprising — were dragged from their cells and executed in makeshift tribunals and street killings. This episode dives into the specific mechanics of the massacres: the role of the Paris Commune's surveillance committees, the improvised 'popular tribunals' at the Abbaye Prison and the Carmes, the complicity or paralysis of officials like Minister of Justice Georges Danton and the National Convention, and the contested question of whether the killings were spontaneous mob fury or a coordinated elimination of counter-revolutionary threats. We also explore the aftermath — how the massacres hardened divisions between Paris and the provinces, radicalised the Convention, and set the stage for the Terror. Drawing on eyewitness accounts from the Prussian journalist Friedrich Schulz and the English doctor John Moore, the episode reconstructs the fear, chaos, and brutality of those September days. #SeptemberMassacres #FrenchRevolution #Paris1792 #AbbayePrison #GeorgesDanton #JeanPaulMarat #StanislasMaillard #PrussianInvasion #Verdun #RefractoryPriests #SwissGuards #PopularTribunals #ParisCommune #NationalConvention #CounterRevolution #Terror #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Vendée Uprising: Civil War in Revolutionary France

In 1793, the French Revolution faced its most serious internal threat: a massive peasant insurrection in the western region of the Vendée. This episode explores the causes of the uprising—from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and conscription to the brutal repression that followed. We discuss key figures like Jacques Cathelineau and Jean-Baptiste Carrier, the epic battles at Cholet and Savenay, and the devastating 'hell columns' that massacred thousands. The Vendée reveals the revolution's dark underbelly: a civil war fueled by religion, regional identity, and class conflict. We also examine the legacy of this conflict, its suppression from official memory, and its echoes in modern French politics. #Vendee #FrenchRevolution #CivilWar #JacquesCathelineau #JeanBaptisteCarrier #Cholet #Savenay #HellColumns #CatholicRebellion #Conscription #ReignOfTerror #CounterRevolution #PeasantUprising #Royalist #RevolutionaryForces #France #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]

The Girondin Exile: How France's First Federalists Were Crushed

The Girondins were the moderate voices of the early French Revolution — eloquent, provincial, and wary of Parisian radicalism. In this episode, we trace their rise from the salon of Madame Roland to their brutal purge in the Jacobin coup of 2 June 1793. We explore the key figures: Jacques Pierre Brissot, whose anti-slavery activism and war advocacy shaped their identity; the fiery orator Vergniaud; and the stoic Roland couple, whose writings fuelled the revolution before the guillotine silenced them. We discuss their federalist sympathies, the clash with Robespierre and the Montagnards, and the tragic irony that many Girondins, who initially supported the king's trial, were themselves condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal they had helped create. The episode ends with the exile, execution, and the quiet legacy of a faction that dreamed of a French republic without terror. #Girondins #FrenchRevolution #Brissot #MadameRoland #Vergniaud #JacobinCoup #2June1793 #Federalism #RevolutionaryTribunal #Montagnards #Robespierre #GirondinExile #History #FexingoHistory #Europe #18thCentury #PoliticalFactions #Terror Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo [https://buymeacoffee.com/fexingo]