X-Nico

31 unusual facts about French Revolution


1789 in sports

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset organises an international tour of English cricketers to France, but it is abandoned following the outbreak of the French Revolution

Club de Clichy

During the French Revolution, the Club de Clichy formed in 1794, following the fall of Robespierre, 9 Thermidor an II (27 July 1794).

Colwich, Staffordshire

In 1836 the community, having been expelled from France during the French Revolution, finally settled at The Mount, Colwich, where they established the present house, raised to the rank of an abbey in 1928.

DeLauné Michel

Helene DeLauné was in the court of Marie Antoinette and her husband, Jules André Dubus, fought in the French Revolution.

Enragés

Les Enragés (literally "the Enraged Ones") were a loose amalgam of radicals active during the French Revolution.

Françoise-Augustine Duval d'Eprémesnil

Françoise-Augustine Sentuary (31 March 1749, Saint-Denis, Île Bourbon – 17 June 1794, Paris) was a notable counter-revolutionary during the French Revolution.

Fredrik Meltzer

He chose to use a Nordic cross to reflect Norway's close ties with Sweden and Denmark, and the colours red, white and blue in order to symbolize the liberal ideals associated with more or less democratic countries, such as the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States of America, and revolutionary France.

French corsairs

During the French Revolution, the convention government disapproved of lettres de course, so Surcouf operated at great personal risk as a pirate against British shipping to India.

George Engleheart

The clothes of his sitters are much simpler, following the simple style which came into fashion in France from 1789 onwards, as a result of the Revolution.

Glina, Croatia

During the mid 18th century, Count Ivan Drašković created freemasons' lodges in several Croatian cities, including Glina, where officers and other members shared ideas of the Jacobins from the French Revolution, until Emperor Francis II banned them in 1798.

Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1817

In his speech he said there was "a traitorous conspiracy...for the purpose of overthrowing...the established government" and referred to "a malignant spirit which had brought such disgrace upon the domestic character of the people" and "had long prevailed in the country, but especially since the commencement of the French Revolution".

Hanns-Josef Ortheil

In 1976 he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the theory of the novel in the era of the French Revolution at the German Institute of the University of Mainz.

Jean-Baptiste Michonis

Jean-Baptiste Michonis (1735 – 17 June 1794) was a personality of the French Revolution.

John Singleton the Younger

After his big race success, Singleton spent time in France, as trainer to the Duke of Orleans, but this employment came to an end with the coming of the French Revolution.

Macaroon

Later, two Benedictine nuns, Sister Marguerite and Sister Marie-Elisabeth, came to Nancy seeking asylum during the French Revolution.

Margaret Mulvihill

Her non-fiction work includes a biography of Charlotte Despard (1989), a biography of Benito Mussolini (1990), an account of the French Revolution (1989), and The Treasury of Saints and Martyrs (1999).

Margravine Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt

From 1769 she lived at Montbéliard, which was being managed by her husband, but which had to be abandoned in 1792 because of the French Revolution.

Marquis de Champcenetz

Louis René Quentin de Richebourg, marquis de Champcenetz was governor of the Tuileries Palace at the time of the French Revolution.

Missa in tempore belli

Four years into the European war that followed the French Revolution, Austrian troops were doing badly against the French in Italy and Germany, and Austria feared invasion.

Modérantisme

During the French Revolution, modérantisme or the faction des modérés (faction of the moderates) was the name given to the Girondists and then to the Dantonistes by the Montagnards.

Paul and Pierrette Girault de Coursac

He was never governed by his ministers and during the French Revolution he pursued a consistent policy, playing the game that had been forced on him.

Protonotary apostolic

Their importance gradually diminished, and at the time of the French Revolution the office had almost entirely disappeared.

Quatuor concertant

The quatuor concertant is a special form of string quartet that developed in Paris around 1775 and became one of the leading genres of Parisian music until the French Revolution.

Redorer son blason

Redorer son blason (literally "to re-gild one's coat of arms") was a social practice taking place in France before the French Revolution whereby a poor aristocratic family married a daughter to a rich commoner.

Sans-culottes

The popular image of the sans-culotte has gained currency as an enduring symbol for the passion, idealism and patriotism of the common man of the French Revolution.

Sophia Stacey

She eventually married in 1823 a somewhat younger army officer, Captain James Patrick Catty of the Royal Engineers, who was the son of Louis Francois Catty, who was either a refugee from the French Revolution or a French Canadian, sources differ.

Tauxe

It originated as a yeoman line in the 15th century, probably deriving its move to the bourgeousie from involvement in revenue operations ('taux' is French for 'tax' or 'tell' as in 'bank teller').

The Mountain

The Mountain (French: La Montagne) is a political group during the French Revolution whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly.

Venal office

In the context of the French Revolution, a venal office refers to an office sold by the state to raise money.

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia

From 1792 to 1796, Aosta's father had taken an active part in the struggle of the old powers against the French Revolutionary forces, but were defeated and forced to make peace.

Volkstum

Möser already bordered on being the "Vater der Volkskunde" (Father of Ethnology) the Deutschtum against the cosmopolitanism of the Enlightenment and against the French Revolution.


Alexis-François Artaud de Montor

An émigré during the French Revolution, he was entrusted by the royal princes with missions to the Holy See and served during the campaign of Champagne in the Army of Condé.

Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

On Christmas Eve in 1800, amid the French Revolution, knowing they could face the guillotine for their actions, Peter Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de Chevalerie established the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary with a mission to spread the message of God's love manifested through the Hearts of Jesus and Mary and through the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Antoine Simon

A member of the Club of the Cordeliers, representative of the Paris Commune, on 3 July 1793, he was designated to watch over Louis XVII at the Temple,

Bazas Cathedral

Bazas was the seat of the Bishop of Bazas until the French Revolution (after which it was not restored but was instead, by the Concordat of 1801, divided between the dioceses of Bordeaux, Agen and Aire) and its main attraction is still the cathedral dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, so named because the blood of John the Baptist was venerated here.

Benefice

The French Revolution replaced France's system by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy following debates and a report headed by Martineau in 1790, confiscating all endowments of the church until then the highest (premier ordre) of the Ancien Régime; instead awarding a state salary to the formerly endowment-dependent clergy, and abolishing canons, prebendaries and chaplains.

Bible de Souvigny

The Bible of Souvigny was saved from confiscation during the French Revolution.

Canoe Island French Camp

To celebrate the French Revolution and Bastille Day, a water-balloon fight (aka "Storming the Bastille") is held.

Charles E. Stanton

On July 4, 1917 he visited the tomb of French Revolution and American Revolution hero Marquis de La Fayette and (according to Pershing) said, "Lafayette, we are here!" to honor the nobleman's assistance during the Revolutionary War.

Château de Kintzheim

Taken care of during the 18th century by J. G. de Gollen, then by the marquis de Broc, his heir, the castle was abandoned following the French Revolution of 1789.

Château de Seneffe

After the French revolution and the subsequent occupation of the Austrian Netherlands by the French republic the château was confiscated (1799).

Citizen Chauvelin

The former ambassador to the United Kingdom (The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Elusive Pimpernel), Chauvelin is both a representative in the National Assembly and the chief agent of the Committee of Public Safety.

Co-cathedral

In France the bishop of Couserans (a see suppressed by the French Revolution) had two co-cathedral churches at Saint-Lizier, and the bishop of Sisteron (a see also suppressed) had a second throne in the church of Forcalquier which is still called La Con-cathédrale.

Forbury Gardens

As a result of the concerns sparked in England by the French Revolution, and throughout the ensuing Napoleonic Wars, the Forbury was used for military drills and parades, in addition to its well-established use for fairs and circuses.

France–Morocco relations

After the troubled periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, France again showed a strong interest in Morocco in the 1830s, as a possible extension of her sphere of influence in the Maghreb, after Algeria and Tunisia.

Georges Bontemps

In 1848, when the second French Revolution forced Georges Bontemps to flee to England, he found employment at Chance Brothers, due to his longtime friendship with Chance.

Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet

Viennet was the son of National Convention-member Jacques Joseph Viennet and nephew of the priest Louis Esprit Viennet who, aged 40, was made curate of the église Saint-Merri in Paris and who in the early phase of the French Revolution in 1790 preached a sermon on the civil constitution of the clergy.

John Louis, Count of Nassau-Ottweiler

His remains were destroyed in the looting of the church during the French Revolution.

Joseph François Michaud

He was born at Albens, Savoie, educated at Bourg-en-Bresse, and afterwards engaged in literary work at Lyon, where the French Revolution first aroused the strong dislike of revolutionary principles which manifested itself throughout the rest of his life.

Joseph Gerrald

Returning to England in 1788, Gerrald was encouraged by the hopes raised by the French Revolution and joined the movement for political reform.

Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil

Following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, Vaudreuil, in the company of his old royal comrade, the comte d'Artois, left Versailles on horseback for the Austrian Netherlands.

Laurensberg

Being on the border between France and Germany, the area has seen numerous conflicts, such as during the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon.

Louis-Joseph de Montmorency-Laval

During the French Revolution Montmorency-Laval left France and lived in exile in the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway, settling in the town of Altona, now a part of Germany.

Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford

Incorporated in the design was carved medieval stonework from the Norman Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Jumieges and from the Grande Maison des Les Andelys, both of which structures had fallen into disrepair after the French Revolution.

Lucius Junius Brutus

In 1789, at the dawn of the French Revolution, master painter Jacques-Louis David publicly exhibited his politically charged masterwork, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, to great controversy.

Mademoiselle Montansier

Profiting from the French Revolution, she set herself up in Paris in the company of her lover, Honoré Bourdon (stage name "de Neuville"), and took possession of the Théâtre des Beaujolais under the arcades of the Palais-Royal.

Mariastein Abbey

The abbey was secularised twice, in 1792, because of the French Revolution, and in 1874, as a result of a conflict between the state and the Roman Catholic Church known as Kulturkampf, after which the monks were obliged to seek refuge first in France, at Delle, and then, when in 1902 they were expelled as a result of legal changes in France, for a short time at Dürrnberg near Hallein in Austria, and finally in Bregenz, also in Austria.

Marie-Thérèse Figueur

By her own account, she was not initially a supporter of the French Revolution; her uncle was a firm if discreet royalist, and she feared her best friend, a drummer-boy in the Swiss Guard, had been killed during the overthrow of the monarchy.

Martial Joseph Armand Herman

Martial Joseph Armand Herman (August 29, 1749, Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise – May 7, 1795, Paris) (guillotined), was a politician of the French Revolution, and temporary French Foreign Minister.

Montmerle Charterhouse

Montmerle Charterhouse was dissolved in 1792 during the French Revolution, when some of its paintings, including a number by Nicolas-Guy Brenet, were moved to the parish church of Pont-de-Vaux.

Moussey, Vosges

Moussey is one of several communes that formerly belonged to Senones Abbey: subsequently it fell within the Principality of Salm-Salm until the French Revolution, following which the former principality became a part of France.

Musée de la Révolution française de Vizille

The Musée de la Révolution française de Vizille is a departmental museum on the French Revolution, located in the French town of Vizille, 15 kilometres to the south of Grenoble, on the route Napoléon.

Parliament of Great Britain

In the wake of the French Revolution of 1789, Radical organisations such as the London Corresponding Society sprang up to press for parliamentary reform, but as the Napoleonic Wars developed the government took extensive repressive measures against feared domestic unrest aping the democratic and egalitarian ideals of the French Revolution and progress toward reform was stalled for decades.

Pierre Bourbotte

Pierre Bourbotte (5 June 1763, Vault-de-Lugny – 17 June 1795, Paris) was a French politician during the French Revolution.

R v Lovelass and Others

Under the Unlawful Oaths Act 1797, passed in response to the threat of mutinies following the French Revolution, it was made illegal to make an oath, and a further offence to not reveal the oath.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Luxembourg

Before the French Revolution, the southern part of the territory of what is now the archdiocese belonged to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier (then an archbishopric) and the northern part to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Liège.

Roman Catholic Diocese of Grenoble-Vienne

Before the French Revolution it was a suffragan diocese of the archbishopric of Vienne and included the deanery or see at Savoy, which in 1779, was made a bishopric in its own right, with the see at Chambéry.

Roman Catholic Diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes

This diocese before the French Revolution, aside from Maillezais, included the present arrondissements of Marennes, Rochefort, La Rochelle, and a part of Saint-Jean-d'Angély.

Seditious Meetings Act 1795

The period between 1790-1800 was one of intense lectures and public speeches in defence of political reformation, which, for the similarities with the French Revolution principles, were usually named "Jacobinic meetings".

Solesmes Abbey

Peter's Abbey, Solesmes (Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes) is a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes (Sarthe, France), famous as the source of the restoration of Benedictine monastic life in the country under Dom Prosper Guéranger after the French Revolution.

St John the Baptist's Church, Brighton

Many refugees from the French Revolution settled in Brighton after escaping from France; and Maria Fitzherbert, a twice-widowed Catholic, began a relationship with the Prince Regent (and secretly married him in 1785 in a ceremony which was illegal according to the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Royal Marriages Act 1772).

Steffeln

After the occupation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French Revolutionary troops in 1794 and the French annexation of the Austrian Netherlands between 1795 and 1797, Steffeln became the seat of a mairie (“mayoralty”) in the Canton of Kronenburg, the Arrondissement of Malmedy and the Department of Ourthe, whose seat was in Liège.

The Penny Dreadfuls

This takes place during the French Revolution and covered an imagined meeting in prison between Maximilien Robespierre and the imprisoned Marie-Therese, the 16-year-old daughter of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Vandalism of art

The term vandalisme was coined in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution.

Victor Scipion Charles Auguste de La Garde de Chambonas

Victor Scipion Charles Auguste de La Garde de Chambonas (1750-1830) was a mayor of Sens, brigadier general, and French foreign minister, at the beginning of the French Revolution.

Volkstum

The term was coined by German nationalists in the context of Germany's "Freedom Wars", in marked and conscious opposition to the ideals of the French Revolution such as universal human rights.

William Colgate

Robert Colgate (1758–1826) was an 18th-century English farmer, politician and sympathiser with the American War of Independence and French Revolution, whose republican ideals impelled him to leave their farm in Shoreham, Kent in March 1798 and emigrate to Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States of America, after which the family settled on a farm in Harford County, Maryland.