were crushed by forces loyal to the new political group called Thermidorians. Emigres began to return to the country and boast that the monarchy would be restored soon. Emigres: Persons who leave their own country in order to settle in another for political reasons. In the present context, the nobles who fled France in the years following the French Revolution came to be called émigrés.
In all about , prisoners were killed in what came to be known as the September Massacres. The September Massacres were publicised abroad as proof of the horrors of revolution. The Girondins blamed their more radical enemies, especially Marat, Danton and Robespierre. Work of the National Convention On September the revolutionary army halted the invading forces at Valmy.
The next day the new Convention abolished monarchy and declared France a republic. King Louis XVI was brought before the People’s tribunal and executed by guillotine on January . The offence he committed was his appeal to foreigners for help against his own people. Soon afterwards Marie Antoinette was beheaded.
Execution of Louis XVI Against a background of growing hunger in the towns and countryside alike, there were demands from the Parisians to control prices, to maintain grain supplies to feed people and to take action against hoarders and speculators. Instead of initiating steps to meet the just demands of the Parisian masses, the Convention used the army to attack the agitating masses. The army suffered a series of defeats as its commander deserted to the enemy. Disillusioned peasants in the Vendee region in the west of France joined a monarchist rising.
Finally moderates and royalists ( May ) together seized control of Lyons, where silk industry was thriving and wealthy merchants from Germany and Italy had settled. The Age of Revolutions judiciary became prominent, and kept a check and balance on each other. It removed the concentration of power under a single authority. All over Europe, the French Revolution gave the hope to the people to end the despotic rule and establish