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Brunswick Manifesto (1792)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Brunswick Manifesto was a proclamation issued by Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick on 25 July 1792 to the population of Paris, France during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Brunswick Manifesto promised that if the French royal family was not harmed, then French civilians would not be harmed. It was a measure intended to intimidate Paris, but rather helped further spur the increasingly radical French Revolution.
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On 20 April 1792, Revolutionary France declared war on Austria; on 28 April France invaded the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium today). The French invasion was beaten back in a matter of days. Prussia joined the war against France, and on 30 July Austria and Prussia began the invasion of France; the plan was to drive for Paris and occupy it.
On 25 July, the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Allied Army (Austrian and Prussian Armies), issued the Brunswick Manifesto. The manifesto promised that if the French Royal family was not harmed, then the Allies would not harm French civilians or loot. However, if acts of violence or acts to humiliate the French Royal family were committed, the Allies threatened not only that they would take vengeance on Paris, but also that many European nations promised to declare war on France. The manifesto was written primarily by Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, the leader of a large corps of French émigrés in Brunswick's army, and intended to intimidate Paris into submission. On 1 August news of the manifesto began sweeping through Paris. Many believed the Brunswick Manifesto was final proof that Louis XVI was collaborating with the Allies. Also on 1 August, Prussian forces crossed the Rhine near Coblenz; consequently, the French National Assembly ordered that citizens prepare for war.
The Brunswick Manifesto, rather than intimidate the populace into submission, sent it into furious action and created fear and anger towards the Allies. It also spurred revolutionaries to take further action, organizing an uprising – on 10 August the Tuileries were stormed and Swiss Guards protecting it were massacred by the mob. In late August and early September, the French were defeated in skirmishes with the Allied army, but on 20 September the French held the field at Valmy; the invading army withdrew from France after the Battle of Valmy.
- Connelly, Owen (2006). The wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1792–1815. Routledge. ISBN 0415239842.
- Taylor, Brian (2006). The empire of the French : a chronology of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1792–1815. Stroud, United Kingdom: Spellmount. ISBN 1862272549.
