544. The French Revolution: The September Massacres (Part 1)
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What are the September Massacres and why are they significant?
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The homeland will be saved. Everything is in motion. Everyone burns to fight. While one part of the people goes to the frontiers, a second digs our defenses, and a third, armed with pikes, will defend our cities and towns. We ask that whoever refuses to serve or to give up his weapons shall be punished with death. The toxin that will ring out will not be a signal of alarm, but a call to charge against the enemies of the homeland. To vanquish them, gentlemen, we need to dare, to dare, and to dare again. And then, France will be saved.
So that Dominic was not Winston Churchill, although many people from the excellence of the impression may think it was. It was actually a Frenchman, Georges Danton. Minister of Justice in 1792, the Dominic Sandbrook to my Robespierre. Oh, that's kind. Thanks, Tom. And he's addressing the Assembly on the 2nd of September, 1792. And people will be able to realise from this that we are back with the French Revolution. We are indeed, Tom. Our ongoing series, aren't we? And can I just say why I chose to do it in a Churchillian tone? Do. Yeah, please. Because I think there is a Churchillian quality to that, isn't it? That is a very, very famous speech. It's all about defence of the fatherland, defence of the nation, determination to fight on. And there is a Churchillian quality to it. And I thought it subtly evoked a sense for British listeners of perhaps the resonance it has in France.
Yeah, it does have a huge resonance in France. So those words in French, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace. We need daring, more daring, always daring, to dare, to dare, to dare again, or however you translate it. They're very famous. Lots of French school children will know those words. And that, I think, gives you a sense of the position that we're in as we begin season three of the French Revolution. This episode is very, very gory. So listeners should be warned. It is absolutely revolting, particularly if you have children, be warned. Because in today's episode, we will be turning to, I would say, perhaps the most horrific episode of the whole revolution, the September massacres. So to give people a sense... This is a moment when mobs are going to storm, basically burst into the prisons. Or are they mobs?
I mean, we'll be discussing, won't we?
Mobs or death squads. And they are going to club or hack a thousand people to death. Some of them in very gruesome circumstances. And we'll be debating all that later, but Tom, perhaps first of all, we should remind people where we have got to. Now, obviously, by reminding people, we don't need to do the whole previous two series again. That would be too meta. But, yeah, it would. We'll never get out of it. Okay, to give people a sense, we're in 1792. Tuileries has been stormed. France is at war, and it's been at war since April, and it's gone incredibly badly so far. So France has basically lost those little battles. So politics in Paris is defined by a feud between two rival groups of Jacobins.
So the first faction are called the Girondins, and they're under Brissot, who you really liked, as I recall. I did like Brissot, yeah. Yeah, a do-gooder. That's Brissot, isn't he? He's an abolitionist. He likes a literary salon. He likes dinner with metropolitan people. He's a good man. Yeah, that's Brissot. And then on the other end, another very Tom Holland figure, actually. It's like the battle for your soul this time. I know. This is why I find it so fascinating. It's the Montagnard, the mountain as they're called, under Maximilien Robespierre, the kind of bony, Rousseau-loving. Another do-gooder. Bewigged. Yeah, bewigged do-gooder. Hates capital punishment. Yeah, like you. The streets of Paris are full of armed young men.
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