545. The French Revolution: The First Feminist (Part 2)
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Who is Marianne in the context of the French Revolution?
Thank you for listening to The Rest Is History. For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series, and membership of our much-loved chat community, go to therestishistory.com and join the club. That is therestishistory.com. Marianne is the embodiment of the French Republic. Marianne represents the permanent values that found her citizens' attachment to the Republic, liberty, equality, fraternité. The earliest representation of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap, an allegorical figure of liberty and the Republic, made their appearance at the time of the French Revolution. The origins of the name Marianne are uncertain. Marianne was a very common first name in the 18th century, and she thus came to represent the people. The counter-revolutionaries used the name derisively when referring to the Republic. So, Tom, that was the website of the Élysée Palace talking about the great symbol of the French Republic. Marianne.
So this is a symbol that emerges at the point that we've just got to in the great narrative of the French Revolution, the summer and autumn of 1792. We heard last time about the terrible September massacres that took place as the Prussians were advancing on Paris. And it's, of course, at this point that people are singing the Marseillaise, the marching song of the Army of the Rhine that has swept through the capital. But it's also at this point that people alight upon a new symbol of France, which is this figure of Marianne.
Marianne, who is this woman wearing the Phrygian cap, the liberty cap. long flowing hair, will become the emblem of France itself. I think it's really striking that two of the emblematic embodiments of modern France, the Marseillaise, its national anthem, and the figure of Marianne, the embodiment of France herself, emerge in precisely these months, the summer going into the autumn of 1792. I guess the previous episode that we did where we looked at the September massacres, it didn't really portray the revolution in a great light, did it? If we're absolutely honest.
Not the best light, no.
But I think this kind of reminds us that even while people are being dragged out of prisons and hacked to death, there is also an absolutely invigorating and inspiring sense of optimism and hope that is inspiring terrible deeds, yes, but also it's rallying people to the barricades and it's giving people dreams of a better future. a future in which all of the people of France will have a stake. So you mentioned at the end of the last episode, you left us with this absolute cliffhanger, that the Prussians are advancing on Paris. But you also talked about how there is this new political settlement, there's this national convention, and elections are being held to it. And you said, you know, If the Prussians break into Paris, then maybe the convention will never even meet.
A spoiler alert, the Prussians don't end up advancing on Paris for reasons that we'll discuss in the next episode. The national convention does meet, and it meets on the 20th of September. The deputies who are going there, they're all going to the Tuileries, where the royal family had previously been based, until the massacre of their guards and their removal to what ultimately is their prison. So this is now at the centre of the convention, which is an expression of, in a way, popular sovereignty. What is striking about this, and it's not just in the French context, but in the context of the whole of global history, is that this is a near universal suffrage for men. There are no distinctions of class. There are no distinctions of property.
People may remember back in the mists of time that we talked about. Originally, there was this idea of active and passive citizens, weren't there? That active citizens, you had to have certain property qualifications. You couldn't have certain professions. All that has gone. All males, basically over the age of 21, now have the vote. And I think this is a kind of noble and inspiring moment in history. no matter what your views on the revolution might be, Dominic, would you disagree with that? Or not?
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