Gibbon's unfinished History: the French Revolution and English political vocabularies

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Womersley
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Textual History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

AbstractOn Gibbon's death his papers contained an incomplete and unpublished essay on the genealogy of the European dynasty of which the British royal family was a branch, entitled The antiquities of the house of Brunswick. This article explains why Gibbon began this work, and why he laid it aside. Beginning by describing the nature and purpose of literature on Hanoverian genealogy in the earlier eighteenth century, and proceeding to relate the content of the Antiquities to the politics of Blackstone and Hume, the article identifies the Antiquities as a distinctively ancien régime defence of British political life and institutions which was elicited from Gibbon by the early months of the French revolution. The abandonment of the Antiquities is then explained as part of Gibbon's shocked response to the deepening gravity of events in France after the September massacres. In the polarized political atmosphere which ensued, the literary finesse of the Antiquities ran the risk of being confused with disaffection. That risk was increased when Gibbon and The decline and fall began to be used by radicals as auxiliaries in their attack on England's ancien régime. The textual history of the Antiquities allows us to perceive the rapidity with which the connotations and ownership of certain political vocabularies in England changed during the early 1790s.

scholarly journals European history and war: The case-study of the eighteenth century

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-35
Author(s):  
Jeremy Black
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Military History ◽  
European History ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Relevant Consideration ◽  
The French Revolution

A widely-relevant consideration of conceptual and methodological points in military history drawing on the case-study of ancien régime European warfare and the impact of the French Revolution.

FRENCH CROSSINGS IV: VAGARIES OF PASSION AND POWER IN ENLIGHTENMENT PARIS

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 3-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Paris Opera ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
Olympe De Gouges ◽  
The French Revolution ◽  
French Feminism

ABSTRACTThis paper examines female libertinism in eighteenth-century France, highlighting the hybrid identity of actress, courtesan and prostitute of female performers at the Paris Opéra. The main focus is on the celebrated singer, Sophie Arnould. She and others like her achieved celebrity by moving seamlessly between these three facets of their identity. Their celebrity also allowed them to circulate within the highest social circles. Feminists of the 1790s such as Olympe de Gouges and Théroigne de Méricourt had pre-Revolutionary careers that were very similar to those of Arnould. It is suggested that understanding this kind of individual in Ancien Régime France can help us to identify a neglected libertine strand within Enlightenment culture, that merged into proto-feminism in the French Revolution. The paper offers a new approach to some of the origins of modern French feminism.

Lavoisier writes to Fourcroy from prison

1958 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-60
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Chemical Revolution ◽  
Educational Curriculum ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The French Revolution

The principal architects of the ‘chemical revolution’ may well be said to have been Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) and Antoine Francois Fourcroy (1755-1809). The former by the intuitive genius of his brain, the extraordinary manipulative skill of his hands and the impeccable logic of his mind elaborated and set forth those truths on which modem chemistry was founded. The latter used his ingratiating and flexible personality, oratorical ability and facile pen to publicize the new chemistry and see that it was embodied in the educational curriculum. Lavoisier helped Fourcroy during his earlier years and used his prestige and influence to advance the younger man and obtain financial preferment for him. Under the ancien régime Lavoisier was rich, respected and influential; Fourcroy led a struggling existence for many years. The French Revolution was to bring Lavoisier misery and legal assassination; the same period saw Fourcroy’s prestige and power rise to a maximum. The relationship existing between the two men presents an as yet unsolved puzzle. Fourcroy’s biography still has to be written, as does an authoritative one of Lavoisier, when all the material is available. The latter’s standard biographer, Edouard Grimaux, wrote three-quarters of a century ago and his work needs to be superseded by an objective and fully documented modern study. Grimaux strongly condemned Fourcroy for allowing Lavoisier to be sent to the guillotine and implies that, possibly motivated by jealousy, he may have helped to speed him on his way. Modern scholars are inclined to the opinion that Grimaux maligned Fourcroy unjustifiably. The charge, however, was evidently current shortly after Lavoisier’s death, for in a speech delivered only two years after the lamentable event Fourcroy felt constrained to defend himself against an accusation which was to haunt him for the rest of his days and pursue him from his own death until the present day.

The Shutting of the Gates

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
David Dickson
Keyword(s):  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter presents a wider challenge to the existing power structures in Ireland during the tumultuous 1790s. It recounts the collapse of the ancien régime in France and divided urban world, then examines how the French Revolution opened up cleavages and profoundly sharpened social and religious divisions. The chapter then introduces Mathew Carey, a Dublin baker's son, who presented his imprudent willingness to articulate in print the enormity of Catholic grievances. His violent criticism of Dublin Castle, of the English connection, and of local political heavyweights ended with his flight to America in disguise in 1784. The chapter also discusses how the local theatre provides some insight as to how far political attitudes shifted. The chapter then shifts to investigate how the two versions of democratic fraternity, the Belfast's first United Irish Society and Dublin United Irish Society, marked the beginnings of radical political organization. It follows the revival of the Catholic Committee in Dublin, and assesses the effects of the removal of the remaining penal laws, especially the firearms ban.

Exile, Imprisonment, or Death

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Swann
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Political ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Civil Strife ◽  
Royal Authority ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Cultural Origins ◽  
The French Revolution

Between the assassination of Henri IV in 1610 and the French Revolution of 1789, thousands of French nobles, including members of the royal family, courtiers, bishops, generals, and judges suffered internal exile, imprisonment, or even death for having displeased their sovereign. For most that punishment was independent of the legal system and was the result of a simple royal command or a written order, known as a lettre de cachet. Yet rather than protest, the victims were willing to obey, spending months, even years in disgrace without any knowledge of when, or even if, their ordeal would end. Their punishment was for many a terrible personal blow, striking at the heart of their own identity and relationship to the king, and it threatened the future of their families, friends, and political allies. This book is the first in-depth study of political disgrace, which was intrinsic to the exercise of royal power, drawing on the mystique of monarchy and the ideologies of divine right, patriarchy, and justice that underpinned royal authority. It explores the rise and consolidation of a new model of disgrace amongst the nobility for which obedience to the king gradually replaced the rebellious attitudes fostered during the years of religious and civil strife. Yet for all the power of royal disgrace, it was always open to challenge and in the course of the eighteenth century it would come under a sustained attack that tells us much about the political and cultural origins of the French Revolution.

A Lawyer's Defense of a Wine Merchant against a Carpenter's Deposition: A Story about Friendship and Betrayal

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-384
Author(s):  
Santo L. Aricò
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Ancien Regime ◽  
History Of ◽  
Parlement Of Paris ◽  
Ancien Régime ◽  
Sacred Laws

In 1770, Antoine-Louis Séguier, the avocat général (king's advocate) of the Parlement of Paris, defended Jean-Baptiste Dubarle, a Parisian wine merchant, against charges of theft, seduction, kidnapping, and adultery initiated by a carpenter, Eustache Chefdeville. For all of the offenses, Chefdeville demanded monetary reparation.The case, summarized in a mémoire, connects the history of family law in France under the ancien régime to the skillful use of lawyerly forensics. But it also relates to literary portrayals of social scapegraces who betray the esteemed values of friendship and gratitude: in fact, this member of Paris's menu peuple emerges from the pages of the case abstract as a dissembling traitor. Séguier's legal brief, viewed as a work of fiction, projects Chefdeville as an ungrateful betrayer who feigns comradery. In Séguier's telling, this disfigured pariah, albeit socially inferior, takes his place next to the deceptive worldlings described in many eighteenth-century novels. Like them, he violates the sacred laws of sincerity, turning himself into a moral pervert. Séguier's mémoire is rich precisely because it demonstrates how a skilled lawyer attempting to win his case adopts the form of a story characterized by all the literary qualities of the day—love, friendship, avarice, and betrayal. It illustrates a classic legal approach and also reads like a novel from beginning to end.

The Politics of Popularity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Lilti
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Periodical Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
Ambivalent Relationship ◽  
The French Revolution

This chapter will explain how celebrity, which appeared in the eighteenth century as a new characteristic of cultural life became, during the French Revolution, a key mechanism of political life as well. It will start by outlining the specific features of celebrity, which is based on the curiosity of contemporaries about individuals and on sentimental empathy, and is distinguished from traditional forms of renown such as glory and reputation. It will then discuss how traditional forms of power were transformed, at the end of the eighteenth century, both by the new figure of the “public” and by changing means of communication (especially the periodical press and engraved portraits). Finally, the article will examine the highly ambivalent relationship that the French Revolutionaries negotiated with the new demand for “popularity”—that is, the affective attachment to an actor that introduces the mechanisms of celebrity into the heart of political action.

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