‘By the king’s suspension, the constitution is violated’: provincial opposition to the revolution of 10 August 1792

Abstract Following the insurrection of 10 August 1792, the Legislative Assembly named commissioners to bring news of the events in Paris to the departments and ensure the loyalty of French armies. This reflected fears that General Lafayette would march his troops on Paris. Such intervention appeared likely given expressions of support for the constitutional monarchy within the departments and the army throughout the summer of 1792. Historians have tended to minimize the significance of provincial opposition to the revolution of 10 August and attribute it to royalism or bourgeois fears of democracy. In contrast, this study argues that moderate revolutionaries’ opposition to Parisian radicalism was based on sincere attachment to the constitution and the liberal revolution it embodied. Although Lafayette’s coup d’état never materialized, evidence of uncertainty and fear in the departments suggest that support for the Constitution of 1791 has been underestimated.