The Legislative Assembly was the governing body of France between October 1791 and September 1792. It replaced the National Constituent Assembly and was itself replaced by the National Convention. The Legislative Assembly immediately found itself in a perilous position, sandwiched between rising radicalism and an uncooperative monarch on whom it was forced to rely.
National Constituent Assembly
The Legislative Assembly replaced the National Constituent Assembly, France’s first revolutionary legislature. By September 1791, the Assembly had completed most of the work for which it was convened.
Its deputies had drafted a constitution they believed reflected the aims of the revolution. Feudalism, noble titles and the Ancien Régime’s other institutional inequalities had been abolished.
The idealistic Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was drafted and adopted as a preamble to the new constitution. Royal absolutism was dead and the king had been stripped of most of his executive powers.
A new legislature
In late September 1791, Louis XVI gave his assent to the new constitution, pledging to “maintain it at home, defend it abroad and cause its execution by all the means at my disposal”. Its mission complete, the National Constituent Assembly voted for its own dissolution and handed national government to the Legislative Assembly.
To an outsider unaware of earlier events, the French Revolution would have appeared to be drawing to a close. France’s transition from absolutist monarchy to constitutional government appeared complete.
Idealistic politicians certainly viewed the handing of power to the Legislative Assembly with optimism. This transition gave the nation a fresh start from the rising tensions and violence of 1791. Many believed the king had finally accepted constitutional change and hoped his earlier intransigence would be forgotten.
Writing at the time, the Marquis de Ferrieres suggested that “the king and queen appear entirely in favour of the constitution – and they are wise to do so… The people are delirious. The king and queen are acclaimed the moment they appear. So, you see, everything points to a solid new order of affairs.” Other Monarchiens (constitutional monarchists) expressed sentiments that were equally as hopeful.
The recalcitrant king
Republicans and political realists had a dimmer view of the situation. The constitution had been enacted but its head of state was a prisoner of the state, following his failed attempt to flee Paris in June 1791. France was now a constitutional monarchy but its monarch was reluctant, untrustworthy and unpopular.
The king, who was shiftless, uncertain and difficult to pin down on political questions, expressed little personal faith in the constitution. In a conversation with the royalist politician Bertrand de Molleville, Louis XVI described the constitution as “far from a masterpiece”. “I think it has some great defects,” he told Molleville, “but I have sworn to maintain it, warts and all… Executing the Constitution in its literal terms is the best way of making the nation see the alterations that it needs.” This passage suggests the Legislative Assembly faced a king who was bent on constitutional sabotage.
To compound the problem of executive leadership, the new Legislative Assembly was itself neither representative nor experienced. It was elected by ‘active citizens’: those affluent enough to pay a sizeable amount in taxation. Most working-class citizens were not entitled to cast a vote for the new legislature. This exclusion outraged the radical sections and democrats in the Jacobin club, many of whom favoured universal suffrage.
The ‘self-denying ordinance’
The Legislative Assembly was also hampered by the self-denying ordinance, a regulation proposed by Maximilien Robespierre and passed by the National Constituent Assembly on May 16th 1791.
The self-denying ordinance forbade all sitting members of the National Constituent Assembly from standing as candidates for the Legislative Assembly. Robespierre’s ordinance was intended as an act of political self-sacrifice, to renew government and prevent any entrenchment of power in the new assembly.
A small number of deputies opposed it, arguing that replacing the entire legislature would jeopardise the stability of the government.
New personnel
Elections for the Legislative Assembly were held in September 1791. Most of the 745 deputies elected to the Legislative Assembly had a record in provincial or municipal government or the public service. Many were members of the Cercle Social and the Jacobin Club who had not won seats in the National Constituent Assembly.
Among those to take a seat in the Legislative Assembly were Jacques Brissot, the Marquis de Condorcet, the Republican lawyer Pierre Vergniaud, the Jacobin merchant Pierre Cambon and Georges Couthon, an ally of Robespierre.
Because the constitution kept ‘passive voters’ at arm’s length, the vast majority of deputies came from the middle classes. Almost half of them (330 deputies) were Republicans, while around one quarter (165) were Feuillant constitutional monarchists and the rest (250) were politically unaligned.
The rise of Brissot
In the first weeks of the Assembly, deputies gravitated around prominent leaders and developed into factions. The largest of these factions was led by the imposing figure of Jacques Brissot.
A lawyer turned political journalist, Brissot had acquired a reputation as a man of letters dedicated to the revolution. Before his election to the Legislative Assembly, Brissot sat in the Paris Commune and delivered several powerful speeches to the Jacobin club. He was also well travelled and had many contacts abroad, skills that prompted Brissot’s appointment to the Assembly’s diplomatic committee.
Brissot was considered a radical in 1789 when he occupied the centre-left of the Legislative Assembly. He was a moderate Republican who wanted to abolish the monarchy and the 1791 constitution. He was also in favour of war with France’s European neighbours: to bring about the collapse of the French monarchy, to export revolutionary ideas and to threaten monarchies elsewhere.
Brissot’s large contingent of followers came to be known as the Brissotins, the Girondins (many hailed from the Gironde département) or the Rolandists (their leaders frequented the salon of Madame Roland).
Problems and challenges
During its short life, the Legislative Assembly was confronted with many problems and challenges. One of these was the constitutional authority of the recalcitrant king.
Louis XVI retained two significant powers that affected the functioning of the assembly: the power to appoint ministers and the power of suspensive veto. Louis appointed most of his ministers from the Feulliants or the centre-right – and many of his appointments were of dubious quality.
The king also created controversy and division by willingly using his veto to block the Assembly’s laws. In its first weeks, the Legislative Assembly drafted legislation to take action against émigrés and non-juring priests. It passed these laws on November 8th and November 29th respectively – but both were vetoed by the king. More royal vetoes followed in 1792 and each veto triggered a wave of public protest against the monarch.
The instigator of war
The Legislative Assembly’s most significant measure was its declaration of revolutionary war against Austria (April 20th 1792).
This decision was orchestrated by Brissot and the Girondins, who believed that war would refocus the revolution, inflame French nationalism and consolidate their own power. But France’s revolutionary armies fared poorly in the first months of the war and by summer 1792 an Austro-Prussian invasion seemed imminent.
War came to shape the mood in Paris, particularly after the Duke of Brunswick’s July manifesto that threatened to decimate the city. Parisians were not intimidated and did not bow to his threats, however, the fear of foreign invasion and counter-revolution shaped events in the capital in July and August 1792.
On August 10th, the people of Paris rose in insurrection, replacing the city’s Commune and invading the king’s apartments at the Tuileries. The end result was the suspension of the king and the Constitution of 1791. By instigating a war, the Legislative Assembly had destabilised Paris, further undermined the constitution and contributed to its own demise.
A historian’s view:
“The 745 deputies, newly elected by adult manhood suffrage, were pouring into Paris from all parts of France… There were no glittering personages here. Instead, they came with galoshes and umbrellas. They were largely seen as men of affairs and they had come to work. Few if any had great wealth and some had to make careful use of their allowance of 18 livres a day… There was still much work to be done by the Legislative Assembly, but the framework of the task was clear and its triumph was now beyond doubt. King and assembly were in harmony. The revolution was over.”
C. J. Mitchell
1. The Legislative Assembly was the governing body of France between October 1791 and September 1792. It replaced the National Constituent Assembly.
2. The Legislative Assembly was formed under the Constitution of 1791, which created a constitutional monarchy with Louis XVI as the head of state.
3. The Assembly contained 745 deputies. Almost half were Jacobin republicans while the rest were Feuillants (constitutional monarchists) and political moderates.
4. The dominant faction in the Assembly was the Girondins, headed by Jacques Brissot. This faction led the push for war with Austria, which was eventually declared in April 1792.
5. The Revolutionary War and its impact created radicalism that eventually toppled the monarchy and rendered the Legislative Assembly redundant. In September 1792 it was replaced by the National Convention.
Citation information
Title: “The Legislative Assembly”
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/legislative-assembly/
Date published: August 3, 2020
Date accessed: June 06, 2023
Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use.