National Guard (France)
The
National Guard was the name given at the time of
French Revolution to the
militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army. Initially under the command of the
Marquis de la Fayette, then briefly under the
Marquis de Mandat, it was strongly identified with the
middle class and its support for
constitutional monarchy. This changed radically in the summer of
1792, with the admission of the
fédérés to the guard and with the subsequent takeover of the guard by
Antoine Joseph Santerre when Mandat was murdered in the first hours of the
insurrection of the 10th of August.
With disorder and theft spreading in
Paris, its citizens met in the Town Hall on
July 13 1789, and agreed to create a militia made up of the middle-class to ensure the maintenance of law and order and the defence of the Constitution. La Fayette was elected to the post of commander in chief of the militia on
July 15 1789, and it was named the National Guard. Each city of France set up its own National Guard.
The officers of the National Guard were elected. Under the law of
October 14 1791, all
active citizen and their children over 18 years were obliged to join the National Guard. Their role was the maintenance of law and order and, if necessary, the defence of the territory. The citizens kept their weapons and their uniforms at home, and set forth with them when required. At the beginning of Revolution, the National Guards wore blue uniforms because the king wore blue.
The former
Guet royal had responsibility for the maintenance of law and order in Paris from 1254 to 1791, when the National Guard took over this role. In fact, the last commander of the Guet royal (
Chevalier du Guet), de La Rothière, was elected to head the National Guard in 1791. After the abolition of the monarchy (September 21, 1792), the National Guard fought for the Revolution and it had an important role in forcing the wishes of the capital on the
French National Assembly which was obliged to give way in front of the force of the "patriotic" bayonets.
After 9 Thermidor, year II (July 27, 1794), the
Thermidorian Reaction placed the National Guard under the control of royalists, and it sought to overthrow the
Directory during the royalist insurrection of the 13 Vendémiaire, year IV (October 5, 1795).
Napoleon Bonaparte defeated it and had it disarmed.
Napoleon did not believe that the middle-class National Guard would be able to maintain order and suppress riots. Therefore he created a
Municipal Guard of Paris, which was strongly militarised. However, he did not abolish the National Guard, but was content to disarm it. He kept it in reserve and he mobilised it for the defence of the territory in 1809 and 1814.
Under the
Restoration in 1814, the National Guard was maintained by
Louis XVIII. But the middle-class men who made it up expressed a degree of hostility to the reactionary monarchy, and
Charles X dissolved it in
1827. But he neglects to disarm it, and its rifles resurfaced in 1830 during the
July Revolution.
A new National Guard was established in 1831 following the
July Revolution in 1830. It fought in the
Revolution of 1848 in favour of the republicans.
Napoleon III confined it during the
Second Empire to subordinate tasks in order to reduce its liberal and republican influence. During the
Franco-Prussian War the
Government of National Defenseof 1870 called on it take a major role in defending Paris against
Prussia. During the uprising of the
Paris Commune, from March to May 1871, the National Guard in Paris was expanded to include all able-bodied citizens capable of carrying weapons. Following the Commune's defeat by the French Army, the Guard was suppressed on 14 March 1872.
* Jean Tulard, Jean-François Fayard, Alfred Fierro,
Histoire et dictionnaire de la Révolution française, 1789â€"1799, Éditions Robert Laffont, collection
Bouquins, Paris, 1987. ISBN 270282076X
* Bruce Vandervort,
National Guard (France), on the online
Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions, James Chastain, ed.
