August Decrees
The Duke of Aiguillon and the Viscount de Noailles were assigned to propose renunciation of selected feudal dues.
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1789 in France — Page 9
Explore 704 historical events and records for France in 1789.
Historical records for France in 1789
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August
August Decrees
With no means of suppressing the peasants by force, the Assembly's only avenue was to pacify them.
August Decrees
Artwork was produced and medallions struck to commemorate the event
August Decrees
Paris Mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly declared that 'the National Assembly achieved more for the people in a few hours than the wisest and most enlightened nations had done for many centuries.
August Decrees
The August Decrees abolished tithes and other privileges, drawing the peasantry more directly into the Revolution.
August Decrees
The August Decrees created fundamental change across the breadth of the nation. They stripped away the domination and privilege of the nobility, creating a society based on individualism, equality and merit.
August Decrees
The abolition of the tithe halved the income of the Church. The peasantry, previously kept at arms length from the revolution, were now part of it. The Assemblys deputies were hailed as heroes and praised for their self sacrifice.
August Decrees
The response from the revolutionaries was as euphoric as the mood in the Assembly on August 4th.
August Decrees Prepare Ground for Rights Declaration
The Assembly begins abolishing feudal privileges on the night of 4 August, clearing the way for a declaration based on legal equality.
August night turns into renunciation of rights
The initial proposals to surrender selected privileges prompted further deputies to propose abolishing additional feudal claims. Noailles's intervention therefore triggered a broad debate about the inherited social order.
Clerical exemptions enter reform debate
The Assembly's night of reform also confronted the fiscal privileges of the clergy. Proposals first raised by noble deputies broadened into challenges to exemptions across the estates.
Clerical tithe debate remakes church finance
Talleyrand belonged to a clergy whose traditional tithe revenue came under attack during the August reforms. Ending the system required new arrangements to fund religious services and clergy.
Dovecote and game restrictions reconsidered
The August decrees threatened exclusive rights such as lordly dovecotes and hunting privileges. Rural households had long objected that these rights damaged crops and favored landowners.
Feudal courts targeted for abolition
Reformers at the August sitting pressed for the end of seigneurial courts. Noailles's broader reform initiative supported transferring the administration of justice away from private lordship.
Great Fear
In the first days of August, the Bretons planned to rise in the Assembly and renounce certain feudal dues. This task was assigned to the Duke of Aiguillon, a radical nobleman, and Viscount de Noailles, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War
Great Fear
Liberal deputies from the Breton Club (the forerunner to the Jacobin movement) believed the peasants could only be calmed by a grand gesture from the Assembly, such as a partial surrender of feudal rights.
Great Fear
News of this rural violence electrified discussions among deputies of the Assembly. Dominated as they were by members of the bourgeoisie and liberal nobility, the majority of deputies were concerned that the Great Fear would spread further and pose a significant threat to property rights.
Great Fear
With no means of suppressing the peasants by force, the Assembly's only avenue was to pacify them.
Great Fear
In most cases these unruly peasants were responding to rumours that royalist bandits or mercenaries were sweeping the countryside. The weeks of revolt and destruction in rural areas that followed became known as the Great Fear (French, Grande Peur)
Great Fear
In most cases these unruly peasants were responding to rumours that royalist bandits or mercenaries were sweeping the countryside. The weeks of revolt and destruction in rural areas that followed became known as the Great Fear (French, Grande Peur).
Great Fear
In the worst areas peasants assaulted or chased away the owners of seigneurial rights, seized and burned feudal records and even burned down chateaux owned by noblemen.
Great Fear
The Great Fear spread peasant unrest across France and helped drive the Assembly toward the August reforms.
Great Fear
The context for the Assembly'gs August 4th reforms was the Great Fear: a disconnected but widespread series of peasant uprisings across France. From late July thousands of peasants had run amok in the countryside, disrupting work, intimidating property owners and causing some damage.
Great Fear reaches National Assembly
Reports of peasants attacking manor houses and destroying records placed pressure on the Assembly to respond. Jean-Sylvain Bailly presided over debates in which rural disorder framed the urgency of social reform.
Manorial corvees subjected to reform
Peasant labor obligations became an important target in the night debates. Noailles's proposals helped place coercive seigneurial services within the Assembly's reform agenda.
Night of privileges renounced: Aristocratic support for abolition
The Duke of Aiguillon backed reforms surrendering inherited feudal privileges. The gesture demonstrated that elements of the nobility favored concessions to secure the Revolution.
Night of privileges renounced: Equality challenges clerical privilege
Grégoire supported reformist principles within a legislature abolishing old corporate exemptions. The debate reduced the established legal distinctions between privileged and unprivileged groups.
Night of privileges renounced: Noble deputy initiates concessions
The Viscount de Noailles urged noble representatives to give up seigneurial advantages amid rural unrest. His intervention helped accelerate the sweeping reform debates of the night of 4 August.
Noailles calls for renouncing privilege
The viscount helped launch the dramatic night of aristocratic concessions in response to rural unrest. This development concerning night session overturns estate privileges exposed the limits of the old regime's political arrangements.
Noailles proposes surrender of privileges
Viscount de Noailles urged the National Assembly to sacrifice exclusive privileges and address the grievances driving peasant unrest. His intervention helped open the celebrated night of feudal reform.
Noble deputies debate redeemable dues
The Duke of Aiguillon and other reform-minded nobles discussed abolishing or redeeming seigneurial claims. The distinction between immediate abolition and compensation remained contentious for years.
Noble tax exemptions renounced
The August debates repudiated tax privileges that had allowed nobles to avoid burdens borne by ordinary people. Aiguillon's advocacy of concessions fitted a wider movement toward equal taxation.
Provinces abandon special privileges
The Assembly heard renunciations of privileges belonging to provinces, cities and corporate bodies. Aiguillon's social reform proposals helped foster a political atmosphere hostile to territorial legal exceptions.
Restorer of French Liberty Title
The National Assembly acclaimed Louis XVI as restorer of French liberty during the night when privilege was dismantled.
Rights Debate Interrupted by August Revolution
Debate over the declaration gives way temporarily to the dramatic abolition of feudal privileges during the August night session.
Sale of public offices condemned
The August debates challenged venal offices that had treated public authority as a transferable asset. Noailles's reform initiative formed part of the drive to make civic functions depend on law rather than purchase.
Sieyes contests uncompensated tithe abolition
Abbe Sieyes argued against simply extinguishing ecclesiastical tithes without attending to existing property claims. His objections exposed tension between revolutionary equality and the protection of lawful interests.
Sieyes disputes uncompensated tithe removal
Sieyes raised objections about treating ecclesiastical revenues as though they could disappear without regard to property claims. The consequences of night session overturns estate privileges reached well beyond the palace and its neighbouring legislative chambers.
Tax equality proposed during August night
Deputies discussing Noailles's proposals confronted exemptions that had shielded privileged estates from ordinary taxation. Equal fiscal burdens became a principle of the new social settlement.
Tithes Debate
Sieyes opposed immediate abolition of clerical tithes without compensation during the August debates on privilege.
How these records were prepared
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