War in the Vendée and Chouannerie of 1832

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The Royalist insurrection in western France in 1832, also known as the Fifth War in the Vendée and the Fifth Chouannerie, was a legitimist uprising launched by the Duchess of Berry to overthrow the July Monarchy. The insurrection affected Brittany, Maine, Anjou and Poitou, particularly the south and east of Loire-Inférieure, as well as parts of south-eastern Ille-et-Vilaine and northern Vendée. It quickly failed due to a relatively low level of local mobilisation.

History

Background to 1832

The Duchess of Berry, oil on canvas by Thomas Lawrence (1825)

After being forced to abdicate in August 1830, Charles X found sanctuary in Scotland, at Holyrood Palace. The King seemed to subordinate the effects of his abdication to the hypothetical organisation of a regency during the minority of his grandson, the young Duke of Bordeaux (known to the Legitimists as Henri V). The King had renounced his royal functions, but not his status as head of the family.

The mother of the Duke of Bordeaux, the Duchess of Berry, considered that the regency was rightfully hers. Advised by her friends, such as Marshal de Bourmont and the Duke of Cars, she believed that there was nothing to be expected from diplomacy and that a restoration could only come from an uprising in the provinces that had remained attached to the legitimate monarchy. Despite the reluctance of Charles X and the manoeuvres of his representative, the Duke of Blacas, from 1831 she organised an expedition to Provence and the Vendée.

In June 1831, she left England, crossed the Netherlands — closely followed by Louis-Philippe's secret agents, — travelled up the Rhine to the Tyrol and arrived in Genoa, where she received the support of the King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, but only in a private capacity.

In an Italian peninsula under Austrian influence, which was favourable, but also subject to pressure from Louis-Philippe's government, she made several visits to Rome and Naples, staying with her brother King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, also a nephew of Queen Maria Amalia.

From August 1831, she finally found sanctuary in the ducal palace of Massa, and support from Duke Francis IV of Modena, the only sovereign in the region to refuse to recognise the July Monarchy. The winter of 1831–1832 was spent organising the future uprising.[1]

In the early weeks of 1832, a Hague Committee was set up to negotiate support with King William I of the Netherlands, who was opposed to Louis-Philippe's Belgian policy. The committee was made up of the financier Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard, his son-in-law General de Rochechouart, Auguste de La Rochejacquelein and the Countess du Cayla.[2]

First attempt in Provence

On 24 April 1832, in theport of Viareggio, the Duchesse de Berry embarked with Bourmont, one of her sons and a group of supporters, including the Duke of Almazán, Florian de Kergorlay and Louis de Kergorlay, on a small steamer flying the Sardinian flag, the Carlo Alberto, before disembarking in a calanque near Marseille on the night of 28–29 April.[lower-alpha 1]

An operation was planned to take control of Marseille, but failed because it could not rally enough supporters.

Rather than re-embark, the Duchess decided to go directly to the Vendée, where she arrived on 16 May.[3]

Second attempt in Western France

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The Duchess of Berry travelled to Nantes during the Royalist uprising of 1832. Setting off from the Château de la Preuille in Saint-Hilaire-de-Loulay, she stopped off at the Chateau du Mortier (no longer in existence), then crossed the river and spent a night in the hamlet of Écomard (Remouillé). She met up with some Legitimists in the hamlet of La Fételière belonging to Benjamin de Goyon.[4] She then returned to Montbert[5] and spent the nights of 18, 19, 20 and 21 May 1832 at the Bellecour manor house. Between 21 and 26 May, she was hidden by Alexandre de La Roche Saint-André at the old Mesliers farm in the commune of Legé.

The first rallies took place in the bocage after the 23th of May.

In April 1832, the government sent General Dermoncourt to Upper Brittany with the intention of putting an end to the uprising. As soon as he arrived in Nantes, the general got wind that a great conspiracy was being hatched and that it would not be long before it broke out; he learned that a leader was expected, and that this leader could only be the Duchess of Berry. He has therefore taken military action and the government is fully aware of the situation. Louis-Philippe was in no way worried: "There is no sensible man," he wrote to Marshal Soult on 30 May, "who does not know that France will always reject anything that comes from the Vendée and the Chouans, that their insurrections must necessarily end in their defeats and in the strengthening of the government they are attacking."[6]

On the Legitimist side, unanimity was lacking, since of the twelve divisions of which the royal army was to be composed, seven were against the uprising, either because there was a shortage of rifles and ammunition, or because the events in the Midi were not of a nature to encourage, or finally, as Cambout de Coislin wrote to the Duchess on the 17th, that taking up arms without the help of foreigners seemed likely to bring about the complete destruction of the royalist party in France.

The Duchesse de Berry persisted and ordered everyone to be ready for the 24th. Command-in-chief was referred to Bourmont. But he thought like Cambout de Coislin, and the royalists of Paris, who shared the opinion of Coislin and Bourmont, sent Berryer to the Duchess, in order to advise her on her position; hence the indecision of orders and movements. The Duchess, in spite of her promise to Berryer, decided to act, and the taking up of arms was fixed by her, in agreement with Bourmont, for the night of 3 to 4 June.

The course of the rebellion

File:Officier royaliste XIXe.jpg
Royalist officer, anonymous oil on canvas (19th century)

The uprising was initially scheduled for 24 May,[7] but was postponed until the night of 3 to 4 June.[8] However, the counter-order, signed by Bourmont,[9] did not reach the divisions north of the Loire.[10]

The first fighting broke out in Brittany and Maine.[10] In Mayenne, on 26th May, a troop of Chouans led by General Clouet was attacked and put to flight at the Château de Chanay, in Grez-en-Bouère.[10] In Ille-et-Vilaine, on 30 May, 800 Chouans commanded by Courson de La Villevallio and Carfort were routed on the Toucheneau moors, near Vitré, where they left around forty dead.[10][11]

Now that it had been warned, the government sent in troops, carried out searches and had the châteaux searched.[10] On 27 May, Jacques-Joseph de Cathelineau, head of the 1st Anjou Corps, was surprised and shot at the manor house of La Chaperonnière, between Jallais and Beaupréau.[12] On 30 May, three columns led by General Dermoncourt invaded the Château de la Charlière, in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, and found in three bottles hidden in the park the uprising papers, the order to take up arms, the plans and the projected movements.[12] On 3 June, the Loire-Inférieure, Vendée, Maine-et-Loire and Deux-Sèvres were placed under siege.[12]

Despite the resignation of several officers and the pleas of Berryer, who felt that an uprising would be hopeless and would "needlessly spill French blood", the Duchess of Berry remained adamant and refused to leave France.[13] She fled from the Mesliers farm, near Legé, to the Brosse farm in Montbert.[13] On the night of 3 to 4 June, the insurrection broke out at the sound of the tocsin.[13][lower-alpha 2]

File:Duchesse de Berry Petit-Pierre.jpg
Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Siciles, Duchess of Berry, dressed in the costume of Petit-Pierre, a young Vendéen peasant (1832), 19th century lithograph

In the Loire-Inférieure region, around 350 peasants from the Vallet and Loroux areas gathered at Maisdon-sur-Sèvre under the command of Le Chauff de la Blanchetière, but they were attacked and routed on 5 June by the Clisson garrison.[15] Charette, for his part, assembled several hundred men from the Pays de Retz, but he learned of the rout of the forces assembled at Maisdon, with whom he was supposed to join forces, and was in turn attacked and defeated on 6 June at the village of Le Chêne, in Vieillevigne.[16] After losing around forty men, Charette dismissed his troops. On the same day, a small band of around fifty Vendéens found themselves under siege at the manor house of La Penissière, in La Bernardière, between Clisson and Montaigu.[17] The insurgents held out for a whole day before managing to escape during the night.

In the Loire-Inférieure region to the north of the river, the insurrection was mainly confined to Carquefou, Couffé and Sucé-sur-Erdre.[18] A column of 700 insurgents commanded by La Serrie took control of Varades, while another 800-strong column led by Roche-Macé and Landemont entered Riaillé, where it won a small victory on 6 June against an Orléanist detachment that had come to attack it.[18] However, these small successes attracted the attention of General Dermoncourt, who concentrated a large part of his forces in the region.[18] Outnumbered, the Legitimist forces dispersed their troops and returned home.[18]

The Vendée department remained virtually impassive, with the insurrection affecting only a few parishes on the banks of the Sèvre, between Clisson and Mortagne-sur-Sèvre.[19] Jean Félix Clabat du Chillou (1802–1871) assembled a small troop of 220 men and moved on to Saint-Aubin-des-Ormeaux, where on 7 June he repelled an attack by a column from Cholet.[19] This success was also short-lived.[19] Soon informed of the failure of the uprising, du Chillou had his troops dispersed.[19]

The Maine-et-Loire region did not budge either.[19] In the Mauges, the insurgents around Chemillé were defeated after a skirmish on 4 June at Le Pin-en-Mauges.[19] At Candé, near the village of la Gachetière, Marshal de Bourmont fought a battle on 9 June with only 36 men.[19] This was the only confrontation in the Anjou region north of the Loire.[19]

The insurrection was now over. The Duchess of Berry secretly travelled through the countryside around Rocheservière and Legé with a small group of followers, including Hyacinthe Hervouët de La Robrie, Charette, Eulalie de Kersabiec, François Simailleau and Pierre Sorin. On 9 June, accompanied only by Eulalie de Kersabiec and both dressed as peasants, the Duchess de Berry discreetly entered the city of Nantes.[20]

Arrest of the Duchess of Berry

File:Entrée de la duchesse de Berry à Nantes en 1832.jpg
Entrance of the Duchesse de Berry into Nantes in 1832, anonymous 19th century engraving

The royal troops were unaware that on 9 June, the Duchess of Berry had entered Nantes, which had been placed under siege on the 15th, under the disguise of a peasant woman and had found secret refuge in a house from where she kept up a correspondence with the European courts. When this correspondence came to light, the king and the government — accused either of incompetence or complicity — were greatly embarrassed.

The situation changed when Thiers replaced Montalivet as Minister of the Interior on 11 October 1832. The new minister wanted a quick success to ensure his popularity, if possible before the opening of the parliamentary session on 19 November.

Thiers made contact again with Simon Deutz, the son of a rabbi who had converted to Catholicism and had been introduced into the entourage of the Duchess of Berry, and who had already made overtures to Montalivet. Thiers sent him to Nantes, accompanied by a police officer named Joly, and preceded by a new prefect, Maurice Duval. To justify his conduct, Deutz invoked patriotism, as the duchess was in contact with William I of the Netherlands, whom she encouraged to attack the French army in Belgium[lower-alpha 3] in order to create a situation more favourable to insurrection in the Vendée.

File:Arrestation de la Duchesse de Berry à Nantes le 7 novembre 1832 - Jean-Henri Marlet.jpg
Arrest of the Duchesse de Berry in Nantes on 7 November 1832, lithograph by Jean-Henri Marlet (19th century)

Deutz saw the duchess for the first time on 31 October, and for the second and last time on 6 November, under the pretext of serious communications which, in the emotion he had experienced during the meeting on 31 October, he had entirely forgotten to make to her.

On the 6th, on leaving the Duchess, and in exchange for a large sum of money,[lower-alpha 4] he delivered the address to the prefect. The house was immediately taken over by the police and searched and, after sixteen hours of searching, the Duchess came out of hiding, where she could not stay any longer, and asked for General Dermoncourt.

The Duchesse de Berry was taken prisoner on 7 November 1832 in Nantes. The following day, while the general was on his way to Château de la Chaslière to seize Bourmont, who was said to be there, she was taken to the fortress of Blaye where she was imprisoned.

Consequences

With the arrest of the Duchesse de Berry, Thiers had achieved his goal: his reputation was made. Officially, the king and the government were delighted. But the prisoner was a nuisance; as Louis Philippe told Guizot: "Princes are as inconvenient in prison as they are at liberty: [...] their captivity stirs up more passions among their supporters than their presence would".[22] The Duchesse de Berry was also a niece of Queen Maria Amalia.

The King would like to have the Duchess expelled from France, invoking the recent law of 10 April 1832 condemning all members of Charles X's family to perpetual banishment. But the Duchess was accused of conspiracy and armed rebellion, and it seemed difficult to get her off without a conviction. At the same time, in the event of a trial, all the possible outcomes seemed equally bad: "acquittal would make the king a usurper, condemnation an executioner, and a pardon a coward!"[23]

To avoid having to make a snap decision, the government had the princess interned in the citadel of Blaye, on the Gironde estuary, under the guard of General Bugeaud.[lower-alpha 5]

In January 1833, it was rumoured that the Duchesse de Berry was pregnant. On 29 February, Le Moniteur published a statement by the princess, dated 22 February, in which she claimed to have married secretly during her stay in Italy. Legitimists — supported by a few republicans such as Armand Carrel[lower-alpha 6] — criticised the inelegance of the government's procedure, but the damage had been done: the princess was now seen, in the words of Count Apponyi, as an "adventuress from a good family",[lower-alpha 7] and the episode cast doubt on the legitimacy of the "miracle child", the Duke of Bordeaux himself.[lower-alpha 8]

On 10 May 1833, the Duchesse de Berry gave birth to a daughter, whom she declared to be the son of her secret husband, Count Lucchesi-Palli, the second son of the Prince of Campo-Franco, Viceroy of Sicily, whom the gossipers of France were quick to refer to ironically as "Saint Joseph".

On 8 June, the princess, completely discredited, was taken aboard the Agathe and transported to Palermo. The opposition[lower-alpha 9] multiplied its requests for explanations and questions, to which the Minister of Justice, Félix Barthe, responded on 10 June by invoking "rare circumstances, extremely rare no doubt, when a government must, under its responsibility, [...] take it upon itself to put the interests of the country above the execution of laws".[26]

In popular culture

  • Alexandre Dumas, Les Louves de Machecoul (1858). Written in collaboration with Gaspard de Cherville. A little-known novel, the action takes place between 1831 and 1832 and features, in the background of a story of thwarted love and its fictional characters, the Duchess of Berry and General Dermoncourt.

Notes

Footnotes

  1. The boat was then forced to anchor near La Ciotat due to damage, and its passengers were captured by the gendarmerie. They included General de Saint-Priest and other leading legitimists such as Louis and Florian de Kergorlay, friends of Alexis de Tocqueville. Their trial took place in Montbrison from 25 February to 9 March 1833 and was reported in the Gazette des Tribunaux.
  2. "TOCSIN, a signal of alarm given by the ringing of a bell, hence any warning or danger signal. The earliest form in English is tocksaine, which was borrowed from the O. Fr. toquesin (toquer, to strike, cf. toucher and sin, mod. signe, a signal, Lat. signum). The use of “touch” and its cognate forms with the idea of giving a sound is seen in “tucket,” Ital. toccata, which probably originally meant a signal given by tap of drum, but is always applied to a flourish or fanfare on a trumpet."[14]
  3. At the head of 70,000 men, Marshal Gérard laid siege to Antwerp, which had been occupied by the Netherlands in violation of the resolutions of the London conference on the Belgian question. Deutz claimed that by handing over the Duchess of Berry he wanted to spare the lives of French soldiers in Belgium: "I am, Sire, that man from Nantes who, by his devotion to V. M. and to France, prevented the massacre of several thousand Frenchmen. Without my having asked for it, without my having wanted it, V.M. has royally paid for my services". (Simon Deutz to Louis-Philippe, 23 December 1841,[21]) In the same letter, Deutz explained that he had squandered the money on "doing good" and, reduced to poverty, asked for help "in the name of Divine Mercy".
  4. The sum of 500,000 francs has been mentioned, which is no doubt an exaggeration.
  5. Legitimist propaganda would later refer to him as the "jailer of Blaye".
  6. He wrote in Le National: "There is certainly not a poor working-class family in Paris that would, at the price of its last morsel of bread, want to publicly print on the forehead of one of its members [...] the vile sign that Louis-Philippe's chancellery will proudly add to its archives. [...] In our humble plebeian families, we do not know how to hand over the weaknesses of our blood to public malignity in order to make a crude profit. This protest of a very particular kind is made only for royalty that has come of age. It marks Louis-Philippe on the forehead with the sign of Cain, it attaches him to the pillory and puts him on a par with the inhabitants of the prisons."[24]
  7. In 1815, the Duke of Wellington dismissed the possibility of the Duke of Orléans acceding to the throne, saying that he would only have been "a usurper from a good house". "How could Madame, married in Italy, be regent of France when, through her marriage, she herself was no longer French?" asks Rodolphe Apponyi, who continues: "Her expedition is therefore nothing more than a bad joke, a cruel deception for those who shed their blood [...]. [...] In my opinion, Madame should have left when she felt fat; but it seems that those of the elder branch leave when they should stay, and that they stay when they should leave..."[25]
  8. Born on 29 September 1820 after the assassination on 13 February of his father, the Duke of Berry.
  9. Including Étienne Garnier-Pagès, Eusèbe de Salverte and François Mauguin.

Citations

  1. Dejean (1913), pp. 1–107.
  2. Dejean (1913), pp. 108–96.
  3. Changy (1986), pp. 161–78.
  4. Courson (1909), p. 77.
  5. "Histoire de la Vendée du Bas Poitou en France - Madame la Duchesse de Berry à La Preuille (1832)." Retrieved 12 April 2010.
  6. Antonetti (2002), p. 691.
  7. Gabory (2009), p. 989.
  8. Gabory (2009), p. 991.
  9. Gabory (2009), p. 989.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Gabory (2009), pp. 992–93.
  11. Orain (2004), pp. 133–50.
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Gabory (2009), pp. 993–94.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 Gabory (2009), p. 995.
  14. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 26. Cambridge: At the University Press (1911), p. 1043.
  15. Gabory (2009), p. 996.
  16. Gabory (2009), pp. 997–98.
  17. Gabory (2009), pp. 998–1001.
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Gabory (2009), p. 1002.
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7 Gabory (2009), pp. 1002–1003.
  20. Gabory (2009), pp. 1003–1006.
  21. Antonetti (2002), p. 702.
  22. Antonetti (2002), p. 703.
  23. Antonetti (2002), p. 703.
  24. Antonetti (2002), p. 704.
  25. Antonetti (2002), p. 703.
  26. Antonetti (2002), p. 704.
  27. Baussan, Charles (10 avril 1932). "1832," La Croix, p. 3.

References

Antonetti, Guy (2002). Louis-Philippe. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard.
Bernard de La Frégeolière (1881). Émigration et Chouannerie. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles.
Borenius, Tancred (1933). "The Vendée Rising of 1832," The Dublin Review, Vol. CXCII, No. 385, pp. 206–20.
Brégeon, Jean-Joël (2009). La Duchesse de Berry. Paris: Tallandier.
Changy, Hugues de (1986). Le Soulèvement de la duchesse de Berry, 1830-1832: les royalistes dans la tourmente. Paris: Albatros.
Charette de La Contrie, Athanase (1842). Journal militaire d'un chef de l'Ouest, contenant la vie de Madame, duchesse de Berri, en Vendée Paris: G.-A. Dentu.
Colle, Robert (1948). La Chouannerie de 1832 dans les Deux-Sèvres et la Vendée orientale. Lezay: A. Chopin.
Courson, Aurélien de (1897). "La Division d'Ancenis en 1832. Combat de Riaillé," Revue historique de l'Ouest, 13me Année, pp. 165–81, 207–21, 249–66.
Courson, Aurélien de (1898). "La Division de Vitré en 1832. Combat de Toucheneau," Revue historique de l'Ouest, 14me Année, pp. 399–425.
Courson, Aurélien de (1909). Dernier effort de la Vendée (1832). Paris: E. Paul.
Courson, Aurélien de (1910). L'insurrection de 1832 en Bretagne et dans le Bas-Maine. Paris: E. Paul.
Dejean, Étienne (1913). La duchesse de Berry et les monarchies européennes (août 1830-décembre 1833). Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie.
Delaunay, Paul (1932). La Chouannerie de 1832 dans le Maine et particulièrement dans la Sarthe. Le Mans: Monnoyer.
Dermoncourt, Paul Ferdinand Stanislas (1834). La Vendée et Madame. Paris: L. F. Hivert.
Desforges, Michel (2000). La chouannerie, 1794-1832. Saint-Sulpice-les-Feuilles: Saint-Sulpice.
Fabre, Marc-André (1938). La duchesse de Berry: La Marie Stuart vendéenne, 1798-1870. Paris: Hachette.
Gabory, Émile (2009). Les Guerres de Vendée. Paris: Éditions Robert Laffont.
Hillerin, Laure (2010). La Duchesse de Berry: l'oiseau rebelle des Bourbons. Paris: Flammarion.
Johanet, Auguste (1840). La Vendée à trois époques, de 1793 jusqu'à l'Empire, 1815-1832. Paris: Dentu.
Martin, Jean-Clément (1985). "La Vendée et sa guerre, les logiques de l'événement," Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 40e Année, No. 5, pp. 1067–85.
Nettement, Alfred (1837). Mémoires historiques de S. A. R. Madame, duchesse de Berry, depuis sa naissance jusqu'à ce jour. Paris: Allardin.
Morival, Laurent (2020). La Dernière Guerre de Vendée La Duchesse de Berry et les Légitimistes, 1830-1840. Namur: Geste, Editions.
Orain, Adolphe (2002). La chouannerie en pays gallo. Bouhet: La découvrance.
Paulouin, Jean-François (2005). La chouannerie du Maine et pays adjacents, 1793, 1799, 1815, 1832. Mayenne: Éd. régionales de l'Ouest.
Queruau-Lamerie, Émile (1921). "La Chouannerie de 1832," Bulletin de la Commission historique et archéologique de la Mayenne, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 248–67, 302–20.
Queruau-Lamerie, Émile (1922). "La Chouannerie de 1832," Bulletin de la Commission historique et archéologique de la Mayenne, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 133–54.
Rouchette, Thérèse (2004). La folle équipée de la duchesse de Berry: Vendée, 1832. La Roche-sur-Yon: Centre vendéen de recherches historiques.
Woell, Edward J. (2002). "Waging War for the Lord: Counterrevolutionary Ritual in Rural Western France, 1801-1906," The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 1, pp. 17–41.
Woell, Edward J. (2006). Small-town Martyrs and Murderers: Religious Revolution and Counterrevolution in Western France, 1774-1914. Milwaukee, Wis.: Marquette University Press.

Further reading

  • Bittard des Portes, René (1905). Les guerres de Vendée et les Chouanneries, 1793-1815-1832. Étude de bibliographie historique et critique avec notices sur les différentes insurrections. Vannes: Lafolye.
  • Drévillon, Hervé (1985). Les guerres de Vendée et la chouannerie (1793-1815-1832) dans l'historiographie française de 1800 à 1835. Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
  • Lemière, Edmond (1976). Bibliographie de la Contre-Révolution dans les provinces de l’Ouest ou des guerres de la Vendée et de la chouannerie: 1793-1815-1832. Nantes: Librairie nantaise.
  • Vachon, Yves (1980). Bibliographie de la Contre-Révolution dans les provinces de l’Ouest ou des guerres de la Vendée et de la chouannerie... pour servir de complément et de supplément jusqu’à nos jours à l’ouvrage de Lemière, avec tables alphabétiques pour les deux ouvrages. Nantes: Librairie nantaise.