We've seen how the extraordinary popularity of Louis the 16th at the start of the revolution, gives way in 1791 to dismay and confusion, as he attempts to flee the country before being arrested near the eastern border the following day. Just what is Louis's attitude to the revolution? To what extent can he be trusted? Much of the dismay, much of the suspicion that is felt towards him focuses in particular on his wife Marie Antoinette. This becomes much more acute once war is declared in April 1792, and people start making open allegations, that the reason why French forces are losing battles on the eastern frontier is because Marie Antoinette and perhaps even Louis the 16th himself, are somehow feeding secrets to the enemies of the French revolution, the commanders of the Austrian and Prussian forces. Marie Antoinette had been the target before 1789, of all sorts of ribald, even obscene allegations about her private life, as she was unable for many years to produce a male heir for Louis the 16th. And after the declaration of war in particular, that animosity becomes very aggressive even violent and in a context of freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship, and of war, many of the attacks on Marie Antoinette, seen here emasculating, killing the king, become unchecked in their vindictiveness towards Marie Antoinette or as she's often called in the popular press, the Austrian bitch, that she is somehow responsible for all of the problems that the revolution is facing, and is in league with her relatives, to the East of France. But Louis the 16th himself is the object of mistrust. Remember, he is the man who takes that oath, of allegiance in July 1790, an oath of allegiance to maintain the constitution, who is then the man who takes an oath of allegiance to the constitution once it's drawn up to be implemented in September 1791, but in the meantime had tried to flee the revolution to safety of forces loyal to Marie Antoinette's nephew across the border in Austria. To what extent could French people ever trust Louis the 16th again? It becomes crucially important when in the early months of the war, in the summer of 1792, French forces experience a series of defeats across the Northeastern and Eastern borders, and Austrian and Prussian troops are on French soil. The commanders of those troops leave French people and particularly Parisians in no doubt about what the purpose of their military invasion of France is. That this is to overthrow a wicked revolution, to put the old regime back in force, and to punish all of those who've brought the French monarchy to it's knees. Late in July 1792, the people of Paris awake to this proclamation from the Duke of Brunswick, the commander of the Austrian and Prussian forces, a manifesto to the people of Paris. Their said Majesties, the King of Prussia, the Emperor of Austria, further declare on their faith and word that if the palace of the Tuileries, where the King and the royal family live in Paris, is entered by force or attacked, if the least violence, the least outrage be done to their Majesties, the King, the Queen, and the royal family, if their security, preservation, and liberty be not provided for immediately, they will exact an exemplary, and ever memorable vengeance thereon, by delivering the city of Paris to military punishment, and total destruction, and the rebels who are guilty of outrage to the punishments they deserve. Once we arrive in Paris, and we are on the way, we are on French soil, we will raze that city, and we will put to the sword anyone who is part of the revolution itself. The rebels will be given the punishment they deserve. They're aided in that, by the way by openly counterrevolutionary newspapers in Paris, which published lists of the most prominent Jacobins and sans-culottes who deserved to die, newspapers who looked forward to the time when the river Siene in Paris will run red with the blood of these revolutionary rebels. There are a range of responses to this Brunswick Manifesto. One is that the legislative assembly calls in almost a panic-stricken way for volunteers from across the country to come flooding into Paris to defend it, and then to march to the frontiers and to prevent the further intrusion of those foreign troops. But people in Paris are also furious with the monarchy, because they know that the Brunswick Manifesto is being made on behalf of the crowned heads of Europe, and in a way on behalf of Louis the 16th, and Marie Antoinette themselves. They decide that they can no longer have any faith in the good intention of Louis the 16th. As volunteers from across the country come flooding into the capital on route to the frontier in the northeast and the east, as they come flooding into the country they're invited to attend political gatherings in Paris to discuss the fate of the royal family. Some of them from as far away as Marseille. These are volunteers who take six weeks to march north, to Paris on route to the frontiers in the northeast, and the east. While they're in Paris they become embroiled in the decision of the Paris city government, the Paris commune, to form up an army of sans-culottes to lay siege to the Tuileries palace, where the royal family is - that effectively the city government of Paris has decided that the royal family can no longer be trusted, and that the royal family itself have to be overthrown. On the 10th of August 1792, a second French revolution is enacted in the grounds of that royal palace in the heart of Paris. And Louis the 16th and the royal family are forced to take refuge in the legislative assembly. When those volunteers from Marseilles, from the far South of France, arrive in the capital, they're singing a war song, a war song of their regiment, that is to reverberate through the streets of Paris, and ultimately through the last couple of centuries of French history. Look at the words and listen to the music. [MUSIC] This a blood chilling song, this a song written for an army that is to be engaged in a war to the death. But once those victorious soldiers have joined with Parisians sans-culottes and the Paris commune, the city government of Paris in overthrowing Louis XVI, there are questions that have to be resolved. One is, what is to be done this time with Louis XVI? Has his reign come to an end this time? And secondly, how are they to respond to the Duke of Brunswick? The Duke of Brunswick who, in his manifesto of just a fortnight earlier, had said, if a hair of the king's head is harmed, I promise that when my troops enter the city of Paris, that the city itself will be levelled and all rebels will be put to the sword. How should Parisians now respond to that menace? That is what we will begin to explore next week.
