Revolution and Reaction - A (very) French Victoria II Interactive AAR

[Dadarian]

l'Élan Journal
On the Continued Danger of Bonapartism
​

The latest tragedy of the French Revolutionary Terror, the recent repressed revolt in Lyon, is but a continued legacy of Bonapartism. The Bonapartiste is a wily serpent, a future subject of much academic debate. Formulated around a false belief pertaining to a man who had aspirations of godhood, akin to Alexandre the Great. This has inspired a unique zealousness in his adherents, much like the flagellants of times past, who hurt themselves and their nation in a vain attempt to appease what they see to be a high power. A most perverse subversion of the right order under God, King, and the Church!

To wit, half of the dangers of Bonapartism is not attached to Bonapartism itself. Rather, it is tied to the accusation of Bonapartism, of the usage of such attacks in a disruptive way will only weaken the balance of order and governance. On such accusation was recently made by the Deputy Décazes, who saw the repression of the tricolour not as the patriotic act it was, but rather as some hidden ploy in which to hatch honours.

This is the most insidious part of Bonapartism. The ability to force two royalist camps, united in their beliefs, to denounce and infight. They can sit back and watch in exile, nay, return and march in Paris without incident while the government collapses from within! This Deputy of the King, seeing the devil in garb where he should see the devil in the shadows, has marched this glorious nation into a path fraught with danger.

To which, dear reader, take heart. Bonapartism, through the effort of the King, his allies in the Ultraroyalistes and the Doctrinaires, will not allow such plots to succeed. He will unite the government, the state, and the people and his actions will force the Bonapartistes to watch in horror as their schemes fail. Take heart, for we will never again fall victim to Bonapartism.

​

 

[Maxwell500]

Name: Claude-Joseph François Dieudonné Laurent de Béthune
Party: Ultraroyalist
Department: Loire

[Peer of France]
[No Bonus]

 

[Eid3r]

The text of a small play circulates in the bourgeois and royalist milieu of Paris. It depicts the Minister of Police, Décazes, in the process of addressing the republican revolts in Lyon.

The setting is the plushest office of Décazes in Paris, where he is in deep conversation with his two assistants, Mr. Vérité et Mr. Mensonge.

Monsieur Vérité : Votre Excellence Monsieur le Ministre! There was a revolt in Lyon!

Décazes: Quiet, Vérité! I will hear naught about it, I am currently most busy conspiring against my political opponents!

Monsieur Mensonge: The King's opponent, sir, the King's opponent.

Décazes: They are all the same, for the King and I, we are both besieged by these reactionary royalists.

Monsieur Vérité: But, Votre Excellence Monsieur le Ministre, isn't it our job to prevent riots and crime from happening in the Kingdom?

Décazes: But what is this silly notion? We are the Ministère de la Police. Our job is to appear on the crime scene and look in control while actually not doing much. You wouldn't want us to have to try to stop crime, rather than stop criminals, would you? We would be out of job in no time if we were to stop things from happening!

Monsieur Mensonge: Quite true Monsieur le Ministre. A crime-less society would be the bane of the Ministry of Police. The King would dismiss us in no time.

Décazes: Quite so, Mensonge, Quite so. But what was this story about Lyon again? It is true we must appear in control, after all.

Monsieur Vérité: There was a republican revolt in Lyon. The tricolor was flown. It was quickly repressed by the local authorities. The ringleaders were convicted to death.

Décazes: And why was I not informed of this sooner?

Monsieur Vérité: Why but we did forward you a memorandum, sir, which I believe is still sitting on your desk, next to the drawings of a scantily dressed lady you have had commissioned.

Décazes: These are evidence in another affair Vérité, nothing else.

Monsieur Mensonge: Indeed, we are quite busy investigating the disappearance of the Cour des Miracles. The Minister himself has led the investigation on the field, undercover.

Monsieur Vérité: You mean, under covers perhaps.

Décazes: Enough! I am most angered! This Lyon affair is solved even before we can spring in action. It is our job to look busy! Who are the people who dealt with this? They are up to no good!

Monsieur Vérité: The prefect of Rhone, the Comte de Chabrol and General Canuel. They were quite efficient.

Décazes : I say what is efficient or not! These men were hungry for glory! There is no other explanation on why they have disturbed their afternoon nap to lead such actions.

Monsieur Mensonge: Ultraroyalist, all of them.

Monsieur Vérité : Are they really?

Monsieur Mensonge: Is it really important?

Décazes: I sense a plot! We need a plot! Don't we have a plot? These plotters must have been plotting a plot!

Monsieur Mensonge: Votre Excellence monsieur le Ministre is quite perspicace, I must admit.

Décazes: Quickly, let us accuse the good General of having fomented the troubles for his own glory. This will for sure cover our inaction, gentlemen. Let us say he provoked the good people into riot.

Monsieur Vérité : Can you really be provoked into raising the Tricolore? And storming a city? And even if provoked, isn't it illegal nonetheless?

Décazes : Details, details, details, My good Vérité. Sometimes, I wonder why I trouble myself with you.

Monsieur Mensonge: Let us accuse them, and blame the Ultraroyalists!

Monsieur Vérité : But the population might certainly not buy it.

Décazes: Don't you worry, I will have fellow ministers support us. I am quite sure we can get those idiots of Le Dioclétien to discuss about it, thus supporting our version. I should try to induce Saint-Cyr to support our version, none shall defy Saint-Cyr since he is always right.

Monsieur Vérité : Sir, we also need to discuss the giant gathering of former soldiers in Paris. Isn't it a bit dangerous?

Décazes : Hundreds of hungry, destitute and revanchard ex soldiers in our Capital? What could possibly go wrong? Plus, I heard they were to be fed brioche. Non, my dear Vérité, you understand nothing about Police, really.

Who was the mysterious author, theories were abundant but the trail seemed mysteriously hidden.

 

[Maxwell500]

Ordre de Varennes
Ordre de Louis XVI 'de Saint'

[DISSOLVED 1861]​

"I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France." Le Roi Louis XVI

WE recognize the innocence and sanctity of Louis XVI, Saint and Martyr of France; ​

​

WE denounce the murder of the august and saintly Louis XVI, and that of his family;​

​

WE abhor the trahison committed from 1789, and pledge to fight it until our last;​

​

WE commit to defending Le Roi, La Monarchie et Notre Pays;​

​

WE pledge all our actions in the name of Dieu. ​

​

---​

Les Grands Maîtres;

Claude-Joseph François Dieudonné Laurent de Béthune (1817 - 1830)
Charles Louis Armand de Béthune (1830 - 1861)

 

[Eid3r]

Paris, 1817

The Bishop of Montauban had been invited to speak to a private gathering of small nobility, moneyed interests and conservative bourgeois, on the occasion of the ongoing electoral campaign. Many were worried by the most debasing pandering expressed by certain politicians toward the masses.

"Well, quite certainly Monsieur Morel, this Veteran's league is oddly suspicious. One needs only to remind himself of the unfortunate events of Toulouse. The mobilisation of a large group of ex-soldiers can quickly be turned into a most vicious force."

The fat old merchant agreed.

"Like our good friend the Baron de Rochechouart, I certainly favour some extension of the franchise, which could energize the royalist movement. But I certainly would not go as far as extending it so largely to the masses like some liberal elites sould suggest. Mark my words, this new Veteran's league will soon become a tool for revendications of that sort."

Several man agreed, some nodded their disapproval.

"Obviously, I beseech you to favour the election of our good friend the Duc de Nivelles. We all know his probity is beyond reproach and that he is a man who knows how to tend to the best interest of those who deal with him. A man of such spotless royalist credentials would certainly be a fine addition to the Chamber, unless of course, you wish to see more instable characters elected, may they be former captains or rabid liberal thinkers."

Some laughter was heard, for the was no love in this crowd for the liberal cause.

"I thank you for your good words on my proposal to reinstate the Corvée Royale. I certainly believe that all must contribute to put France back on her right footing as quickly as possible. As you can see, those who are dubbed "Ultras" are no extremists, but quite the sensible promoters of a vigorous economy."

 

[MadMartigan]

During his visit to Paris, the finest kitchens and most esteemed salons echo with the throaty complaints of M. Duval on the subject of recent events:

"Paying indemnities from the national treasury for property disputes better settled case by case in the courts, loosebrained nonsense about throwing more Frenchmen into the Hatian meatgrinder, and worst of all a proposal to to pressgang the already starving and riotous population into forced labor. God help us if priests and verdetes are given the keys to the treasury. Have these men never even heard the word 'économie' before? Bad enough the Doctrinaires want to drag away the workers to become the ragged army of some Postmaster-General, but they are still the least worst option for the ministry."

 

[ThaHoward]

((Private letter to @MadMartigan ))

M.Duval,

I have read your paper and I am glad we have a paper focusing on the financial market. I have heard rumors of you speaking your mind on the recent events in salons in Paris. Would you care to sit down with me to find ways to improve our economy? I understand you are a merchant as me, please consider my invitation.

-Capitaine Lothaire Lécuyer.

PS: I have heard of this new play in town being the laughing stock among Parisians. Care to see this satire clearly written by an Ultra?

 

[etranger01]

Name: Henri Jules de Bourbon
Party: Doctrinaire
Department: Seine

[Colonel in the French Army; Bastard]
[No Bonus]

 

[MadMartigan]

M.Duval,

I have read your paper and I am glad we have a paper focusing on the financial market. I have heard rumors of you speaking your mind on the recent events in salons in Paris. Would you care to sit down with me to find ways to improve our economy? I understand you are a merchant as me, please consider my invitation.

-Capitaine Lothaire Lécuyer.

PS: I have heard of this new play in town being the laughing stock among Parisians. Care to see this satire clearly written by an Ultra?

((Private letter to @ThaHoward ))

I would be honored to visit in person a deputy, veteran, and fellow man of industry such as yourself; Mon Capitaine. In this letter let me pave the way towards our imminent meeting by detailing in brief my own recommendations for the current budget crisis and the economic direction of the Kingdom. Please do not take the strong opinions of an over-stimulated businessman as criticisms of the quite astute policies proposed by your Doctrinaire kin and yourself. I especially see great promise in the author of the manifesto of Loyalists and Moderates.

It will be painful at first and at times seem cruel, but it seems to me that France must take its medicine if it is to once again be a rich nation. The next treasury minister should reduce tariffs and import subsidies as much as possible, slash expenditures save for administration and education, and raise taxes. Taking out loans to cover the deficit temporarily is not out of the question either as the economy readjusts to these policies and ultimately, recovers.

It goes without saying that any national payout of indemnities for confiscated property would sink the budget completely and constitute a mortal threat to the stability of the Kingdom.

The economic dislocation of rising Russian wheat imports will ultimately be a good thing, freeing up some segment of our largely agrarian populace to move to the cities and contribute to rising industry. However this has both a policy requirement and a political requirement. In regards to policy, this more mobile and industrial workforce will need to be educated, which they are currently not by any stretch of the imagination. In regards to politics, the pain of famine caused by the temporary growing pains of the masses will be a powerful weapon in the hands of the opposition and indeed could move the King's benevolent heart to move back to more protectionist and interventionist trade and economic policy.

To be a spiritual salve to the suffering poor, increase literacy, and help prevent the Ultra-Royalist faction from rallying a peasant army against the government concessions of a political nature would have to be made. Simply put, nationalized clerical land would have to be restored and, to prevent howls of outrage from the slashing of the military budget, reserve appointments in the officer corps would have to be preserved. Also, it goes without saying that a wise man would not stand in the way of the King's majorat inheritance ordinance.

And as much as I would rather see policies ((techs, focuses, and so on)) like an independent Royal Bank to encourage lending banking in general and bilateral trade relations with Britain to move towards greater freedom of trade and the ultimate reversal of foreign tariffs against our wine, in the short term both politically and practically it would behoove us to put national effort and social forces behind the Church. While questionable in science education, as you have cited concerns about, there is no better way in the current conditions of the nation to increase the literacy of the populace; and it will help branch the division between the Right and the Center in these troubled times. Similarly, the desire in both Doctrinaire and Ultra camps for a national push towards road improvement will have to be put on hold so that the educated workforce ultimately necessary for such programs can be freed from their current agricultural labor.

All in all, it would seem that in order to move two steps forward, France must take one step back and delay rightminded initiatives regarding military reform and infrastructure so that the Treasury will not suffer as it has so much in the times of Revolution and Republic.

- Your new friend, Monsieur Tibault Duval of Marseille

 

[Nax24]

Name: Nathanaël Barrande, Comte de L'Isle Jourdain
Party: Independent
Department: The Gers

[Peer, Colonel in the French Army]
[No Bonus]

 

[sealy300]

Name: Jean Jak Hamon
Party: Doctrinaire
Department: Finestre
[Deputy]
[No Bonus]

 

[Mikkel Glahder]

Name: Bon-Adrien de Moncey
Party: Doctrinaire
Department: Doubs

[Peer of France]
[Non]

 

[Eid3r]

Name: Jean Jak Hamon
Party: Doctrinaire
Department: Finestre
[Deputy]
[No Bonus]

Isn't the department Finistère?

 

[Sneakyflaps]

Name: Louis Henri Joseph de Bourbon
Party: Ultraroyalists
Department: Oise

[Peer of France, Prince du Sang]
[No Bonus]

 

[Sneakyflaps]

The Disloyalty, Disregard and Disrespect shown by the Veteran's League​

Lothaire Lécuyer, formerly a captain within the army who recently was in the Chamber of Deputies where he now stands for reelection has as of recent created a Veterans League. This League in and of its official charter is an affront to not only to his Majesty, but the many men who gave up their lives to see his restoration come to pass. It reads: “To qualify as a member one need to prove they have served in the Armed Forces of France. Let that be under the Empire, the French Kingdom prior to the Revolution, the Revolutionary Army or the current Royal Army.” The clear definition of prior to the Revolution shows a clear favour towards the revolting revolution that occurred 25 years ago. A support of Bonaparte as it excludes all veterans who fought against the illegitimate regime of the republic and Bonaparte.

The exclusion of all the men who fought in the Army of Condé, under the Comte d’Artois as well as other nobles in this charter, by not being recognized as veterans of France, are by definition viewed as foreign soldiers. These soldiers which have been discarded by the so called Veteran’s League are the ones who risked all; their fortunes, their futures, their lives to see the rightful monarch be restored to his throne in the natural order which God Created. By excluding them, and thereby the fact that they fought for France and Monarchy, the Veteran’s charter thereby also by extension accuses them of fighting against foreign powers against what the Veteran’s League consider the legitimate government.

Now one may ask how one can see that they consider the revolutionary government as the legitimate government. To this the answer is simple, they recognize that the veterans of this government are the only which are allowed in their association following the exile of our rightful monarch. To recognize only the veterans of this government in a league that is to represent the veterans of all of France. This makes it clear to all who look upon them and examine their case that they do not in fact recognize Louis XVIII as the rightful monarchy upon the murder of his nephew. But instead support the illegitimate government under which they served. Had they supported his Majesty and all those who fought for him, they would in turn have written in that they accepted the men who fought for him in the Princely Armies with open arms and hearts.

No doubt that they in a counter argument to this would attempt to say that they speak for all veterans. But they cannot claim to talk for all veterans of France, as they do not recognize all veterans of France. Only recognizing those who fought for a revolution to overthrow the natural order, peace and tranquility of the kingdom.

One can furthermore look at the offenses which the veterans have recently committed, the fighting in Toulouse, which caused great distress to both the people of the South and the government of his Majesty. While they may distance themselves, they had a part to play in it, and while we may forgive them one day, then we shall not forget.

One may wonder why I have taken the time to write about this issue, for this the answer is simple. It is my duty as my father’s heir to take care of those soldiers who fought under him and alongside me to defend his Majesty. As such it turns my stomach to see this disloyalty smear the name of every veteran of France, to every loyal soul that now presides in his Majesty’s Kingdom and every young man who serve’s his Majesty with pride and loyalty and to this day risks his life in service to a greater purpose.

Now then, it is abundantly clear that the good Captain, as he also goes by, is neither good or faithful to our King. The Veteran’s League is little more than a dangerous faction which their leader attempts to use to force his will through. They openly and defiantly flaunt their disregard for all those that gave their life for his Majesty, they show clear disloyalty by their charter as it refuses to recognize his Majesty as the rightful king during all his reign, and those that supported him as veterans of France. By refusing them instead painting them as foreign soldiers. I call upon His Majesty’s Ministers and government to put an end to this Veteran’s League at once, to ban it and disband. Furthermore then should the so called Good Captain persist in his defiance and disloyalty, he shall be presented before the courts of France.


- Louis Henri Joseph, Prince de Condé, Duc de Bourbon, Bellegarde, Buise, Marquis de Graville, Comte de Valery, Seigneur de Beaugé, Chantilly, Château-Chinon, Château-Renault, Montluel, Château d'Écouen, etc., also Prince du Sang

 

[LatinKaiser]

Name: Lucien Antoine de Ladon, comte de Graçay
Party: Ultraroyaliste
Département: Nièvres

[Pair de la France]
[Rien]

 

[Fingon888]

((Published in La Gazette.))

On the Most Slanderous Accusations of the Minister of Police​

It is accepted truth today when looking back on the causes of the Revolution that thrust our most holy home into a quarter century of darkness that the most dangerous elements to the peace and stability of the realm were the incompetent ministers of the good King Louis XVI. His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVI martyred himself for the cause of Christ above and the fate of the eldest daughter of the Church. Therefore, it is beyond reasonable argument to cast blame on His Most Christian Majesty. Those who argue this point must certainly be influenced by the tempting Prince of Lies in his quest to turn the people of France away from the light of the Holy Mother Church and the legitimate aristocracy. Those who propose this theory are therefore to be rejected out of hand as Bonapartistes. Rather, we can say with clear eyed reason that the ministers of the King steered the nation through inaction and most importantly, concession. Was it not the Ministers of State who failed to act in the quashing of the revolt of the storming of the Bastille and the National Assembly? It has always been thus that the ministers of the King have been susceptible to the passions of wealth, cowardice, guile, and temptation from the Devil himself. After all, it was not ordained by God in heaven that any one man may serve as a Minister of the King, rather he serves at the pleasure of the man whom was placed as sovereign of his earthly Kingdom by the Sovereign Lord of the Universe.

I write today in regards to the duc de Decazes, le Ministre de la Police. Le Ministre has responded to the most sickening rising of Bonapartistes and Republicans in the city of Lyon, that city’s royalism most foully suppressed by the former Minister of Police Joseph Fouché in 1793. The response of the duc de Decazes is not to congratulate the officials that suppressed the rising of revolutionary sentiments, but to cast blame upon them. The charge of the Minister of Police is to claim that the Ultraroyalist officials manufactured this Bonapartiste revolt in order to attain glory for themselves in the eyes of the King and the aristocracy. This accusation reveals that the Minister of Police is either in need of an extended spell in some mental asylum or he is simply playing the most dirty and undignified game of politics. Truly, how could men who served in the Army of Condé or lived as émigrés for years upon years outside the land of their birthright induce men to take up the tricolor? Could there seriously be hundreds of scheming ultraroyalists ready to march in the streets of their city bearing the flag of murderers and tyrants? This is insane upon the face of it. Rather than own up to the complete ineptitude of the police under the duc, he seeks to spit in the eye of his political opponents in the vain hope that the French public will accept his conspiratorial ramblings. The duc de Decazes must surely be a man of good education and character, as attested to in his noble birth but as we have all seen in the most ignoble actions of the infamous Philippe Égalité or the Marquis de Lafayette, the most noble of birth may not be a true inoculation against radicalism, incompetence, or the temptation of demonic forces.

In these past years of the Restoration of our Most Christian Majesty I have not spoken publicly about politics and I have supported the national reconciliation so dear to our most esteemed Minister of War, for whom my respect knows no bounds. Truly, though I have suffered much at the hands of Bonapartistes and Republicans I did not lend aid to the Verdets mobs, rather prevented their flight north from Toulouse. In my actions as a général I have always put the interests of His Most Christian Majesty, Louis XVIII at the forefront and the wishes of those whom he trusts as my goal. It is only out of loyalty to His Most Christian Majesty that I now criticize the Minister of Police, who must be replaced so that a man more competent may assist in the revitalization of the pre-revolutionary policing institutions so dear to the locales of our nation as well as to secure the loyalty and effectiveness of the National Guard. The National Guard has been mired in its revolutionary and bourgeois past for too long that its loyalty to the King is openly questioned. This is a state that cannot be allowed to persist as it has under the duc de Decazes. In the interests of His Most Christian Majesty and the implementation of policy promoting the material and moral development of the common weal, this must be done

- Jean-Marie Chagnon, Général de division

 

[Ab Ovo]

The marquis de Bezonvaux is stricken with sudden cardiac arrest whilst drinking a glass of wine in bed, and perishes.

 

[Ab Ovo]

Abbé Henri Jean-Baptiste Grégoire
Comte Grégoire et Officier de la Légion d'Honneur

Évêque constitutionnel, autrefois de Blois - révolutionnaire remarquable - aristocrate réticent​

Born on 4 December 1750 in the northeastern town of Vého, Henri Grégoire was the eldest son of Raymond and Marie Grégoire. Unfortunately for him that meant very little in the grand scheme of things, owing to the fact that his father was merely a tailor in a small town. Henri was an exceedingly bright child however and soon grasped that there was only one avenue to success open to him: the Church. Like so many before him Henri entered the seminary as a means to escape his quotidian circumstances, but unlike so many before him Henri showed an aptitude for the clerical life which seemingly marked him for greater things. After receiving holy orders (as a secular priest, which would later prove important) in 1782 Father Grégoire was assigned as curé of the small village of Emberménil close to where he was raised. Although one might expect a bright young priest to resent an assignment to a backwater parish, Fr Grégoire carried out his pastoral duties with charity and a touch of zeal; the good Father becoming widely popular in Emberménil and beyond. It was in 1789 -- shortly after receiving his second distinction for his literature; this time in Metz as opposed to Nancy -- that Fr Grégoire's life would forever change along with the lives of thousands of his countrymen.

Liberty guiding the people to an era of chaos and bloodshed​

In the months leading up to the Revolution, Fr Grégoire was elected to the First Estate of the Estates-General by his fellow priests in the department of Moselle. Sensing that the time was right Grégoire would first rise to political notoriety in this capacity; and soon became the leader of a bloc of liberals, Gallicans, and Jansenists scattered throughout the First Estate. By the time the Third Estate had through force of will remade itself into the National Assembly, Fr Grégoire had long since resigned himself from his own Estate (much to the pleasure of his erstwhile colleagues; many of whom had privately dubbed him ''le père de la dissidence") and had been welcomed with open arms by the instigators of the brewing revolution. His fiery oratory as he presided over a marathon 62-hour session of the Assembly -- which incidentally coincided with the Storming of the Bastille -- earned him further acclaim as a red-blooded revolutionary; and Fr Grégoire's later leading role in dismantling the privileges of the Church and nobility would seal his credentials as a man of the people. In light of this it was unsurprising that Father was the first priest to publicly assent to the Constitution civile du clergé and would quite willingly take the infamous Obligatory Oath. After having elected to the episcopate by two separate departments almost immediately after the Constitution's implementation Fr Grégoire chose to accept the position of Constitutional Bishop in Blois, Loir-et-Cher. The fact that he symbolically wore a Phyrgian cap throughout the entirety of his episcopal consecration (with the exception of when the laying-on-of-hands was required for the actual consecration to occur) would set the tone for the rest of his career.

Pro-revolutionary clergymen taking the Obligatory Oath
​

After the fragile status quo of un roi sans royaume was shattered with the events of 10 August 1792 +Grégoire was one of the most outspoken supporters of the abolition of the monarchy when it was proposed and subsequently ratified on 21 September. The unfortunately-memorable phrase that His Grace used during the procedure, "les rois sont dans la morale ce que les monstres sont dans le monde de la nature", would serve to reinforce his position as a leading figure in Revolutionary France; and after he passionately argued for the arrest and trial of Louis XVI during the National Convention's session on 15 November he was immediately elected as the Convention's president. The image of a bishop -- in full episcopal dress, no less -- presiding over the sessions of one of the most radical bodies in French history would prove to be one of the most idiosyncratic of the entire French Revolution. When it came to that trial +Grégoire was out of the country on official business in Savoy and thus abstained; but alongside two other officials who had accompanied him authored a letter vehemently urging his condemnation. Attached to this plea however was a request that the death penalty -- a foregone conclusion at that point -- be suspended. Of course their request was denied and Louis Capet was put to death on 21 January 1793.

His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI, waiting patiently to be beheaded before the crowd​

After these events +Grégoire continued to serve in the National Convention, although not as her president. Later in 1793 his colleague +Jean-Baptiste Gobel, Constitutional Archbishop of Paris, was intimidated into 'voluntarily' relinquishing his episcopacy after having been privately threatened with death if he refused. Although his resignation ultimately failed to save him from the guillotine only months later +Gobel's example strengthened +Grégoire in his own convictions. Even in the face of outrage by many of his fellow deputies that he did not follow in Gobel's footsteps and relinquish either his episcopacy or his deputyship, the Bishop refused to do either; and it was perhaps this courage which carried him through the dark days of the Reign of Terror. By that point of the Revolution even the Gallican version of the Catholic Church had fallen out of favour with the state as Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being and Hébert's Cult of Reason dueled for supremacy, and attacks on +Grégoire's steadfast maintenance of his episcopal duties (he appeared regularly in public while wearing the garb of a bishop and said Mass daily in his own home) mounted on all sides. It was only after the events of the Thermidorian Reaction and the subsequent fall of Robespierre that pressure on the Bishop eased -- and, in a burst of spite, +Grégoire purchased and moved into Robespierre's former residence after the latter's execution; and continued his practice of daily Mass.

Robespierre being devoured by his own creation: an admittedly not-uncommon occurrence among notable French revolutionaries, but a very welcome signal that the Reign of Terror had finally ended​

From then on Abbé Grégoire lived a relatively quiet and comfortable life as an official in the governments of Revolutionary France. Over the course of his tenure as a member of the Council of Five Hundred during the Directory he and his colleagues staunchly opposed Napoleon's coup in 1799, and his subsequent installation as Consul which finally put the French Revolution to an end. In spite of that however +Grégoire was permitted to serve under Napoleon's government, first in the Corps législatif and then afterwards in the Sénat conservateur. Even then he refused to be cowed and was one of only five senators who voted against the proclamation of the French Empire -- although, as before, Napoleon himself seemed to bear only goodwill towards the bishop. This was not a mutual affection and +Grégoire's loathing for Napoleon reached it's pinnacle with the signing of the Concordat of 1801. Aghast at the sudden disestablishment of the constitutional church to which he had dedicated his life, +Grégoire resigned from his see in protest. The perception of Napoleon's complete and utter indifference to the prelate's disdain for him was only reinforced by the Emperor's decision to create +Grégoire as comte Grégoire and award him the rank of Officer within the Legion of Honour -- despite, or possibly because of, +Grégoire's outspoken opposition to the recreation of a nobility under Napoleon.

The Concordat of 1801 resulted in the extinction of the Constitutional church in France​

After the fall of Napoleon, the Hundred Days (during which he pointedly neutral), and the final triumph of the Bourbon restoration +Grégoire retired to the village of La Tour-du-Pin in the department of Isère, and quietly collected the stipend which the Charter guaranteed him as a man of the cloth. The bishop by this time was feeling the years press upon him after so much time in continuous service, and tended to prefer the comforts of relative anonymity as the White Terror raged -- briefly appearing before the public eye after his 1814 publication of De la constitution française de l'an 1814; which commented on the Charter from an (admittedly very liberal) Doctrinaire perspective. Unfortunately the recent raft of legislation and royal ordinances under the Dhuizon government has begun to make +Grégoire's life exceedingly difficult. It was of course the Ordonnance du Roi sur l'affaire de la Justice Royale which would cause the greatest amount of difficulty. It wasn't as if his name wasn't plastered all over government records dating from the time Louis XVI was alive all the way up to the fall of Napoleon's empire. Henri Jean-Baptiste Grégoire: first signatory of the Civil Constitution, one of the first Constitutional bishops, outspoken supporter of the monarchy's abolition, prominent advocate of arresting Louis XVI and putting him on trial, former president of the National Convention, author of a letter urging for Louis' conviction, revolutionary member of the legislature continuously from 1789, Napoleonic aristocrat... the only way he wouldn't be put on trial was through divine intervention.

His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVIII of France and Navarre, darling of the Bourbon Restoration​

The outstretched hand of providence has not been forthcoming. In lieu of that +Grégoire has instead turned to his oldest and most trusted ally: his own stubbornness. After the Ordinance had been passed +Grégoire wasted no time in retaining the services of a talented barrister and soon began to use the man to his advantage. Shuttering himself inside his residence +Grégoire refused to go outside and had necessities delivered by sympathetic townspeople -- the better his chances were of escaping arrest. It was extremely unfortunate then for +Grégoire that the current Minister of Justice, the duc de Saint-Aignan, just so happened to be a native of the department of Loir-et-Cher. While the Duke (@Marschalk) had spent Revolutionary France's entire tenure serving abroad there was surely no doubt that, upon his return, he had been informed of the treasonous Abbé Grégoire; Loire-et-Cher's bishop and her representative in Paris for over a decade. Sure enough summonses had begun to arrive regularly from the Ministry of Justice; and were just as regularly refuted by the barrister, who pointed out that the Ministry of Justice had no jurisdiction over the matter. According to the Charter the Chamber of Peers possessed exclusively all rights in the matter: if he were arrested by the ministry he could not be tried in civil courts due to the status of the crime of which he was accused; so the sacred Charter itself said. This went over very poorly with the more conservative elements in Paris; and would continue to have repercussions on +Grégoire.

The duc de Saint-Aignan: His Majesty's Minister of Justice, and a man with serious problèmes de papa​

By this point, 1817, the tête-à-tête between the Gallican bishop and the Ministry of Justice has been ongoing for quite some time -- especially concerning the Ministry's troubles elsewhere; which devoured a great deal of time and attention. Leading the quiet effort to have the Abbé put to death is the duc de Béthune, a blisteringly-intense Ultraroyalist who (it is rumoured) has the ear of the comte Decazes. The Duke was not an unintelligent man, and was probably aware that the peers had been far too busy to arrest, try, and convict a single elderly priest no matter how traitorous he was. With the advent of fresh elections +Grégoire fears that the Duke's persistent attempts to rally members of the Chamber to his cause will finally be successful. If so, the Ultraroyalists will probably acquire with ease the votes needed to arrest, try, and convict him. It isn't as if putting a noted revolutionary and unrepentant schismatic to death would be a difficult sell -- even if, as evidenced by his publication on the Charter, that revolutionary has begrudgingly reconciled himself to the new regime. No, no, +Grégoire will have to work very hard to keep his head on his shoulders... perhaps it is time to renew correspondence with M. Jefferson...

 

[Marschalk]

Abbé Henri Jean-Baptiste Grégoire
Comte de Blois et Officier de la Légion d'Honneur

Évêque constitutionnel, autrefois de Blois - révolutionnaire remarquable - aristocrate réticent​

Born on 4 December 1750 in the northeastern town of Vého, Henri Grégoire was the eldest son of Raymond and Marie Grégoire. Unfortunately for him that meant very little in the grand scheme of things, owing to the fact that his father was merely a tailor in a small town. Henri was an exceedingly bright child however and soon grasped that there was only one avenue to success open to him: the Church. Like so many before him Henri entered the seminary as a means to escape his quotidian circumstances, but unlike so many before him Henri showed an aptitude for the clerical life which seemingly marked him for greater things. After receiving holy orders (as a secular priest, which would later prove important) in 1782 Father Grégoire was assigned as curé of the small village of Emberménil close to where he was raised. Although one might expect a bright young priest to resent an assignment to a backwater parish, Fr Grégoire carried out his pastoral duties with charity and a touch of zeal; the good Father becoming widely popular in Emberménil and beyond. It was in 1789 -- shortly after receiving his second distinction for his literature; this time in Metz as opposed to Nancy -- that Fr Grégoire's life would forever change along with the lives of thousands of his countrymen.

Liberty guiding the people to an era of chaos and bloodshed​

In the months leading up to the Revolution, Fr Grégoire was elected to the First Estate of the Estates-General by his fellow priests in the department of Moselle. Sensing that the time was right Grégoire would first rise to political notoriety in this capacity; and soon became the leader of a bloc of liberals, Gallicans, and Jansenists scattered throughout the First Estate. By the time the Third Estate had through force of will remade itself into the National Assembly, Fr Grégoire had long since resigned himself from his own Estate (much to the pleasure of his erstwhile colleagues; many of whom had privately dubbed him ''le père de la dissidence") and had been welcomed with open arms by the instigators of the brewing revolution. His fiery oratory as he presided over a marathon 62-hour session of the Assembly -- which incidentally coincided with the Storming of the Bastille -- earned him further acclaim as a red-blooded revolutionary; and Fr Grégoire's later leading role in dismantling the privileges of the Church and nobility would seal his credentials as a man of the people. In light of this it was unsurprising that Father was the first priest to publicly assent to the Constitution civile du clergé and would quite willingly take the infamous Obligatory Oath. After having elected to the episcopate by two separate departments almost immediately after the Constitution's implementation Fr Grégoire chose to accept the position of Constitutional Bishop in Blois, Loir-et-Cher. The fact that he symbolically wore a Phyrgian cap throughout the entirety of his episcopal consecration (with the exception of when the laying-on-of-hands was required for the actual consecration to occur) would set the tone for the rest of his career.

Pro-revolutionary clergymen taking the Obligatory Oath
​

After the fragile status quo of un roi sans royaume was shattered with the events of 10 August 1792 +Grégoire was one of the most outspoken supporters of the abolition of the monarchy when it was proposed and subsequently ratified on 21 September. The unfortunately-memorable phrase that His Grace used during the procedure, "les rois sont dans la morale ce que les monstres sont dans le monde de la nature", would serve to reinforce his position as a leading figure in Revolutionary France; and after he passionately argued for the arrest and trial of Louis XVI during the National Convention's session on 15 November he was immediately elected as the Convention's president. The image of a bishop -- in full episcopal dress, no less -- presiding over the sessions of one of the most radical bodies in French history would prove to be one of the most idiosyncratic of the entire French Revolution. When it came to that trial +Grégoire was out of the country on official business in Savoy and thus abstained; but alongside two other officials who had accompanied him authored a letter vehemently urging his condemnation. Attached to this plea however was a request that the death penalty -- a foregone conclusion at that point -- be suspended. Of course their request was denied and Louis Capet was put to death on 21 January 1793.

His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI, waiting patiently to be beheaded before the crowd​

After these events +Grégoire continued to serve in the National Convention, although not as her president. Later in 1793 his colleague +Jean-Baptiste Gobel, Constitutional Archbishop of Paris, was intimidated into 'voluntarily' relinquishing his episcopacy after having been privately threatened with death if he refused. Although his resignation ultimately failed to save him from the guillotine only months later +Gobel's example strengthened +Grégoire in his own convictions. Even in the face of outrage by many of his fellow deputies that he did not follow in Gobel's footsteps and relinquish either his episcopacy or his deputyship, the Bishop refused to do either; and it was perhaps this courage which carried him through the dark days of the Reign of Terror. By that point of the Revolution even the Gallican version of the Catholic Church had fallen out of favour with the state as Robespierre's Cult of the Supreme Being and Hébert's Cult of Reason dueled for supremacy, and attacks on +Grégoire's steadfast maintenance of his episcopal duties (he appeared regularly in public while wearing the garb of a bishop and said Mass daily in his own home) mounted on all sides. It was only after the events of the Thermidorian Reaction and the subsequent fall of Robespierre that pressure on the Bishop eased -- and, in a burst of spite, +Grégoire purchased and moved into Robespierre's former residence after the latter's execution; and continued his practice of daily Mass.

Robespierre being devoured by his own creation: an admittedly not-uncommon occurrence among notable French revolutionaries, but a very welcome signal that the Reign of Terror had finally ended​

The outstretched hand of providence has not been forthcoming. In lieu of that +Grégoire has instead turned to his oldest and most trusted ally: his own stubbornness. After the Ordinance had been passed +Grégoire wasted no time in retaining the services of a talented barrister and soon began to use the man to his advantage. Shuttering himself inside his residence +Grégoire refused to go outside and had necessities delivered by sympathetic townspeople -- the better his chances were of escaping arrest. It was extremely unfortunate then for +Grégoire that the current Minister of Justice, the duc de Saint-Aignan, just so happened to be a native of the department of Loir-et-Cher. While the Duke (@Marschalk) had spent Revolutionary France's entire tenure serving abroad there was surely no doubt that, upon his return, he had been informed of the treasonous Abbé Grégoire; Loire-et-Cher's bishop and her representative in Paris for over a decade. Sure enough summonses had begun to arrive regularly from the Ministry of Justice; and were just as regularly refuted by the barrister, who pointed out that the Ministry of Justice had no jurisdiction over the matter. According to the Charter the Chamber of Peers possessed exclusively all rights in the matter: as a Peer the comte de Blois could not even be arrested except on the authority of the Chamber; and even if he were arrested by them he could not be tried in civil courts due to both his status and that of the crime of which he was accused. This went over very poorly with the Minister and he soon enlisted the ultramontanist Bishop of Montauban (@Eid3r) to assist him.

The duc de Saint-Aignan: His Majesty's Minister of Justice, and a man with serious problèmes de papa​

By this point, 1817, the tête-à-tête between the Gallican bishop and the Ministry of Justice has been ongoing for quite some time. Both Saint-Aignan and +de Bourget have been quietly biding their time and lobbying their colleagues in the Chamber, aware that the peers were far too busy to arrest, try, and convict a single elderly priest no matter how traitorous he was. Even so they have continued to both work against him behind closed doors. +Grégoire knows that as soon as there is a lull in the proceedings that his enemies will already have the votes ready to arrest, try, and convict him. It isn't as if putting a noted revolutionary and unrepentant schismatic to death would be a difficult sell -- even if, as evidenced by his publication on the Charter, that revolutionary has begrudgingly reconciled himself to the new regime. No, no, +Grégoire will have to work very hard to keep his head on his shoulders... perhaps it is time to renew correspondence with M. Jefferson...

((Was it all approved by KingHigh or is it an example of godmodding with the use of other peoples characters?))