September Massacres
Between 2 and 7 September 1792, as Prussian armies advanced toward Paris and the fortress of Verdun fell, groups of Parisian sans-culottes and National Guards broke into the city's prisons and subjected inmates to improvised trials conducted by self-appointed committees. Those deemed guilty — which meant most — were killed on the spot; those acquitted were freed. Approximately 1,100 to 1,400 people were killed, including non-juring priests, Swiss Guards, common criminals, prostitutes, and a significant number of wholly innocent people. The Princesse de Lamballe, a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette, was among the most prominent victims; her severed head was paraded on a pike. The massacres were not entirely spontaneous: the Paris Commune under Marat had circulated written calls for action against 'traitors,' and the acquiescence or active participation of local authorities enabled the killings to continue for five days without serious intervention. Danton, Minister of Justice, was widely suspected of permitting or encouraging them. The September Massacres shocked European opinion, sharpened Edmund Burke's indictment of the Revolution, and created a permanent fault line between those in France who justified them as popular justice and those — including the Girondins — who saw in them the seeds of despotism. They prefigured the systematic Terror of 1793–94.
- Year: 1792 CE
- Category: Social
