It was on this day in 1792 that the National Convention officially abolished the monarchy and made France a republic, after stripping the monarchy of most of its powers, ending over a thousand years of uniterrupted royal rule and tradition. For all generations past and all generations to come this was, possibly, the greatest act of murder of what was to be a very murderous regime. For France, 'Eldest Daughter of the Church', the abolition of the monarchy was a crime of the highest order, tearing out the beating heart of the embodiment of French history, values and culture. Subsequent generations would know war, terror, chaos, unspeakable cruelty and a succession of governments that would live and die by the same disease that brought down the ancien regime. Despite efforts at restoration, some successful for a time, this remains a crime that has yet to be put right. The flame of hope that it might remains burning, as it always has, though the prospects for success remain dim. Let us hope that one day the facts will be looked at in the face, that the horrors of revolutionary republicanism will be rejected for the evil they are and that France will one day return to its rightful and most noble state. Vive l'Roi!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
A Sad, Sad Day
It was on this day in 1792 that the National Convention officially abolished the monarchy and made France a republic, after stripping the monarchy of most of its powers, ending over a thousand years of uniterrupted royal rule and tradition. For all generations past and all generations to come this was, possibly, the greatest act of murder of what was to be a very murderous regime. For France, 'Eldest Daughter of the Church', the abolition of the monarchy was a crime of the highest order, tearing out the beating heart of the embodiment of French history, values and culture. Subsequent generations would know war, terror, chaos, unspeakable cruelty and a succession of governments that would live and die by the same disease that brought down the ancien regime. Despite efforts at restoration, some successful for a time, this remains a crime that has yet to be put right. The flame of hope that it might remains burning, as it always has, though the prospects for success remain dim. Let us hope that one day the facts will be looked at in the face, that the horrors of revolutionary republicanism will be rejected for the evil they are and that France will one day return to its rightful and most noble state. Vive l'Roi!
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Tragic, indeed, and all the more so as few French kings can have deserved this disaster less than Louis XVI.
ReplyDeleteBut, at least, there is still a country known as "France". I have to say this for the revolutionaries (and this is the first, and last time I will praise them), despite all their crimes they never denied their country was a "real" nation, unlike certain other troublemakers with whom I am all too familiar.
A truly sad day indeed, and made all the more sad by the fact that in our Age of Democracy, we view the Revolutionaries as Heroes overthrowing a Tyranny, and few look at the Facts Objectively. It id simply accepted that Louis was a Tyrant, and the Republic, promoting Egalitarian and Democratic Principles, had a right to overthrow him in the name of Freedom, and that they were Heroes. As you had said elsewhere, even those who acknowledge the excesses and abuses of the Republic will say it was still worth it as it gave is the Rights of Man. They will also place the blame for the ongoing troubles in France after the Revolution with other Factors, such as Social injustices, or Religious fanatics, or Royalists who didn’t go along with the Regime, or Republicans who just didn’t live up to their Ideals, rather than blaming the Ideals themselves. As believers in the Ideals, they can’t bring themselves to find them at fault. Still, a King and god Man died, and with him all that was pure and moral in France, and France shall never recover as a Culture and a People until this great Social Sin is confessed. Until then, the destruction of French Culture will continue. I also do not think that its quiet right to think of France as still France, for what it means to be French has certainly changed, and the Revolutionaries at the time saw themselves Kindred with the Americans, some even saying they should join America, to create Locke’s universal Republic. Republicanism has always tended toward first Nationalism then Internationalism, as much as it leans on Homogeny.
ReplyDeleteThe French Revolution, Democracy, and the Republic all make me sick. I will always remember Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette as martyrs. They were brave, especially the Queen, until the end.
ReplyDeleteThus, I have made a commitment to make the restoration of French monarchy as my life's goal.
Yes, the meaning of France has changed. That is why I put the name in quotation marks. But things would be worse if "France" no longer had any meaning at all.
ReplyDeleteThe wheel of time turns in one direction only, Mad Monarchist. Rolling back the clock is, I regret to say, impossible.
ReplyDeleteBut that is not to say there is no hope. By pointing out the corruption, nepotism and arrogance of our political class, and comparing them with what they condemned, perhaps they wheel's turn might accelerate to the Crown's favour.
After all, even if we run from the mere mention of the name of Christ Jesus, we still accept his admonition of hypocrites, and would make that acceptance well known.
And Zarove, it is well to note that we have ideal as well. The difference between us and them is that they want a world without sin. A world that we know can never exist.
They'd best beware, for there lie Reavers.