On A Black Horse

Jester

Comedie Francaise
​

In the comedy that was the Third Republic, Henry, comte de Chambord, may lay claim to being the protagonist. For it was Henry, the last, best hope of the Monarchists, who had caused the birth of the Republic due to his intransigence. And it was Henry, woe of the monarchists, who caused the fall of the Republic.

Henry had united the Orleanist and Legitimist claims to the throne in a time when the Monarchist Right held the National Assembly. But he refused to honor that symbol of Republicanism, the French tricolore, and so the National Assembly was unable to crown him as they desired. Waiting for him to die, these monarchist deputies formed the Third Republic- the government that would in the words of Adolphe Thiers, "divide us least." Henry's inability to die before sentiment swung back to the Republicans seemed to cement the Third Republic into place. But French history is never as simple as it seems.

From the time of Presidente Mac-Mahon's Moral Order, Pope Leo XIII had been plotting to bring French Catholics into the Republic. The death of the comte de Chambord in 1883 seemed a catalyst to separate Catholics from the monarchist movements, and Leo XIII would act on this, albeit ponderously as all Papal governments do.

In 1887, Father Charles Lavigerie, who had revived the See of Carthage and drawn praise for his missionary efforts in North Africa even from Republicans, acted upon the Pope's initiative, inviting the officers of the Mediterranean Squadron and of the French Foreign Legion to a luncheon, where the Peres-Blancs (White Fathers) sang the Marseillaise and the Father gave a speech on reconciliation with the Republic, rescinding his earlier monarchist sentiment- sentiment that had come from personal loyalty to Henry.

The Rallying of the Catholics to the Republic (Ralliement des Catholiques à la République) was not a singular event. The release later in the year of the Papal Encyclical, Rerum Novarum, provided a blueprint for French Catholics to participate in the French Republic. [1] Father Lavigerie continued to advocate for Catholic participation in the Republic as did other, lesser priests and Catholics across the whole of France began organizing in earnest, inspired by the Rerum Novarum. These developments would go on to be key in the Boulangist Crisis of 1899....

[1] This, essentially, is the POD. An earlier Rerum Novarum and Rallying of the Catholics to the Republic. TTL's Rerum Novarum is much less detailed and quite obviously targeted towards France.
 
Last edited:

Jester

France is certainly going to be interesting, by the end. As it is, newly politicized Catholics are simply going to play a larger part in the Boulangist movement, with all the consequences of that.
 

Jester

Well, a less leftist, less secularist Boulangist movement....

Try not to speculate too far ahead.....
 
Last edited:

FDW

Banned
Interesting, I like all TL's unconventional on this board. Consider me subscribed.
 

Jester

Ralliement De Catholiques

The speeches of Father Lavigerie did not fall on deaf ears. The sudden flowering of Catholic political activity that followed the Ralliement was a subject of interest and controversy among Republican intellectuals.

Perhaps the most radical expression of the Rerum Novarum's policies were the many Catholic youth movements and student organizations. Foremost among these were the Apostolic Circles (technically the Cercles de l'éducation apostolique). The Apostolic Circles bore a great resemblance to the many radical youth organizations common in France, replete with initiation rituals, secret oaths and even stranger, progressive politics. But their primary purpose was much more mundane and at the same time, alien to French society at the time. They served as discussion forums for priests and the laity to connect with the French youth. The Apostolic Circle of the École Normale Supérieure under Maurice Blondel [1] was the most active, producing its own paper (L'Action) and forming a Youth Brigade for General Boulanger's prospective March on Paris. Marc Sangnier's later Le Sillon [2], renowned for Catholic student radicalism during the Boulangerie, was itself an outgrowth of the Apostolic Circles.

Charles Maurras, a young polemicist and monarchist, responded to the Ralliement in L'Observateur, a nominally Orleanist literary review, with praise, calling on Catholics to help overturn "sectarian Republicanism". His correspondence with the Boulangist Maurice Barrès would eventually lead to him leaving L'Observateur to write for the Committee of National Protest, the Boulangist press organ. [3]

The Boulangiste coalition, the very definition of political opportunism, jumped upon the Ralliement. The General's speeches came to include Catholics and they sent speakers on a circuit tour of the south and west of France. It was fertile ground for the Boulangistes and, after Boulanger's resignation from the constuency of Nord, once safe monarchist seats in the countryside cried out for the General to seek election there. [4]

The Boulangiste co-opting of the Ralliement brought new vitriol from many of Boulanger's critics. While Edouard Vaillant had criticized the General as bring "Caesarism", Henri De Rochefort (who had shortly flirted with boulangism) soon gave him a new label- Caudillo, more fit to rule in Peru than Paris. One could almost say it was fear at the dawning of a new age in french politics.....

[1] IOTL, a modernist Christian philosopher who attended the ENS.
[2] An OTL organization; in this case, it'll be a bit different
[3] You may recognize these names as being the two ideologues of Action Francaise, that movement so beloved by AH. IOTL, Barres was a supporter of Boulanger, while Maurras was a bit less convinced.
[4] IOTL, this happened, albeit to a lesser degree.
​
 

RyuDrago

The French Republic in the end managed to defeat all his enemies; a Boulangist France will do better... or it will march towards a disaster?
I'm very curious :D
 

Jester

C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut

"The general impression is that the Republic is at the end of its tether. Next year we shall have revolutionary excesses and then a violent reaction. What will emerge from this? Some kind of dictatorship. There is no government in France."- Paul Cambon, French diplomat

When General Georges Ernest Boulanger was fired as War Minister, the crowds of Paris plastered his train with posters saying Il reviendra (He'll be back) In the time since his sacking, he had built up an eclectic following- Catholic Ralliès and student activists, Parisian Radicals, Déroulède's Revisionists and the Ligues de Patriotes, Bourse du Travail unionists, and Monarchists of every stripe. It seemed that only Opportunists clinging to power and Marxists clinging to dogma opposed him.

The political scandal around Jules Grèvy, whose son Daniel Wilson had been selling Légion d'honneur medals to anyone who wanted them, only increased Boulanger's reputation. The government's unfortunate decision to fire him only a day before they repealed Daniel Wilson's imprisonment seemed to cement Boulanger as the alternative to the corruption of the Third Republic.

The Boulangist deputies acted as obstructionists in 1888, putting forth plans for a stronger presidency, a unicameral legislature and a military modernization program. Being in the minority these moves amounted to little more than prophecy. They offered to support any presidential candidate who supported Boulanger for war minister- this bid failed, as Sadi Carnot was elected President and Pierre Tirard was appointed Prime Minister, neither of whom wished to humor General Revanche.

In January 1889, Boulanger won an election as deputy of Paris. The government immediately made clear its intention to bring Boulangist personalities and the General himself to the High Court for treason against the Republic. The General on a Black Horse marched on the National Assembly immediately following the election. On January 14, 1889 the Boulangerie had begun. The Parisian mob which followed him sang Boulanger is The One We Need....

France! il est dans ton histoire
Une page noire de trop,France!
il nous faut la victoire
Pour venger notre drapeau.
C'est Boulanger, Boulanger, Boulanger,
C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut!
 

Jester

Coup d'etat, c'est moi

General Boulanger's March on the National Assembly was, ostensibly, to prevent the unlawful obstruction of Boulangist deputies taking their seats, the General himself included. Naturally, it became something much greater. The legislatures were dissolved, Cabinet members and deputies arrested and a Constitutional Convention was planned for 1890. In the meantime, Boulangist deputies and supporters formed a temporary government, known almost nostalgically as the Directory.

The charges of treason brought up by the former government were soon turned upon them by the Boulangist Directory. President Sadi Carnot, Prime Minister Pierre Tirard and Minister of the Interior Ernest Constans were charged with treason and sentenced to deportation to New Caledonia, and the charges against Daniel Wilson were revived and extended to implicate former President Jules Grevy. The Boulangerie was not forgiving to its enemies and with its crush of popular support, had no need to be.

The reaction in the military was to be expected. The telegraph lines to Paris were flooded with statements of loyalty from military officers throughout the country. Parliamentarians had always feared the military and rightfully so. The seizure of power by Boulanger was a sudden invitation back into the halls of power- and military men heartily accepted it.

The Committee of National Protest, an organization which had been used to organize the Boulangist press, led the take-over of numerous newspapers in the interests of "preventing agitation and confoundment".[1] In the days following the March on the National Assembly, opposition where it existed was silenced. Arthur Meyer, who had run the Boulangist newspaper Le Gaulois, found himself in control of almost all of France's newspapers.

The Directory also passed immediate measures preventing profiteering from the coup d'etat. A freeze was put on railway fees, food prices and various commodities throughout the country.[2] Of particular interest to the General and his Directory was the Exposition Universelle planned for later that year. Among the first people that Boulanger met with were Gustave Eiffel and the other organizers of the Exposition- he assured them that his government would not obstruct their efforts and would aid them in any way possible. This was a great relief to Eiffel, whose own involvement with the Opportunists was well-known.[3]

The world watched Paris after the March On the National Assembly. Germany withdrew their ambassadors and expelled French officials from their offices in Berlin. The General said he was flattered.[4] London extended cautious feelers to the General, with some opining that he was better than the instability the French had been prone to. Boulanger immediately started a correspondence with Tsar Alexander III, who responded to him more warmly than he had Republican leaders, despite the generous loans Republicans had floated on the Paris Bourse. [5] The world held its breath, wondering when and if the General would live up to his name- Revanche.

[1] Essentially, a revoking of the 1881 freedom of the press laws, similar to the Lois scélérates albeit with a different focus
[2] The French Right was much less laissez-faire than the Right of other countries, and I see this as a plausible move by the government
[3] IOTL, Eiffel, Salles and other Exposition officials mocked Boulanger and the Republican authorities used the Exposition to bolster their positions. I see Boulanger wanting to do the same, and I think the Exposition planners are flexible enough to work with Boulanger.
[4] Based on OTL comments regarding the banning of Boulangist newspapers
[5] IOTL, cheap loans had been the foremost effort towards a Franco-Russian alliance, but Republicanism had frightened many at the Russian court.... Boulanger provides a nicer face for Russian cooperation.
 
Last edited:

Jester

Exposition Universelle (1889)

"Other nations are not rivals, they are foils to France and the poverty of their displays sets off, as it was meant to do, the fullness of France, its richness and its splendor."- The Chicago Tribune [1]

Celebrated in the year of the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille and in the year of Boulanger's own March on the National Assembly, the Exposition Universelle was a testament to French power and prestige.

Visitors entered through the legs of the gargantuan Eiffel Tower, at that time the tallest structure in the world, intended to be a monument to French industry and vision. Only the first two floors of the open structure were open to the public but the view still astounded visitors. The Eiffel Tower would not be trumped in height until the Columbian Exposition of 1893.[2]

Visitors were astounded at the great Galerie Des Machines, the longest interior space in the world, displayed exhibits related to industry and science, with Thomas Edison's exhibits on electricity graciously displayed. Also included in the Galerie Des Machines, though not present at opening, were the great pieces of equipment which would be used to face the Lion of Belfort east, towards France's eternal foe. [3]

The grounds were kept meticulously clean during the Exposition and a special unit of the gendarmerie (maréchaussée de l'Exposition) was formed by Boulanger to police the grounds. Pioneering the idea of prévision as it would later be called, the Gendarmes identified problem visitors, monitored them and removed them from the crowd before harm could be done. It was a new mode of policing and helped to prevent many of the petty crimes that plagued large gatherings of the time.

At the colonial exposition, villages from throughout France's colonial empire were displayed in a "human zoo". Rice-eating peasants from Cochinchina, Bedouins from Algeria, Negroes bedecked in mud and bones from French West Africa, the visitors were made to see that France ruled in every corner of the world. The grand concert halls erected for the Exposition played host to the eclectic mixture of the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, Javanese ganelam, a Catholic choir singing the Marseillaise and even a military band rendition of C'est Boulanger qu'il nous faut.

Boulanger allowed units of the French Foreign Legion to participate in the Exposition, the first time they had set foot in France during peacetime. [5] Their participation in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which was perhaps the most popular non-French attraction, was a spectacle, if unorthodox.

Boulanger also rearranged the Défilé militaire du 14 juillet (The Bastille Day Military Parade) so that it could go through the Exposition grounds. Joining in the Parade were the Foreign Legion units there for the exposition and, following the military and cadet units, the drill unit of the Ligue De Patriotes.

Boulanger himself made a point of appearing at the Exposition. He gave speeches, opened exhibits and displayed military technology of the day in large, organized drills. Some underground newspapers derided the General as a "ragged circus crier" but the public and international press loved him, labeling him the "Commander of the Exposition". In fact, it began the infatuation of the English speaking press with the General on a Black Horse.

The Exposition at its closing was a great success- it showed to the world that France was still strong, instabilities in government not withstanding. And it showed that Boulanger's government was able to orchestrate efforts between all the gaps of French society.

He could even as one slogan said, make the trains run on time.

[1] OTL quote
[2] Unlike IOTL, where it wasn't trumped till the Chrysler building.... more on this, eventually.
[3] For those not aware, the Lion of Belfort was a gigantic sandstone sculpture built to commemorate the Siege of Belfort. It was originally meant to be faced east towards Germany. Germany protested and it was faced West. Boulanger corrects this.....
[4] Prevision is, essentially, preventive policing with a touch of the "broken windows" school of modern policing. Something similar was overseen by Burnham in the Columbian Exposition of 1893- I think anyone obsessed with order will come up with this, in the scale and controlled environment possible at such an event. The introduction of this will resonate a bit more in this environment, however.....
[5] Which breaks quite a bit of tradition as you can imagine
 
Last edited:

Jester

Programme of General Boulanger, 1888

The hypocritical tremblers who have oppressed us for too long try their best to claim that General Boulanger has no program, that they don’t know what he wants, what he thinks, what he can do. We will answer these people; You want to know what Boulanger is?

Boulanger is WORK!
Boulanger is FREEDOM!
Boulanger is HONESTY!
Boulanger is the RIGHT!
Boulanger is the PEOPLE!
Boulanger is PEACE!
BOULANGER IS WORK!

What do you workers want?
To work!
What do you lack?
Work and bread!

To whom do you owe unemployment, ruin, and poverty?
To those who pass their needs, their appetites, and their unhealthy ambition before your need, which they should be defending, and who see dry-eyed and with a light heart the worker suffer and die of hunger. For them positions, honors, luxury, power.For you poverty! It is time that this end!

Make way for the Avenger!

Make way for he who will rid you of this herd of parasites, living off your sufferings, betraying your trust, and who have done nothing for you, except for sending your children to die far away without any profit for France, which they left disarmed!

Make Way for He Who Will Rebuild National Labor!

Make way for the general who, in giving us strength will give us security, without which there is no possible enterprise!

Make way for the Reformer who, protecting industry, commerce and agriculture will give you the possibility to feed your children, to raise them, and to make of them good and solid workers.!

Boulanger will defend you against foreign competition. Boulanger, whose hands are clean of any shameful traffic, will be inspired only by your interests. It is because he is above all honest that those who have sold you out for so long tried to kill him and continue to rabidly fight him. But you will support him, all of you who know nothing but bread honestly earned! You will defend him, workers scorned by those who exploit you. You will fight for him with your votes, workers in all crafts who want to live from your labor and who are tired of languishing unoccupied!

Close your ranks en masse around Boulanger!

Supported by you he will drive the merchants from the temple and henceforth, having a man at your head who will defend your legitimate demands you will be able – protected from internal and external enemies – to put in practice the motto dear to all honest workers, the one for which your fathers fought:

Live while working!
BOULANGER IS FREEDOM!

Along with work, what do you want?
To be free!
Are you now?
No!

Bound by laws made against you by leaders who are afraid of you, you are held on a leash, and you are barely allowed to breathe your complaints. You are no more free individually than collectively. Everywhere the barriers are raised up anew that you once reversed at the price of your blood! Everywhere you meet laws restrictive of any initiative.

Why these barriers?
Why these laws?
Because they are afraid of you!
Why are they afraid?

Because those who oppress you, those who maintain you in a yoke, know full well that the day you’ll be free, truly free, they will be lost. Boulanger for his part is not afraid of you!

We fear nothing when, like him, we are frank, honest, and loyal; when we want the good of all without concern for ourselves. He doesn’t fear your being free because he has nothing to hide, nothing else to defend than you, your rights, your interests, and you goods. Thus:

Boulanger is freedom!
BOULANGER IS HONESTY!
Honesty!

This is what is lacking in those who have misled you up till now. Recently you saw if it was with the red of shame in their faces that you witnessed the collapse of those who your trust had placed so highly.

Probity! Honesty! You saw these two so French virtues for an instant descending into the mire into which they were plunged by shameless men who tried in vain to save from your contempt those who should be the strict guardians of this national good.

Frenchmen! Will you allow corruption to cynically and insolently spread? No! You have already said so by voting in five departments for General Boulanger. You are attacked for wanting a master. But the rule you want, which you call for with all your heart, is the rule of honesty. And who more than Boulanger possesses this proud virtue?

Who more than this honest soldier, belonging to our army, so pure, so worthy in his poverty, can finally bring about an era of probity? Who better than he rewarded true merit without allowing himself to be taken in by interested recommendations?

Honesty: this is the motto that is dear to him.
Those of you who are honest!
Those of you who blushed at the shameful traffics recently revealed;
Those of you who want favor to give way to merit, support Boulanger, for Boulanger is honesty.

BOULANGER IS THE RIGHT!

Yes he is the right, for he respects all that you want, all you need. Standard bearer of your just demands he represents the inalienable right that resides in you, the right to be governed as you should be, the right to replace those who lost your trust, the inalienable right to impose your will. Thus, Boulanger is the right.

BOULANGER IS THE PEOPLE!

The people, that is, the French!
The people who suffer!
The people who are hungry!
He suffers to see the fatherland ceaselessly debased and humiliated; he suffers to see our beautiful country hindered in its march towards progress!
He is hungry for justice, hungry for work, hungry for honor and consideration!
The people want everyone to again be able to say with pride: I am French!
It no longer wants to bow its head!

And Boulanger had the great honor of being the first one to proudly raise up his head. Summing up all the angers of the past few years he didn’t want to forever and ceaselessly bow.

If he wants to live while working, Frenchmen, he prefers to die alongside you as you fight to the shame of a cowardly submission. For living without honor can no longer suit the people! It lived virtually without bread. It doesn’t want to live without dignity.

It is Boulanger who was the first to want to be able to make the voice of France heard in foreign lands. It was he who as the representative of the people protested against the policy of degradation.

Frenchmen of all parties, it was he who valiantly expressed the opinion that unites you all in a common idea, the same devotion, in the same aspiration. He identified himself with you, and that’s why Boulanger is the People!

BOULANGER IS PEACE!

Yes peace, but an honorable peace!
This is the one we want!
This is the one he will give us!
It is in vain that his disloyal adversaries don’t hesitate about writing that his name is synonymous with imminent war. It is in vain that pushing imprudence to its limits these German of the interior affirm that in order to sustain himself the general will be carried away towards combat by an irresistible current. They lie.

Patriotic Frenchmen, tired of bowing your heads,
If you want to maintain the peace,
Support General Boulanger!

He alone will allow you to no longer submit to the insolent injunctions from without for, as insolent as they are with the weak, with the timid, with the humble, that is how respectful they are towards the strong; towards those who., without any arrogance, are conscious of being in the right. And the right is on our side!

All of you, workers crushed by the disastrous consequences of an evil policy that reduces national labor! All of you peasants, who want to keep your fathers’ fields and don’t want to eat a bread shamefully preserved! You, bourgeois and bosses, touched in your interests by the chaos in whose bowels swarms discredited parliamentarianism! You too, intellectual elite of the nation, humiliated by the insolent fortune of shameless mediocrities!

Support General Boulanger!

His hand on the guard of France’s sword, the general will know how to make those who threaten us understand that the time of fearful submission has passed, and that in the balance of Europe’s destiny that sword, reforged by him, bears great weight.

And then confident in its mission of progress and civilization, seeing open before it an era of justice, of calm, of order and liberty, France, rid of those who enslave it will, impassive and serene, expect that the Law, once unknown and violated, take a shining revenge on France!

This is the program of General Boulanger. Frenchmen, it is up to you to allow him to accomplish it!

VIVE LA FRANCE!
VIVE LA RÉPUBLIQUE!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top