I want to say thank you for the level of response that you guys gave for this TL, so without further ado, I give you part 1 for roastin-ahem-reading!
Enjoy!
The Myth of Granville and its Influence on Canadian History (Dr. Abdoul El-Idrissi, Jāmiʻat al-Qarawīyīn al-Sharif, 1993).
On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Siege of Granville, scores of Canadian tourists descend on the sleepy Norman port town to celebrate a seminal moment in their history. To Canadians, the siege has been immortalized by authors, poets, politicians, and actors to name a few. To the French, the events that took place at Granville and its environs have until recently, been nothing more than footnote to the turbulent times of the French revolutionary wars. Yet the animosity between the two groups of Francophones would remain long after the First Republic passed away. To understand why Granville has such an impact for some, it is important to understand the context surrounding the
Guerre de la Vendée.
In early November of 1793, the counter-revolutionary army of the Vendée was suffering a series of defeats at the hands of the Republican army, and its commander, Henri de la Rochejaquelein had retreated north into Basse-Normandie, with the hopes of linking up with a British and Émigré army at the coast[1]. Over 25,000 soldiers along with nearly 10,000 civilians approach the city, fleeing in the wake of massacres at Nantes and Cholet. Arriving on the twelfth of November[2], they found the city surrounded by Republican defenses. According to most Canadian sources, the Royalist Vendéans were resolved to take the port, managing to take
La Rue des Juifs, however contemporary British sources stated that the skirmish on
Rue des Juifs did not occur until the combined British and Royalist[3] armies put out the last republican resistance in late November. One officer stated that the Vendéan Army had withdrawn to Saint-Pair sur Mer, some five kilometres away, and some sources even indicate that the Royalists were losing when the British fleet from Jersey began to bombard the port on the Fourteenth.
The arrival of the British fleet and army caught the republican forces flat-footed. Nonetheless, the Republican forces provided stiff resistance. It is apparent in both the British and Canadian sources that the siege lasted a week before the republican surrender. The immediate aftermath of the victory was an immediate morale boost for the rebelling Vendéans and Bretons. However this quickly gave way to panic as General Kléber sacked the countryside in Eastern Brittany, determined to capture the insurgent armies. Thousands of refugees fled north, helping to slow the republican forces' advance. The irony of Kléber's "butchery" was the support it gave the Vendéans; the combined army swelled to 39,000 combatants by January 1794.
A large number of priests had joined the exodus to Granville, most of them on threat of death as a result of republican de-Christianisation. General de Charette of the Vendéan army recorded the fortuitous windfall brought in by some priests from Rennes, who "stripped every book of value from the Law School of the Breton University[4]." Later sources confirm this to be an exaggeration, despite the benefits it gave Laval University in Québec City. Over a four-month period between December 1793 and March 1794, the exodus of Vendéan and Chouan civilians to Granville is estimated to have been between 40,000 and 110,000 people[5]. This could have caused severe famine were it not for the compassionate decision of a ship captain whose name has been lost to time.
In mid-December, a Royal Navy Ship of the Line returning from Granville disembarked at Portsmouth with over 350 French refugees. Browsing through local broadsides and diary entries from the era, this was not a one-time occurrence. The following is an excerpt from the diary of Captain James Wilcoxe:
January 24
We were charged with transporting women and children again. They are a haggard bunch, their clothes threadbare. Most have a haunted look in their sunken eyes, as though they have stared in to the maw of Hell. Some of the damsels gave us their thanks in thick, broken English, unintelligible to all but the loweborn (Sic.) sailors. Two of the young men offered to join our crew, an Antone (Sic.) and a John Bateest (Sic.). Even the rudest of crew members have displayed pity to these wretched suffering peasants. No one is sure who began the practice but at the time of this writing, thousands of Frenchwomen sit idly in Southampton, Poole, and Portsmouth with their broods…
For the people arriving at Granville, this proved to be a lifeline, as many of those who had fled north would proceed onto these ships immediately. As the situation worsened with the defeats of the British and Vendéans at Savenay[6] (December 1793), Vitré and Fougères[7] (January 1794), and Avranches[7] (February 1794), the Royal Navy started to crack down on “ferrying”, finally refusing to take anymore non-combatants in early-March. Some argue that the RN finally stopped because of increased risks to the shipping lanes, as the “Marine de la République” was harassing convoys, which would later result in the Battle of Les Chausey[8] in April. Others argued that the reaction of the English public to the rapid influx of Frenchmen resulted in pressure from Parliament to cease operations. Whatever the true reason, the British and Vendéan forces retreated, losing the briefly captured St. Malo in early March, and finally losing Granville on March 23, 1794.
The effects of the “Norman Campaign” as it was called by the British resulted in the evacuation of a standing army of 45,000[9], over 50,000 civilians in what has been coined “the first refugee crisis in English History.” By 1801, another 110,000 will have made the crossing, fleeing the aftermath of the Grande Massacre and the Harrowing of Picardie, among other tragedies. However, this campaign also shaped the role of British involvement through the rest of the French Revolutionary Wars, and how it dealt with migrants. The decisions taken here would shape early 19th century colonial policy, and in Canadian minds, was the Birth of a Nation…
1. This was the hope in OTL, but alas it didn’t materialize
2. Two days earlier than OTL
3. This is the POD, since the British actually showed up!
4. This is a divergence from OTL, since the rebels and their supporters are emboldened by British support. Note that the law school was the only part of the University located at Rennes, while the rest is under the firm control of the Republicans in Nantes
5. This is also new ITTL, since the Vendéans succeeded, resulting in an escape valve for those who are escaping more severe terror tactics by republicans than OTL
6. OTL
7. ITTL Royalist defeats. Just cause you have Brits on your side, doesn’t mean your going to win
8. This is also a change, since there is a sustained British naval presence of the coast of Normandy. Note it ends in a tactical victory for the French. This would later be corrected by the Glorious First of June, like OTL
9. This includes British, Émigré, & Vendéan/Chouan forces.
