WI : Louis XVI decided to summon the Estates General of 1789 away from Versailles and Paris

Because of the troubles that occurred in Paris, namely the Réveillon riots, and the growing agitation of Versailles, Louis XVI decides to convene the Estates General in Soissons, near his newly renovated castle of Compiègne where he would stay during the deliberations.

(The castle of Compiègne is situated 142 km north of Paris)

The safety of the King and the security of Estates General has to be insured by units of la Maison militaire du roi de France. Unfortunately due to the situation in Paris, decision is taken to keep the turbulent troops of the Gardes Françaises in the capital to maintain order, they won’t be allowed to follow the king in Compiègne and Soissons. Les Gardes suisses and a few foreign regiments are selected for this difficult mission.

On 5 May 1789, the Estates-General convene in the town of Soissons...

Edit : Why Soissons?

According to the Journal des États Généraux (published minutes of Estates-General), in june 1789, the king suggested to move the Estates-General in Soissons or Noyon.
 
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An interesting premise. Would there be enough accommodation for everyone?
First of all, thanks for reading and asking this question.

Accomodation could indeed be a problem, if you consider that you have to accommodate 1 154 deputies (291 Clergy, 285 Nobility, 578 Third Estate) and everyone needed to feed and support them administratively. A deputy who was against the transfert of the Estates-General to Noyon or Soissons also said that it would be difficult to accommodate 12’000 persons (yeah his own number).

It does seem too high, let’s say we must accommodate approximately 5’000 humans.

The fortified city of Soissons, itself, was inhabited by approximately 8000 individuals in 1793. If it’s too small, my plan would be to divide the Estates-General and the ones who follow them in various places. For example, members of the Third Estate could be accommodated in Soissons, due to their inability to travel, and members of the clergy in Noyon.

Looking at this old road map (24,000 toises is 46km)

- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Généralité_de_Soissons#/media/Fichier:Généralité_de_Soissons.jpg

You can clearly see the proximity of the cities of Laon (7,500 people in 1793) and Rheims (32,000 people in 1789). Members of the nobility could be accommodated there without any problems, as they have enough money to travel, or even between Noyon and Soissons.

Historically, many deputies did regularly travel from Paris to Versailles, 16 kilometers.

Military units would be installed in the cities and villages around Soissons (up to Rheims) and near Compiègne with a few regiments strategically affected between Paris and Soissons.
 

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Kaze

Banned
The summoning of the estates was too little too late by the time of Louis XVI. The bleeding was too much for France - they were bankrupt, the French East India Company was insolvent (almost 70% of France had stock in the company - the bubble was going to burst soon, did so, and the Company heads would lose their heads), the military needed reform, the people were starving under the salt and bread taxes (where the chief tax collector was stealing it hand over fist, he would too be guillotined face-up), the government needed reform, etc.

It would have been better to summon the estates after the Fronde and keep them active through the reigns of Louis XVI to Louis XVI.
 
The summoning of the estates was too little too late kby the time of Louis XVI. The bleeding was too much for France - they were bankrupt, the French East India Company was insolvent (almost 70% of France had stock in the company - the bubble was going to burst soon, did so, and the Company heads would lose their heads), the military needed reform, the people were starving under the salt and bread taxes (where the chief tax collector was stealing it hand over fist, he would too be guillotined face-up), the government needed reform, etc.

It would have been better to summon the estates after the Fronde and keep them active through the reigns of Louis XVI to Louis XVI.

I should have been more precise my vision wasn’t to hinder or to stop reforms, crushing the revolutionaries with an iron fist. My aim by assembling the Estates-General outside of Paris was to find a way to limit the violence committed during the OTL revolution, without hindering reforms.

I am not a dreamer. The Ancien Regime was financially and socially dying in 1789, but reforms were still possible, but I do think that France could have turned into a constitutional monarchy without violence. If you find a solution to limit the uprisings to Paris, there is a slight chance for peaceful reforms. After all, nobles and clergy members did agree with a lot of reforms IOTL, including abolishing their own privileges

Conflict in the French Revolution was essentially urban. The center of power of the country, whether that was the King or the National Assembly, was located either in or close to Paris; thus, if you want to seize control of the state you seize control of Paris. The initial conflict was usually between the forces of the government and the Parisian mobs, broadly made up of the working class, the Sans-Culottes,who represented the most radical section of the French population at large.

There were very few alternative forms of power beyond the National Assembly in Paris and the King. King Louis XV was located in the Palace of Versailles, which, while close to Paris. The Revolutionary masses easily stormed the Palace of Versailles and demanded that Louis and his family come to Paris, which they did when it was clear no one was lifting a finger to help them.

Thus, the Revolutionaries, in a successful rising, were able to secure the Assembly and the King with the rest of the country finding out only after this was accomplished. In order to enforce this political change during the French Revolution, seizing or at least threatening the centers of power, the National Assembly and the King, quickly was the most important factor.

Convening outside of Paris and Versailles, the Estate-General won’t be hostage of the mobs in Paris or heavily influenced by the Clubs. King Louis XVI staying far away of Paris and Versailles will be be protected by loyal regiments and won’t be taken to Paris. IOTL Lafayette and his Gardes Nationaux, composed of forner members of the seditious Gardes Françaises let the revolutionaries take the royal family to Paris. The revolutionary role and the military power of Lafayette will be dramatically reduced. He won’t influence King Louis XVI or control him later.

The Swiss and the loyal foreign regiments will be with the King around Soissons and could quickly move to Paris in a coordinated move on the 22nd of June in order to reinforce the garnison of Paris and the Bastille. Even in small number, those foreign troops can add critical manpower to the french and foreign regiments called to Paris IOTL.

There will be no need to wait for reinforcements as in OTL. A swifter action by loyal regiments entering into Paris is needed to restore order in the city. With more loyal troops at his disposal, Pierre-Victor de Besenval de Brünstatt won’t hesitate as IOTL and quickly act against rioters and criminals. Time is precious.

The 3,600 Gardes Françaises will be numerically inferior to the loyal regiments and they will be disarmed as soon as possible by de Besenval without too much violence and exiled out of Paris.He planned to do it IOTL, but couldn’t due to his lack of manpower. He absolutely needed the Gardes Françaises to maintain order.

With more professional french and foreign regiments in Paris, there will be no need for the Municipality to levy a milice bourgeoise of 48,000 Parisians to maintain order and to get weapons from the Invalides and powder from la Bastille to arm it.

With less violence or an uprising limited to Paris, the flight of nobles will be reduced. It means that the fear of a foreign invasion to crush the revolution won’t take place. The nefarious actions of the émigrés tarnishing the image of the King quickly seen as an ally of foreign powers trying to stop reforms in his own country won’t occur.

Until the attacks on the Tuilieries of the 10th of August 1792, King Louis XVI had a chance to stay in power in OTL. In OTL, the Legislative Assembly was forced by those riots to accept Robespierre’s demands suspending Louis XVI and calling for the ultimately republican National Convention. During this fateful vote of suspension, only a third of the deputies was present in the Legislative Assembly, as moderates refused to vote after the violent events of July and August.

Most of the events leading to King Louis XVI’s death won’t probably occur ITTL. Politically, there will still be discussions on the voting process and the role of the Estate-General. Most reforms that occurred in OTL will be signed and France will probably become a constitutional monarchy.
 
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Well, I suppose Soissons is likewise conveniently close(r) to a border should things get out of hand. The mob can't hold the king hostage, and him being protected by loyal regiments might work. Just make sure those regiments are French (not Allemands or Suisse or whatever), because that was one of the things that was said about Louis OTL IIRC - namely that he intended to use the foreign regiments to massacre the Parisians/French IIRC
 
Well, I suppose Soissons is likewise conveniently close(r) to a border should things get out of hand. The mob can't hold the king hostage, and him being protected by loyal regiments might work. Just make sure those regiments are French (not Allemands or Suisse or whatever), because that was one of the things that was said about Louis OTL IIRC - namely that he intended to use the foreign regiments to massacre the Parisians/French IIRC

You are right about the existence of xenophobia among the revolutionaries, especially among Parisians who feared a brutal royal repression. The dissolution of the foreign regiments was a plea often repeated in the cahier de doléances in 1789, as they were seen as instruments of despotic oppression.

This xenophobia will slowly grow along the fear of repression. The arrival of French and foreign regiments around Paris created a debate on the subject during the Estate-General. The fact they didn’t immediately enter Paris waiting for reinforcements accentuated this fear as it was seen as a build-up before a massive repression. The emigration/flight of nobles and royal relatives abroad made it worse.

Unfortunately for the King, most of those regiments were as loyal as the french ones due to the fact that their recruitment weren’t 100% foreign based. As an example, members of the German regiments were often recruited in Alsace and the descendants of foreign soldiers could join the regiments of their fathers, even if they lived most of their lives in France.

The Swiss regiments were the only ones with a 100% foreign recruitment, but even the Swiss Gardes hesitated to shoot on the Parisians. Their three barracks were situated around Paris (Rueil-Malmaison, Courbevoie, Saint-Denis) and they became used to live among the Parisians and slowly sympathized with them.

In OTL, most of the foreign regiments and the Maison militaire du roi troops were nationalized in 1791. The Gardes Suisses and the Swiss regiments will only be dissolved after the Tuileries massacres in 1792. The Gardes Suisses didn’t hesitate to shoot during the Tuileries attacks and stayed loyal to the King, obeying even when they were asked to let down weapons, a gesture leading to their massacre.

In my opinion, only a quick enter into Paris by a mix of foreign and French regiments wouldn’t let enough time for this xenophobia to reinforce the uprising.

A quick disarmament of the Gardes Françaises and an action taken before the seizure of the weapons guarded in the Invalides should be enough to stop the military crisis in Paris.

IOTL :

Since the 26th of May. marching orders have been issued to six regiments. A troop of about 20,000 men was thus called to the outskirts of the capital to maintain order in Paris and Versailles. All those troops are ready on 22th of June.

Riots occurred in the beginning of July against the toll on goods entering Paris belonging to la Ferme Générale.

Those riots culminated after the firing of Necker in the 12th of July and the subsequent violent reaction by the Royal-Allemand near the Tuileries leading to the treason of the Gardes Françaises.

Paris municipality afraid of the violence and without any real help from outside was paralyzed. The "voters" of Paris met at the Hôtel de ville de Paris. They formed a "permanent committee" and decided to create a "bourgeois militia" of 48,000 men.

It led to the attacks on the Invalides and the Bastille.

ITTL :

The foreign and french troops already deployed near Soissons and between Soissons and Paris are called to march on Paris on the 22th of May. They reach Paris as early as the 1st of June (8 days of preparation), slowly joined by other regiments from the provinces.

After the death of the Dauphin Louis-Joseph on the 4th of June, the Estate-General is adjourned for a week and a national mourning period is declared until his burial on the 13th of June. During this week, in Soissons (and Versailles), agents are sent to quell any troubles and Estate-General deputies are closely monitored. This surprising action against deputies has been explained by historians by the effects of Louis XVI's profound sorrow that literally paralyzed most of his decisions. Fortunately for the monarchy, being away from Versailles, King Louis XVI had already assigned most of his daily duties to his council and to Monsieur le Comte de Provence.

A few deputies are temporarily put under house arrest and/or asked to quit Soissons including Sieyès, Mirabeau, Lafayette and surprisingly Louis-Philippe d’Orléans. Those who aren’t immediately jailed are forbidden to approach Versailles, Paris or Soissons and to publish any pamphlets or newspapers for a year at least. Unable to defeat the popularity of Lafayette and Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, the King’s council will appoint both of them as ambassadors after the Parisian agitation. Lafayette will be sent to United States in September 1879 to help Jean-Baptiste de Ternant, while Philippe d’Orléans will get the task to develop friendship between France and Russia as minister plenipotentiary in August 1789.

The King's council in Versailles carried out many important decisions to ensure the security of the kingdom and to eliminate the risks of sedition. Monsieur le Comte de Provence was the one who called for the armies to act against Paris. Numerically, the troops around Paris under the Marshall de Broglie were already more numerous than the six regiments called IOTL. The assembled troops could enter into Paris earlier, before the toll riots and even before the firing of Necker to reinforce the garnison and to restore order.

They enter into Paris around mid June. On the advice of De Besenval, the Gardes Françaises are rapidly disarmed, kept in barracks or sent outside of Paris. With the agreement of Marshal de Broglie, the Invalides weapons are evacuated outside of the city, while the Bastille is reinforced by fresh troops coming from the Swiss regiments. The Swiss regiments are temporarily transferred under De Besenval’s authority to restore order. This transfer won’t last for long. Skirmishes and fights occur between rioters and the Swiss mainly in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, one of the poorest suburbs of Paris (next to the Bastille), and near the Tuileries.

Groups of soldiers get attacked nightly. Martial law and curfew are soon proclaimed in Paris and the Hôtel de Ville is heavily protected by troops. After the burning of a Ferme Générale toll barrier of La Porte Saint-Antoine, De Besenval is considered guilty of cowardice and revoked. Military control of Paris is given to Marshall de Broglie who decides to restore order by hook or by crook. He installs his headquarters at the Palais des Tuileries and at the Palais-Royal, evicting Phillippe d’Orléans supporters.

Leaders of the Parisian agitation are arrested and their political clubs are closed. Many of them are exiled outside of Paris. Those exiles are jailed far away from the capital and are going to be judged for treason, years later. Captured rioters and murderers of soldiers are put in jail. The second ones are silently hanged outside of Paris without trial.

In early July 1879, Marshall de Broglie reluctantly brings cannons inside Paris and will be forced to order the use of grapeshot once during an Orleanist-led riot on the 14th of July. Before and after this event, French regiments continued to enter into Paris, while the foreign ones were slowly put in reserve not to incite further riots. When Necker got temporarily dismissed on the 12th of July, Paris was already under control or at least ready for an urban uprising with numerous troops and cannons inside the city.

Attempts of urban uprisings still occur in other cities, around the 20th of July, but were severely crushed.

In 1790, Paris has 600.000 inhabitants.

- Lyon 150.000.
- Marseille 110.000.
- Bordeaux 110.000.
- Nantes 80.000.
- Toulouse 50.000.

Lyon :

In 1789, Lyon, along with Paris, was the only conurbation to have a population of more than 100,000. A city of banking, trade and manufacturing, it lives mainly on silk, which employs a third of the population. But France was then plunged into a very serious economic crisis, and this industry was in turmoil.

Two riots against the octroi barriers agitated the city, in June 1789 and July 1790. The people of the city hope that the Estates General of 1789 will abolish the toll rights, established by the merchant oligarchy to pay the rent on loans without taxing properties. However, the new municipality resulting from the elections maintained order until the arrival of royal troops in August 1789.

Marseille :

In March 1789, Marseille already revolted against town hall and the royal intendant. For two months the city sustained its uprising ; to administer its autonomy, it set up a new city council dominated by the guilds, and a citizen's militia. Its surrender to the king's soldiers in May was not total : the old tax system, unfavorable to the poorest, was never to be restored. The presence of king’s soldiers in the city in July 1789 prevented a new popular uprising.


Bordeaux :

The dazzling bourgeoisie of Bordeaux did not face a hostile proletariat. There were many workers: workers in shipbuilding, glassmaking, earthenware, distilleries, refineries, stringers, nail mills, cooperages. In 1789, there were 500 workers in refineries alone. But it was especially in the vast trading combinations that the Bordeaux people had found their fortune, and they had not had to subject the workers to particularly harsh exploitation.

The Jurade of Bordeaux was thus easily able to restore order in the city with the help of the wealthy merchants who didn’t hesitate to levy volunteers against the rioters. In several cases, captured revolutionaries had to be protected from the workers of the city.

Nantes :

The cahiers de doléances of Nantes expressed a desire for change, except with regard to black slavery and the privileges of Brittany. On July 19, 1789, a hundred of Breton patriots demanded the surrender of the Château des ducs de Bretagne, which the governor granted without a fight.

Late municipal elections are held in Nantes from 18 to 20 August. The new administration in Nantes was approved by a royal decree on 3 November. Thereafter, given the maintenance of the port's activity and good harvests, the question of supply does not give rise to any major tension.


Toulouse :

Concerned for their autonomy, the people of Toulouse always supported its Parliament when it was threatened by the monarchy. It is the Parliament of Toulouse that appoints the Capitouls, whose chapter is then reduced to 8 representatives. Only a few lootings and castle attacks occurred in 1789, the power of Parliament was respected.


Rennes :

On the evening of July 15, 1789, the revolutionary effervescence reached Rennes. In fear of a revenge of the nobility, helped by the army stationed in town, and after learning of the rumours of dismissal of Jacques Necker by Louis XVI, the young people of Rennes, most of whom were students, met at the Law School.

At the same time, the Artois regiment, commanded by Langeron, was ordered to prepare bullet cartridges for live fire, and its grenadiers were placed under lock-up. On the next morning of students harassed the soldiers in the barracks, inviting them to join them.

At 1 p.m., a half a thousand citizens came to break into the militia's weapons store, located opposite the Blossac hotel on Rue du Chapitre. The majority of the guarding soldiers refused to join the ranks of the revolutionaries and retreated in the courtyard of Blossac hotel to protect the Intendant of Brittany.

The municipality then negotiated with Langeron so that he would not call other soldiers in town and not punish the soldiers who had disobeyed. Langeron promises, but at the same time gathers his chasseurs and grenadiers in the courtyard of the Blossac hotel. He then ordered two of the four guns to be loaded with grapeshot and to point them towards the hotel's carriage gate...

Grenoble :

The Royal armies were forced to lay a two-month long siege around Grenoble, which refused to obey to the King and proclaimed a popular commune. The besieged city will be occupied for more than a year by royal troops after the siege.

Toulon :

King Louis XIV determined to make France a major sea power. In 1660, his Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert ordered Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban to build a new arsenal and to fortify the town. Toulon is with Brest, the only port capable of accommodating large warships in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In August 1789, sailors of one of the Toulon’s warship were on the verge of mutiny. The news of the massacres in Grenoble only fuelled hatred among these lowly men subjected to an iron discipline from noble officers. The Contre-amiral D’Albert de Rion, who commanded the fleet, was afraid of this mutiny. Fearing a bigger movement, he chose to directly negotiate on board of the mutinous ship.

Ready to ease the situation, he asked for the preparation of grapeshot volleys on two neighboring warships. During the negociation, he was slapped by one drunk sailor. Furious, the contre-amiral quickly quit the vessel before ordering his destruction. Surviving sailors were hanged at the gate of the Arsenal.


Avignon, Nîmes , Strasbourg

Jacqueries :

The jacqueries of OTL that happened following the Storming of the Bastille don’t occur ITTL. Peasants don’t have the example of the Bastille and do not dare to attack their lords.

EDIT : I am slowly adding stuff about the biggest cities ITTL.
 
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