Француз революциясы мен роялистер арасындағы шайқастар (1794-1800)

1794–1800 set of battles between the French revolutionaries and the royalists

The Chouannerie (from the Chouan brothers, two of its leaders) was a royalist uprising or counter revolution in twelve of the western départements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the First Republic during the French Revolution. It played out in three phases and lasted from spring 1794 to 1800. The uprising was provoked principally by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), which attempted to impose Caesaropapism upon the Catholic Church in France, and the mass conscription, or levée en masse (1793), which was decided by the National Convention. A first attempt at staging an uprising was carried out by the Association bretonne to defend the French monarchy and reinstate the devolved government, specific laws, and customs of Duchy of Brittany, which had all been repealed in 1789. The first confrontations broke out in 1792 and developed in stages into a peasant revolt, guerrilla warfare and finally full scale battles. It only ended with the Republican forces defeating the rebels in 1800. In the summer of 1792, further incidents occurred in the districts of Carhaix (Finistère), Lannion, Pontrieux (Côtes d'Armor), Craon, Château Gontier and Laval, where peasants opposed a levy of volunteers for the army. At Saint Ouën des Toits, in the department of Mayenne, Jean Cottereau (known as Jean Chouan) led the insurgents. His nickname probably came from his imitation of the call of the tawny owl (the chouette hulotte) for a recognition signal.

By January 1794, the Vendéans of the fr, following a setback of the Virée de Galerne, tried to resist the infernal columns of General Louis Marie Turreau. Groups of Chouans north of the Loire took up arms again in the areas crossed by the Vendeans. The Chouannerie was born on the borders of the Mayenne and of the Ille et Vilaine, near Fougères, Vitré and Laval. The small groups, led by Jean Chouan, Aimé du Boisguy and fr (nicknamed Jambe d'Argent, i. e. "Silver Leg"), had Chouans and Vendeans who survived the Virée de Galerne, leaders who were compromised in the peasant uprisings of March 1793 and even deserters. Condemned to live in almost total secrecy, the Chouans knew that capture by the Republicans would mean certain death. Most of them were motivated by a desire to avenge their relatives who had disappeared in the Virée de Galerne. The Chouannerie spread quickly to Brittany and reached the Côtes d'Armor, which was dominated by the Chevalier de Boishardy. On 15 March, it reached Morbihan, where Joseph de Fay and Béjarry, former officers of the Vendean army, assisted by Pierre Guillemot incited a peasant uprising aimed at Vannes. The insurgents were easily countered by the Republicans at the Combat de Mangolérian. However, in Finistère and the west of Côtes d'Armor, Basse Cornouaille, Léon and Trégor did not take part in the uprising. Georges Cadoudal and Pierre Mathurin Mercier la Vendée, nicknamed la Vendée, rescued from the Battle of Savenay, moved to the Morbihan, where Boulainvilliers was appointed general in chief of the département. However, Boulainvilliers defected to Ille et Vilaine with money taken from the headquarters. Sébastien de La Haye de Silz succeeded him as general. Boulainvilliers foolishly returned a few months later in the Morbihan. He was captured and shot by Pierre Guillemot's men. Other départements, however, were not as united as the Morbihan. In the north of Anjou, Marie Paul de Scépeaux de Bois Guignot was named commander for the north of Maine et Loire. His authority later extended to Loire Atlantique, Mayenne and Sarthe. However, he commanded in name only since like in other départements, his authority as a Chouan chief only extended to his own canton. Joseph de Puisaye, a former officer who was compromised in the federalist revolts, realised the necessity of centralised command and attempted to assume the function of general in chief of the Chouans. Recognised by some chiefs, Puisaye embarked from Dinard to London on 11 September 1794 to meet future King Charles X of France. Major General Pierre Dezoteux de Cormatin, his second in command, assumed command in his absence. Charles X favoured absolute monarchy and distrusted Puisaye, who advocated parliamentary monarchy. However, after the intervention of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, Puisaye was appointed general in chief of the Royal and Catholic Army of Brittany on 15 October 1794 with the rank of lieutenant general, thus entrusting him with the king's authority. His power thus extended to all the insurgent areas north of the Loire, including the Maine and Anjou, where Scépeaux appointed him general in chief. When Maximilien de Robespierre fell on 28 July 1794, the Terror ended and the Convention nationale became more flexible and open to negotiation. The Agence royaliste de Paris asked the Chouans in the name of Louis XVIII of France, then count of Provence, to stop fighting. On 26 December, Brigadier General Jean Humbert and the Chouan chief Boishardy met to discuss peace options. Puisaye tried to organise a landing from London, and his lieutenant, Cormatin, assumed full command and negotiated the peace treaty of La Mabilais in April 1795. He was followed by a few local leaders. Of the 121 leaders attending, only 21, including de Silz and Boishardy, signed the treaty.

Because neither side had negotiated in good faith, tension again increased following the death of Louis XVII on 8 June. The peace was broken on 26 August 1794 by General Lazare Hoche, who succeeded Jean Antoine Rossignol as head of the Army of the Coasts of Brest and ordered the arrest of those who had refused to sign the treaty of La Mabilais. Hoche thought that Cormatin was trying to outsmart him. Cormatin was imprisoned and would not be freed before 1802. Boishardy, who did not sign, was killed during the night of 17 to 18 June between Bréhand and Moncontour. Likewise, de Silz, who had taken up arms again, was attacked on 28 June at Grand Champ by the troops of Adjutant General Josnet. De Silz was killed in action, and his men retreated. On 23 June 1795, a British fleet led by Commodore John Borlase Warren, landed soldiers of the émigré army in Carnac. They joined Chouans led by Vincent de Tinténiac, fr and Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban, the great grandnephew of Marshal Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. However, disagreements between the general of the émigrés Louis Charles d'Hervilly and the expedition leader Puisaye cost the Royalists precious time. A counterattack by Hoche forced the Chouans back to the Quiberon peninsula. On 10 July, two columns of Chouan troops wearing English uniforms embarked on British ships from the peninsula and were landed behind Republican lines. However, the men from the first column, led by Lantivy du Rest and fr, scattered. The second column, led by Vincent de Tinténiac and seconded by Georges Cadoudal, prepared to attack but received a message from the Agence royaliste de Paris requiring them to join a second British landing at Côtes d'Armor. Tinténiac hesitated in the face of opposition from Cadoudal but obeyed the order. He was killed on his way there at Coëtlogon on 18 July. They reached the bay of Saint Brieuc, but since the British fleet had joined them, they returned to the Morbihan and appointed Cadoudal as their general. Meanwhile, in Quiberon, reinforcements of men led by Charles de Virot de Sombreuil joined the émigrés. They attempted to attack on 16 July, but were crushed. Hoche launched a final assault on 20 July and routed the émigrés. Louis Charles d'Hervilly was fatally wounded, and Puisaye managed to board a British ship. The Republicans took more than prisoners. 748 of them were shot by firing squad, including Sombreuil. The day before his execution, he wrote a letter to Commodore Warren denouncing the flight of the Chief General, Joseph de Puisaye. That letter had an enormous impact on the Chouans. A council of officers in Morbihan sentenced Puisaye to death in absentia. He returned to Brittany in autumn 1795, where he was arrested by Pierre Mathurin Mercier and brought before Cadoudal. Puisaye defended himself vigorously and found that he still had the support of the Count of Artois. Cadoual and Puisaye eventually reconciled. Guerilla fighting resumed after the failure of the British royalist expedition and spread to Normandy, where Louis de Frotté, who had freshly landed in France in 1795, organised an uprising. Puisaye had suffered a loss of reputation and blamed the Chouans of the Morbihan and their chiefs, who he claimed were hostile towards nobles and wanted to "establish equality under a white flag". Puisaye left the Morbihan for the Ille et Vilaine, where the division chiefs were of the nobility, and joined the Mordelles division led by fr. He did not receive much more support than in the Morbihan, but he remained commander in chief because of the support of the Count of Artois. Puisaye wanted a Chouannerie led by nobles and founded the company of the fr. Several émigrés joined France to fight with the Chouans, but numerous disputes broke out among them. In January 1796, Puisaye joined the Fougères division, the most important one in Ille et Vilaine, and appointed as his chief Aimé Picquet du Boisguy, Chief General of the Ille et Vilaine and of the east of the Côtes d'Armor. However, in practice, Boisguy controlled only the east of Ille et Vilaine, and Frotté and Scépeaux acknowledged Puisaye as General in Chief in name only. To fight the Chouans, the Republican forces were organised in three armies. The Army of the Coasts of Brest, led by Lazare Hoche, was based alternately in Rennes or Vannes and controlled the Finistère, the Morbihan, the Côtes d'Armor, the Ille et Vilaine and the Mayenne. The Army of the West, led by Jean Baptiste Camille Canclaux, was based in Nantes and controlled Loire Atlantique, Maine et Loire, the Vendée and Deux Sèvres. The Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg, led by Jean Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet, was based in Saint Malo and controlled Manche, Orne, Calvados, Sarthe and part of Ille et Vilaine. In December 1795, the Directoire named Hoche chief general of all the Republican forces based in the West and gave him full authority. The Armies of the West, of the Coasts of Brest and of the Coasts of Cherbourg were merged to form the Army of the Coasts of the Ocean. Despite the Quiberon disaster, the Chouans had some victories in the coming months. Hoche however changed tactics in the beginning of 1796. He set up mobile columns, promised amnesty to Chouans who surrendered, guaranteed religious freedom and strove to discipline the army. Many Chouans and Vendeans were amenable to those measures and laid down their arms. Hoche's priority was to pacify the Vendée. Jean Nicolas Stofflet was captured and shot by firing squad in Angers on 25 February 1796. François de Charette was hunted down, imprisoned and shot on 29 March 1796. His death marked the end of the War in the Vendée. Since the Vendée was pacified, Hoche turned his attention to the Chouans. Faced by large Republican numbers, Chouan chiefs gradually surrendered. Scépeaux was the first to surrender, on 14 May. Georges Cadoudal signed a peace treaty on 19 June. Louis de Frotté refused to sign a peace treaty and embarked for England and left his lieutenants to sign it on 23 June. Aimé Picquet du Boisguy was the last to surrender, on 26 June. Puisaye returned to England.

The uprising lasted until the Republican victory in 1800.

Honoré de Balzac, Les Chouans ou la Bretagne en 1799, La Comédie humaine, tome XIII. (also adapted as a film, Les Chouans, by Henri Calef, with Jean Marais, 1946). Victor Hugo, Quatrevingt treize, 1874. Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, L'Ensorcelée. and Le Chevalier des Touches. Michel Ragon, les mouchoirs rouges de Cholet. The film Chouans!, by Philippe de Broca, with Philippe Noiret, Sophie Marceau, Lambert Wilson and Stéphane Freiss, 1988. D. K. Broster, 'Chantemerle', 1912. D. K. Broster, 'Sir Isumbras at the Ford', 1918. D. K. Broster, 'The Yellow Poppy', 1920.