25th July 1792: Brunswick Manifesto during the French Revolution threatened retaliation if the royal family was harmed

Scott Allsop (0:00)

On the 25th of July 1792, the Brunswick Manifesto was issued during the French Revolution, threatening retaliation if the French royal family was harmed. Welcome to HistoryPod.

In the aftermath of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, France had undergone sweeping political change. Although Louis XVI had accepted a constitutional monarchy, his unsuccessful flight to Varennes in June 1791 severely damaged public confidence. Meanwhile, many European monarchies viewed events in France with growing alarm. In April 1792, revolutionary France declared war on Austria, and Prussia soon entered the conflict in support of the Habsburgs. It was in the midst of this conflict that the Duke of Brunswick issued his manifesto on behalf of the allied powers.

The Brunswick Manifesto declared that, rather than conquering France, the invading armies sought to restore lawful authority in the country. It warned that any attack on the royal family would bring exemplary and ever-memorable vengeance, and threatened the city of Paris with destruction if its inhabitants resisted the advancing armies, or continued to detain the king. Rather than intimidating the French population, the manifesto produced the opposite effect. Many revolutionaries interpreted it as proof that Louis XVI was collaborating with foreign enemies to reverse the revolution. Public suspicion of the king increased sharply, while radical political groups used the proclamation to argue that the monarchy posed a direct threat to the nation.

On 10th August 1792, revolutionary forces attacked the Tuileries Palace, effectively ending the constitutional monarchy. Louis XVI was arrested, suspended from office, and later executed for treason. The Brunswick Manifesto is therefore widely regarded as one of the greatest political miscalculations of the entire revolutionary period.