16 Facts About Girondins

From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention.

Girondins were a group of loosely affiliated individuals rather than an organized political party and the name was at first informally applied because the most prominent exponents of their point of view were deputies to the Legislative Assembly from the departement of Gironde in southwest France.

Collective name "Girondins" is used to describe "a loosely knit group of French deputies who contested the Montagnards for control of the National Convention".

The Girondins called for war against Austria, arguing it would rally patriots around the Revolution, liberate oppressed peoples from despotism, and test the loyalty of King Louis XVI.

Montagnards and Girondins alike were fundamentally opposed to the monarchy; both were democrats as well as republicans; and both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals.

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The Girondins were doctrinaires and theorists rather than men of action.

Girondins did not share the ferocious fanaticism or the ruthless opportunism of the future Montagnard organisers of the Reign of Terror.

Girondins proposed suspending the king and summoning of the National Convention, but they agreed not to overthrow the monarchy until Louis XVI became impervious to their counsels.

The Girondins, who had been the radicals of the Legislative Assembly, became the conservatives of the Convention .

Revolution failed to deliver the immediate gains that had been promised and this made it difficult for the Girondins to draw it to a close easily in the minds of the public.

The Girondins, who had a majority in the Convention, controlled the executive council and filled the ministries, believed themselves invincible.

At the trial of Louis XVI in 1792, most Girondins had voted for the "appeal to the people" and so laid themselves open to the charge of "royalism".

Monument to the Girondins was erected in Bordeaux between 1893 and 1902 dedicated to the memory of the Girondin deputies who were victims of the Terror.

The vagueness of who actually made up the Girondins led to the monument not having any names inscribed on it until 1989.

The Girondins were one of the first supporters of abolitionism in France with Brissot leading the anti-slavery Society of the Friends of the Blacks.

Girondins supported democratic reform, secularism and a strong legislature at the expense of a weaker executive and judiciary as opposed to the authoritarian left-wing Montagnards, who supported public acknowledgement of a Supreme Being and a strong executive.