Louis-Philippe of France: Encyclopedia II - Louis-Philippe of France - During the Revolution

Louis-Philippe of France - During the Revolution

During the early stages of the Revolution, Louis-Philippe was a strong supporter of the reformation of French society as a whole which was taking place, however his father's actions during the vote on the execution of King Louis XVI however would change the fortunes of the young duc de Chartres and his family. As Louis Philippe Joseph (now duc d'Orléans after the death of his father in 1785), continued his support for the liberal factions of the revolution, destain from the Royal family and members of the royal court became increasingly hostile towards the Orléans family. The duc d'Orléans rapidly became more of an icon of liberal reform to the general population of Paris and hundreds of medallions were minted with Orléans' figure framed by the title Père du Peuple (Father of the People) were seen in the streets. The duc d'Orléans' weakness became apparent as he was involved in several scandals in Paris, leaving for England in October 1789 on the pretext of negotiating with the British government on the potential of setting up an Independent Kingdom in the Southern Netherlands, he would later return in July 1790. It becomes therefore easy to understand Mirabeau's assessment of Orléans' political capacity: "if we need some sort of a puppet it might as well be that b- as anyone else".

The young Louis-Philippe was growing up in a period which was to change Europe as a whole, and in the process he would involve himself completely in it (a trait of his which would remain when he later became King). In his diary it is reported that he himself took the initiative to join the Jacobin Club, a move which was supported by his father. In June 1791, Louis-Philippe had gained his first opportunity to directly become involved in the affairs of France. In 1785 he was given the hereditary appointment of Colonel of the 14th Regiment of Dragoons (Chartres-Dragons), and when war appeared to be on the horizon in 1791 all proprietary colonels had been ordered to join their Regiments. In the beginning, Louis-Philippe had made himself out to be a model officer and he had the benefit to have had two instances where he showed his personal bravery. Three days after Louis XVI's flight to Varennes an incident between two local priests and one of the new "constitutional" vicars, which escalated to the point where a crowd had surrounded the inn where they were staying at the time, demanding blood. The young Colonel broke through the crowd extricated the two priests where they then fled, at a river crossing on the same day another crowd had met to do harm to the priests where the young Louis-Philippe put himself in between a peasant armed with a Carbine and the priests, saving the situation. The next day, Louis-Philippe dove into a river saving a drowning local Engineer, earning himself a civic crown by the local municipality. His regiment was moved north to Flanders at the end of 1791 after the declaration of Pillnitz.

Louis-Philippe would serve under his father's crony, the Duc de Biron. There he would serve with several officers who would later gain distinction in Napoleon's Empire and afterwards, including a Colonel Berthier and Lieutenant Colonel Alexandre de Beauharnais (Future husband of the Empress Josephine). Louis-Philippe saw the first exchanges of fire of the Revolutionary Wars at Boussu and Quaragnon and a few days later fought at Quiévrain near Jemappes, where he was instrumental in rallying a unit of retreating soldiers. Biron wrote to the War Minister de Grave, complementing and praising the young Colonel, who was then promoted to Brigadier of a Brigade of Cavalry in Lückner's Army of the North. In the Army of the North, Louis-Philippe would serve with four Marshals of France in Macdonald, Mortier (who would later be killed in an assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe), Davout and Oudinot. Dumouriez was appointed to command the Army of the North in August 1792, whom Louis-Philippe would serve under in the Valmy campaign as a commander of a Division. At Valmy, Louis-Philippe had been ordered to establish a battery of Artillery on the crest of the hill of Valmy. The battle of Valmy was an inconclusive one, however the Austro-Prussian Army, suffering from a lack of supplies was forced back across the Rhine river. Once again, Louis-Philippe was praised in a letter by Dumouriez after the battle. Louis-Philippe was then recalled back to Paris to give an account of the Battle at Valmy to the French Government where was to have a rather trying interview with Danton, Minister of Justice which he would later have a fondness of telling to his children. He was promoted while in Paris to the position of Lieutenant-General, and left in October for the Army of the North once more where Dumouriez had begun a march into Belgium. Louis-Philippe would command a Division once again when Dumouriez chose to attack an Austrian force located in a strong position on the heights of Cuesmes and Jemappes to the west of Mons. Louis-Philippe's Division would take heavy casualties as it attacked through a wood, retreating in disorder, however Louis-Philippe would rally a group of units dubbing them "the battalion of Mons" and pushed forward along with other French units to finally overwhelm the outnumbered Austrians.

Events in Paris however were to undermine the budding public career of Louis-Philippe. The incompetance of the new Girondist appointed Jean-Nicolas Pache, virtually denuded Dumouriez' Army of the North of supplies and rapidly thousands of troops were deserting his Army. Louis-Philippe began to feel alienated by the more radical policies of the Republic, he only began to think of leaving France after the vote to execute Louis XVI and the 'yes' vote by his father. Dumouriez and Louis-Philippe met on March 22nd, 1793 where Dumouriez urged his subordinate to not become involved in his attempt to work with the Austrians to march his Army on Paris and restore the Constitution of 1791. Louis-Philippe was willing to stay in France to fulfill his duties in the Army, however he had been already implicated in Dumouriez's plot and he decided to leave France to save his life, with the French government slowly falling into the Terror. On April 4th Dumouriez and Louis-Philippe left for the Austrian camp, however they were intercepted by the prematurely bald and bespectacled Lieutenant-Colonel Davout, who had served at Jemappes with the duc de Chartres. As Dumouriez ordered the Colonel back to he camp, some of his soldiers cried out against the General, now declared a traitor by the National Convention, shots rang out as they fled towards the Austrian Camp. The next day, Dumouriez would make another attempt to rally soldiers against the Convention however he found that the Artillery had declared for the Republic, leaving him and Louis-Philippe with no choice but to go into Exile. At the age of nineteen Louis-Philippe was leaving France, where it would be some twenty-one years before he would step on French Soil again.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "During the Revolution", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki