Enragés

Primary demands

In 1793, Jacques Roux delivered a speech at the National Convention known as the “Manifesto of the Enragés” that represents the essential demands of the group. He asserted that freedom and equality were thus far “vain phantoms” because the rich had profited from the Revolution at the expense of the poor. To remedy this, he proposed measures for price controls, arguing “Those goods necessary to all should be delivered at a price accessible to all.” He also called for strict punishments against actors engaged in speculation and monopoly. He demanded the Convention take severe action to repress counterrevolutionary activity, promising to “show them [enemies] those immortal pikes that overthrew the Bastille.” Lastly, he accused the Convention of ruining the finances of the state and encouraged the exclusive use of the assignats to stabilize finances.

Formation of the Enrages

The Enrages formed in response to the Jacobin’s reluctance to restrain the capitalist bourgeois. Many Parisians feared that the National Convention protected merchants and shop-keepers at the expense of the san-culottes. The Enrages, though not a cohesive body, offered the working poor a platform to express their dissent. Their dissent was often conveyed through riots, public demonstrations, and passionate oratory.

Jacques Roux and Jean-Francois Varlet, emboldened the Parisian working poor to approach the Jacobin Club on, 22 February 1793, and persuade them to place price controls on necessary goods. The Enrages appointed two females to represent the movement and their agenda to the National Convention. However, the Convention refused to grant them an audience. This provoked outrage and criticism throughout Paris. Some went as far as to accuse the Convention of protecting the merchant elite’s interests at the expense of the san-culottes. Further attempts for the Enrages to communicate their position were denied by the Convention. Determined to be heard they responded with revolt. They plundered the homes and businesses of the merchant elite, employing direct action to meet their needs. The Enrages are noted for using legal and extra legal means to achieve their ends.

The Enrages were compromised of members within the National Convention and the san-culottes. They illuminated the internal and external war the san-culottes battled. They complained that the National Convention ordered men to fight on the battlefield, without providing for the widows and orphans remaining in France. They emphasized the unavailability of basic necessities, particularly bread. In his, Manifesto of the Enrages, Jacques Roux colorfully expressed this sentiment to the National Convention. He stated. “Is it necessary that the widows of those who died for the cause of freedom pay, at the price of gold, for the cotton they need to wipe away their tears, for the milk and the honey that serves for their children?”

They accused the “merchant aristocracy” of with-holding access to goods and supplies to intentionally drive up prices. Roux, demanded that the Convention impose capital punishment upon unethical merchants, who used speculation, monopolies, and hoarding to increase their personal profits at the expense of the poor. The Enrages labeled price-gouging as “counter-revolutionary” and treason. This sentiment extended to those who sympathized with the recently executed King Louis XVI. They felt that those who sympathized with the monarchy would also sympathize with those who hoarded goods. It is not surprising that many within the Enrages actively worked against the Girondin faction, and indeed they contributed to the demise of the moderate Girondins, who had fought to spare the King. Those who adhered to the ideologies presented in the Manifesto of the Enrages, wished to emphasize to the Convention that tyranny was not just the product of monarchy, and that injustice and oppression did not end with the execution of the King. In their view, oppression existed whenever one stratum of society sought to monopolize the majority of resources, while simultaneous preventing others from gaining access to those same resources. In their view the pursuit of resources was acceptable, but the act of limiting access to resources was punishable by death.

The Enrages called on the Convention to restrict commerce that it might not “consist of ruining, rendering hopeless, or starving citizens.” While the Enrages occasionally worked within political structures, their primary objective was achieving social and economic reform. They were a direct action group, attempting to meet the immediate needs of the working poor.

Women in the Enrages

Jean-Francois Varlet, understood the enormous influence women possessed, particularly within the French Revolution. Varlet, formed the Enrages by provoking and motivating working poor women and organizing them into a semi-cohesive, mobile unit. The Enrages often appointed women as speakers to represent the movement in the Convention. Revolutionary, proto-feminists, held vital positions within the Enrages, including Pauline Leon and Claire Lacombe. The proto-feminists of the French Revolution are credited with inspiring feminist movements in the Nineteenth Century.

Key leaders

Jacques Roux

Jacques Roux, a Roman Catholic priest was the leader of the Enragés. Roux supported the common people and the Republic. He participated in peasant movements and endorsed the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, to which he swore an oath on January 16, 1791. Roux claimed “I am ready to give every last drop of my blood to a Revolution that has already altered the fate of the human race by making men equal among themselves as they are all for all eternity before God.” Roux saw violence as a key to the Revolution’s success. In fact, when Louis XVI was executed, it was Roux who led him to the scaffold.

Jean Varlet

Jean Varlet, another leader of the Enragés, played a leading role in the fall of the monarchy. When Louis XVI attempted to flee Paris, Jean Varlet circulated petitions in the National Assembly and spoke against the king. On August 10, 1792, the Legislative Assembly suspended the king and called for the election of a National Convention. Afterwards, Varlet became a deputy in the new Convention. Even as a member of this representative government, Varlet mistrusted representation and was in favor of direct universal suffrage, which could bind representatives and recall elected legislators. He sought to prevent the wealthy from expanding their profits at the expense of the poor and called for the nationalization of all profits obtained through monopoly and hoarding.

Théophile Leclerc

In 1790, Théophile Leclerc, joined the first battalion of Morbihan volunteers and remained a member until February 1792. He gained recognition in Paris through a speech attacking Louis XVI to the Jacobins. After moving to Lyons, he joined the Central Club and married Pauline Léon, a revolutionary woman. He approved of radical violence like the other Enragés, calling for the execution of expelled Girondins after the June 2 insurrection.

Claire Lacombe

In 1793, the actress Claire Lacombe, another individual associated with the Enragés, founded the Society of Revolutionary Republicans. This group was outraged by high costs of living, the lack of necessities, and awful living conditions. Lacombe was known for violent rhetoric and action. On May 26, 1793, Lacombe nearly beat to death a Girondin woman, Théroigne de Méricourt, with a whip on the benches of the Convention. She may have killed her if Marat had not intervened.

Other groups

To the left of the Montagnards, the Enragés were fought against by Maximilien de Robespierre and reemerged as the group of Hébertistes. Their ideas were taken up and developed by Babeuf and his associates.

Another group styling itself les enragés emerged in France in 1968 among students at Nanterre University. They were heavily influenced by the Situationists and would go on to be one of the leading groups in the May 1968 French insurrection.