Chouannerie

In January 1794, the Vendeans of the Vendée militaire, following the setback of the Virée de Galerne, tried to resist the infernal columns of General Louis Marie Turreau. During this time, 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.[4] These small groups led by Jean Chouan, Aimé du Boisguy and Jean-Louis Treton (nicknamed Jambe d'Argent, i.e. "Silver Leg"), regrouped Chouans and Vendeans who survived the Virée de Galerne, leaders who were compromised in the peasant uprisings of March 1793 and even deserters.[5] Condemned to live in almost total secrecy, the Chouans knew that being captured 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.[5]

In guerilla warfare, Chouans in groups of a few score or a few hundred men ambushed military detachments, couriers and stagecoaches carrying government funds. They attacked Republican towns, executed informers, constitutional priests and republicans, a large number of them administrators.

To oppose the Chouans, Republicans built strongholds or fortified towns which were defended by local territorial guards. They were led by General Jean Antoine Rossignol, chief commander of the Army of the Coasts of Brest. A law enacted on 23 March 1793 mandated that captured insurgents should be executed by firing squad or by guillotine within twenty-four hours. Rossignol also assembled groups of fake Chouan outlaws in order to do as much as possible to discredit the real Chouans.

Up to 6,000 peasants hostile to conscription swept into the town of La Roche-Bernard in Brittany on 15 March 1793

Murders were carried out throughout the whole war with a varying degree of intensity. For example, in the district of Fougères, in conflict between some 2,000 Chouans and a fluctuating number of Republicans, 219 people were assassinated or executed by Chouans and 300 by Republicans. This did not include deaths during fights, summary executions on the battlefield, or executions following the expeditive revolutionary due process of law.[6]

The Chouannerie spread quickly to Brittany and reached the Côtes-d'Armor, 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 battle of Mangolérian. However, in the Finistère and the west of the Côtes-d'Armor, the Basse-Cornouaille, the Léon and the Trégor did not take part in the uprising.

Georges Cadoudal and Pierre-Mathurin Mercier, 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 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, did not stand 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: as in other départements, his authority as a Chouan chief only extended to his own canton. Joseph de Puisaye, a former officer compromised in the federalist revolts, realised the necessity of centralised command and attempted to assume the function of general-in-chief of the Chouans. Recognized 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, following 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.

Chouans hiding behind a dolmen

Maximilien de Robespierre fell on 28 July 1794. Consequently, 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 Chouan chief Boishardy met to discuss peace options. Puisaye tried to organise a landing from London, his lieutenant Cormatin assumed full command and negotiated the peace treaty of La Mabilais in April 1795. He was followed by a minority of local leaders.[7] Of the 121 leaders attending, only 21, including de Silz and Boishardy, signed the treaty.[8]

Because neither side had negotiated in good faith, there was an increase in tension following the death of Louis XVII on 8 June. The peace was broken on 26 August 1794 as General Lazare Hoche, who succeeded Jean Antoine Rossignol as head of the Army of the Coasts of Brest, 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 3,500 soldiers of the émigré army in Carnac. They joined 15,000 Chouans led by Vincent de Tinténiac, Paul Alexandre du Bois-Berthelot and Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban, 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 counter-attack 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 Jean Jan, scattered. The second column, led by Vincent de Tinténiac 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 the way at Coëtlogon on 18 July. They reached the bay of Saint-Brieuc but no British fleet joined them, so they returned to the Morbihan and appointed Cadoudal as their general.

The battle of Quiberon
Un épisode de l'affaire de Quiberon (An Episode of the Quiberon affair), painting by Paul-Émile Boutigny, 19th century.

During this time, in Quiberon, reinforcements of 2,000 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; Puisaye managed to board a British ship. The Republicans took more than 6,000 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 chief general Joseph de Puisaye.

This letter had an enormous impact on the Chouans. A council of officers in Morbihan sentenced Puisaye to death in absentia. Puisaye returned to Brittany in autumn 1795, where he was arrested by Pierre-Mathurin Mercier and brought before Cadoudal. Puisaye defended himself vigorously and found he still had the support of the count of Artois. Cadoual and Puisaye were eventually reconciled.

Guerilla fighting resumed after the failure of the English royalist expedition and spread to Normandy where Louis de Frotté, freshly landed in France in 1795, organised the uprising.

La Chapelle de La Madeleine à Malestroit (Morbihan) - 15 nivôse an III (The Chapel of La Madelaine in Malestroit), painting by Alexandre Bloch, 1886.

Puisaye had suffered some loss of reputation and blamed the Chouans of the Morbihan and their chiefs who, according to him, 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 Jean-Joseph Ruault de La Tribonnière. He did not receive much more support than he had in the Morbihan, but remained commander-in-chief thanks to the support of the count of Artois. Puisaye wanted a Chouannerie led by nobles and founded the company of the chevaliers catholiques. Several émigrés joined France to fight with the Chouans, but numerous disputes broke out between 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 only controlled the East of Ille-et-Vilaine; 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, based alternately in Rennes or Vannes, 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 de Canclaux, based in Nantes, controlled the Loire-Atlantique, le Maine-et-Loire, the Vendée and the Deux-Sèvres. The Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg, led by Jean-Baptiste Annibal Aubert du Bayet, based in Saint-Malo, controlled the Manche, the Orne, the Calvados, the Sarthe and part of the 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 Armée des côtes de l'Océan (Army of the Coasts of the Ocean).

Despite the Quiberon disaster, the Chouans gained some victories in the coming months. However, Hoche 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 these 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.

Now that 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.[9] Georges Cadoudal signed a peace treaty on 19 June,[10] Louis de Frotté refused to sign peace himself; he embarked for England and left his lieutenants to sign on 23 June. Aimé Picquet du Boisguy was the last to surrender, on 26 June.[11] Puisaye returned to England.

The uprising lasted until Republican victory in 1800.[1]

• Jacques Duchemin des Cépeaux, Souvenirs de la Chouannerie, 1855 ;
• Émile Souvestre, Scènes de la Chouannerie, Michel Lévy, Paris, 1856;[12]
• Abbé Jean-François Paulouin, La Chouannerie du Maine et Pays adjacents. 1793-1799-1815-1832. Avec la Biographie de plus de 120 Officiers., Monnoyer, Le Mans, 1875
• Jean Morvan, Les Chouans de la Mayenne. 1792 - 1796, Lévy, Paris, 1900
• Abbé Almire Belin (dir.), La Révolution dans le Maine. Revue bimestrielle, Imprimerie Benderitter puis M. Vilaire, Le Mans, 1925–1937
• Marc Valin, Chouans de la Mayenne, Éditions Siloé, Laval, 1985
• Jean Barreau, La chouannerie mayennaise sous la Convention et le Directoire, Imp. Martin, Le Mans, 1988.
• Anne Bernet, Les Grandes Heures de la chouannerie, Perrin, 1993
• Roger Dupuy, Les Chouans, Hachette Littérature, 1997.[13]
• Anne Bernet, Histoire générale de la chouannerie, Perrin, 2000.[14]
• Jean Lepart,"Histoire de la Chouannerie dans la Sarthe", in Revue Historique et Archéologique du Maine, Le Mans,tome CLIII, p. 13-64, 2002 and tome CLV, p 65-120, 2004.
• Hubert La Marle, Dictionnaire des Chouans de la Mayenne, Éditions régionales de l'Ouest - Mayenne. 2005.[15]
• Bernard Coquet, Le dernier des Chouans Louis-Stanislas Sortant, 1777-1840, Éditions Ophrys-SPM, Paris, 2007.

• 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.
• 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 'Sir Isumbras at the Ford', published in 1918.
• D. K. Broster 'The Yellow Poppy', published in 1920.