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Count de Germiny

Count de Germiny wrote to the National Assembly describing an attack on his chateau in July 1789. He claims his title deeds and terriers were ransacked by a group of brigands and his subordinates. Seeking compensation, he argues he never oppressed his subordinates despite their feudal obligations. As landowner wealth declined amid revolutionary unrest, he aims to preserve some privileges and income by gaining the Assembly's support. However, his account relies on second-hand reports as he was absent during the attack.

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473 views5 pages

Count de Germiny

Count de Germiny wrote to the National Assembly describing an attack on his chateau in July 1789. He claims his title deeds and terriers were ransacked by a group of brigands and his subordinates. Seeking compensation, he argues he never oppressed his subordinates despite their feudal obligations. As landowner wealth declined amid revolutionary unrest, he aims to preserve some privileges and income by gaining the Assembly's support. However, his account relies on second-hand reports as he was absent during the attack.

Uploaded by

Waq
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF or read online on Scribd
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Thursday, 25th October 2007

Primary Source Questions On:

Count de Germiny’s Account to the


National Assembly, 20th August 1789
2
Au
thor: Waqar Raja

A Summary of the Situation described by Count de


Germiny to the National Assembly

Count de Germiny states that on 29th July 1789 his chateau at


Sassy was ransacked for its title deeds and terriers. He says that
the people responsible for the ransacking included a group of
foreign brigands, as well as his own subordinates from Sassy and
subordinates of Vrigni, his neighbouring parish. He claims that
they also went to other local parishes and rang the tocsins there
in order to rally even more men and so increase their numbers,
which eventually totalled two hundred. They then went to his
chateau and after breaking the locks on the cupboards that
contained his deeds and terriers, took them away or burned them
in local woods. He also says that the mob, who not content with
just destroying his papers, proceeded then to kill his pigeons.

He expresses that he found these events particularly distressing


because he had never made any of his subordinates feel their
obligation to the ancient feudal oaths that they were under.

He states that he does not intend to take any action against those
he knows to have been with the brigands and were responsible,
and feels that given the current situation in France, they could
also be redeemed of their feudal oaths. He would however now
like the National Assembly to introduce legislation whereby he
would be reimbursed for his loss and also pass a law that would
grant him and his parishioners’ access to the use of common
land.

The Key Socio-Economical Factors surrounding the Period


of the Source Material

The original document containing the account of Count de


Germiny was written during a period of great unrest and change
throughout revolutionary France. It was written shortly after the
uprising that took place on 29th July 1789 and presented to the
National Assembly on 20th August 1789.
3
The origins of the events that took place on that day were set
in motion several years beforehand and some of the key factors
that led to this uprising and Count de Germiny’s chateau being
ransacked for its deeds could be traced back to only a year earlier
in 1788.

This was a year that produced a very poor harvest and so created
a prolonged period of dearth, which in turn forced the peasants to
buy increasingly expensive bread as they could not provide for
their own needs from the land they rented.
And so in the spring and summer of 1789 the only places where
grain could be found was in the store houses on the great estates
of the Church and land owners.

It was also the year in which the royal government, under


increasing pressure to act due to enormous debt, an archaic tax
system that hit the third estate harder than any of the other
estates, and an antiquated legal system that made it difficult to
introduce reform, announced that an Estates General would be
held in May 1789 to tackle the problems facing the country

In the months building up to this meeting of the Estate Generals,


the electors of the three orders were asked to draw up ‘Cahiers de
Doléances’ in which they listed their grievances and suggestions
for reform. These included ‘Fiscal Equality’ and an ‘Abolition of
seigneurial rights’ which if approved would appease the peasant
population who were growing increasingly dissatisfied with their
government’s failure to address their problems.

These factors contributed to what became known as the ‘Great


Fear’, the peasants ransacked their lords chateaux because they
thought their grievances would be met and also because they
thought that their lords had hired vagrants to destroy the crops
and harass the local people.

The Source Material

Count de Germiny’s letter to the National assembly should be


treated as a primary source, it was written very soon after the
4
th
events that took place on 29 July 1789, within the period of
the French revolution.

Its intended audience was the National Assembly, who had


recently been formed from the elite members of the three estates
in order to take over as the new representatives of the nation. It is
primarily directed at other landowners in the Assembly who also
suffered a loss from the uprisings and so could possibly
sympathise with Count de Germiny and pass laws that enabled
them to be compensated

The Reasons surrounding the Creation of the Source


Material

The author of the letter was a nobleman, a land owner who was
provided with a significant amount of income by renting out his
land to the peasants under the feudal system that existed at the
time.

When the revolt that originated in Paris started to spread to the


countryside and the vassals of these noble men started to riot
and attack their chateaus, they suffered a significant loss of
income and resources. Count de Germiny was fortunate enough
to have only suffered a loss of his deeds and his terriers,
privileges that the newly formed National Assembly already had
started to abolish. Many other chateaux that were ransacked were
also set on fire.

The author recognizes that the country is going through a period


of major change which will leave him far worse off than previously
and so intends to be compensated for his loss of privileges and if
5
the National Assembly approves his requests he would have
secured some of the previous wealth that he had.
In his letter he presents himself as a victim of the current turmoil
in France as he claims that he never made any of his vassals feel
the odious weight of their feudal oaths and so had no reason to
attack his chateau and destroy his deeds. It is doubtful that this
source was written without any bias as the person who wrote it
had just lost a considerable amount of wealth and so would use
any reason to secure as much of his previous wealth as possible.

The Credentials of the Source Material

Other factors that must be taken into consideration when


assessing the credentials of this source are the fact that Count
de Germiny wasn’t actually present during the attack on his
chateau. The only person who was present was a single guard
who we are told was unable to offer any resistance to the
mob. So the information Count de Germiny gives in his letter
are second hand accounts given to him by his guard. There is
also a discrepancy concerning the date of the attack and the
date that the national assembly received his letter. It took
twenty two days for the letter to reach the National Assembly,
so we cannot be certain whether the information that was
relayed to Count de Germiny was done directly after the
attack or a week or two later.

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