Vendée, Wars of the

(1793–96) Insurrections in the west of France during the French Revolution.

In the religious and impoverished area known as the Vendée, discontent with the new government grew after it instituted strict controls over the Catholic church (1790). An uprising began in opposition to the conscription acts (1793) and spread throughout the region, where peasants were joined by royalists to form the Catholic and Royal Army. Led by the nobleman François Charette de La Contrie (1763–1796), the Vendéan army of 65,000 occupied several towns, but was defeated at Cholet by government troops and forced to retreat. After further defeats at Le Mans (about 15,000 rebels killed) and at Savenay, the general warfare ended in December 1793. Vicious reprisals by the government provoked further resistance, until an amnesty was announced (1794) and the Vendée was granted freedom from conscription (1795). Charette joined a British-backed landing of exiled French nobles in Brittany (1795), but after their defeat and his execution (1796) the counterrevolutionary struggle ended.

* * *

▪ French history

      (1793–96), counterrevolutionary insurrections in the west of France during the French Revolution. The first and most important occurred in 1793 in the area known as the Vendée, which included large sections of the départements of Loire-Inférieure (Loire-Atlantique), Maine-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, and the Vendée proper. In this fervently religious and economically backward region, the Revolution of 1789 was received with little enthusiasm and only a few minor disturbances. The first signs of real discontent appeared with the government's enactment of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790) instituting strict controls over the Roman Catholic church.

      A general uprising began with the introduction of the conscription acts of February 1793. On March 4 rioting commenced at Cholet, and by the 13th the Vendée was in open revolt. The uprising coincided with rising disaffection in Lyon, Marseille, and Normandy and seriously threatened the Revolution internally at a time when it had just suffered a military defeat at Neerwinden (March 18). The peasant leaders Jacques Cathelineau, Gaston Bourdic, and Jean-Nicolas Stofflet were joined by royalist nobles such as Charles Bonchamps, Marquis de Bonchamps, Maurice Gigost d'Elbée, François-Athanase Charette de La Contrie (Charette de La Contrie, François-Athanase), and Henri du Vergier, Count de La Rochejaquelein. In May the rebels (about 30,000 strong) took the towns of Thouars, Parthenay, and Fontenay, and their army, which had changed its name from “the Catholic Army” to “the Catholic and Royal Army,” turned north and on June 9 took Saumur.

      Crossing the Loire River, the Vendéans marched east, seizing Angers (June 18), but failed to capture the important centre of Nantes. There followed two months of confused fighting. By autumn the government forces had been reinforced and placed under a unified command. On October 17 the main Vendéan army (about 65,000) was heavily defeated at Cholet and fled north across the Loire, leaving only a few thousand men under Charette to continue resistance in the Vendée. The Vendéans then marched north to raise the Cotentin region and occupy a few towns. They later retreated south and, after failing to capture Angers (December 3), turned east but were overtaken and defeated at Le Mans (December 12). Perhaps 15,000 rebels were killed in this bloody battle and in the butchery of prisoners that occurred afterward. Still trying to cross the Loire to reenter the Vendée, the main army was finally crushed at Savenay by the Republican forces (December 23).

      General warfare was now at an end, but the severe reprisals taken by the Republican commander General Louis-Marie Turreau de Garambouville provoked further resistance. With the recall of Turreau (May) and the rise to power of the moderate Thermidorian faction in Paris (July), a more conciliatory policy was adopted. In December the government announced an amnesty, and on Feb. 17, 1795, the Convention of La Jaunaye granted the Vendée freedom from conscription, liberty of worship, and some indemnities for losses.

      Charette again took up arms during a British-backed landing of exiled French nobles at Quiberon Bay, in Brittany (June 1795). The nobles' defeat (July) and the capture and execution of Stofflet (February 1796) and of Charette (March) ended the struggle. In July, General Lazare Hoche (Hoche, Lazare) announced that order had been restored in the west.

      Subsequent, though smaller, royalist risings in the Vendée occurred in 1799, in 1815, and, finally, in 1832, in opposition to the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe.

* * *