August Decrees (1789) Facts & Worksheets

• At that time, aside from being a prison, the Bastille was a military fortress filled with gunpowder and munitions. 
• The revolutionaries demanded that the governor of the fortress surrender, abandon the gunpowder, and free the prisoners. 
• In the process of negotiations, the crowd became aggressive, the Bastille was surrounded, fighting began, and the French soldiers soon sided with the revolutionaries. When the governor finally surrendered, he was killed by the crowd.
• Between late July and early August, a general panic known as the Great Fear emerged, as rumours of royalist bandits or mercenaries rampaging the countryside spread. This led both peasants and townspeople to mobilise in many regions. They armed themselves to defend their property from raids. Large groups of armed peasants searched for targets in villages. They attacked manor houses and destroyed feudal records. The landed aristocrats suffered worse. Social order began to collapse in the countryside.

Abolition of feudalism

• News of the ongoing rural violence intensified discussions among the National Constituent Assembly. Most deputies, primarily from the nobility, worried that the Great Fear could spread and endanger property rights. Lacking the means to forcibly suppress the peasant uprisings, the Assembly’s only recourse was to calm them. Deputies from the Breton Club, which was the precursor to the Jacobin movement, thought that a significant action from the Assembly, such as a partial relinquishing of feudal rights, was the only way to pacify the peasants.
• Early in August, the Bretons intended to stand up in the Assembly and relinquish certain feudal obligations.
• The Assembly began its session on the evening of 4 August by listening to a proposed statement aimed at restoring public order. After this, deputies from the Breton Club put forward their proposal to abolish feudalism.
• However, their carefully planned and limited surrender of feudal privileges quickly spiralled beyond control. The atmosphere in the chamber became highly emotional and radical.
• Caught up in liberal ideals and the intensity of the moment, many deputies exceeded their original intentions.
• Members of the second estate rose one after another, seemingly competing to renounce their feudal rights. A wide range of traditional privileges was voluntarily given up.
• In the days that followed, the Assembly formalised these dramatic decisions by passing 19 articles on 11 August, turning the sweeping promises of 4 August into law. This became known as the August Decrees:
  • Article 1: The feudal system was entirely abolished. All feudal rights and dues, as well as personal servitude, were abolished with no compensation. All other kinds of dues are redeemable; the price and method of buying them back are determined by the Assembly.
  • Article 2: The exclusive right to fuies (allowing birds to graze) and dovecotes was abolished. Pigeons were to be locked up during times determined by the communities.
  • Article 3: Exclusive hunting rights were also abolished. Any landowner retained the right to kill any prey, but only on the land he owned. The king’s hunting grounds, however, should be preserved.
  • Article 4: All seigneurial justices were abolished without compensation, although the offices would continue their duties until the Assembly decided on a new judicial order.
  • Article 5: All kinds of tithes were abolished without indemnity, pending notice of other means to subsidise the Church.
  • Article 6: All sorts of ground rents were redeemable at a price the Assembly fixed. No dues were to be created in the future that were irredeemable.
  • Article 7: The practice of selling public offices was outlawed, and the principle of a feeless administration of justice affirmed.
  • Article 8: As soon as the portion congrue[further explanation needed] was increased, the fees of all parish priests and curates were abolished.
  • Articles 9–10: All special privileges were abolished, and every citizen must pay the same taxes on everything.
  • Article 11: Any citizen, no matter their origins, could hold any military, civilian, or ecclesiastical job.
  • Article 12: The French Church would no longer send money (such as special fees) to the Pope or Church officials outside France. French clergy must ask their own bishops for financial support instead.
  • Article 13: Various ecclesiastical dues were officially ended by the Assembly.
  • Article 14: Clergy could not earn more than 3,000 livres in pensions. They were not allowed to collect multiple pensions if they already earned more than that amount.
  • Article 15: The king and the Assembly would examine pensions, favours, and salaries. They could cancel or reduce payments that were unfair or undeserved.
  • Article 16: A medal was to be struck in the memory of the important deliberations for the welfare of France, and “...a Te Deum shall be chanted in gratitude in all the parishes and the churches of France”.
  • Article 17: Louis XVI was proclaimed the Restorer of French Liberty.
  • Article 18: The Assembly would formally present these new decrees to the king. A religious service would also be held in the royal chapel.
  • Article 19: The Assembly would soon create detailed laws to make sure these changes were properly carried out.

The king’s response and aftermath of the August Decrees

• Louis XVI gave a mixed response to the August Decrees. He praised the nobles and clergy for their generous sacrifices, but he refused to fully approve laws that stripped the nobility and Church of their property. He initially refused to sanction the decrees, maintaining his opposition for several weeks. His reluctance to fully support the decrees created persistent tension during the late summer of 1789. He finally relented in November, when the Women’s March on Versailles forced the royal family’s relocation to Paris and compelled his consent to the decrees.
• The August Decrees helped reduce panic during the Great Fear, but unrest did not immediately end.
• Nevertheless, it began dismantling France’s oppressive Ancien Régime by seemingly ending tithes, feudal dues, and privileges overnight. However, the immediate implementation was complicated. 
• Confusion arose as peasants believed the decrees took effect instantly, leading many to resist paying lingering dues, which worsened France’s financial crisis. All feudal dues were not fully abolished until 1793. 
• The nobility protested the loss of privileges, questioning the Assembly’s authority. The Church also protested the abolition of tithes. 
• Critics argue that the August Decrees merely recognised the decline of feudalism, meaning nobles sacrificed little. However, the complete abolition of feudalism was a significant achievement that dismantled a core element of the Ancien Régime, enabling a new political structure and paving the way for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), a foundational document of the French Revolution.