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royal family was living under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace. An angry mob got into the
building on June 20, 1792, and found their way to the King. The
crowd shouted insults and were in an ugly mood. The King remained calm and
obediently put on the red cap of liberty (a symbol of revolution) at the
mob's insistence. When they thrust a bottle of wine at him he drank a
toast to the health of the nation.
But he refused to
change his position on the clergy. Under the Constitution of 1791 (creating a
constitutional monarchy) he had exercised his veto of a proposal to punish
priests who refused to support the changes to the church (placing the
church under state control -
see The
Civil Constitution of the Clergy).
A religious man, the King felt it would violate his conscience to agree to
the mob's demands. The incident ended without bloodshed but by August the
mob was back.
This
time the royal family barely escaped with their lives. The
king's guards were killed and the King and his family fled
to the protection of the Assembly. The constitutional monarchy
was over.
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