The Chouannerie (; from the Chouan brothers, two of its leaders) was a royalist uprising or counter-revolution in twelve of the western départements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the First Republic during the French Revolution. It played out in three phases and lasted from spring 1794 to 1800.Albert Soboul (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Quadrige/PUF, 1989, p. 217, "Chouans/Chouannerie" entry by Roger Dupu.] The revolt was comparable to the War in the Vendée, which took place in the Vendée region.
The uprising was provoked principally by the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790), which attempted to impose Caesaropapism upon the Catholic Church in France, and the mass conscription, or levée en masse (1793), which was decided by the National Convention. A first attempt at staging an uprising was carried out by the Association bretonne to defend the French monarchy and reinstate the devolved government, specific laws, and customs of Duchy of Brittany, which had all been repealed in 1789. The first confrontations broke out in 1792 and developed in stages into a peasant revolt, guerrilla warfare and finally full-scale battles. It ended only after Chouan leaders accepted the treaties of Montfaucon and Beauregard in 1800.
Briefer peasant uprisings in other départements like in Aveyron and Lozère are also identified as "chouanneries". Another petite chouannerie broke out in 1815, during the Hundred Days War, and a final one occurred in 1832.
Origins In 1791, the adoption of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy loyalty to State requirements caused peasants around Vannes to rise to defend their bishop Sébastien-Michel Amelot from those of Lorient who wanted him to swear this oath of loyalty. In another incident, the following spring, in the area around Quimper, a justice of the peace led several parishes in an uprising in the name of King Louis XVI against the local authorities.Albert Soboul (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Quadrige/PUF, 1989, p. 218, entrée "Chouans/Chouannerie" par Roger Dupuy.
In the summer of 1792, further incidents occurred in the districts of Carhaix (Finistère), Lannion, Pontrieux (Côtes-d'Armor), Craon, Château-Gontier and Laval, where peasants opposed a levy of volunteers for the army. At Saint-Ouën-des-Toits, in the department of Mayenne, Jean Cottereau (known as Jean Chouan) led the insurgents. His nickname probably came from his imitation of the call of the tawny owl (the chouette hulotte) for a recognition-signal. A reward was put on his head, but he managed to reach England in March 1793. The Republican administration recognised him and his brother as the leaders of the revolt."There are at their head", wrote the procureur syndic of Ernée, on 28 April 1793, "two men whose surname is Cottereau, called Chouan. We have promised a reward to whoever arrests them, but people must take precautions for these two individuals are very brave and very determined. If on your part you could seize them, this would render a true service to the public cause".
Uprising
First phase 1794–1795 By January 1794, the Vendéans of the , following a setback of the Virée de Galerne, tried to resist the infernal columns of General Louis Marie Turreau. 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.Christian Le Boutellier, La Révolution dans le Pays de Fougères, Société archéologique et historique de l'arrondissement de Fougères, 1989, p. 313 The small groups, led by Jean Chouan, Aimé du Boisguy and (nicknamed Jambe d'Argent, i.e. "Silver Leg"), had Chouans and Vendeans who survived the Virée de Galerne, leaders who were compromised in the peasant uprisings of March 1793 and even deserters.Roger Dupuy, les Chouans, p.36. Condemned to live in almost total secrecy, the Chouans knew that capture 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.
Using guerrilla warfare tactics, 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 and executed informers, constitutional priests and republicans, and many 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, the chief commander of the Army of the Coasts of Brest. A law enacted on 23 March 1793 mandated that captured insurgents were to be executed by firing squad or by guillotine within 24 hours. Rossignol also assembled groups of fake Chouan outlaws to do as much as possible to discredit the real Chouans.
Murders were carried out throughout the whole war with a varying degree of intensity, for example, in the district of Fougères, Chouans and a fluctuating number of Republicans, 219 people were assassinated or executed by Chouans and 300 by Republicans. This number did not include deaths during fights, summary executions on the battlefield or executions following the expeditive revolutionary due process of law.D'après Christian Le Bouteiller, Emile Pautrel, Notions d'Histoire et d'archéologie pour la région de Fougères, p.191
The Chouannerie spread quickly to Brittany and reached the Côtes-d'Armor, which was 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 . However, in Finistère and the west of Côtes-d'Armor, Basse-Cornouaille, Léon and Trégor did not take part in the uprising.
Georges Cadoudal and , 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 the 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, were not 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 since like in other départements, his authority as a Chouan chief only extended to his own canton. Joseph de Puisaye, a former officer who was compromised in the federalist revolts, realised the necessity of centralised command and attempted to assume the function of general-in-chief of the Chouans. Recognised by some chiefs, Puisaye embarked from Dinard to London on 11 September 1794 to meet the Comte d'Artois (the future King Charles X). Major-General Pierre Dezoteux de Cormatin, his second-in-command, assumed command in his absence.
Artois favoured absolute monarchy and distrusted Puisaye, who advocated parliamentary monarchy. However, after 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.
When Maximilien Robespierre fell on 28 July 1794, 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, comte de Provence, to stop fighting. On 26 December, Brigadier General Jean Humbert and the Chouan chief Boishardy met to discuss peace options. Puisaye tried to organise a landing from London, and his lieutenant, Cormatin, assumed full command and negotiated the peace treaty of La Mabilais in April 1795. He was followed by a few local leaders.Albert Soboul (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Quadrige/PUF, 1989, p. 219, entrée "Chouans/Chouannerie" par Roger Dupuy. Of the 121 leaders attending, only 21, including de Silz and Boishardy, signed the treaty.See "Quelques dates de l'histoire en France, en Bretagne, en Finistère et à Roscoff" et l'introduction de Reynald Secher à la bande-dessinée Chouannerie, 1789-1815, Fleurus, 1989. Cadoudal, escaped from Brest, rejected the treaty.
Second phase 1795–1796 Because neither side had negotiated in good faith, tension again increased following the death of Louis XVII on 8 June. The peace was broken on 26 August 1794 by General Lazare Hoche, who succeeded Jean Antoine Rossignol as head of the Army of the Coasts of Brest and 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 soldiers of the émigré army in Carnac. They joined Chouans led by Vincent de Tinténiac, and Jacques Anne Joseph Le Prestre de Vauban, the 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 counterattack 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 , scattered. The second column, led by Vincent de Tinténiac and 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 his way there at Coëtlogon on 18 July. They reached the bay of Saint-Brieuc, but since the British fleet had joined them, they returned to the Morbihan and appointed Cadoudal as their general.
Meanwhile, in Quiberon, reinforcements of 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, and Puisaye managed to board a British ship. The Republicans took more than 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 the Chief General, Joseph de Puisaye.
That letter had an enormous impact on the Chouans. A council of officers in Morbihan sentenced Puisaye to death in absentia. He returned to Brittany in autumn 1795, where he was arrested by Pierre-Mathurin Mercier and brought before Cadoudal. Puisaye defended himself vigorously and found that he still had the support of the Count of Artois. Cadoual and Puisaye eventually reconciled.
Guerilla fighting resumed after the failure of the British royalist expedition and spread to Normandy, where Louis de Frotté, who had freshly landed in France in 1795, organised an uprising.