Editing Provence (section)

=== During the French Revolution ===
{{Main|French Revolution}}
Most of Provence, with the exception of Marseille, Aix and Avignon, was rural, conservative and largely royalist, and the Revolution was as violent and bloody in Provence as it was in other parts of France. On 30 April 1790, [[Fort Saint-Nicolas in Marseille]] was besieged, and many of the soldiers inside were massacred. On 17 October 1791, a massacre of royalists and religious figures took place in the ice storage rooms ({{lang|fr|glacières}}) of the prison of the [[Palais des Papes|Palace of the Popes]] in Avignon.

[[File:marche-des-marseillois.jpg|thumb|left|[[La Marseillaise]], 1792]]

When the radical [[Montagnard (French Revolution)|Montagnards]] seized power from the [[Girondins]] in May 1793, a real counter-revolution broke out in Avignon, Marseille and Toulon. A revolutionary army under [[Jean François Carteaux|General Carteaux]] recaptured Marseille in August 1793 and [[city renaming|renamed]] it "City without a Name" ({{lang|fr-FR|[[Ville-sans-nom|Ville sans Nom]]}}.) In Toulon, the opponents of the Revolution handed the city to a British and Spanish fleet on 28 August 1793. A Revolutionary Army laid siege to the British positions for four months (see the [[Siege of Toulon]]) and finally, the enterprise of the young commander of artillery, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] defeated the British and drove them out in December 1793. About 15,000 royalists escaped with the British fleet, but five to eight hundred of the 7,000 who remained were shot on the [[Champ de Mars (Toulon)|Champ de Mars]], and Toulon was renamed {{lang|fr-FR|Port la Montagne}}.

The fall of the Montagnards in July 1794 was followed by a new [[First White Terror|White Terror]] aimed at the revolutionaries. Calm was not restored until the rise of the [[French Directory|Directory]] to power in 1795.

Provence produced some memorable figures in the French Revolution; both moderates such as the [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|comte de Mirabeau]] and figures of the far left such as the [[Marquis de Sade]]; there was also the military figure [[Charles Barbaroux]] and the theorist [[Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès]] (1748–1836), who instigated the coup of [[18 Brumaire]] which brought [[Napoleon]] to power. The revolutionary anthem {{lang|fr-FR|[[La Marseillaise]]}} despite its origins on the [[Army of the Rhine|Rhine]] got its name because revolutionary volunteers from Marseille sang it on the streets of Paris.