Editing Koblenz (section)

===French Revolution===

====Home of Royalist émigrés====

When the [[French Revolution]] broke out, Koblenz became a popular hub of royalist émigrés and escaping feudal lords who had fled France.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 4
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=216
}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>  It was sometime in mid-1791, after June but before October, that supporters of loyalty in Koblenz (as well as [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] and [[Brussels]]) were preparing an invasion of France that was to be supported by foreign armies, with conspirators regularly travel between Koblenz and [[Tuileries Palace]], accepting encouragement and money from King [[Louis XVI]], while secret committees were collecting arms and enrolling men and officers.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 30
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=242
}}</ref>  Among the notable émigrés living at Koblenz were Charles, [[Count of Artois]], (future [[Charles X of France|Charles X]]), ex-minister [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]], and  Louis, [[Count of Provence]] (future [[Louis XVIII]]).  Officers and men were recruited through the Gazette de Paris (sixty [[Livre tournois|livres]] for each recruit), and the enrolled men were then sent to [[Metz]] and afterwards to Koblenz, and in a visit by Claude Allier to Koblenz in January 1792, he stated that 60,000 men were armed and ready to take action.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 31
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=243
}}</ref>

====Near destruction by Royalist forces====

On July 26, 1792, the [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick|Duke of Brunswick]], who commanded one of the invading armies, composed of 70,000 Prussians and 68,000 Austrians, Hessians and émigrés, began to march upon Koblenz.  He published a manifesto in which he threatened to set fire to the towns that dared to defend themselves, and to exterminate their inhabitants as rebels, including Koblenz.  The city's fate was at hand.  But, just as in World War 1, the torrential rains and difficult conditions of the [[Forest of Argonne|Argonne]] forest halted the invaders, the roads "were liquid mud," and supplies began to run out due to weather impacting supply lines.  The radical revolutionary [[Georges Danton]] negotiated with the Duke of Brunswick, under unknown conditions, for his retreat, which was carried out through [[Grandpré, Ardennes|Grand-Pré]] and [[Verdun]], then across the [[Rhine]], and the city of Koblenz was saved.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 37
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=249
}}</ref>

====Participation in the Vendee uprising====

In 1793, the uprising of [[War in the Vendée|Catholic peasants at the Vendée]] aimed at the overthrow of the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]], which began only after emissaries from Koblenz traveled there, bringing [[papal bull]]s, royal decrees and gold.  In escaping the watchful eye of French revolutionary forces, these emissaries were aided and protected by the middle classes, the ex-slave-traders of [[Nantes]], and the anti-[[sans-culottes]], pro-England merchants.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 54
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=266
}}</ref>

====Overall influence====

Due to their experience in the French Revolution, [[Peter Kropotkin]] had termed the phrase ''Koblenzian'' to describe the type of royalist émigrés that lived in Koblenz.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793
 | chapter=Chapter 58
 | author=Peter Kropotkin
 | year=1909
 | translator=N. F. Dryhurst
 | publisher=New York: Vanguard Printings
 | url=http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=270
}}</ref>