Catholic and Royal Army
가톨릭 왕당군
The name adopted from 30 April 1793 by the peasant and artisan insurgents of the Vendée region of western France who had risen against conscription in March. It was divided into three branches, the “Grand Army” of Anjou and Haut-Poitou, the army of the Centre and the “Army of the Marshes” of Bas-Poitou and the Pays de Retz, led by commanders such as Cathelineau, d’Elbée, La Rochejaquelein, Charette and Stofflet. Destroyed at Savenay in December 1793, it was rebuilt only on paper; the Chouan bands north of the Loire also took the name.
In depth
When the Vendée rose in mid-March 1793, the Anjou bands under Bonchamps called themselves the “Christian army”; by the end of the month the names “Catholic and Roman army” and “Catholic and Royal army” appeared, which the historian Claude Petitfrère thinks were chosen by the noble leaders rather than the people. An army of Anjou and an army of Poitou and the Centre were set up on 4 April and merged on 30 April into the Catholic and Royal Army, without a unified command. On 30 May a Superior Council of the Vendée was created at Châtillon-sur-Sèvre to administer the conquered territory and the army was reorganised in three branches: the army of Anjou and Haut-Poitou east of the Sèvre Nantaise, called the “Grand Army” or “Army of the Bocage”, 40,000 men under Cathelineau, Bonchamps, d’Elbée, Stofflet, La Rochejaquelein, Lescure and Lyrot; the army of the Centre, 10,000 men under Royrand and the Sapinauds; and the army of Bas-Poitou and the Pays de Retz between the Sèvre and the Atlantic, 15,000 men under Charette, Joly and others. At Saumur on 12 June the noble commanders elected the commoner Cathelineau generalissimo.
Despite its name the army was a loose grouping of bands that followed their chief’s local following. The only almost permanent units were the “parish companies” of relatives and neighbours, which elected their captains. Two thirds of the insurgents were peasants, but peasants made up only half of the companies, the rest being artisans, shopkeepers and weavers. The peasants went home after each battle, so the Vendéans could not hold the towns they took, Angers, Saumur, Thouars and Fontenay, and regular units recruited from Republican deserters and German and Swiss soldiers filled the gap. Medical and supply services were rudimentary, arms and ammunition came mostly from captures, the cavalry consisted of noble chiefs, gamekeepers and peasants on farm horses, and the artillery of old culverins taken from châteaux, so the army could not face a strong Republican force in open country or breach the walls of a fortified town such as Granville. Its tactic was the ambush in the bocage of hedgerows and sunken lanes. After its destruction at Savenay in December 1793 the army was rebuilt only on paper and the rising became a chouannerie.