Chouannerie
슈앙 반란
The royalist peasant guerrilla war waged against the Republic in twelve departments north of the Loire, chiefly Brittany, Maine, Normandy and northern Anjou, during the French Revolution. It took its name from Jean Cottereau, known as Jean Chouan, who led resistance in Mayenne in 1792, and unfolded in three phases from the spring of 1794 to 1800. Unlike the Catholic and Royal Army of the Vendée it never held a town and fought in small dispersed bands.
In depth
In 1791 peasants around Vannes rose to defend their bishop against the oath, and in the summer of 1792 at Saint-Ouën-des-Toits in Mayenne Jean Cottereau led peasants who opposed a levy of volunteers; his nickname Chouan is said to come from his imitation of the tawny owl’s call as a signal. The rising against conscription north of the Loire in March 1793 was soon put down, but after the Virée de Galerne had passed in the autumn small groups led by Jean Chouan, Aimé du Boisguy and Jean-Louis Treton, “Silver Leg”, rose again on the borders of Mayenne and Ille-et-Vilaine around Fougères, Vitré and Laval. They mixed Vendéans who had survived the Virée, leaders compromised in the risings of March 1793 and deserters, and many wanted to avenge relatives who had disappeared. In groups of a few score or a few hundred they ambushed detachments, couriers and coaches carrying public funds, attacked Republican towns and executed informers, constitutional priests and administrators, while the Republicans answered with fortified towns and territorial guards. In March 1794 the movement reached Morbihan, where Georges Cadoudal, a survivor of Savenay, became its leader. Joseph de Puisaye, a former officer compromised in the federalist revolts, saw the need for a central command, crossed to London in September 1794, won the support of the Count of Artois and Pitt and was named general-in-chief of the Catholic and Royal Army of Brittany on 15 October.
When the Convention opened to negotiation after Thermidor, Puisaye’s deputy Cormatin signed the treaty of La Mabilais in April 1795, but only 21 of the 121 leaders present signed it. Tension rose after the death of Louis XVII, and when a British fleet landed émigré troops at Quiberon on 23 June 1795, 15,000 Chouans joined them only to be crushed by Hoche. The guerrilla war spread to Normandy under Louis de Frotté. Hoche, in command of all forces in the west from December 1795, pacified the Vendée first in early 1796 with mobile columns, amnesty for those who surrendered, freedom of worship and army discipline, then turned on the Chouans: Scépeaux surrendered on 14 May, Cadoudal signed peace on 19 June, Frotté’s lieutenants on 23 June and Boisguy on 26 June. Conscription and the law of hostages provoked a third rising in 1799, ended by the treaties of Montfaucon and Beauregard in January 1800. Cadoudal was executed in 1804 for a plot against Bonaparte, and small chouanneries flared again in 1815 during the Hundred Days and in 1832 with the Duchess of Berry. Balzac’s Les Chouans and Hugo’s Ninety-Three drew on the rising.