The Battle of Valmy

In Our Time: History

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most consequential battles of recent centuries. On 20th September 1792 at Valmy, 120 miles to the east of Paris, the army of the French Revolution faced Prussians, Austrians and French royalists heading for Paris to free Louis XVI and restore his power and end the Revolution. The professional soldiers in the French army were joined by citizens singing the Marseillaise and their refusal to give ground prompted their opponents to retreat when they might have stayed and won. The French success was transformative. The next day, back in Paris, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared the new Republic. Goethe, who was at Valmy, was to write that from that day forth began a new era in the history of the world.

With

Michael Rowe Reader in European History at King’s College London

Heidi Mehrkens Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen

And

Colin Jones Professor Emeritus of History at Queen Mary, University of London

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list

T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802 (Hodder Education, 1996)

Elizabeth Cross, ‘The Myth of the Foreign Enemy? The Brunswick Manifesto and the Radicalization of the French Revolution’ (French History 25/2, 2011)

Charles J. Esdaile, The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792-1801 (Routledge, 2018)

John A. Lynn, ‘Valmy’ (MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History, Fall 1992)

Munro Price, The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil (Macmillan, 2002)

Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (Penguin Books, 1989)

Samuel F. Scott, From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution (University Press of Colorado, 1998)

Marie-Cécile Thoral, From Valmy to Waterloo: France at War, 1792–1815 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production