On August 4, 1789, the National Constituent Assembly of France decreed the equality before the law of all French citizens and officially abolished feudal privileges. By the end of that same month, it approved the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, marking the practical beginning of the Revolution. The spark that triggered these innovations had occurred two weeks earlier: the collective panic over famine experienced by the peasantry when a rumor spread that the lords had plotted a conspiracy to destroy the harvests, which led to the organization of militias and the storming of mansions. This is what is known as the Grande Peur (the Great Fear).

Ironically, the revolutionary movement had begun with a confrontation between the crown and the upper classes when the latter refused to accept the taxes the government wanted to impose to deal with the country’s economic and financial crisis. In France, where massive population growth throughout the 18th century and the state’s inability to pay the national debt had caused prices to rise faster than wages while unemployment increased, the only solution proposed by Minister Calonne was to raise taxes—but the lower classes could no longer bear any more fiscal burden, so it was suggested that the upper classes should pay.

An assembly of notables convened in the early months of 1787 rejected the proposal, in what has come to be called the Revolt of the Privileged. The next meeting, at the behest of popular representatives, took place two years later at the Estates-General, which had not been convened since 1614. The six hundred deputies of the Third Estate equaled the number of those from the clergy and nobility, so they expected to be able to pass some reforms.

great fear french revolutions panic
The Great Fear depicted in an anonymous 18th-century painting. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

That did not happen because voting was not by individual but by estate and, as a result, all the demands recorded in the cahiers de doléances (grievance books—memorials of complaints and petitions drafted by local assemblies) were rejected.

Then the deputies of the Third Estate met on their own in a separate hall they called the National Assembly, and with the inclusion of members of a new emerging class—the bourgeoisie—they managed to attract some privileged deputies, escalating the situation by proposing to declare anyone who didn’t join them a rebel.

This marked the beginning of what in June became the National Assembly, which a wary Louis XVI ordered to be shut down—futilely, since the deputies gathered in the nearby tennis court and swore not to disband until they had given the country a constitution. On July 9, the Assembly became the Constituent Assembly. And then came the Great Fear.

great fear french revolutions panic
The Storming of the Bastille depicted in an anonymous painting. Credit: Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The conditions were ripe for it. The previous year had been marked by hunger because harvests had been poor since 1783 (due to bad weather apparently caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Laki), which led to an increase in looting, bringing back memories of the days when hordes of bandits roamed the countryside, pillaging and spreading terror. This sparked a rumor that the lords were organizing gangs to destroy the fields and weaken the peasants, who had begun to organize to demand a reduction of dues, an end to the reduction of common lands, and more favorable lease terms.

Likewise, the rumor was amplified by others, such as the classic idea of an invasion from a neighboring country—whether Piedmont, England, or even several allied nations; the Constituent Assembly itself accepted the story. Meanwhile, the price of bread skyrocketed and the price of wine collapsed, ruining winegrowers in Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Languedoc. Throughout 1788, laborers, farmhands, and day workers were left unemployed, and the first uprisings broke out in the markets. On July 14, the situation erupted with the storming of the Bastille and a march of women to Versailles to protest at the palace.

It was quite a change, since until then the peasantry had considered the king a protector to turn to in the face of the lords’ abuses, given the confrontation that had arisen between the crown and the privileged classes. Even so, before 1789 there were hardly any actions taken against them, or they were very localized (the journées des tuiles in Grenoble, the journées des bricoles in Rennes), not constituting a movement against the estate itself but rather against specific individuals. It was the Great Fear that introduced the novelty of generalization, contextualized by the uncertainty and power vacuum caused by the revolutionary process, as many local officials abandoned their posts.

great fear french revolutions panic
An ear of rye infected by Claviceps purpurea ergot fungus. Credit: Rasbak / Wikimedia Commons

The panic began in the Franche-Comté and spread in all directions in a chain reaction over six waves. Peasants organized into armed groups for self-defense, which worsened the situation, as they were mistaken elsewhere for the very bands they sought to protect themselves from. That prevailing confusion has led some historians to suggest a more tangible cause for the reaction to the Great Fear: Claviceps purpurea, an ergot fungus that causes hallucinations and was common in the flour of the time; in years of good harvests, infected grain was discarded, but during times of scarcity, peasants could not afford to waste anything, thus increasing the risk.

Be that as it may, when armed groups stormed estates and convents to take advantage of the moment and burn property titles and terrier books (which recorded the contracts, servitudes, debts, and obligations that tied them to the lords), rumors of destruction spread through those traveling from one village to another (traders, doctors, midwives…).

And once it became clear that there was no trace of the feared bandits or invaders, a second fabrication emerged: it was all a lie spread by the nobility to create instability while hoarding grain to speculate on its price.

The result was that the destruction extended from archives to mansions and abbeys, though sometimes personal attacks occurred as well; however, in most cases it was a matter of assaults, and only three cases of murder are known. It was not a coordinated movement but a spontaneous, improvised one with no connection between one location and another. That is why in some places the target of anger was only the nobility, while in others it extended to other well-off people, whether of noble blood or not (clergy, tax collectors, officials, wealthy farmers…), and in a few places there was no uprising at all—in fact, peasants even asked the lords for protection.

great fear french revolutions panic
Plaque erected in Igé in memory of those who died during the Great Fear. Credit: Chabe01 / Wikimedia Commons

In reality, it was not only poor farmers who participated in the unrest; wealthy individuals also took part—artisans, shopkeepers, millers… In general, anyone who was interested in the disappearance of the feudal system, which was the real objective, and hence a bourgeoisie eager for a new socioeconomic system also joined in, just as it later took the helm of the Revolution. That was a difference compared to earlier uprisings like those of the Croquants and the Grande Jacquerie; another difference was that now the movement had a national rather than the customary regional reach.

The National Constituent Assembly understood the underlying cause of the Great Fear: there were no bandits (modern studies reveal there were farmers, sharecroppers, vintners, weavers, carpenters, stonemasons, coopers, etc.) but rather opposition to the prevailing regime, and as mentioned at the beginning, on August 4, 1789, it decreed the abolition of all feudal rights (personal servitude, tithes, seigneurial justice), establishing equality before the law and taxes: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity was the chosen motto. In 1792, it would approve an amnesty that brought an end to the convictions stemming from the fierce repression carried out by the militias organized by a frightened bourgeoisie.

And those militias, created to protect against an uncertain threat, were the seed—especially Paris’s militia—of the Garde Nationale (National Guard), a volunteer force created that same summer of 1789 to maintain order amid the mistrust sparked by the king’s order to concentrate troops in the capital.

Essentially, it was the armed people, and both the police and judges and municipalities had to submit to it. The first aristocrats and priests who sensed the danger to come chose to go into exile, earning the nickname émigrés. The French Revolution had been unleashed.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on May 15, 2025: El Gran Miedo, el pánico colectivo a pasar hambre que desató la Revolución Francesa

SOURCES

Albert Soboul, Problemas campesinos de la revolución, 1789-1848

Micah Alpaugh, The People’s Revolution of 1789

Timothy Tackett, La Grande Peur et le complot aristocratique sous la Révolution française

Georges Lefebvre, La Grande Peur de 1789

Wikipedia, Gran Miedo

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