From Coblenz to Hartwell: the Émigré Government and the European Powers, 1791–1814

Abstract

When the Comte de Provence arrived in Brussels on 26 June 1791, after his flight from France, he found himself at the head of what he termed, in the memoir he wrote later that summer, ‘une des plus grandes machines qui aient jamais existe’, namely the emigre government.’ The emigre government was of a different nature to its rival under the Queen’s favourite, the Baron de Breteuil, or to any government in exile maintained by later French pretenders, Bourbon, Orleans or Bonaparte. In its council of Ministers sat such notable former ministers of Louis XVI as Calonne, the Marechaux de Broglie and de Castries. By early 1792 it had established its own diplomats in twelve capitals,2 including London, Vienna and Saint Petersburg, where emigre representatives remained until 1814. There was chaos in the emigre government’s finances.3 Nevertheless, by the summer of 1792 it had organised an army of 14 249. One sign of the emigre government’s readiness both to disobey even those acts of Louis XVI dating from before 1789, and to strengthen links between the Crown and the nobility, was the inclusion in its army of the Compagnies Nobles d’Ordonnance.