By the summer of 1792 France was at war with several European monarchies, and the revolutionary government in Paris was under immense pressure. The Prussian army had invaded France and was advancing towards the capital, creating a sense of panic among the revolutionaries. Adding to the tension the Prussian commander issued his ‘Brunswick Manifesto’ in July that threatened the French population with violence if they attacked the king.

This fuelled widespread suspicion that royalists and other counter-revolutionaries were plotting to overthrow the revolutionary government from within, and the number of arrests increased. On August 10, King Louis XVI himself was arrested when the Tuileries Palace was stormed. Two weeks later, news reached the capital that Prussian forces had captured Verdun, heightening the fear of an imminent attack on Paris.

With the prisons full of suspected counter-revolutionaries, the radical journalist and politician Jean-Paul Marat urged the citizens of Paris to take up arms and eliminate these ‘enemies of the revolution’. Georges Danton, a member of the provisional government, also made a speech that acted as a call to action.

At around 2.30pm on 2 September the first wave of violence occurred at the prison of Abbaye, where a group of prisoners were killed by a mob. The violence quickly spread to other prisons, and over the course of several days approximately 1,400 prisoners were killed. While many victims were non-jurying priests or those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities, hundreds of common criminals and others were also massacred.

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