#enghien

I do not think very highly of King Louis-Philippe I because of the political choices he made during his reign. However, there is one point that has always greatly puzzled me: his flight with Charles François Dumouriez in 1793.

Dumouriez became one of the most widely hated figures of the French Revolution because of his betrayal. Nearly every political camp turned against him: the republicans because of the scale of his treason and because he handed over the Minister of War to the Austrians; many people, such as Jean-Nicolas Pache and Lazare Carnot, had already distrusted him long before that (which frustrates me even more, because could they not have set aside their hostilities for a while in order to deal with the real problem, namely Dumouriez?). In my view, it is rather tragic that more was not done to stop him. Bonapartists and even royalists such as Louis Antoine de Bourbon also despised him, believing that he had simply “joined” their side after betraying his own.

Was the young Louis-Philippe directly involved in this betrayal? Or did he realize too late what Dumouriez had done, only when they crossed the border?

Earwig Lucile Hadzihalilovic. 2021

Palace Park 5, Av. Elisabeth, 7850 Enghien, Belgium See in map

B7850 Enghien