September 21, 1792

National Convention

The National Convention abolishes the French monarchy

On its very first day, the new Convention erased the kingship in a one-sentence decree — and no deputy rose to defend the monarchy.

21 September 1792: the Convention's first sitting

The newly elected National Convention — 749 deputies — opened in Paris on 21 September 1792, succeeding the Legislative Assembly. During that first sitting, the deputy Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois demanded that abolition of royalty not be delayed.

Henri Grégoire, deputy and cleric, spoke for abolition, arguing that discussion was unnecessary because the chamber already agreed. No deputy defended monarchy, and the Convention unanimously decreed that royalty was abolished in France.

Unanimous by acclamation, not by roll call

The decree was adopted by acclamation rather than a recorded roll-call vote, so 'unanimous' supplies no individual vote tally. The office, not the officeholder, was what fell that day: the Legislative Assembly had already suspended Louis XVI after the 10 August assault on the Tuileries.

Official compilations sometimes label this the decree of 21–22 September because of its promulgation and associated measures, but the abolition itself belongs securely to the 21st.

A republic that was never proclaimed

France stopped being legally a monarchy by the end of 21 September. There was no distinct formal proclamation of a republic the next day — instead, on 22 September the Convention ordered public acts dated from the first year of the French Republic, and on 25 September it declared the Republic one and indivisible.

Historians accordingly date the First Republic either from the abolition on 21 September or from the Year I dating order on 22 September; the later Republican calendar retrospectively began on 22 September.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

The abolition decree belongs securely to 21 September, although official compilations sometimes label it the decree of 21–22 September because of its promulgation and associated measures.
There was no distinct formal proclamation of the Republic on 22 September. Historians variously date the First Republic from the abolition on 21 September or from the Year I dating order on 22 September; the later Republican calendar retrospectively began on 22 September.