Émigrés, << EHM uh grayz >>, were people who fled France because of the French Revolution. The emigration began after the fall of the Bastille, a hated Paris prison, on July 14, 1789. The émigrés included people of every social class, but many were clergy or nobles who feared for their lives. Outside France, they became important in stirring up other governments against the revolutionary government in France. In 1792, an Austro–Prussian army invaded France. The émigrés persuaded its commander, the Duke of Brunswick, to threaten to level Paris if King Louis XVI was harmed. The declaration led the Parisians to depose the king and to organize a “commune,” a governing council that held power for over a month. The threat also caused them to demand a convention to give France a new constitution. As the French Revolution became more radical, some moderate revolutionaries emigrated. Among them was the Marquis de Lafayette.
After 1800, Napoleon I allowed the émigrés to return to France if they would serve him loyally. Most émigrés returned. But some did not. These included members of the royal Bourbon family who plotted against Napoleon. Their land was seized, and their relatives became subject to arrest. When the Bourbons returned after Napoleon’s fall, they wanted their land back. But they received money instead of the land.
