The Foundation recently acquired a rare and important pamphlet entitled To the Friends of the Constitution relating to the French Revolution. It consists of ten pages written in French by Pierre-Louis Couedic and printed in 1791 in Paris by Nicolas-Leger Moutard.
The French Revolution is considered to have begun with the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and ended with Napoleon’s coup d’etat in 1799. The document will be the centre-piece in an exhibition about the French Revolution that will be available to schools and other organizations. The display includes coins and banknotes and will be particularly interesting to students learning French and their teachers. Research Associate, Dr Peter Lewis, will be available to explain the display and run through the PowerPoint presentation with the teachers if required.
Couedic was a member of the Jacobin club, the most influential political group in Paris. The king, Louis XVI, had been caught trying to flee from France, but Couedic wanted him to continue as a constitutional monarch. He proposed that a council of citizens be established to act as guardians of the constitution.