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The Battles of Fontenay-le-Comte were fought on 16 May 1793 and on 25 May 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between forces of the French Republic under Alexis Chalbos and Royalist forces under Marquis de Lescure and Charles de Bonchamps. The battle was fought near the town of Fontenay-le-Comte in Vendée, France, and ended in a Royalist victory. The first battle resulted in the town's successful resistance to the insurgent army; the second battle resulted in the Vendean victory. ==Background== In 1791, two representatives on mission informed the National Convention of the disquieting condition of Vendée, and this news was quickly followed by the exposure of a royalist plot organized by the Marquis de la Rouerie. It was not until the social unrest combined with the external pressures from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and the introduction of a levy of 300,000 on the whole of France, decreed by the National Convention in February 1793, that the region erupted.〔James Maxwell Anderson (2007). ''Daily Life During the French Revolution,'' Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-33683-0. (p. 205 )〕〔François Furet (1996). ''The French Revolution, 1770–1814: 1770–1814'' Blackwell Publishing, France ISBN 0-631-20299-4. (p. 124 )〕 The Civil Constitution of the Clergy required all clerics to swear allegiance to it and, by extension, to the increasingly anti-clerical National Constituent Assembly. All but seven of the 160 French bishops refused the oath, as did about half of the parish priests.〔Joes, Anthony James (Resisting Rebellion: The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency ) 2006 University Press of Kentucky ISBN 0-8131-2339-9. p.51〕 Persecution of the clergy and of the faithful was the first trigger of the rebellion. Nonjuring priests had been exiled or imprisoned. Women on their way to Mass were beaten in the streets. Religious orders had been suppressed and Church property, confiscated.〔 On 3 March 1793, virtually all the churches were ordered closed. Soldiers confiscated sacramental vessels and the people were forbidden to place crosses on graves.〔Joes, p.52〕 Nearly all the purchasers of church land were bourgeois; very few peasants benefited from the sales.〔Charles Tilly, "Local Conflicts in the Vendée before the rebellion of 1793", French Historical Studies II, fall 1961, page 219.〕 To add to this insult, on 23 February 1793 the Convention required the raising of an additional 300,000 troops from the provinces, an act which enraged the populace,〔 who took up arms instead as "The Catholic Army"; the term "Royal" was added later. This army fought first and foremost for the reopening of parish churches with the former priests.〔Joes, pp. 52–53.〕 In March 1793, as word of the conscription requirements filtered into the countryside, many Vendéans refused to satisfy the decree of the ''levee en masse'' issued on 23 February 1793. Within weeks the rebel forces had formed a substantial, if ill-equipped, army, the ''Royal and Catholic Army'', supported by two thousand irregular cavalry and a few captured artillery pieces. Most of the insurgents operated on a much smaller scale, using guerrilla tactics, supported by the unparalleled local knowledge and the good-will of the people.〔(General Hoche and Counterinsurgency )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Fontenay-le-Comte」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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