The Avranches massacre took place on 21 November 1793 in the context of the savage "Vendée" civil war that broke out in the west of France between 1793 and 1796, during the French Revolution.
[2] During their sweep north, the army of the Vendée counter-revolutionaries, their numbers swollen by volunteers in Brittany and Maine, moved on into Normandy in order to attack the port of Granville.
[4] The next day, 14 November, reinforced by a small number of sympathisers, the royalist army resumed their march towards Granville where, it was rumoured, they might be able to join up with a force from England.
[3] Granville was not far from Avranches, and the Vendée army arrived during the afternoon and successfully overran some suburbs before setting about the walls of the main town.
The siege of Granville became a decisive defeat for the royalist counter-revolutionaries, and without any obvious plan for this eventuality they returned inland in some disarray, heading initially for Avranches and then moving back towards Pontorson on 18 November, by now pursued by a republican force of 6,000 men from the Caen-based Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg, under the command of General Sepher [fr] and the government representative Jacques Léonard Laplanche [fr].
[4] On 21 November 1793, while the counter revolutionary Catholic and Royal Army and the republican forces confronted one another nearby in what would come to be known as the Battle of Dol, troops sent by General Sepher entered Avranches.
[5] The "Représentant" Jean-Baptiste Le Carpentier fueled the town council's concerns, accusing the townsfolk of cowardice or treason: "In a few more days, dear comrade citizens, I hope to be able to announce the annihilation of the new Vendée by the Channel and to incinerate, if necessary, the infamous Avranchinais(es)" ("Encore quelques jours, citoyens collègues, et j'espère vous annoncer l'anéantissement de la nouvelle Vendée de la Manche et brûler, s'il est nécessaire, l'infâme Avranches1").