Lèse-nation

The English name for lèse-majesté is a modernised borrowing from the medieval French, where the term means a crime against The Crown.

It was immediately after the proclamation of the sovereignty of the nation, in the aftermath of the Tennis Court Oath from 20 June 1789, that the foundation for the law regarding the crime of lèse-nation was laid.

On 23 June 1789, the National Assembly announced that it will prosecute as criminals all those who, individuals or bodies, attack its existence or the freedom of its members.

"The events surrounding the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 played an important role in the development and implementation of the law.

Since the Storming of the Bastille, many denunciations and the ghost of the complot obliged the National Assembly to face the problem of the political incrimination.

It describes intentions that harm the nation and was modelled on the traditional crime of lèse-majesté as if to better illustrate the transfer of sovereignty.

By taking into account the emerging regime's increasing fears of a counter-revolution, it became one of the most important legal measures at the beginning of the Revolution.

The weak judicial effectiveness of the law regarding the crime of lèse-nation contrasted with its political ambition.

And Maximilien Robespierre reminded his fellow revolutionaries in a speech on 25 October 1790 when it came to introducing new laws and establishing the judiciary: "The tribunal that you have formed must be endowed with courage and armed force, because it will have to fight against the great ones, who are enemies of the people."

Not only because he was a foreigner, a close friend of Queen Marie Antoinette and one of the first accused of the crime of lèse-nation, but also because of his fame and his famous friends who campaigned for his release, such as the Marquis de Lafayette, Jacques Necker and the Comte de Mirabeau.

[9][10][11][12][13][14] In addition, as early as October 1789, the report of the Commission of Inquiry revealed that the only document currently in existence that could convict the Baron de Besenval of a crime of lèse-nation is a copy of a note written to the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, in which the baron said: "Defend yourself to the last extreme, I will send you reinforcements."

The original of this document no longer existed and the copy was not sufficient for a conviction in court, at least that's what was officially claimed.