Sans-culottes

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Painted rendition of a sans-culottes.

Sans-culottes

Sans-culottes (French for without knee-breeches) was a term created 1790 - 1792 by the aristocracy to describe the poorer members of the Third Estate, according to the dominant theory because they usually wore pantaloons (full-length trousers or pants) instead of the chic knee-length culotte. The term came to refer to the ill-clad and ill-equipped volunteers of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, but, above all, to the working class extremists of the Revolution. From this comes the now slightly archaic term sansculottism or sans-culottism, meaning extreme egalitarian republican principles.

The sans-culottes were for the most part members of the poorer classes, or leaders of the populace, but during the Reign of Terror, public functionaries and persons of good education styled themselves citoyens sans-culottes.

The distinctive costume of typical sans-culottes featured:

the pantalon (long trousers) - in place of the culottes (knee-breeches) worn by the upper classes (hence the name 'without breeches')
the carmagnole (short-skirted coat)
the red cap of liberty
sabots (clogs, wooden footwear mainly worn in the countryside).

Their support came from domestic crises, such as shortages of bread, or political injustice. Led by extreme revolutionaries such as Jacques Hébert, the sans-culottes played a crucial role in such events as the September massacres of 1792, and supported the most radical left-wing factions in successive revolutionary governments. During the Reign of Terror, they provided important support for Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety; in March 1794, though, the government distanced itself from the Hébertists; Hébert himself was convicted by the very Revolutionary Tribunals he had lauded, and was guillotined; months later, in the Thermidorian Reaction, Robespierre would suffer the same fate.

The influence of the sans-culottes ceased with the reaction that followed the fall of Robespierre (July 1794), and the name itself became proscribed. Without effective leadership of their own, and no longer allied with the Jacobins, the sans-culottes largely ceased to be a major factor in French politics.

[edit] Derived terms

Sanculottism, from the French sanculottisme, originally refers to the period and 'patriotic' revolutionary movement of the sansculottes
The Republican Calendar at first termed the complementary days at the end of the year Sans-culottides; however, the National Convention suppressed the name when adopting the Constitution of the Year III (1795) and substituted the name jours complémentaires.