LA CROIX DES VENDEENS

The end of the monarchy
The French people attacked the Tuileries on 10 August 1972. King Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The Convention, the republican government that had been set up, called for 300,000 men to be raised on 24 February. A peasant insurrection then broke out on 11 and 12 March in Machecoul and led to massacres until April.

A civil war
The rioters included François de Charette de La Contrie, known as Charette, René Souchu and Abbé Prioul. In the Pays de Retz, other bands formed around the surgeon Jean-Baptiste Joly, the merchant Louis Guérin and de la Cathelinière.
The inhabitants of Chéméré and other surrounding parishes took refuge in the Princé forest, thinking they would be safe away from the fighting. The Bleus, having been informed, massacred them (around 2,000 dead).
On 25 March 1796, Charette was wounded and arrested in the Bois de La Chabotterie by the troops of General Jean-Pierre Travot. He was shot in Nantes.