The Fatherland in Danger and the Brunswick Manifesto

By summer 1792 France faced invasion. In June the king vetoed decrees against refractory priests and for a camp of provincial National Guards near Paris, and dismissed Girondin ministers. On 20 June crowds invaded the Tuileries and forced the king to wear a red cap of liberty, though he refused to withdraw his vetoes. On 11 July the Assembly declared 'the fatherland in danger', calling for volunteers.

Volunteers from Marseille marched into Paris singing a new war song that became known as the Marseillaise. Then the Duke of Brunswick, commanding the Prussian-led army, issued a manifesto, published in Paris at the start of August, threatening Paris with severe punishment if the royal family were harmed. Intended to intimidate, it backfired: it seemed to prove that the king was in league with the enemy and made his overthrow far more likely.