Bals des victimes

The bals des victimes, or victims' balls, were balls that were said to have been put on by dancing societies after the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. To be admitted to these societies and balls, one had to be a near relative of someone who had been guillotined during the Terror. The balls came to prominence after the downfall and death of Robespierre, supposedly first being held in early 1795 and first mentioned in popular writing in 1797.^[1] While anecdotal evidence^[2] attests to the balls' occurrence, and generations of French and non-French historians described them and accepted them as fact, some recent scholarship, citing a near-total lack of primary evidence, argues that they may have been fabrications based on rumor.^[1] Historian David Bell concludes: "The bals des victimes... never took place — they were an invention of early nineteenth-century Romantic authors."^[3]

The bals des victimes allegedly began as part of a rash of merrymaking and balls that broke out as the Terror came to an end. According to one source, they emerged as an idea of youths whose parents and other near relatives had gone to the guillotine, and to whom the revolution had now restored their relatives' confiscated property. Reveling in the return of fortune they established aristocratic, decadent balls open to themselves alone.^[4]

Descriptions of the balls' particulars vary, but the common thread is that they were a cathartic device in which the participants acted out the emotional impact of their relatives' executions and the social upheavals occurring as a result of the revolution. Many who described the balls, often generations afterwards, nevertheless found them a scandalous idea. Whether real or imagined, the very idea of the balls reflected the post-Terror generations' morbid fascination with the horror of the guillotine and the excesses of the French Revolution with its mass executions.

Those who attended the orgiastic balls reportedly wore mourning clothes or elaborate costumes with crepe armbands signifying mourning. Some accounts have both men and women wearing plain but scanty dress in the wake of the impoverishment of the Revolution,^[5] at least until the return of their fortunes at which time ball dress became highly elaborate.^[6] Others describe women, in the fashion of Merveilleuses,^[7] dressing scandalously in Greco-Roman attire, with their feet bare, in sandals, or adorned only by ribbons,^[8] a possible allusion to the fact that women often went barefoot to the guillotine.^[9] The style of dress at such a ball was known by some as the "costume à la victime."^[5] Women, and by some accounts men too, wore a red ribbon or string around their necks at the point of a guillotine blade's impact. Both men and women attending the balls were said to have worn or cut their hair in a fashion that bared their necks in a manner reflecting the haircut given the victim by the executioner, women often using a comb known as a cadenette to achieve this fashion.^[10] According to some, this was the origin of the feminine hairstyle known as the "coiffure à la victime" or more popularly the "coiffure à la Titus",^[11] or (in England) "à la guillotine".^[12] Some sources state that a woman sporting this hairstyle sometimes wore a red shawl or throat ribbon even when not attending a bal des victimes.

In another macabre touch, instead of a graceful bow or bob of the head to one's dancing partner, a man who attended a bal des victimes would jerk his head sharply downwards in imitation of the moment of decapitation.^[6] Some sources suggest that women, too, adopted this salutation.^[13]

The twenty-four months from July, 1794, to July, 1796, placed enormous pressures on the people of France and their government. These pressures included civil wars in western France, wars with most of Europe, a famine in 1795, a new constitution in 1795, economic collapse, and two insurrections in Paris - one in July of 1794 to end the terror, and a second in the fall of 1795 by royalists hostile to the revolutionary government and 1795 constitution. The authorities in Paris were extremely anxious about a second royalist uprising within the city throughout 1796.

The restrictions placed upon balls and gatherings in Paris in early 1797 - banning masks, etc. were an expression of this concern. Thus, we need to see these bals des victimes initially, at least, as political and social gatherings, where royalists and those who had suffered under the terror could gather together, support one another, and cohere as a political and social force. The imposition of an early curfew forced hosts and guests to remain within the ball hall after 10:30. Rumors of what occurred within the walls naturally emerged from the ranks of the excluded.

The bals des victimes were one group of balls among many. The restrictions the state placed upon dress and behavior are important parts of any study of individualism, liberty, and personal expression. The balls and festivals of 1797 and the laws regulating such activities are of special interest to many keen to better understand the dynamics of the closing years of the French Revolution.

That people dance and sing to escape sadness and toil is a timeless fact of human life, and of agrarian life in particular. That those in cities, especially those who toil and suffer from political persecution, seek to lift their moods by gathering with friends, and fellow sufferers to dance and sing, seems normal, natural, healthy and right.

Accounts of the bals des victimes have long fascinated the public and scholars alike. One question dominates all discussions of the bals des victimes. Did these dress balls, held in Paris for those who suffered under the revolutionary terror, actually occur during the years 1795 to 1800?

An article in the May, 2022 issue of Gericault Life Magazine ^[14] provides concrete evidence that the bals des victimes did indeed take place. Letters from an English diplomat who attended at least one of these balls, in early 1797, to his wife, as well as numerous references to the bals des victimes in the Paris press, then, present us with a rich picture detailing where and when some of these balls took place, and some of what occurred there.

Two press reports from the May 2022 article on the bals des victimes (with summary translations) help us learn more. The first report includes the earliest mentions of the "bals de victimes" in the French press. The second press report provides political and cultural context - describing the restrictions the Paris authorities placed upon those holding and attending balls.

1797 L’Ami de la Patrie ou Journal de la Liberté Française, 16 Pluviôse An V (4 February, 1797), “Le tableau de Paris assure que pour entrer dans les bals de la femme Valence, il faut avoir eu des parens guillotinés... Les bals de la Valence sont appellés bals des victimes...“

The first press report in L'Ami is a reply to an earlier article in Le Tableau from which readers learn that "entry to balls held by the femme Valence is offered only to those whose relations had been guillotined...The Valence balls are called balls of the victims."

1797 Journal de Paris, 28 Pluviôse An V (16 February, 1797) “Bureau Central du Canton de Paris. Pour prévenir les atteintes que les deguissements peuvent porter à la sureté publique, le bureau central... interdit les bals de nuit passé dix heures & demie, les déguissemens, les travestissemens & l’usage des masques. Les contrevenans seront arrêtés, & traduits devant les officiers de police.”

The second press report in Le Censeur announces that " balls had to end by 10:30 pm under penalty of prosecution and that those wearing masks, disguises, or cross-dressing are subject to arrest."

The first press reports in L'Ami may be the original media discussion of the "bals des victimes." The 10:30 curfew cited in Le Censeur compelled/invited guests to remain within the ball hall overnight. Late-night balls and parties were common across Europe. The only distinction in Paris was that individuals could not leave a ball until early in the morning.

• Ci-devant
• The French Revolution: A History
• Hôtel Thellusson, where bals des victimes were organized
• Incroyables and Merveilleuses
• Jules Michelet
• Thermidorian Reaction

• Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France: Revolution and Remembrance, 1789-1799 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
• Katell Le Bourhis, Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990).
• Aileen Ribeiro, Fashion in the French Revolution (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1988).