The Great Fear Sweeps the Countryside
Rumors of an aristocratic plot set off peasant attacks on manors across rural France
Quick facts
- Location
- Rural France, nationwide
- Date
- Late July to early August 1789
- Trigger
- Rumors of an aristocratic plot to destroy the harvest
- Result
- Accelerated the Assembly's abolition of feudal privileges
What happened
In the weeks after the Bastille fell, rumors spread through rural France that nobles were hiring brigands to destroy the harvest and punish peasants for the Revolution. Panicked communities armed themselves against attacks that never came, and in many areas the fear turned into a real uprising: peasants who paid feudal dues to local seigneurs and knew their lords would never willingly surrender them attacked manor houses, burning the documents that recorded feudal obligations and destroying mills and wine presses owned by nobles. The wave of panic and rural violence, known as the Great Fear (la Grande Peur), spread across most of the country by early August before subsiding.
Why it matters
The Great Fear forced the issue of feudal privilege onto the National Assembly's agenda immediately. Deputies meeting in Paris knew that unless they acted, the countryside would keep burning, and the panic directly precipitated the marathon overnight session of 4 August that abolished the feudal system.
How we know
World History Encyclopedia's account draws on Georges Lefebvre's classic study The Great Fear of 1789, still the standard scholarly reconstruction of the rumor's spread and the resulting attacks on manors.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Great Fear · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Great Fear · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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