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.

According to Ronald Schecter, the balls came to prominence after the downfall and death of Robespierre, supposedly first being held in early 1794 and first mentioned in popular writing in 1797.Ronald Schechter (Winter 1998), "Gothic Thermidor: The Bals des victimes, the Fantastic, and the Production of Historical Knowledge in Post-Terror France," Representations, No. 61, pp. 78, 79. While anecdotal evidenceThe Times, 29 July 1797, p. 3: "Great dissentions having taken place respecting etiquette and precedency at the Victims Ball at Paris, it has been determined that the Guillotine should have the first rank, and open the ball..." 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, has argued that they may have been fabrications based on rumor.

In 2007, historian David A. Bell concluded that "[t]he bals des victimes... never took place—they were an invention of early nineteenth-century Romantic authors."David A. Bell, The First Total War (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), p. 192. Background

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.Octave Uzanne, The Frenchwoman of the Century (London, J.C. Nimmo, 1886), pp. 9-12.

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,Lady Catherine Hannah Charlotte Jackson, The French Court and Society: Reign of Louis XVI and First Empire, vol. 2 (London, Richard Bentley & Son, 1881), 207-210, at least until the return of their fortunes at which time ball dress became highly elaborate.Octave Uzanne, The Frenchwoman of the Century (London, J.C. Nimmo, 1886), p. 12. Others describe women, in the fashion of Merveilleuses,Thomas Carlyle,The French Revolution: A History, vol.3 (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1851), Bk. 7, Ch. 2, 347-50. dressing scandalously in Greco-Roman attire, with their feet bare, in sandals, or adorned only by ribbons,"The Tragedy of the Temple," Catholic World 21 (April-Sept. 1875), pp. 227-28 a possible allusion to the fact that women often went barefoot to the guillotine."Women's Fashions Under the Influence of Guillotine," The style of dress at such a ball was known by some as the "costume à la victime." 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.Lady Catherine Hannah Charlotte Jackson, The French Court and Society: Reign of Louis XVI and First Empire, vol. 2 (London, Richard Bentley & Son, 1881), 207, 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",Octave Uzanne, The Frenchwoman of the Century (London, J.C. Nimmo, 1886), pp. 13-14. or (in England) "à la guillotine".The Times, 9 September 1796, p. 2: "The Ladies who turn up their hair behind, a la guillotine, wish, no doubt, to impress their suitors..." 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. Some sources suggest that women, too, adopted this salutation.Franðcois Gendron, The Gilded Youth of Thermidor (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993), p. 32.

Social and cultural context 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.

Historicity

Henry Swinburne

In a 2022 article in the self-published Gericault Life MagazinePaul Harper, "1797 Bals des Victimes," Gericault Life Magazine, May, 2022. Paul Harper assembled a list of contemporary press reports, (some of which are cited here) and the letters of Henry Swinburne as evidence that the bals des victimes did indeed take place. (Updated on May 18, 2026 to include David A. Bell's favorable response.) Henry Swinburne was based in Paris from September 1796 to December 1797, as a commissioner tasked with arranging prisoner exchanges between England and France. A collection of his letters to his family from this period, published posthumously in 1841, contain several references relevant to the subject of the .

1797 Press Reports

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.

Bals des victimes

Bron en licentie