Feuillant (political group)

The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (French: Société des Amis de la Constitution), better known as Feuillants Club (French pronunciation: [fœjɑ̃] French: Club des Feuillants), was a political grouping that emerged during the French Revolution. It came into existence on 16 July 1791. The assembly split between the Feuillants on the right, who sought to preserve the position of the king and supported the proposed plan of the National Constituent Assembly for a constitutional monarchy; and the radical Jacobins on the left, who wished to press for a continuation of the overthrow of Louis XVI. It represented the last and most vigorous attempt of the moderate constitutional monarchists to steer the course of the revolution away from the radical Jacobins.

The Feuillant deputies publicly split with the Jacobins when they published a pamphlet on 16 July 1791, protesting the Jacobin plan to participate in the popular demonstrations against Louis XVI on the Champ de Mars the following day. Initially the group had 264 ex-Jacobin deputies as members, including most of the members of the correspondence committee.

The group held meetings in a former monastery of the Feuillant monks on the Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and came to be popularly called the Club des Feuillants. They called themselves the Amis de la Constitution. The group was led by Antoine Barnave, Alexandre de Lameth and Adrien Duport.