Dieu, le Roi Vendée Catholic Sacred Heart Shirt

This design features the Sacred Heart of the Vendean royalist insurgents with the French motto 'Dieu, le Roi' which means 'God, the King' and pays tribute to the counter-revolutionary, Royalist uprising in the Vendée region of France during the French Revolution.The Vendée was the epicentre of the largest counter-revolutionary uprising of the French Revolution. In March 1793 its residents, never much engaged with the Paris-based revolution or its ideas, took up arms against the National Convention. There were many reasons for this uprising but chief among them were rising land taxes, the national government’s attacks on the church, the execution of Louis XVI, the expansion of the revolutionary war and the introduction of conscription. The people of the Vendée would pay a heavy price for their resistance. The government’s response was swift and triggered an internecine war in the region. The fight for control of the Vendée lasted three years and produced violence and mass killing that left the Parisian Terror in its wake. Historians suggests a conservative death toll of 58,000 but the real loss of life in the Vendée in 1793-96 may well be closer to 200,000. Perfect for people interested in the French Revolution and Christian history. They adopted Dieu et Roi (‘God and King’) as its motto; its officers wore the white cockade of the Bourbon monarchy, its soldiers the Sacre Couer (‘Sacred Heart’). They had little or no training and were poorly equipped, many armed with scythes and pikes rather than muskets. What followed in the Vendée was a campaign of recriminations that bordered on genocide. Under the direction of représentants en mission from Paris, Republican forces began slaughtering Vendean royalists, irrespective of their age, gender or activities. The National Convention, having already sanctioned the Reign of Terror, authorised the formation of 12 army divisions called the Colonnes Infernales (‘Infernal Columns’). Under the command of General Louis Marie Turreau, these columns swept through the Vendée in the first half of 1794. They crisscrossed the province, tearing down buildings, burning crops and leaving death and destruction in their wake. The instruments of the Terror were then focussed on the Vendée, where more than 6,000 people – including 400 children – were executed. Some were guillotined but most were shot, stabbed, bayoneted or forcibly drowned. Farms, crops and forests were burned across the Vendée, affecting the innocent as well as the rebels... (CREDIT: https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/vendee-uprising/ )