FEUILLANTS, CLUB OF THE

French Club Des Feuillants, conservative political club of the French Revolution, which met in the former monastery of the Feuillants (Reformed Cistercians) near the Tuileries, in Paris. It was founded after Louis XVI's flight to Varennes (June 20, 1791), when a number of deputies, led by Antoine Barnave, Adrien Duport, and Alexandre de Lameth, left the Jacobin Club in opposition to a petition calling for the replacement of the king. These deputies, unlike those who remained with the Jacobins, feared the continuation of the Revolution, thinking it would result in the destruction of the monarchy and of private property. The Feuillants made up a substantial group in the Legislative Assembly, elected in September 1791 to implement the newly written constitution. They sat on the right of the assembly (indicating their conservative attitude), opposed the democratic movement, and upheld the constitutional monarchy. But the Jacobins gradually overshadowed the Feuillants, and the club disappeared when the insurrection of Aug. 10, 1792, overthrew the monarchy.