Campagne des banquets

The campagne des banquets (English: campaign of banquets) was a series of politically subversive meetings during the July Monarchy in France in 1847. The campaign, which destabilized King Louis Philippe I, officially took place from 9 July to 25 December but in fact continued until the February 1848 Revolution, in which the Second Republic was proclaimed. During the campaign, the Republican triptych Liberté, égalité, fraternité resurfaced, including in Lille with Ledru-Rollin.

The banquets were private political meetings which were a way to circumvent the 1835 act prohibiting public assemblies. The first session was in Paris on 9 July 1847, and progressively spread to all of the French provinces. The prohibition of one of these meetings by François Guizot's cabinet, supposed to take place on 14 January 1848 in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, and then of another one set up for 22 February 1848, were the immediate cause of the riots which led to Louis-Philippe's abdication.