When the Glorious Revolution took place in Britain, Britain gradually transformed from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional monarchy. Yet unlike the French Revolution, its alliances, treaties, and mechanisms for resolving disputes with Europe's monarchies remained unchanged. France's newborn constitutional monarchy, however, rejected every principle and precedent, declaring that it would handle international relations just as it handled domestic affairs. This inevitably intensified the friction between France and Europe's monarchical courts.
News that Louis XVI had attempted to flee in 1791, only to be captured and brought back, quickly spread throughout Europe. The news not only shook the foundations of the entire nation, but also meant that if the king had escaped successfully, a civil war involving foreign intervention would have been unavoidable. All this had already happened in the Netherlands in 1787. The difference was that William V had been driven out of the Netherlands. His Prussian wife ostentatiously went to seek the regent's support for William V, only to be persuaded to turn back by South Holland's volunteers. Her brother, the King of Prussia, used this as a pretext to launch an invasion, ultimately leading to the collapse of the Dutch Patriot cause.
Throughout the German-speaking world, there had once been support for the "cause of reason" before the French Revolution. Before the 1780s, the Enlightenment had largely remained "moderate." Frederick the Great himself was fond of France's Enlightenment thinkers and even invited Voltaire to his court.
The king's flight rapidly worsened the situation. Factions within France that had once been vaguely neutral began choosing sides. By October of that year, the extreme Royalists and Louis XVI's confidants were all eager for war, believing that only war could restore the king, the court, and themselves to everything they had once possessed.
Many Frenchmen believed that war with Austria,