Thomas Paine's Flight to France

Background. Paine returned to Britain in 1787 and wrote Rights of Man, defending the French Revolution against Edmund Burke. The work advocated for the right to overthrow government, leading to a writ for his arrest in early 1792. In summer 1792, Paine publicly answered the sedition and libel charges with a rhetorical statement questioning whether exposing monarchy's fraud constituted libel. He was staying with Thomas 'Clio' Rickman in 1792 before he fled to France.

Legal Proceedings. Paine's authorship of Rights of Man led to a trial and conviction in absentia in England in 1792 for seditious libel. The legacy row's claim of treason is corrected to seditious libel based on the source. The conviction occurred in 1792, following his flight in September. This legal status defined his exile.

Political Context. In France, Paine was quickly elected to the National Convention despite not speaking French. He was regarded as an ally of the Girondins, which caused disfavor with the Montagnards who rose to power in 1793. This political alignment contributed to his later arrest in December 1793 and imprisonment in Paris.