It was from here, on 1 February 1794, that the "Bleus", soldiers of the Republic, massacred and threw into the river Evre a number of local inhabitants who had made the mistake of wanting to preserve their religion and its good priests.
From January to May 1794, the Convention appointed the Republican general Louis-Marie Turreau to command the 12 infernal columns. The order was to destroy the last remaining hotbeds of insurrection in the military Vendée.
At Fief-Sauvin, massacres were committed by the 9th and 10th columns. General Etienne Cordelier (aged 27 in 1794) led the 9th column, and Brigadier General Joseph Crouzat (aged 59 in 1794) led the 10th column. Under their command, the troops distinguished themselves by their violence and the worst atrocities. In 4 months, these two columns massacred more than 3,000 people.
Louis Marie Turreau was 38 years old in 1794 but, despite his crimes, his name is engraved under the Arc de Triomphe.
Census of Fief-Sauvin: in 1793: 1,554 inhabitants, only 797 in 1800.
- The remarkable Fief-Sauvin war memorial is built on the foundations of an old windmill (at the village exit towards Villeneuve). The Lallemand family, who owned the plot, donated it to the local council on condition that the cross be surrounded by a 14-18 serviceman and a Vendéen peasant soldier. The latter statue was donated by Mr Lallemand, who lost 17 members of his family during the turmoil of 1793 and 1794.
- One hundred years after the revolution, the writer and future academician René Bazin published "Les Noellet" (1890). This peasant novel describes the Mauges as it was in the 19th century. In 1889, on a scouting trip to immerse himself in local life, he noted the intense weaving activity in the cellars (over 200 weavers) and the process of making and marketing cloth. He saw life at the Genivière farm (la Gabardière), ploughing, threshing, the Beaupreau cattle market, the château de l'Andehue (la Bérangerie) and hunting in the Leppo forest.
In 2021, Fief-Patrimoine will publish a book entitled: "Le Fief-Sauvin, son histoire, son patrimoine", which is still on sale at Vivéco (Fief-Sauvin), and in Beaupreau: La Parenthèse bookshop and the press (S.U. shopping arcade).
