<P> Three questions dominated the first months of the Convention: revolutionary violence; the trial of the king; and Parisian dominance of politics . </P> <P> Antagonism between Paris and the provinces created friction among the people that served as a propaganda tool and combat weapon for the two groups . The departments resisted the idea of centralization . They saw this idea being symbolized by the desire to reduce the capital of the Revolution to its one - eighty - third share of influence . Much of the Gironde wished to remove the Assembly from a city dominated by "agitators and flatterers of the people": it did not at the time encourage an aggressive federalism that would have run counter to its political ambitions . </P> <P> The Plain was a third faction during the Convention . Though some historians consider these men to be closely associated with the Girondins, the Plain was much more centrist in their ideals . The Plain held the largest group of deputies and derived their name from their place on the floor of the Convention . During the start of the Convention, they sided with the Girondins, however, as it progressed and the Montagnards began to push for the execution of Louis, the Plain began to side with them . </P> <P> From the opening of the Convention the Girondins showed no inclination to bring the king to trial . They were more interested in discrediting Paris and its deputies . Their decision to hound the Jacobins was not merely a choice of priorities; they genuinely wanted to spare the king . But in reality the Convention had to declare him guilty if it wanted to avoid damning 10 August 1792, its own existence, and the proclamation of the Republic . "If the king is not guilty, then those who have dethroned him are", as Robespierre remarked on 2 December . Once the Convention recognized Louis's guilt it could hardly refuse to pronounce the death penalty against a person who had summoned the aid of foreign powers and whom the sans - culottes considered responsible for the ambush at the Tuileries . </P>

Who were the three groups fighting for power in the national convention