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The French Revolution
The Old RegimeThe Old RegimeThe people inThe people inFrench societyFrench society
were not were not treated equally.treated equally.The system of The system of feudalism infeudalism inFrance was France was
known as Theknown as The Old Regime. Old Regime. Citizens wereCitizens were divided into divided into three classesthree classesor estates.or estates.
The Three EstatesThe Three Estates
The First EstateThe First EstateRoman Catholic ClergyRoman Catholic Clergy
The Second EstateThe Second EstateNoblesNobles
The Third EstateThe Third Estate3 types of people3 types of people
1.1. BourgeoisieBourgeoisie2.2. City WorkersCity Workers
3.3. PeasantsPeasants
The Enlightenment movement spread ideas
everyone should be
equal.The people of the 3rd estate
liked that idea.
Why revolt?
The French economy was
failing.Taxes were high, profits were low and food supplies were short.
King Louis the XVI was weak
and unconcerned
about the plight of the third
estate.
Louis XVI attempted to tax the nobles.The nobles forced the king to call a meeting of the Estates-General an assembly of delegates from each of the three
estates.
The meeting of the Estates-
General began with
arguments on how to count votes. In the past one vote was cast for each estate.
The third estate now wanted
each delegate to have a vote. They broke with the others and
voted to rename themselves The
National Assembly.
Representative Government
for France
The members of the National
Assembly claimed to
represent all of the people. The king disagreed. The 3rd Estate
delegates were locked out of
their meeting.
The Dawn of the Revolution
June 20, 1789: During a meeting of the Estates General, a problem arouse about
the voting procedure. Angered by the disagreement, Louis XVI locked the 3rd
Estate out of the meeting during which time they reconvened in the tennis courts at
Versailles.
This is where they took the Tennis Court Oath-not to leave until a constitution was created. This started the beginning of the
political French Revolution. Notice the fluttering curtains representing the winds
of change.
Between June and the beginning of August there were riots in the countryside. Peasants burned
their nobles' chateaux, monasteries and buildings which housed public records. They particularly
targeted documents which contained records of their feudal obligations. It was called "The Great Fear" and spread quickly throughout France.
Louis XVI was worried by the action of the Third Estate and threatened to
dissolve the Estates General after the tumultuous events surrounding the Tennis Court Oath. Rural and urban
uprisings throughout France at this time saved the Third Estate from the King's intervention. The most famous of these
uprisings is the Fall of the Bastille,
which occurred on July 14, 1789.
The increased mob activity in Paris resulted in the formation of a permanent
committee to keep order. This organized popular force broke into a royal armory and collected arms and
then stormed the Bastille, incited by a rousing speech delivered by Camille
Desmoulins on July 12, 1789.He was known as "The Lantern Lawyer" for is advocacy of hanging aristocrats
on the light posts.
Although the Bastille only had seven prisoners in it
when it was liberated by the Parisian mob, the fall of the prison became a symbol of triumph over despotism. It
also signified the end of the authority of Louis XVI,
because he was no longer able to control the political
tides of France.
October, 1789: A crowd of Parisian women marched to Versailles to demand King Louis XVI
give out free bread during a bread shortage. After camping out at Versailles overnight, the mob decided to take Louis XVI back to Paris. They
insisted that the royal family return to Paris where, in fact, they would find themselves under virtual
house arrest.
At first the king seemed inclined to work with theRevolution and to try to solve the problems.
But the influence of the queen and of the courtiers were too strong. He was encouraged by them to disregard all promises he had made and sought to flee from France in order to obtain aid against the revolution from
Austria.
His disregard of his promises to abide by the constitution led to the storming of the royal palace of the Tuileries on Aug. 10, 1792. The king and his family escaped before the mob arrived and took
refuge in the hall of the Legislative Assembly.
The assembly declared
that the king was
suspended from office
and ordered that he and his family should be
imprisoned.
They then called a
new assembly,
the Convention, to decide whether France should
continue to be a
monarchy.
The Convention
brought Louis XVI to trial on the charge of conspiring
with foreign countries for the invasion of France. He was declared
guilty and was
sentenced to death.
Louis was tried (from December 11, 1792) and
convicted of high treason before the
Legislative Assembly. He was sentenced to death
by guillotine by 361 votes to 288, with 72 effective abstentions.
Stripped of all titles and honorifics by the
egalitarian, Republican government, Citizen
Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a
cheering crowd on January 21, 1793.
His execution had important
consequences for France, because it
brought about ideas in other countries against the French
Revolution.
Marie Antoinette was born to the great Austrian empress Maria Theresa. As a young
teenager, she was obliged to wed Louis XVI of France to symbolize an alliance made
between Austria and France. Ironically, in the beginning of her marriage she was much loved by the French people
for her kindness to peasants and her willingness to
interact with her subjects. When Louis went hunting, peasants were sometimes
trampled or accidentally shot. Antoinette, who was usually
following in her separate coach, would always stop to help the injured person and even take him back to the
palace to be treated.
Stories of her infidelity circulated along with an alleged plot to make an alcoholic of her husband. Cartoonists even ridiculed the
overweight Louis XVI and his frivolous wife, portraying them gorging themselves at a sumptuous banquet while all around them subjects
held their empty stomachs and gazed hungrily at the food. She was described as faithless to her husband, cruel to her people, consumed by lust, and devoured by greed. In the propaganda, she
is shown dipping her claws into a plate to steal and waste the treasures of France.
"Execution of Marie Antoinette at the Place de la Révolution" Before the guillotine stands
Marie Antoinette with Sanson, the same executioner who had
dispatched her husband ten months before. The execution, like that of her husband, took
place at the Place de la Révolution, recently renamed
from Place de Louis XV (currently Place de la Concorde).
Seven months after the execution of the King, shortly
after the declaration of "Revolutionary Government," the Convention turned to the
rest of the royal family. Fearing that Marie Antoinette and her son, the nominal King, would
provide rallying points for royalists within France and
abroad, a Revolutionary Tribunal indicted Marie
Antoinette and her children for treason.
Marie Antoinette being led to the guillotine
Jack and Jill RhymeNursery Rhyme & History
Jack and Jill story - The French (history) connection!
The roots of the story, or poem, of Jack and Jill are in France. Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack -who
was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill - (who
came tumbling after). The words and lyrics to the Jack and Jill poem were made more
acceptable as a story for children by providing a happy ending! The actual
beheadings occurred in during the Reign of Terror in 1793.
The Guillotine was a cruel form of
punishment of death during the French Revolution. The
Executioner cranked the blade to the top, and a mechanism released it. The blade was heavy, with its weight made the fall and the slice
through the neck, severing the head from its body. About 90% of beheadings were of the third estate, about 7% from the second estate and about 3% from the
first estate.
In spite of its efficiency, an execution by guillotine was still a sickening spectacle. When the head was severed, blood poured from the body as the heart continued to pump. When it
was used frequently (as it was during the revolution), the stench from the place of
execution was horrible.
Although the guillotine is most closely associated with the French, the Nazis guillotined more people (20,000) than were killed during the
French Revolution. Hitler considered it a demeaning form of punishment and used it for
political executions in 1942 and 1943.
The last use of the guillotine was in 1977. Capital punishment has been abolished in France.
Maximilien Robespierre
The French lawyer and political leader, who
became one of the most influential figures of the
French Revolution and the principal exponent of the
Reign of Terror. THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC
SAFETYStarted by Robespierre in the
summer of 1793, which decided who should be
considered enemies of the public. They would often try people in the morning, while having them guillotined the
same afternoon.
A conspiracy overthrew Robespierre.On July 27, 1794, he was barred
from speaking in public and was placed
Under arrest.
An uprising by his supporters was stopped, and on July 28 Robespierredied on the guillotine withhis other supporters. Eighty more followers of Robespierre were executed the next day.