Off with his Head

The Capture, Trial, & Death of Louis XVI

New start•Rioters also broke into a

prison in Paris to free those prisoners who had been wrongly put there.

New start• The is called the Storming of the Bastille and it happened on July 14, 1789, which served as the official start of the revolution and is France’s independence day.

New start• This event gave the National

Assembly the opportunity to show the world just how serious they were.

New start• They adopted a statement of

revolutionary ideals called “The Declaration of the Rights of Man,” which was greatly influenced by the Enlightenment thoughts of Rousseau and Voltaire.

New start• This document also had its

foundations in the Enlightenment and the United States’ Declaration of Independence.

Old boss• With everything that

was going on in his country, King Louis XVI took his family and attempted to run away to the Netherlands.

Old boss• They nearly made it, until a

postmaster recognized Louis from his picture on the paper money of France.

• He and his family were returned to Paris under guard.

A leader•As the leaders of the

revolution fought with themselves for power, mostly from a group called the Jacobins, the revolution itself headed down a dark path.

A leader•One of the best known

leaders of the French Revolution was

Robespierre.

A leader•He was placed in charge of

the Committee of Public Safety, which had been set up to rule France.

A leader• The democratic constitution

that had been put in place by the National Assembly carried no weight with Robespierre, who arrested and put anyone to death that he pleased.

A leader•This included Louis XVI and

Marie Antoinette, who became victims of the guillotine in January, 1793, and thousands of others.

A leader•This Reign of Terror that

swept through France did not even spare Robespierre himself, as he was executed at the guillotine.