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.