The French Revolution
It begins with privilege and excess…
The Breakdown of
French Estates
Roman Catholic Clergy
(.5% of the population
10% of the land)
Nobility of France
(1.5% of the population
but controlled 20-30% of
the land
Everybody else…
(60-70% of the land)
• Bourgeoisie – middle class of
France; controlled most of the
wealth
• Sans-Culottes – Urban workers and
traders/artisans
• Peasants – worked on farms for the
nobles, struggled to survive
Louis XVI
• Exempt from the Ancien Regime – the breakdown of the country into those estates
• He was never meant to be king because he was the youngest of three boys, so the
heir apparent (the guy who was groomed to take control) was his oldest brother
– But that boy died at 9, so when Louis turned 11 (his father and mother died during that
2 years) he was made heir apparent
• At 15, he married the 14-yr-old Marie Antoinette
• Bored with affairs of state, he preferred to spend his time doing physical activities,
like hunting
– This was a problem when he was ruling, and it reinforced his shyness
• He became king at 20 yrs old
• Did seem to truly want to improve the lives of the common people (third estate)
– But he really lacked the ability to make decisions and the focus to see policies through
– “His reign was a succession of feeble attempts at doing good, shows of weakness, and
clear evidence of his inadequacy as a leader.”
• Eventually, he gave up trying to address the problems plaguing France, this is what
would cause him to lose his head
– The people realized he wasn’t even trying any more
Marie Antoinette
• Becomes the symbol of the excess of the monarchy
– But, she did not say, “Let them eat cake”
• She was the 15th and second to last child of Maria Theresa
(empress of Austria)
• She was promised to Louis XVI as a way to cement the ties
between Austria and France
– She was was pledged to be married at 10 years old
– But she was also frivolous at a young age
• When she went to France to be married she traveled with 57 carriages, 117
footmen, and 376 horses (she did not ask for this, it was organized for her)
– She also really hated being at the French court because (a) she was so
young and homesick (b) she did not appreciate the differences in the
court
• She became queen at 19 years old
– She also loved to gamble, reportedly losing the equivalent of $1.5
million in one year
– She loved to spend money
Jacques-Pierre Brissot
• Would become leader of the Girondins – a moderate bourgeois
faction that opposed the Jacobins during the Revolution
• Born in 1754 to an eating-house keeper (think restaurant owner)
– He started as a clerk in lawyer’ offices as Chartes, then in Paris
– He had literary ambitions though that led him to London
• This led him to write pamphlets against the Queen, which led to him
imprisonment in the Bastille
• It also got him the keys to the Bastille when that was stormed in 1787
• He was a member of the third estate
• He tried to argue for the keeping of the monarchy against
Robespierre
– This got him kicked out of Paris
– But his continued influence in the diplomatic committee (dealing with
foreign affairs)
• This got him sentenced to death by Robespierre on 30 October 1793
• He was executed by guillotine the next day
Marquis de Lafayette
• Known for his role in the American Revolution because he
served George Washington with distinction
– He would actually flee France during the revolution but would
be important in its rebuilding afterward
• Born with noble lineage (2nd estate)
• He returned to France in 1781 when he reentered the army
and organized trade agreements with Thomas Jefferson
• He realized the country was in major trouble and so he
advocated for a governing body representing the three
social classes and helped draft the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of Citizen
– In 1789 he was obligated to protect the royal family which left
him in huge trouble after the royal family was killed
– He fled in 1792 and did not return to France until 1799
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes
• Churchman and constitutional theorist
– Concept of popular sovereignty – rule by the majority of the
people influenced the National Assembly during the opening
months of the French Revolution
• He was not born into the Second Estate so his ability to
move up in the First Estate was limited so he already did not
like the aristocracy
– As such he drafted “What is the Third Estate?” where he stated
that only the Third Estate had the right to draft a new
constitution since they were the real backbone of the French
nation
• For this he was elected as a representative to the States General
• He served on the Committee of Public Safety and was later
charged as an accessory to killing the king
– This would get him exiled from France until he returned to Paris
in 1850 after the overthrow of King Charles X in 1830
Olympe de Gouges
• Given name: Marie Gouze
• After her first husband died a few years after she had been
married to him at 16, she vowed never to marry again and
changed her name to Olympe de Gouges
• She became active in political causes and social issues that
ranged from roads to divorce, maternity hospitals, and the rights
of orphaned children and unmarried mothers
– She wrote widely in her defense
– One of her most famous works was the “Declaration of the Rights of
Woman and of the [Female] Citizen”
• In it she said that women should have the same rights as men but also that
children born outside of marriage should be treated as fairly as “legitimate”
children in matters of inheritance
• Sided with the moderate Girondins, defended Louis XVI, and
called for the citizens to chose their own government
– When the Girondins fell, she was arrested, put on trial, and sent to
the guillotine for her efforts
Jean-Paul Marat
• Originally born in Switzerland, Marat would be one of the most
well-known, obscure people of the French Revolution
• He was a well-known doctor in England before working in France
– One of the things that was always a universal however, was his hatred
of the aristocracy, although toward the beginning, he did still think
that the monarchy should remain in control
– However, this did not last long because in 1791 he switched views and
said that the monarchy should be abolished
• He became a radical in the Jacobin party who was hated by the
Girondin party (the moderate side – most of whom did not want
the king killed)
• He is arguably, most well known for his assassination by the
young Girondin, Charlotte Corday
– She admitted to stabbing him to death in his bathtub after convincing
him to let her in to the room for protection from others in her party
– This made him a martyr to his cause, solidifying the radical views he
supported on the Jacobin side
Maximilien Robespierre
• Well known for his role as an architect of the Reign of Terror (this resulted in a lot
of people losing their heads, ironically Robespierre would be one of these people)
• Robespierre was a radical Jacobin and leader of the Committee of Public Safety
• He decided from a young age that he wanted to take on a public role, becoming a
devoted follower of Jean Jacques Rousseau
– He gained a reputation for defending the poorest of society and earned the nickname
“the incorruptible” for it
– At 30, he was elected to the Estates General where he became even more popular by
attacking the French monarchy and actively advocating democratic reforms
– Best part…he opposed the death penalty
• In 1789, he was elected president of the Jacobin faction and helped to write the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen
– When the revolution happened, he argued for the execution of the king
• He becomes the leader of the Committee of Public safety in 1793 and only a few
months later he instituted what would become known as the Reign of Terror
– By 1794 the people finally said this was enough and he and many of his allies were
arrested and put in prison
– He tried to commit suicide but failed and was guillotined the next day in public
Georges Danton
• Often credited as the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the
establishment of the First French Republic
– He would eventually become the first president of the Committee of Public Safety but
as he become increasingly moderate, he eventually succumbed to his own creation
• He earned a law degree from Reims and from there he moved to Paris
– The move to Paris, his ability to give speeches, and the revolution got him into the
Jacobins where he increasingly gained power and notice
• When it came to the king, he was in Belgium for the opening of the trial but he
was there for the close when he voted for death without reprieve
• In 1793, he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety – where he was
elected president, making him the head of the country for 3 months
– It was then that he started to lose his supporters because he wanted to work to
stabilize the government when the others wanted it to go still more radical
– When the Committee’s term expired though, a new committee was elected without
Danton
– This would lead to his disapproval of the Great Terror, the new leader of the
Committee, Robespierre, would start
– It was dangerous to take on the person who owned the guillotine as Danton would
figure out
• He was guillotined on 5 April 1794