French
Revolution
Louis XVI
• 1754 – 1793
• Became king at 11
• Inherited a France with
BIG economic problems
• Married to Austrian
princess Marie
Antoinette in 1770, but
failed to consummate
the marriage until 1778
• Too weak and indecisive
to be an effective
absolute monarch
Marie Antoinette
• 1755 – 1793
• Initially a very popular
queen, but she failed
for years to produce an
heir
• Her political influence
and stories of her
spending and sexual
depravities were greatly
exaggerated by her
enemies
The Three Estates
• The First Estate = clergy
(priests, monks, nuns)
• Higher ups in the Church
were powerful and rich;
these people were often
from noble families and
supported the king
• Village priests were often
as poor or even poorer
than the villagers they
served; they tended to
support change
The Three Estates
• Second Estate = nobility
• Some nobles held
important government or
military positions; they
were rich and powerful
and supported the king
• Many nobles were “land
rich” (owned a lot of
land) but “money poor”
(had very little real
wealth); they tended to
support the movement to
make reforms
The Three Estates
• Third Estate = everyone
else (98% of French
people)
• A very few of the
wealthiest members
supported the king
• Most resented the
privileges of the clergy
and nobility and
supported the movement
to make reforms
Economic Issues
• France was deeply in debt
from many years of heavy
personal spending by the kings
and fighting wars
• Several years of poor harvests
caused food prices to go up
sharply; many poor could no
longer afford bread, so food
riots became common
• King Louis XVI was finally
forced to convene the Estates
General (France’s version of
Parliament) in 1789 for the
first time in 175 years in order
to try to raise taxes
The Estates General of 1789
• The representatives of
the Third Estate ignored
the king and declared
themselves to be a new
body, the National
Assembly
• They pressured the
other two Estates into
joining them in writing
a constitution
The Tennis Court Oath
• June 20, 1789
• After the king
attempted to block the
new National Assembly
from meeting, the
group reconvened at a
tennis court (the sport
was played indoors in
those days) and took an
oath to complete their
work
The New Constitution
• The Declaration of the
Rights of Man
• Transformed France into a
republic and constitutional
monarchy (still have a king,
but he must share power
with the legislature)
• Abolished the 3 Estates,
made all men equal
• Called for “Liberté, égalité,
fraternité” (Liberty, Equality,
and Brotherhood)
The Revolution Begins
• Concerned, the king
moved troops into Paris,
causing the people of
Paris to revolt
• Parisians stormed the
Bastille (a prison) on July
14, 1789 and released the
political prisoners inside
• At about the same time,
starving peasants began
rebelling in the
countryside over food
prices
Royal Family Captured
• Rioting Parisian women
marched to Versailles and
attacked the palace
• Cornered, King Louis XVI
and his family were forced
to move from Versailles
back to Paris, where they
were kept under house
arrest for three years
• Louis pretended to
cooperate with the National
Assembly in order to ensure
his safety
The National Assembly
•
•
•
•
1789-1791
Made many moderate reforms that
mostly helped the middle class
Nobles agreed to give up all of their
special privileges
To pay off the government’s debts,
the Assembly seized all of the
Catholic Church’s land and sold it
– this upset the Pope
– it also upset many peasants,
who were religiously
conservative, creating a rift
between the urban and rural
revolutionaries
War on Top of Revolution
• In June 1791, Louis XVI and his
family tried to flee to Austria,
but were caught and brought
back to Paris as traitors
• Prussia and Austria, alarmed
by the revolution in France,
threatened to invade
• In April 1792, the Assembly
declared war on Austria,
Prussia, and England
• The war did not go well at first
for France; many accused the
nobles and clergy of secretly
aiding France’s enemies,
leading to class violence
Radical Takeover
• Radicals took over the
National Convention (the
new name for the
Assembly) and passed a
series of more drastic
reforms
• Seized the estates of all of
the nobles and abolished
titles of nobility
• Late in 1793 the tide of
war turned in France’s
favor as they overran the
Netherlands and Italy
The Guillotine
• Named for it’s inventor, Dr.
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
• Designed to sever the head
cleanly, resulting in a more
“humane” form of
execution and immediate
death
• Remained the only legal
means of execution in
France until 1981! (Last
used in 1977)
Louis XVI’s Fate
• Louis was stripped of
the title of king and
charged with treason
against France
• January 21, 1793: Louis
was publicly executed
• October 16, 1793:
Marie Antoinette was
also publicly executed
for “crimes against
Nature”
Louis XVII
• 1785 – 1795
• Louis & Marie’s only son
• Kept in solitary confinement
after his father’s execution
• Beaten, tortured, forced to
stay drunk, sing and curse,
sleep with prostitutes, all to
entertain his guards
• Told that his parents were
alive and just didn’t want
him anymore
• Died at age 10 of combined
tuberculosis & malnutrition
• His sister was exiled to
Austria
The Reign of Terror
• July 1793 – July 1794
• Government under the
leadership of the charismatic
Maximilien Robespierre
• Hasty trials sentenced thousands
to death for treason
• The guillotine became the
standard means of execution
• So many were executed (about
40,000 in 1 year) that the streets
of Paris actually ran red with
blood
• Eventually the people turned on
even Robespierre and he himself
was executed, closing out the
Reign of Terror
The Revolution Fails
• After the fall of
Robespierre, France
passed another new
constitution and
reorganized the
government yet again
• The government
remained unstable until
1799, when a new leader
seized power in France –
a successful general
named Napoleon
Bonaparte