Name_____________________________________Date___________Period_______ French Revolution- Walk in Their Shoes (Role- Play) Peasants You are a worker and a member of the Third Estate. You earn 15 livres(monetary unit) per day after working 12-16 hours per day. Your money doesn’t buy a lot since the cost of living is very high. 1 loaf of bread – 1 livre 1 pound of meat – 3 livres 1 dozen of eggs – 10 livres Your rent is very high and 1/10 of your earnings go to the Catholic Church, and your taxes are steep. How do you feel about the government and society? Write about your feelings in paragraph form. Do you have any options or inspirations for change? What changes do you want to see in France? July 14, 1789: Storming of the Bastille. A mob storms the Bastille and the Revolution begins. But as word spreads of the Bastille mobs begin to react to the news and burn and destroy property. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is passed on August 26, 1789. 1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. 2. The [purpose of government is to protect] liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. 6. Law is the expression of the general will…All citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law… 7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. 9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty… 11. …Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law. 17. …Property is a sacred right, no one shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity… Do you think these will help to stop the violence and calm people down? Why? Why not? Name_____________________________________Date___________Period_______ French Revolution- Walk in Their Shoes (Role- Play) Nobility July 14 - August 11, 1789: Storming of the Bastille, The Great Fear and The August Decrees. In the National Assembly, there are twice as many Bourgeois and Commoners than Nobles and Clergy. Louis XVI is nervous about them creating a constitution that limits his power, so he brought an army to Paris. He claimed this was just to keep people safe, but Paris’s citizens don’t believe him. There are small conflicts between soldiers and commoners, and on July 14, a mob stormed the Bastille, an armory and prison. They steal hundreds of weapons, starting the French Revolution. Their slogan is “Liberty, Fraternity(meaning brotherhood) , Equality!” As word of this event spreads across France, peasants start stealing from churches and castles, killing their lords, and burning records of who owned property so they can take land for themselves. This is the Great Fear. Many nobles flee to other countries. The National Assembly quickly passes 19 laws to stop the chaos (the August Decrees). You are the Marquis de AGNEAUX in the northern French province of Normandy. Your family has lived in Agneaux for over 500 years and have served as military leaders in the French army for the same time. During the Great Fear your estate and belongings are burned down. You have an uncle who served gallantly in the army during the Seven Years War and you’ve heard that he was murdered by the mob. You flee your home in France for safety in Austria. How do you feel about the Revolution? What hopes do you have for the future? Write a paragraph in reaction to the violence. 1793-94: The Reign of Terror The National Assembly declared universal male suffrage (over age 21) to elect a new government called the National Convention. The Convention was elected, but dominated by the radical Jacobins who wanted to find and punish counter-revolutionaries. They formed the Committee for Public Safety headed by Maximilien Robespierre. He wants to kill Frenchmen (including King Louis XVI) who are “enemies of the Revolution”. The Jacobins start having quick trials and executing thousands of suspected traitors. People are calling this a “Reign of Terror” because everyone is afraid of being caught by spies or accused of being an enemy and executed. The public executions by the guillotine are gruesome, and after a year of almost 40,000 public executions, Robespierre is out of control. You are now living in exile outside of France but are still concerned for France. How would you feel about the Austrian and Prussian army invading France? What would be your opinion of all men (even the uneducated) voting? How would the chaos in France affect your views of the Revolution and a Republic? Write a paragraph. Name_____________________________________Date___________Period_______ French Revolution- Walk in Their Shoes (Role- Play) Bourgeoisie: Monsieur Bourgeois You are a shopkeeper in Paris and you are able to give your family a relatively prosperous but you are troubled by the unfairness. you are sick of paying so much taxes, while the nobility don’t pay any. You worked hard to make your money and the nobility just sit around, dance, eat too much and tell jokes at court. You are happy to finally get a chance to express your opinions to the King in the Estates General, but you are worried that the nobility will just overrule the third estate. You also know that a few of the nobles and some clergy agree with you, so you want all three estates to meet together, with one vote for each person, so those people can add their votes to yours. Your friends will be very disappointed if there aren’t some real changes. You know how bad the harvest was this year there have been riots demanding food in the city. You want to make sure that the government deals with things like this and think that the nobility should pay more in times of crisis. How do you feel about the government and society? Write about your feelings in paragraph form. Do you have any options or inspirations for change? What changes do you want to see in France? 1793-94: The Reign of Terror The National Assembly declared universal male suffrage (over age 21) to elect a new government called the National Convention. The Convention was elected, but dominated by the radical Jacobins who wanted to find and punish counter-revolutionaries. They formed the Committee for Public Safety headed by Maximilien Robespierre. He wants to kill Frenchmen (including King Louis XVI) who are “enemies of the Revolution”. Many are fearful of an Austrian & Prussian army invading France. The Jacobins start having quick trials and executing thousands of suspected traitors. People are calling this a “Reign of Terror” because everyone is afraid of being caught by spies or accused of being an enemy and executed. The public executions by the guillotine are gruesome, and after a year of almost 40,000 public executions, Robespierre is out of control. How do you feel about the Revolution in the midst of the Reign of Terror? Has the Revolution gone to far or did France need the Terror to rid France of all traces of monarchy & absolutism? How have your feelings changed since 1789? Write a paragraph expressing the changes since the storming of the Bastille. Name_____________________________________Date___________Period_______ French Revolution- Walk in Their Shoes (Role- Play) Cardinal Mondieu First Estate You are one of the most wealthy and powerful men in France and you have gained most of your power through the church, which owns 10% of all the lands in France. You welcome the opportunity to be consulted by Louis in the Estates General, but you cannot accept the idea of paying more taxes. Already you give 2% of your income as a “free gift” to the state and you need the money to build more churches, give to charity and have a lifestyle befitting your rank in society. A lord of the church has to dress, eat and live well so that people won’t think him a peasant. You feel that the Estates General should meet as is traditional: separately with one vote for each estate. How do you feel about the government and society? Write about your feelings in paragraph form. Do you have any options or inspirations for change? What changes do you want to see in France or should things remain the same? In December 1792 the National Convention placed the deposed Louis XVI on trial. Whatever can be said of Louis XVI's performance during his reign and the early parts of the French Revolution, there can be no doubt he died bravely and like a king. He met his fate only a day after the National Convention condemned him to death and only hours after saying goodbye to his queen Marie-Antoinette and their children the previous night. It had taken two hours for a large escort of cavalrymen to bring him to the Place de la Revolution through a massive crowd that had gathered to witness the historical moment. Journeying in the green carriage with Louis XVI was an English priest, Henry Edgeworth, who gave him a book of psalms to read. According to Edgeworth's description of the proceedings the carriage stopped in the middle of a large space left around the scaffold. Surrounding that were cannons and further away "an armed multitude extended as far as the eye could reach." "Many voices were at the same time heard encouraging the executioners. They seemed reanimated themselves, in seizing with violence the most virtuous of Kings, they dragged him under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his head from his body. All this passed in a moment." "The youngest of the guards, who seemed about eighteen, immediately seized the head, and showed it to the people as he walked round the scaffold; he accompanied this monstrous ceremony with the most atrocious and indecent gestures." It should be noted that in another description of the execution a witness describes it taking two drops of the guillotine to sever Louis' head, due to the corpulence of his neck. Other reports have members of the crowd dipping material into the king's blood that ran from the scaffold so they could keep them as souvenirs. After his death Louis' body was taken to the cemetery at the Church of the Madeleine where it put into a large pit, close to the wall of the Rue d’Anjou, and then smothered in quicklime. Although you are a high church official you have witnessed the seizing of church lands and now you’ve witnessed the death of the king. You’ve begun to hear rumors of some officials being arrested and appearing before Revolutionary tribunals. How do you feel about the Revolution and the future of France? Express your feelings and ideas in a paragraph.
