ENGLISH REVOLUTION
1625-1689
TOPIC
Kings
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Violence
Absolute monarchs
James I: intelligent; slovenly habits;
“wisest fool in Christendom”; didn’t
make a good impression on his new
subjects; introduced the Divine Right
of Kings
Charles I: Believed in Divine Right of
Kings; unwilling to compromise with
Parliament; narrow minded and aloof;
lived an extravagant life; Wife
Henrietta Maria and people despised
her (Catholic)
Charles II: supposed to rule as a
constitutional monarch; tried to
protect Catholic freedom
James II: openly Catholic, believed in
Divine Right of Kings; instituted reign
of terror due to rebellions against him
 Charles invades the House of
Commons and tried to arrest the
leaders to regain power but failed.
 In the English civil war there were
two sides; Charles side and
parliaments’ side.
 Charles supporters were royalist
and cavaliers that came from noble
families that were used to fighting
and riding.
 Parliament’s side were local militiafarmers and townspeople with no
military experience.
 Charles side was successful at first
but he could never gain a decisive
victory.
 Parliament made a alliance with
the scots who attacked from the
north, and began a more modern
army. The name of the new army
was the new model army; it was
led by Oliver Cromwell.
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Significance in
history
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Passed the bill of rights which laid
down limits for how much power
the monarchy has.
Also set up rights for parliament
and freedom of speech in
parliament.
Created basic rights.
Gave the option of electing
members of parliament.
FRENCH REVOLUTION
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Absolute monarchs
Louis XIV: known as the “Sun King”; saw
himself as centre of France and forced nobles
to live with him; extravagant lifestyle; built
Palace of Versailles ($$)
Louis XV: great grandson of Louis XIV; only
five years old when he became King;
continued extravagances of the court and
failure of government to reform led France
towards disaster
Louis XVI; originally wanted to be loved; not
interested in governing; did not help middle
and lower classes; married Marie Antoinette
who people despised (Austrian)
Louis allowed critics of government to be
imprisoned or killed
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The tore down the bastille and freed 7
prisoners.
Guillotined over 37000 people during the
reign of terror
The reign of terror was 1793-1794
During the reign of terror anyone who
disagreed with the radical Jacobin’s was
to be guillotined.
More riots over the high price of bread
broke out in Paris.
A group of women marched down to
Versailles to make the royal family come
back to Paris.
France was about to be invaded by
European emigres who wanted to restore
the Kings power.
Declared war on Austria on April 20 1792
and won.
French lost its first battles but won a
victory in Valmy.
The Paris mob; violent and unpredictable.
Declaration of rights of man and citizen
was passed by the National Assembly.
Declaration of right of man and citizen
states basic human rights that the
government cannot overlook.
This gave everyone the title of a citizen
which meant everyone was equal.
Government had less power.
SIMILARTIES
DIFFERENCES
 Kings ruled as Absolute Monarchs
 Raised foreign armies
 Charles I and Louis XVI both did not
like working with Parliament/Estates
General
 Citizens did not like the wives of
Charles I (Catholic) and Louis XVI
(from Austria)
 Both Charles I and Louis XVI punished
critics of government
 English Kings believed in Divine Right
of Kings and French did not
 Charles I did not care to be loved
whereas Louis XVI initially wanted to
be loved by his people
 Charles I did not kill people who were
against him (he imprisoned or fined
them) whereas Louis XVI did
 Charles I called Lord Strafford,
Archbishop Laud and occasionally
Parliament; Louis XVI only called
Estates General as he had no advisors
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Both fought a bunch of wars.
Both fought a civil war.
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Both gave basic human rights.
Limited government/monarchies
power.
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In France a lot of people were
getting guillotined and in England
not many people got guillotined.
France had a bunch of riots while
England had fought more battles.
France gave everyone the title of
citizen to make everyone equal
England didn't.
England set up rights for
parliament and France didn't.
Topic
Parliament vs estate
general
Dictators Robespierre
and cromwell
English revolution
Parliament, long parliament and rump
parliament.
Long parliament wanted to remove the
power of the king.
The king kept shutting down the
parliament and only recalled
parliament when he needed more
money.
Parliament and the king were always
disagreeing.
Rump parliament, was when many
members of parliament
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Money issues
French revolution
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Cromwell lead parliaments army to
victory.
He disliked the way that rump
parliament was governing.
Used the power he had to create
laws that he believed that were
important.
He started to rule like Charles I did
and he disliked the way Charles I
ruled, so he thought of himself as
a failure.
Charles thought of different ways
to get money from the people.
He forced people to make loans to
the crown.
Mortgaged royal property
Collected costume fees known as
tunnage and poundage
Also brought back a fee called ship
money.
Billeted his soldiers with
homeowners
Increased fees for government
services
Sold noble titles
Charles took money without
parliaments consent
Everyone had to pay taxes.
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Similarities
Estate general voted in blocs on social
class; first estate (clergy), second estate
(aristocrats) and third estate (middle
class).
First and second estate had double the
power when it came to voting even though
they third estate had twice as many
delegates.
Met only as a result of royal command
They met very seldom.
Louis XVI only called the estate general
together when his government was in a
serious crisis
Robespierre led the revolution.
He was responsible for the death of many
lives.
He made many changes in government
He led the reign of terror.
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Third estate had to pay all the taxes.
France was bankrupt because they helped
America in their civil war.
Taxes were way too high and people
couldn’t even afford them.
Bread was a month worth’s pay.
The queen spent too much money on
extravagant jewelry.
The king spent too much money on
parties.
Differences
The king was in control of when
the parliament and estate general
met.
The king only called the
parliament or estate general when
they needed help.
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England’s rump parliament was
made up of Presbyterians and
puritans but France's estate
general was made up of a
representation from all of the
social classes.
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Both made their own laws.
Disliked the way the former
government and current
government ruled.
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Cromwell didn’t kill as many
people as Robespierre did.
Cromwell ran an army while
Robespierre didn’t.
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The people of both countries had
to pay extra taxes because of the
monarch.
The taxes were both very
expensive.
The Kings both wanted more
money.
The people had to pay unnecessary
taxes.
Both kings lead extravagant
lifestyles.
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In England everyone had to pay
taxes but in France only the third
estate had to pay taxes.
In France the king didn’t have to
have parliaments consent to raise
taxes so he wasn’t doing anything
illegal when he was raising the
taxes unlike England.
France had a church tax called the
tithes.
I believe that the French Revolution helped the people more than the English revolution. Even though there were lot of negative that came with the French Revolution like all of the thousands of deaths from the reign of
terror I think that the positive that came with the revolution evened it all out. There were big changes for the educational area because Robespierre established new institutions like colleges and schools. Also the people of
the country got more respect and rights. The people of the third estate were benefited a lot from the French Revolution because it got rid of serfdom so people couldn't own them anymore and it got rid of the three estates
so they were treated more equally. The people of France had received more freedom, equality and justice because of the revolution. They even influenced some other countries from their idea of “liberty, equality and
fraternity”. People of other countries strove for that to free themselves from tyrants and to achieve freedom and justice like the French did. In all I think France started out as a country that was falling apart and worse
than England but at the end it became a better country.