The French Revolution by
Pádraic Malone
The Old Regime
The people in
French society
were not
treated equally.
The system of
feudalism in
France was
known as The
Old Regime. Citizens
were
divided into
three classes
or estates.
The Three Estates
The First Estate
Roman Catholic Clergy
The Second Estate
Nobles
The Third Estate
3 types of people
1. Bourgeoisie
2. City Workers
3. Peasants
Why revolt?
The
Renaissance
movement
spread ideas
everyone
should be
equal.
The people of
the 3rd estate
liked that idea.
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.
Representative
Government for
France
The meeting of
the EstatesGeneral 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.
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 the
Revolution 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.
Stories of her infidelity circulated along with an alleged plot to make an
alcoholic of her husband.
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.
Mostly people don’t see the two sides of the story and the propaganda
involved from both sides.
The revolutionaries displayed propaganda in pamphlets which were
handed out in order to highlight the differences between the classes.
"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 trial was one which was truly
unjust as the Tribunal had decided
the outcome before the trial had
started. Both sides of the revolution
were at a wrong on some points, a
detail which is often left out.
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
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.
Although the guillotine is most closely associated with
the French, the Nazis guillotined more people (20,000)
than 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
SAFETY
Started 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.
The Reign of Terror
• The Reign of Terror was a true sign that
things must get worse before they get better;
led by Robspierre from 5th September 179328th July 1794 it was a period in which the
newly formed Committee of Public Safety
had a total of 16,594 people executed by
guillotine alone!
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 Robespierre
died on the guillotine with
his other supporters. Eighty
more followers of Robespierre
were executed the next day.
THE END