Why did the French Revolt?
Structure
of French
Society
The Church (0.5%) They owned 10% of the land.
Bishops and Archbishops earned lots of money.
The church controlled books, newspapers, ran
schools and hospitals.
First
Estate
Does this order in
society potentially
Second
cause problems?
Estate
Discuss in your table.
Third
Estate
The Nobility (1%) They own 30% of the
land and pay no taxes. They collect
taxes from the peasants (who also pay
them rent!) They have all the top jobs
– but have to do what the King wants.
BOURGEIOUSIE (8%) Lawyers,
merchants and bankers.
SANS-CULLOTES (5%) Unskilled
workers who did manual labour
PEASANTS (85%) Live in the
countryside and worked on the
land – together they owned 40%
of all land.
The Old Regime

The Third Estate
This cartoon from the era of
the French Revolution
depicts the third estate as a
person in chains, who
supports the clergy and
nobility on his back.
Estates General Task
Archbishop Brienne of Toulouse
It is February 1789.

The King has called an Estates General, to be held at the Versailles Palaces in May. You will
represent the First Estate.

You are happy with King Louis; he gave you your job. You are a very important person in
Toulouse and live a very nice life near the Cathedral. Your main job is delivering sermons on a
Sunday: Parish Priests do all your hard work for you, like talking to the common people of the
Third Estate. You believe that God’s greatest gift to France was the vine and you spend most of
your time worshipping it from a glass.

You also believe that God chose Louis to be King and because God supports him, you do to.


You hope that Louis manages to raise the taxes on the Third Estate because last year he tried to
get you to pay tax. However, you were able to convince him that he was wrong to ask the
Church for money.


You need Louis to stay as King so that you keep your power and by taxing the Third Estate the
King will have money enough to fight wars and keep his wife in the luxury she deserves as
Queen.

TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life in Toulouse Cathedral

Explain why you support everything the King says

Give the King your support in taxing the Third Estate and explain why you support this extra tax.
Duchessede Polignac, Governess to
King’s Children, Versailles Palace
It is February 1789. Your Majesty the King has called the Estates General. You have
just heard that your brother will represent the Second Estate at the Estates
General in Versailles in May. You cannot represent the Second Estate, as you are
a woman. Your brother is living with his wife in England so he has asked you to
write his speech based on your experiences of France in 1789.

You live in luxury in Court where you take care of and teach the King’s three
children. When you are not with the children, you are able to enjoy the
entertainment in Court: drinking, eating, theatre, chess... You are great friends
with Marie-Antoinette and find her great fun to play cards with.

You have a great life and want the King to tax the Third Estate at the Estates
General so that the Court can continue to entertain you. You are also worried
about the King’s son who is very ill and so you want the King to have as little stress
as possible at the meeting. You will tell your brother to give the King the Second
Estate’s full support.


TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family etc)

Write your brother’s speech for the Estates General. What do you think the King
should do to raise money for his Kingdom?
Georges Couthon, Lawyer, Lyon
It is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in
Versailles in May. You think that the King has called the meeting to demand
more money from the Third Estate. You think that the Third Estate will not let
him do this, but will use the opportunity to demand several things from him.

You are a very successful lawyer. You are well educated and recently have
been spending much time reading books from new writers in France and
other countries. They are suggesting that the King’s rule of France is so unfair
that it should be changed immediately. You think this is an excellent idea
and will be willing to lead a revolution.


You see how unfairly the law treats poor people everyday in your work,
because they cannot afford to pay for a lawyer or pay off their fines. At the
Estates General you will demand “A reform of the laws so that justice is given
equally to everybody at the least possible cost”

TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life and your work

You (and the members of the Third Estate you will be representing) must
draw up a list of complaints to take to the Estates General. Plan out your
speech looking at the problems within France and how you think they should
be solved.
Marie-Rose Barre, Lace-maker, Paris
It is February 1789. Your husband will represent the Third Estate at the
Estates General in Versailles in May. You cannot go to the Estates
General because you are a woman.

You work long hours in poor and dangerous conditions in a factory.
You are paid much less than male workers. However, you are very
lucky to have a job because many people in Paris are out of work.

75% of your wages (little as they are) goes on bread and the rest goes
on taxes.

Like most people you think Louis is a very weak King. You think he is
embarrassing France because his Austrian wife Marie-Antoinette is
always seen with other men – in fact you think the King’s children are
not actually his! You hate the fact that nobles and royalty live in luxury
in Versailles whilst you struggle to survive in a polluted city.


TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family etc)

You must write a list of complaints that your husband will take to the
Estates General and the solutions that he should propose.
Louis Legrande, Banker, Paris
It is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in Versailles in
May. You live in luxury, having made your money banking for the merchants who stream
through Paris from far off lands

Six years ago you returned from America where you had been fighting with the settlers.
They were revolting against the British King. They became a Republic and a Democracy:
this meant that everyone in the country was treated as equal and could decide (by
voting) who they wanted to lead them. You think this is as brilliant system and have
returned to France telling everyone of these new ideas for governing. You hate the fact
that the King has all the power and the Third Estate has none.

You demand that the Estates General meets regularly, at least every three years and that
the number of deputies at the meeting represents an equal number of people. It disgusts
you that at the Estates General there are the same number of representatives for the First
and Second Estates as there is the Third (meaning that the Third Estate can be outvoted).

You want the slogan “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite” (Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood) to
become the words of a Revolution.

TASK - Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, experiences in America etc)

Write your speech for the Estates General: listing your complaints about France and how
you think these problems should be overcome.
Pierre Lacombe, Peasant, Brittany

It is February 1789. You will represent the Third Estate at the Estates General in Versailles in May.

You are very poor. You are ashamed that your children have never worn a pair of shoes and you live in a
mud hut with no windows. 80% of your money goes on buying bread for your family to survive. There have
been exceptionally bad harvests in 1787 and 1788 and the price of bread has risen dramatically. You
cannot afford to feed your family and pay taxes.

You pay SIX taxes in all. The Taille is an income tax; the Feudal tax you pay to the local noble; the Tithe you
give 10% of your yearly income to the church; the Gabelle is a tax on salt; the Aide is a tax on wine and the
Corvee is a work tax which means you work in your village e.g. building roads.

You have heard that King Louis wants to tax the Third Estate even more because he is bankrupt. Standing
over your town is a huge chateau where a noble and his wife live in luxury. They are in the Second Estate
and so do not pay any taxes. You will use the Estates General to show your anger (about the poor paying
so many taxes while the rich pay none) to the King and hope that the rest of the Third Estate will join you in
a revolution.

TASK – Prepare a speech for the Estates General

Introduce yourself: describe your life (job, family, etc)

Explain your complaints about the present taxes.

Explain why you will not pay the new taxes King Louis wants

Show your anger at the King and tell the Estates General how you think France should change
What were the causes of the
French Revolution?

There were FOUR main categories that caused the French Revolution:

Social = the lifestyles and standard of living experienced by people living in
a country.

Economic = the way money is shared and who does the work in a country.

Political = the way power is used in a country.

Intellectual = new ideas about how a country should be run and how
people should be treated.

Discuss – Which category do you think would have had the biggest impact?
Short and Long Term Causes
Long Term Trends
Short Term Causes EVENT
Triggers
TASK = Now try and identify LONG TERM and SHORT TERM
causes of the French Revolution. You should write either a ST or
an LT next to the cause.
Short term causes are those
events which cause a build up of
pressure before the eventIt is generally agreed that:
happens. They tend to quickly
1700
– 1783
– the
LONG
TERM
get more
severe
than
trends
but they also feed into them.
E.g. Suddenly,
the beginning
of
1784 – at
1789
– SHORT TERM
term 2 the price is raised to R10.

LOUIS XVI

He became King in 1774 at the age of 20.

He ruled from his palace (which he rarely left!)

He made all the important decisions and sacked
people if they did not follow his orders.


ANSWER = He could put people in prison without trial.
112,000,000
There was NO Parliament
to help run France.
Per year!
eventually
owedINCOME
He
475,000,000
= ANNUAL

1646,000,000
587,000,000 = EXPENDITURE

Can you work out how much money Louis was in
debt by each year?

CHALLENGE – Do not use a calculator!
The Palace at Versailles – Pierre Patel 1662
Versailles in 1722 – Pierre – Denis Martin
SHORT HOMEWORK TASK:

Find one source on Louis XVI and one source on Marie Antoinette.

These sources may be pictures/ written sources.

For each source, answer the following questions:

1.1. What is one thing you learn about Louis XVI/ Marie Antoinette
from the source?

1.2. How do you know this?

I2. If you had been a poor peasant in France in 1789, how would
you have felt if you saw/ read this source?
Watch the following clip. Does this
help us understand why the people of
France were so angry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_VUZL4HNo
What were the causes of the
French Revolution?

Watch the following song – does it explain the causes of
the French Revolution?

Which causes could you see/hear?

Do you think it missed anything out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXsZbkt0yqo
Vive Le Revolution!

You now have to explain the causes of the French Revolution. You can choose how
you wish to do this:

SONG

HORRIBLE HISTORIES SKETCH (Must write the script!)

Extended answer

Comic Strip

Poem

Documentary (Must write the script)
Acknowledgements

This PowerPoint was adapted from http://www.tes.co.uk/teachingresource/What-were-the-causes-of-the-French-Revolution-6418033/

The Estates General role play lesson was adapted from a lesson by
Johanna Woodhouse.