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Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at Versailles in 1623. His successor, Louis XIV, expanded the château into a palace that went through several expansions in phases from 1661 to 1715.
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Louis XIV hoped to extract more control of the government from the nobility and to distance himself from the population of Paris. -
King Louis XVI married Marie Antoinette when he was 15 and she was 14. -
The French Revolution began in 1789 and lasted until 1794. King Louis XVI needed more money, but had failed to raise more taxes when he had called a meeting of the Estates General. This instead turned into a protest about conditions in France.
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Representatives of the non-clergy and non-nobles of France swore they would not disperse until a constitution was established for France. -
Fears that King Louis XVI was about to arrest France's newly constituted National Assembly. Led a crowd of Parisians to successfully besiege the Bastille, an old fortress that had been used since 1659 as a state prison. -
Helped to form the foundation of the French Revolution, in hopes of ending the monarchy and establishing a democracy in France. -
A riot that took place during this first stage of the French Revolution. -
He was excited because he was found guilty of treason. -
Mass killings of thousands of counter-revolutionary suspects. They enjoyed killing the people. -
The Directory's inability to solve economic problems and its reputation for corruption fueled public discontent. -
He snatched the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowned himself, thus displaying his rejection of the authority of the Pontiff. -
Napoleon crowned himself in a ceremony in Notre Dame cathedral, also crowning Josephine Empress. Napoleon served as Emperor from 1804 until 1814.
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The Code recognized the principles of civil liberty, equality before the law (although not for women in the same sense as for men), and the secular character of the state. -
It concluded a war that had raged for 23 years, ended French attempts to dominate Europe, and destroyed Napoleon's imperial power forever. -
After a series of military defeats in 1812–13, Napoleon was forced to abdicate the French throne on April 6, 1814. Napoleon returned to power in early 1815 but was again ousted on June 22, 1815. -
Napoleon was forced to abdicate in April 1814 after his unsuccessful invasion of Russia resulted in a broad European alliance against him.