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The Palace of Versailles was a royal residence located in Versailles, which was about 12 miles away from Paris, France. It was a small country residence to which the "Maréchal de Bassompierre" stated that "a mere gentleman would not have been overly proud of the construction." Until Louis XIII decided to rebuild it in 1631. The construction continued until 1634 and laid the basis of the Palace we know today. -
A period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November of 1799.
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The Tennis Court Oath was a commitment to a national constitution and representative government. On June 20, 1789, the members of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath in the tennis court which had been built in 1686 for the use of the Versailles palace. The vote was "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is established." -
Unwilling to cede his royal power to the Revolutionary government, Louis XVI was found guilty of treason and condemned to death. He died by guillotine on January 21, 1793. -
The Reign of Terror, or rather, sometimes called the Terror, was a period of state-sanctioned violence and mass executions during the French Revolution. This took place between September 5th, 1973 and ended on July 27th, 1794. The Revolutionary government ordered the arrest and execution of thousands of people. -
Napoleon was a French military general and statesman. He played a key role in the Revolution. He was the first consul of France and the first emperor of France.