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French Map
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Monarchy in Crisis
The king was an absolute monarch who could do as he pleased. However after 1774 it turned out he was not so powerful as he seemed. At first resistance to the king was led by bodies called parlements. They were bodies of nobles who acted as royal courts. However one of their duties was to register the king's decrees. But the nobles who made up the parlements began to feel that their traditional feudal rights were under attack and they resisted the king by refusing to register decrees -
The Foreign War
France declared war on Britain in support of the American rebels. The war was very expensive. France had to borrow heavily to pay for the war and the loans were very difficult to repay. -
The Proposal
Louis XVI’s controller general, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, proposed a financial reform package that included a universal land tax from which the privileged classes would no longer be exempt. Calonne feared the parlements would resist the idea so he persuaded the king to call a Council of notables to discuss the idea. Calonne hoped that if they agreed to it the parlements would not dare to resist. -
Charles Alexandre de Callone
Calonne, Charles proposed a direct land tax and the calling of provincial assemblies to apportion it, a stamp tax, and the reduction of some privileges of the nobles and clergy.
Monsieur and Marie, rather than the impotent King, were blamed for France's financial crisis. Calonne left France when he left office, and was in England when the French Revolution broke out.
Louis XVI dismissed him on April 8, 1787, and exiled him to Lorraine. He eventually moved to Great Britain, and died in 1802. -
Accord to plan?
To garner support for forestall a growing aristocratic revolt, the king summoned the Estates-General–an assembly representing France’s clergy, nobility and middle class. The meeting was scheduled for May 5, 1789; in the meantime, delegates of the three estates from each locality would compile lists of grievances to present to the king. However the king was unlucky. The harvests of 1787 and 1788 in France were poor and bread was expensive so the people were in an ugly mood. -
The Third State
The third estate represented the ordinary people. The second estate represented the clergy and the first estate represented the nobility. However the consent of all three estates was needed to pass a measure. So the nobles or the clergy could veto any measure passed by the third estate.The Third State to vote as a single unit, with all its members put together. If a majority of all the members voted for a measure it would pass. When they met the states argue about how they should vote. -
Fear and Violence
Though enthusiastic about the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as rumors of an impending military coup began to circulate. -
The True Representatives
While all of the orders shared a common desire for fiscal and judicial reform, the nobles were loath to give up the privileges they enjoyed under the traditional system.The highly public debate over its voting process had erupted into hostility between the three orders, eclipsing the original purpose of the meeting and the authority of the man who had convened it. With talks over procedure stalled, the Third Estate met alone and formally adopted the title of National Assembly. -
Rising Power
Within a week, most of the clerical deputies and 47 liberal nobles voted to join the Third State. -
The Trapped King
The king and his advisers were alarmed. So when the deputies arrived, they found their building locked and guarded by soldiers. However the third estate refused to disperse. They met in a tennis court nearby and took an oath not to disperse until the king met their demands. -
Rejoice in the Capital
The king prevaricated. Then finally, he caved in. He ordered the three estates to join together and vote as one body His decision caused rejoicing in Paris. It seemed that the reformers had one. -
The Fortress
The king then ordered troops to march towards Paris. The people were alarmed and they searched for weapons to defend themselves. On the morning they seized cannons and guns from the Invalides (a hospital for military veterans). They then surrounded the fortress and prison called the Bastille . The governor was forced to surrender. To the ordinary people the Bastille was enormously important as a symbol of royal power and arbitrary government.r was forced to surrender. -
"Death Certificate"
The wave of revolutionary fervor and widespread hysteria quickly swept the countryside. Revolting against years of exploitation, peasants looted and burned the homes of tax collectors and landlords. Known as the Great Fear, the agrarian insurrection hastened the growing exodus of nobles from the country and inspired the National Constituent Assembly to abolish feudalism, signing what the historian Georges Lefebvre later called the “death certificate of the old order" -
New Régime
The Assembly voted for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It declared that all men are born free and equal. Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment were outlawed. Furthermore in future all appointments to public posts would be open to everybody and would be solely on the basis of ability. However the economic situation in France grew worse. The price of bread continued to rise and the ordinary people grew more desperate. -
The Women Demand
The economic situation in France grew worse. The price of bread continued to rise and the ordinary people grew more desperate.King Louis ordered troops to move from the border to his palace at Versailles, near Paris, alarming the Parisians. Crowds of women gathered and seized arms and cannons. They marched to Versailles and entered a meeting of the National Assembly demanding bread, also sending a deputation to the king who immediately accepted all the decrees
made by the Assembly. -
Out of Versailles
Meanwhile the National Guard marched out to Versailles. Their leader 'requested' the king leave Versailles and come to Paris because the crowds of ordinary people demanded it, so Louis gave in agreed to move to the capital.Meanwhile the Assembly reformed local government. The old parlements were swept away and new courts were formed. 83 departments replaced the old regions of France. All were run by elected councils. The old taxes were abolished and replaced by new ones. -
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
A committee of the Assembly drew up plans to reform the Church. It decided a pay scale and changed the number of bishops. From then on there would be 83, one for each department. The number of parishes was also reduced.Furthermore in future parish priests would be elected by district assemblies. Bishops would be elected by departmental assemblies. The Assembly voted to dismiss any clergyman who would not swear an oath of loyalty to the new constitution. -
Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen
Born in Vienna, in 1755, Marie Antoinette married the future French king Louis XVI and symbolized the French monarchy. In June 1791, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled Paris and headed for the Austrian border and the Holy Roman Emperor, waited with troops ready to invade France, overthrow the revolutionary government and restore the power of the monarchy and the nobility. She was a traitor. In 1793, the king was executed, she was convicted and sent to the guillotine on October 16,1793. -
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste)
Louis XVI was the last king of France in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the French Revolution of 1789. Louis XVI was the last king of France in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the French Revolution of 1789. War broke out in 12 April 1792. Suspicions of treason led to the capture of the royal palace and the temporary suspension of the king’s powers. Louis was soon found guilty by the National Assembly and condemned to death.He was executed for treason by guillotine in 1793. -
The French army halted the Prussians at Valmy.
Prussians were unwilling to engage in battle against a force that offered anything more than token resistance, and they stated, "We do not have to fight here" and began to withdraw his army. The French were not interested in the destruction of Prussel's army, given that they had completed their goal of deterring his advance on Paris, so they did not actively pursue him. Within a month Prussel's army was in full retreat and Paris and the fledgling French Republic had been saved. -
Napoleon returns to France
Napoleon was made consul for life in 1802, and by 1804, he was named emperor. During his time, he initiated reforms that greatly improved how the government ran. His official induction as consul is often cited as one of the major reasons the French Revolution ended, as it marks the beginning of the Napoleonic era of French History. However, by the end of Napoleon's rule, the country was again a monarchy, returning the government to the same form it had prior to the Revolution. -
Secondary Source
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