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The French Revolution
The lead up to the French Revolution, and the revolution itself, up until Napoleon took power of France -
Louis XVI Dauphin of France Marries Marie Antoinette of Austria
The Cerimonial Wedding of the Dauphin and Dauphine of France. The ceremony took place on the 16th of May, 1770 in the church at the Palace of Versaille. Louis was 15 and Marie was 14 years old. After the ceremony the couple retreated to the royal bedding where the newly weds were blessed and expected to consumate a new heir on the wedding night. This however did not happen and would not happen for another 7 years. This damadged the status of the King and Queen among the poeple of France, blamint -
Affair of the Diamond Necklace #1
Louis XV was planning to buy his mistress a diamond necklace worth 1,600,000 livres ($100 million). But Louis died and Du Barry was banished from court. The jeweler tried to convince the new Queen to buy the necklace but she declined the offer several times. Once Louis XVI tried to buy it for her as a gift but once again refused, saying that they money would be better spent on men of war. Marie suggested that the jeweler, Charles Bohmer, sold the necklace in pieces. -
Coronation of Louis XVI
On the 11th of June, 1775 Louis had his coronation ceremony and became Louis XVI King of France and Marie Antoinette became Queen of France. Louis was only 20 years old when he became King. He was determined to be a good King but things would not go as he planned. -
Birth of Marie- Thérése Charlotte
On the 19th of December, 1778, Marie finally gave birth to her first child, Marie- Thérése Charlotte. After a difficult labour where the Queen fainted and was overcrowded by the courtiers. Louis had to tear the windows open which had been sealed. He then declared that no one was allowed to enter the Queens chambers with out permission whilst in labour. Now that Marie could produce children there was more strain that ever to conceive a male heir. -
Birth of Louis Joseph
On the 17th of September Marie gave birth to her second child, Louis Joseph who immidiatley became the new Dauohin of France. Finally she had given birth to a son. But by now her popularity had already dramaticly decreased with the people of France. -
Affair of the Diamond Necklace #2
In 1785 a plan was set out. The Cardinal de Rohan had fallen out of favour with the queen and was desperate to regain his favoured place in court. He acquired the help of one Jeanne de la Motte. Jeanne convinced the Cardinal that he should buy a diamond necklace for her. The Necklace was made up of 647 diamonds. The Cardinal passed the diamonds on to Jeanne to deliver to the Queen, but she passed the jewelry onto her husband who smuggled them to England to be sold. -
Affair of the Diamond Necklace #3
Charles Bohmer went straight to the Queen asking for his money for his necklace. The Queen was horrified and saw the plot imidiatley. She demanded that the Cardinal should stand trail. Jeanne was also convicted, the Cardinal was not found guilty. Even though people new of the con artist and her role in the affair people still said that the Queen had some role in the plot one way or another. Marrie Antoinette had been discredited once again. her popularity with the people was dwindeling. -
Calling of the Estates General
On the 5th of July, Comptroller-General Lomiene de Brienne called the Parlement du Paris into assembly to put forward a tax for all 3 of the estates. The commoners, the clergy and teh aristocracy. They would all ahve to pay a certain amount of tax. But an uproar from the nobility in Versaille and across France drove Louis into reconcideration. They refused to pay tax, saying it was ufare that they should be taxed, when they are nobility. Louis gathered the Estate Generals in May 1789 to decline -
The Tennis Court Oath
On the 20th of June, 1789, the 3rd estate was locked out of the meeting hall by the 1st and 2nd estates (Aristocray and the Clergy) and were left to hold a makeshift assembly on a tennis court. They became the National Assembly, forming their own government and made a government to reprisent the people and do what was best for them. This signified the first act of the French people standing against Louis XVI, and the National Assemblies refusal to back down forced the King to make concessions. -
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
The Declaration of the Rights of Man was the hight of the Enlightenment stage in the French revolution. It was very similar to the English Bill of Rights, and the Americans Declaration of Independance. It was what gave all men of France equal rights. It went abover poverty, and division of classes. There were no more estates just equal men. -
March to Versaille
On the 5th of October an angry mob of Parisian women stormed to the Palace of Versailles, demanding bread for their families. During the night The crowds broke into the Palace, and if the crowds had found either the King or Queen they most likely would have been killed. The next day the crowd forced the royal family out of the Palace, put them in a carriage and marched them all the way back to Paris. They were placed in the Tuileries Palace where they would stay for the next 3 years. -
Escape to Austria
On the 21st of June the Louis, Marie and their children disguised as servants of a wealthy Russian Baroness and were taken from Paris in a carriage. They traveled over 200 km to the town of Varennes. But they were discovered and taken back to Paris. the King was now a traitor. The Royal family were only 50 km off the Austrian border. 50 km from safety. -
Execution of Louis XVI
On Monday the 21st of January Louis was taken by royal carriage to the stand. He delivered a short speech claiming that he was innocent and that he forgave the pople for their crimes against him. He tried to continue but was soon drowned out by a drum roll and the shouts of the crowd. He was tied down to the guillotine and executed with a pull of the blade. Louis XVI was dead. -
Creation of the Committee of Public Saftey
In April, 1793, a 12 man council was formed. The Committee of Public Saftey. This took away the powere of the people and not letting them run the country and decide on who should be executed. This was basically going agains everything the revolution stood for. Destroying the aristocracy and giving power to the people and then taking it right back. A collectted dictatorship with 12 people who now basically were running France. -
War with Austria
Marie's brother, Leopold II the Emperor of Austria, died and was no longer able to confront the oncoming force of the French Revolutionaries. The people of France decalred war on Austria. Prussia (Now Germany) joined Austria in the battle and now France is at war. -
Levee en Masse
On the 23rd of August 1793, the Committee of Public Safety decided to mobalise the entire forces of the French. They declared that all men that weren't married and were between the ages of 18 and 25 were hence forth conscripted. With Prussia, Austria and the Holy Roman Empire at the border the French were fighting a difficult battle. With Paris defenceless the Sans-coulotte stormed the prisons. They raped noble women, dismembered priests nobles. In a matter of days 1,600 people were slaughtered. -
The Reign of Terror
The Regin of Terror started with the execution of Marie Antoinette. With this one death a chain of executions would occur making it the bloodiest year in the French revolution. Anyone suspected of anti-revolutionary behaviour would be arrested, be given a quick trial and executed. Anyone who said a kind word about the dead king or addressed someone as madame or monsieur would be turned in. Even if they didn't show enough enthusiasim. Over the year 30,000 people were slaughtered. -
Marie Antoinette's Execution
On the 16th of October, Marie Antoinette was taken by a common criminal cart, unlike her husband who was taken by the royal carriage. Her hair had been cut off and she wore a simple white dress and a cap. She was taken to the Place de la Révolution and at 12:15 PM Marie Antoinette, the Austrian Queen of France, was executed by guillotine. The Queen of Dept was no more. -
Trail of Marie Antoinette
Marie was taken before the Revolutionary Tribunal. She was charged with things such sending much of Frances money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orleans, orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guard in 1792. And finally she was accused of being incest with her son. At this she stood and appealed to the women and mothers in the court, and expressed her disgust and fury at being accused at this. Many in the court thought it had gone to far. Besides this appeal she was still found guilty -
Execution of Maximilian Robespierre
On the 28th of July, 1794, Maximilian Robespierre was arrested, he wasn't even accused of anything just the fact that people finally saw what he was doing. Their eyes were finally open to the monster Robespierre had become. He didn't even receive a trail. He was taken to prison where his hair was cut and he was locked away for the night. The next morning he was taken to the guillotine and executed face up. Robespierre was the last vicim of the Reign of Terror. The end of a tyrant. -
Napoleon Bonaparte takes Power
Since the death of Robespierre the country of France had been left with out any legitiment heir or leader of their country. The country went into a state of confussion and uncertainty. Who would lead their country now? Six years passed before anyone took power. But at the turn of the century a general in the French army took control. Napoleon Bonaparte. He declared himself the new ruler of France and had his coronation on the 2nd of May, 1804. Making him the first Emperor of France.
