The French Revolution

The French Revolution

The Old RegimeThe people inFrench society

were not treated equally.The system of feudalism inFrance was

known as The Old Regime. Citizens were divided into three classesor estates.

The Three Estates

The First EstateRoman Catholic Clergy

The Second EstateNobles

The Third Estate3 types of people1. Bourgeoisie2. City Workers

3. Peasants

 The Enlightenment movement spread ideas

everyone should be

equal.The people of the 3rd estate

liked that idea.

Why revolt?

The French economy was

failing.Taxes were high, profits were low and food supplies were short.

King Louis the XVI was weak

and unconcerned

about the plight of the third

estate.

Louis XVI attempted to tax the nobles.The nobles forced the king to call a meeting of the Estates-General an assembly of delegates from each of the three

estates.

The meeting of the Estates-

General began with

arguments on how to count votes. In the past one vote was cast for each estate.

The third estate now wanted

each delegate to have a vote. They broke with the others and

voted to rename themselves The

National Assembly.

Representative Government

for France

The members of the National

Assembly claimed to

represent all of the people. The king disagreed. The 3rd Estate

delegates were locked out of

their meeting.

The Dawn of the RevolutionJune 20, 1789:  During a meeting of the

Estates General, a problem arouse about the voting procedure.  Angered by the disagreement, Louis XVI locked the 3rd

Estate out of the meeting during which time they reconvened in the tennis courts at

Versailles. 

This is where they took the Tennis Court Oath-not to leave until a constitution was created.  This started the beginning of the

political French Revolution. Notice the fluttering curtains representing the winds

of change.

Between June and the beginning of August there were riots in the countryside. Peasants burned

their nobles' chateaux, monasteries and buildings which housed public records. They particularly

targeted documents which contained records of their feudal obligations. It was called "The Great Fear" and spread quickly throughout France.  

Louis XVI was worried by the action of the Third Estate and threatened to

dissolve the Estates General after the tumultuous events surrounding the Tennis Court Oath. Rural and urban

uprisings throughout France at this time saved the Third Estate from the King's intervention. The most famous of these

uprisings is the Fall of the Bastille, which occurred on July 14, 1789.

October, 1789:  A crowd of Parisian women marched to Versailles to demand King Louis XVI

give out free bread during a bread shortage.  After camping out at Versailles overnight, the mob decided to take Louis XVI back to Paris. They

insisted that the royal family return to Paris where, in fact, they would find themselves under virtual

house arrest.

The assembly declared

that the king was

suspended from office

and ordered that he and his family should be

imprisoned.

They then called a

new assembly,

the Convention, to decide whether France should

continue to be a

monarchy.

The Convention

brought Louis XVI to trial on the charge of conspiring

with foreign countries for the invasion of France.  He was declared

guilty and was

sentenced to death.

Louis was tried (from December 11, 1792) and

convicted of high treason before the

Legislative Assembly. He was sentenced to death

by guillotine by 361 votes to 288, with 72 effective abstentions.

Stripped of all titles and honorifics by the

egalitarian, Republican government, Citizen

Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a

cheering crowd on January 21, 1793.

Marie Antoinette was born to the great Austrian empress Maria Theresa. As a young

teenager, she was obliged to wed Louis XVI of France to symbolize an alliance made

between Austria and France. Ironically, in the beginning of her marriage she was much loved by the French people

for her kindness to peasants and her willingness to

interact with her subjects. When Louis went hunting, peasants were sometimes

trampled or accidentally shot. Antoinette, who was usually

following in her separate coach, would always stop to help the injured person and even take him back to the

palace to be treated.

"Execution of Marie Antoinette at the Place de la Révolution" Before the guillotine stands

Marie Antoinette with Sanson, the same executioner who had

dispatched her husband ten months before. The execution, like that of her husband, took

place at the Place de la Révolution, recently renamed

from Place de Louis XV (currently Place de la Concorde).

Seven months after the execution of the King, shortly

after the declaration of "Revolutionary Government," the Convention turned to the

rest of the royal family. Fearing that Marie Antoinette and her son, the nominal King, would

provide rallying points for royalists within France and

abroad, a Revolutionary Tribunal indicted Marie

Antoinette and her children for treason.

Marie Antoinette being led to the guillotine

Jack and Jill RhymeNursery Rhyme & History

Jack and Jill story - The French (history) connection!

The roots of the story, or poem, of Jack and Jill are in France. Jack and Jill referred to are said to be King Louis XVI - Jack -who

was beheaded (lost his crown) followed by his Queen Marie Antoinette - Jill - (who

came tumbling after). The words and lyrics to the Jack and Jill poem were made more

acceptable as a story for children by providing a happy ending! The actual

beheadings occurred in during the Reign of Terror in 1793.

The Guillotine was a cruel form of

punishment of death during the French Revolution.  The

Executioner cranked the blade to the top, and a mechanism released it.  The blade was heavy, with its weight made the fall and the slice

through the neck, severing the head from its body.  About 90% of beheadings were of the third estate, about 7% from the second estate and about 3% from the

first estate.

Maximilien Robespierre

The French lawyer and political leader, who

became one of the most influential figures of the

French Revolution and the principal exponent of the

Reign of Terror. THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC

SAFETYStarted by Robespierre in the

summer of 1793, which decided who should be

considered enemies of the public. They would often try people in the morning, while having them guillotined the

same afternoon.

A conspiracy overthrew Robespierre.On July 27, 1794, he was barred

from speaking in public and was placed

Under arrest.

An uprising by his supporters was stopped, and on July 28 Robespierredied on the guillotine withhis other supporters. Eighty more followers of Robespierre were executed the next day.