The French Revolution by Pádraic Malone

The Old Regime The people in French society were not treated equally. The system of feudalism in France was known as The Old Regime. Citizens were Old Regime. Citizens were divided into divided into three classes or estates.

The Three Estates The First Estate The First Estate Roman Catholic Clergy The Second Estate Nobles The Third Estate 3 types of people 1.Bourgeoisie 2.City Workers 3.Peasants

The Renaissance movement spread ideas everyone should be equal. The people of the 3 rd 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 3 rd Estate delegates were locked out of their meeting.

The Dawn of the Revolution June 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.

The increased mob activity in Paris resulted in the formation of a permanent committee to keep order. This organized popular force broke into a royal armory and collected arms and then stormed the Bastille, incited by a rousing speech delivered by Camille Desmoulins on July 12, He was known as "The Lantern Lawyer" for is advocacy of hanging aristocrats on the light posts. Although the Bastille only had seven prisoners in it when it was liberated by the Parisian mob, the fall of the prison became a symbol of triumph over despotism. It also signified the end of the authority of Louis XVI, because he was no longer able to control the political tides of France.

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.

At first the king seemed inclined to work with the Revolution and to try to solve the problems.

But the influence of the queen and of the courtiers were too strong. He was encouraged by them to disregard all promises he had made and sought to flee from France in order to obtain aid against the revolution from Austria.

His disregard of his promises to abide by the constitution led to the storming of the royal palace of the Tuileries on Aug. 10, The king and his family escaped before the mob arrived and took refuge in the hall of the Legislative Assembly.

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.

His execution had important consequences for France, because it brought about ideas in other countries against the French Revolution.

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.

Stories of her infidelity circulated along with an alleged plot to make an alcoholic of her husband. She was described as faithless to her husband, cruel to her people, consumed by lust, and devoured by greed. In the propaganda, she is shown dipping her claws into a plate to steal and waste the treasures of France. Mostly people don’t see the two sides of the story and the propaganda involved from both sides. The revolutionaries displayed propaganda in pamphlets which were handed out in order to highlight the differences between the classes.

"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 trial was one which was truly unjust as the Tribunal had decided the outcome before the trial had started. Both sides of the revolution were at a wrong on some points, a detail which is often left out. 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

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.

Although the guillotine is most closely associated with the French, the Nazis guillotined more people (20,000) than during the French Revolution. Hitler considered it a demeaning form of punishment and used it for political executions in 1942 and The last use of the guillotine was in Capital punishment has been abolished in France.

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 SAFETY Started 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.

The Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror was a true sign that things must get worse before they get better; led by Robspierre from 5 th September th July 1794 it was a period in which the newly formed Committee of Public Safety had a total of 16,594 people executed by guillotine alone!

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 Robespierre died on the guillotine with his other supporters. Eighty more followers of Robespierre were executed the next day.

THE END