The French Monarchy Marie Antoinette Louis XVI

The French Monarchy: Marie Antoinette & Louis XVI

Social Structure Clergy (0. 5%) Nobility (1. 5%) Everyone Else (98%) Clergy 1 st Estate Aristocracy 2 nd Estate Commoners 3 rd Estate Louis XIV insisted that the ancient distinction of the three orders be conserved in its entirety.

Living Conditions of France 1780 s • France is poor, bankrupt from American Revolution • Monarchy spend a lot of $$$$ • Peasants pay taxes. Nobility and Clergy are exempt. • Famine: food shortage + rising taxes = Bread Riots

Convening the Estates General May, 1789 Last time it was called into session was 1614!

Convocation of Estate General • May 1789 • First meeting after 175 years • Meeting of 3 social classes • • Discuss what to do about fiscal crisis. King locks 3 RD Estate out of meeting next day. • They meet in the tennis courts. • Tennis Court Oath, creates the National Assembly (Parliament-like system) and begins writing Constitution.

“The Tennis Court Oath” by Jacques Louis David June 20, 1789

• King realized 3 rd estate is not backing down • Allows meeting to continue • King’s financial advisor sides with 3 rd estate • King fires him.

“The Third Estate Awakens” Y The commoners finally presented their credentials not as delegates of the Third Estate, but as “representatives of the nation. ” Y They proclaimed themselves the “National Assembly” of France.

Bastille • 3 rd Estate needed to arm themselves against King and Army • Attack Bastille which held French arms • Bastille Prison represented Absolutism and abuse of Monarch power • Mayor is beheaded • National assembly accepts violence. • French Revolution Begins July 14, 1789

Storming the Bastille, July 14, 1789

The Tricolor (1789) Blue = Liberty White = Equality Red = Brotherhood.

Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizens • Aug. 1789 • Demands ideas set by the Enlightenment • Life, Liberty, security, equality, resistance to oppression, freedom of speech & press, no group exempt from taxation • Leaves out women and slaves • No mention of Monarch

Women’s March on Versailles • Oct. 1789 Rumors of Queen hoarding grain • Demand King and Queen sign Declaration of Rights and move back to Paris. • King hesitates, women storm the palace • Behead guards, heads on sticks. • Capture King and Queen force them back to Paris leading with the heads of guards on a stick.

We want the baker, the baker’s wife and the baker’s boy!

Louis XVI “Accepts” the Constitution & the National Assembly 1791

1790 -1791 • Counterinsurgencies occur throughout France • Nobles begin to Emigrate • June 1791 King and Queen try to sneak out of Paris into Austria. With the help of Marie Antoinette’s lover. Buhaaahaa. • Were disguised as servants • Recognized, arrested and taken back to Paris as captives

King on house arrest at Tuileries Palace in Paris.

Champ de Mars July 1791 • • Jacobins organize to eradicate King Meet in Paris Park (Champ de Mars) French troops fire into crowd Killing 50 people who were armed with rocks.

Robespierre

Jacobins • • Revolutionaries Most radical political group Ruthless Robespierre: Leader See King as unnecessary / useless King escaping is treason punished by death. They call for a Republic: elected officials Want to eliminate ideas of Medieval France and the 3 social classes

Declaration of Pillnitz • Aug. 1791 • Austria and Prussia intend to bring the Monarchy back to power. • Threaten War • Leopold II of Austria: Brother of Marie Antoinette

Brunswick Manifesto (August 3, 1792) Duke of Brunswick if the Royal Family is harmed, Paris will be leveled!! • Intended to intimidate Paris • Instead it increases radicalism (Pushes the Revolution Forward) FRANCE 17921797 AUSTRIA PRUSSIA BRITAIN SPAIN

Guillotine • Apr. 1792 • New Killing Device • Humane Death Penalty, equality • Invented by Dr. Joseph Guillotine