The French Revolution
Notes & Videos
The information on this page does not cover every single event of the decade known as the French Revolution. Some key events, notable names, and moments that directly impact the play are featured on this page (and the next).
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However, for those that wish to know as much as humanly possible, I'd recommend starting with these videos that sum up the French Revolution in the most engaging way.
The Basics
The French Revolution was a period of time in which French citizens revolted against the monarchy, the feudal system, and the overall political landscape of the country. The upset spanned approximately a decade, starting with the Estates General of 1789, and ending with the formation of the French Consulate in 1799.
France’s involvement in the American Revolution was costly, and combined with wild population growth, economic depression, regressive taxes, and extravagant spending by King Louis XVI – France was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Social unrest and political dissent thrived as France’s citizens received better education, and gained more places for active discussions and debates. Many were unhappy with the centuries old Ancien Régime – the Old Regime, which was a societal structure centered around kings and the nobility. Under this structure, the nobles and the clergy didn’t pay taxes – only the commoners.
The Estates-General & The Tennis Court Oath
In May of 1789, Louis XVI, in response to the financial crisis France was undergoing, called a meeting of the Estates-General – which was the closest thing France had to a national parliament.
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Every French citizen belonged to one of the three Estates:
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The First Estate included members of the Roman Catholic clergy, approximately 100,000 people.
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The Second Estate included France’s nobility, approximately 400,000 people.
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The Third Estate included the commoners, approximately 97% of France’s total population.
During the Estates-General, the representatives of each group would convene separately to discuss and vote on issues. The problem this created, was that despite representing 97% of the population, the Third Estate could be easily outvoted by the First and Second Estates, whose interests were often aligned.
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The people of France began to take action, gaining support for equal representation and the abolishment of the “noble veto.” By the time the Estates-General actually met in 1789, hostility arose amongst the three groups. The Third Estate representatives met alone, and changed their title to the National Assembly on June 17th, 1789.
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They met at the king's indoor tennis court a few days later, and took the Tennis Court Oath – a vow not to leave the premises until constitutional reform had been achieved.
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Within a week, most of the clerical deputies and nearly fifty nobles had joined them, and by the end of June, Louis XVI combined the First, Second, and Third Estates into one new assembly.
The Storming of the Bastille
On July 11th, 1789, King Louis XVI dismissed and banished his finance minister, Jacques Necker, and began restructuring the ministry. Necker had been sympathetic to the Third Estate, and frequently represented the voice of the people.
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When word of Necker’s dismissal reached the greater population the next day, crowds of thousands rallied throughout Paris to protest the decision. Calvaries were called in, but it only sparked further unrest in the city. The people began to plunder any places where weapons, food, and supplies were rumored to be stored.
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On the morning of July 13th, a “bourgeois militia” of 48,000 men was created in order to restore the peace. Lafayette led this group, which was officially named the National Guard. This is where the tri-color of blue, white, and red originated from.
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July 14th, 1789. That morning, Parisians gathered outside of the Bastille – a medieval fortress acting as a prison for a total of seven prisoners. The great stone building represented royal tyranny, to the members of the Third Estate – maintaining the Bastille was costly, and to maintain it while only seven prisoners occupied cells was a waste of time, labor, and money. The people gathered outside of the Bastille in hopes of gaining the extra gunpowder that was stored inside.
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Negotiations began, and when the negotiations kept cycling back to going nowhere, the people took action.
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Around 1:30 PM, the crowd barged in to an undefended outer courtyard, leading to a group breaking the chains of the drawbridge, and letting the mass of people in.
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What was once a crowd quickly became a mob, the protest growing more and more violent by the second. By the time the fighting and chaos finally ceased, ninety-eight members of the crowd and one defender of the Bastille had died.
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The king, who only heard about the events the following morning asked the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, “Is it a revolt?”
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The Duke replied, “No sire, it’s not a revolt; it’s a revolution.”
The Abolition of Feudal Rights
In August of 1789, a large group of aristocrats surrendered their feudal rights as nobility, which led to the National Assembly making formal decrees declaring that feudal society (i.e. the structure in which the clergy and the nobility were allowed more rights in regards to land ownership, tithes, and taxation privileges; also known as the Ancien Régime), had officially been abolished.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
That same month, the National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – which emphasized the right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. In part, it read, “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.” This sentiment was inherently applicable to all – not added to the end, and only applicable to non-slaves like the equivalent documents in the United States.
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Perhaps most importantly, the Declaration of the Rights of Man stated that the power of the monarch did not stem from some divine figure, some religious entity – it came directly from the people, the citizens of France.
The Women's March
In October of 1789, what started as a rumor that Marie Antoinette was hoarding grain at Versailles, led to a large group of Parisian market women marching to Versailles to bring the Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the rest of the royal family back to Paris so the people could monitor their actions.
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Although no members of the royal family were hurt, some in their closest circle were violated, murdered, and mutilated. Many a body part was displayed up on pikes. This unexpected violence caused many aristocrats to flee the country.
The Constitutional Monarchy &
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy
This march led to the creation of a constitution, therefore making France’s monarchy a constitutional one. The people of France believed that a king was necessary for a functioning state, but they wanted a system in place that allowed them the agency to keep the king in check.
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Then, in 1790, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was adopted, which took power away from the churches, and mandated the election of the priests by the parishioners themselves.
King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to flee mid-1791, but were caught at Varennes.
War With Austria & Prussia
Throughout 1791 and 1792, war broke out between revolutionary France, Austria, and Prussia – Austria and Prussia wanted to return to power solely to the monarch, as it benefitted them through the power of Marie Antoinette (former Archduchess of Austria, but current Queen of France).
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A radical group known as the Jacobins called for the formation of a republic. A protest they held at the Champ de Mars caused troops of the National Assembly (formerly the Third Estate) to fire on the crowd, killing fifty people. This event meant that the National Assembly, which had thus far been the voice of the people and of the revolution, had killed people whilst trying to stifle the revolution.
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One can see how this caused some controversy.
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The Duke of Brunswick, the commanding general of the Austo-Prussian army, threatened to destroy Paris if any harm came to King Louis XVI. As a response, the Girondin faction of the Jacobins took matters into their own hands, leading the overthrow of King Louis XVI, and establishing the French First Republic.
The August Insurrection
France was in the midst of potential danger from the Austro-Prussian army, and King Louis XVI was not handling the added pressure of his life being on the line very well.
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On August 10th, 1792, the National Guard of the Paris Commune as well as some others stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where King Louis XVI resided, in protest of radical measures that Louis had vetoed. Swiss Guards defended this palace while Louis and the royals took shelter. Hundreds of Swiss Guards were slaughtered, as well as over 400 revolutionaries storming the palace.
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King Louis XVI would later be blamed and held accountable for the bloodshed of this day.
The September Massacres
In September of 1792, the threat of Paris coming under attack from the Austro-Prussian army was too much for citizens to handle. They also worried that imprisoned politicians from the recent overthrow of the monarchy were planning their own counterrevolutionary plot.
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On September 1st, a meeting was scheduled for the following day for anyone volunteering their service or their weapons and supplies, to be held at the Champs de Mars.
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On September 2nd, a Jacobin political leader by the name of Georges Danton gave a speech to those that had gathered to volunteer, stating: "We ask that anyone refusing to give personal service or to furnish arms shall be punished with death.”
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Less than twenty-four hours later, over 1,000 prisoners had been slain.
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Two women of the revolution, Madame Roland and Charlotte Corday, held two different men responsible for these deaths in their own way. Madame Roland shamed Georges Danton in her writing. Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, another Jacobin radical.
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Both women were killed by the guillotine for their crimes.
The Rise of the Jacobins
The Society of the Friends of the Constitution, renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality, was a political club that held incredible amounts of influence throughout the French Revolution. The club grew from a handful of members during the Estates-General meeting of 1789 to approximately half a million members by 1794. The Jacobins included multiple factions, including The Mountain (of which, Maximilien Robespierre and Jean-Paul Marat were members), and the Girondins (of which, assassin Charlotte Corday was a member).
The Girondin faction was powerful during the aforementioned war time, but in 1793, members of The Mountain faction, led by Maximilien Robespierre, succeeded in pushing the Girondin faction out of political power. Twenty-one prominent Girondins were sent to the guillotine that October.
Once the Girondins were out of the way, The Mountain controlled the French government until mid-1794.
This period of Jacobin power led by The Mountain faction was also known as the Reign of Terror.