The Moderate Stage of the French Revolution

1789-1791

The Estates General ConvenesMay, 1789

From Day One, the King made a point of insulting the Third Estate and its 610 members (compared to roughly 300 participants of each of the first two Estates.

Why would he do this?

He forced them to wear only simple black clothes,

They had to sit at the back where they could not hear the speeches,

He held private banquets with the first two Estates, but only allowed the Third estate to march silently past him.

The Third Estate was expected to remain standing whenever the King was present.

The Voting StalemateJune, 1789

With the vote always 2-1 (Clergy & Nobles vs. Commoners), it became clear to the Third Estate that the first two Estates were just there for the parties and to look like reform was taking place, but had no intention of actually reforming France.

What made them think they could get away with this?

The Third Estate ActsJune, 1789

Realizing something needed to be done, and knowing that some Enlightened nobles and priests agreed with them, the Third Estate vowed to form their own assembly and refused to participate in the Estates General until the votes were by each person, not each Estate.

Was this a wise move?

The King responded by calling for a few days off to let the situation calm down. He unsurprisingly made no decisions.

What would you do if you were Louis XVI?

The StandoffJune, 1789

One week after the Third Estate demanded to change the voting system, the King had not yet responded to them. So on June 17 the Third Estate made a revolutionary move.

The Third Estate representatives declared themselves the National Assembly, and invited representatives from the other two Estates to join them. Only a fewPriests and no noblesJoined the Assembly.

Was this a wise move?

The Lockout and the Tennis Court OathJune, 1789

Three days after the formation of the National Assembly, the Third Estate found itself locked out of its meeting room (apparently by accident). The Third Estate did not see it that way.

Enraged, the Third Estate and dozen or so priests moved to a nearby tennis court and took the Tennis Court Oath where they vowed not to stop meeting until France had a constitution limiting the King’s power.

The King Responds IJune, 1789

As most of the First Estate and a few of the Second Estate left the Estates General to join the National Assembly, Louis XVI grudgingly ordered everyone at the Estates General to join the Assembly and told them to get to work making a constitution for France.

The Third Estate had challenged the King and won!

Did the King make the right decision by giving in?

The King Responds IIJune, 1789

…But the King also made a show of his power. He fired the popular reform-

minded economic Minister Jacques Necker and replaced him with a conservative who sided with the Nobles

He hired foreign military troops (from Switzerland) to surround Versailles without telling anyone of their orders or intentions.

Why would the King do this? What was the point?

Meanwhile, 12 Miles Away in Paris…July, 1789

As the Assembly debated a constitution, tensions in Paris were high for three reasons: There was hope reform was coming, but

the harvest and winter were approaching, and no changed had been made.

The price of bread—in summer!—had reached 80% of the average worker’s income.

Rumors were spreading that famine was imminent and that the foreign troops would soon punish the (former) Third Estate—including Parisians—for defying the King.

What might your characters be thinking at this time?

And Now the Spark…July, 1789

For unknown reasons, the king sent some of those Swiss soldiers to surround Paris. Fearing an attack even though they had done nothing, the desperate residents of Paris began a search for weapons…

Why might the King have done this?

The BastilleJune, 1789

The search for weapons focused on an ancient fortress called the Bastille where gunpowder was stored.

The building was also (falsely) rumored to be filled with political prisoners and stood as a hated symbol of the King’s power.

The Storming of the BastilleJuly 14, 1789

900 lower-and-middle-class Parisians rushed into the Bastille, (The Storming of the Bastille) beheaded the man in charge, and carried his head around the city on a pike. Six guards and dozens from the mob were killed, but the people of Paris got the gunpowder.

Results of the Storming of the Bastille (July-August, 1789)

Now that the poor of Paris were armed and showed they meant business:

The king calmed the situation by removing the Swiss troops from the edge of Paris,

The rich were suddenly scared of the poor,

The National Assembly realized it had better make some changes soon, or they might find themselves not in control anymore.

The Great Fear: Intro

Meanwhile, in late summer, fear gripped France as the different classes feared what the others would do as winter approached. A third bad harvest in a row might push France over the edge….

The Great Fear: Peasants

In the Great Fear starting after the Bastille, peasants feared a poor harvest, and that the nobles would punish them for the Third Estate’s actions by hiring gangs of homeless peasants to take their crops.

Result: Peasants attacked food convoys, refused to pay taxes and tithes, ransacked Nobles’ houses (andsometimes killed them and their Families) and burned the tax records.

Are these actions defensible?

The Great Fear: Nobles

The Nobles were afraid the National Assembly would take away their privileges.

Worse, they were terrified of the peasant revolts. Many fled the country and became Emigres (Nobles living abroad), and many had their property destroyed by angry peasants.

The Great Fear: Clergy

The clergy feared the Assembly would force reforms on the Church, which would not sit well with the Pope in Rome.

They also realized that for all of their teaching, they would be unable to control the hungry, angry mobs in the cities and in the countryside.

The Great Fear: Cities

In Paris and elsewhere, the people feared: A crackdown by the king to stop reforms,

Starving peasants would stream into cities, thus increasing unemployment and raising the price of bread,

No bread would reach the cities in the coming winter,

Foreign kings would order an invasion of France to stop this effort to lessen the monarch’s power.

Finally, Some Change!August, 1789

During the Great Fear, the National Assembly finally began to act.

Terrified their families would be killed and their property destroyed by the mobs would be killed and outvoted by the commoners and clergy:

“Aristocrats, seeking to restore calm in the countryside, surrendered their exclusive privileges: exclusive hunting rights, tax exemptions…and the right to demand labor from peasants.” (Perry)

Was this a smart move by the nobles? The clergy? The commoners?

But not so fast…October, 1789

While more changes were being (endlessly) debated, the King refused to sign both the August Decrees that ended Nobles’ special status, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man which outlined the principles of equality in the new France. It was unclear whether anyof the changes would actually happen.

The Women’s March on VersaillesOctober, 1789

Hungry, fearing winter, and convinced that the King would take action if only he knew what conditions were like in Paris, a spontaneous group of thousands of (mostly) women marched the 12 miles to Versailles and demanded to speak with the King and Queen.

The Women at VersaillesOctober, 1789

After a little violence, the King allowed a dozen or so of the women into Versailles, and he agreed to move back to Paris.

The mob marched back to Paris alongside the King and Queen’s carriage chanting “Long Live the King!”

The King quickly began signing off on all changes made by the Assembly, and the Situation calmed down for a couple of years as the harvests were good And the people patiently waited for the Assembly to act.

Why did the King suddenly soften up And accept change?

The Changes1789-1791

Between Fall, 1789 and 1791, the Assembly changed France forever. See the handout accessible from the Day 6 wiki page for details.