Louis XVI
During the French Revolution he was naive and only in his twenties. He married Marie Antoinette of Austria to strengthen the ties between France and Austria. There were conflicts with Marie which made her known as the "Austrian Whore". He was King while N
Marie Antoinette
(1755-1793) was the Queen of France and Navarre and Archduchess of Austria. After King Louis XV died, her husband became king of France (King Louis XVI). At first, the people liked her, but then they turned against her for her being promiscuous and having
Charles Alexandre de Calonne
�(1734-1802) became the new finance minister in France. He showed the Necker's calculations were far-fetched. Yet he made the country fall into even more debt by barrowing from venal officeholders to pay off creditors. He wanted the king to make an Assemb
Jacques Necker
He was a French statesman of Swiss birth who served as a financial advisor to King Louis XVI who arranged loans that had been underwritten the financial support France has supplied the rebel colonists of the American War of Independence.
Assembly of Notables
consisted of handpicked representatives from three estates� clergy, nobility, and everybody else. willing to accept financial reform or pay more taxes, but only if there was institutional reforms tha guaranteed their privileges. They also wanted the king
Estates General
was the elective body of France. It consisted of residents of cities and towns. They were usually trained in the law or parish priests.
Sieyes and "What is the Third Estate?
(3 March 1748 - 20 June 1836) was a French Roman Catholic abb� and clergyman, one of the chief theorists of the French Revolution, French Consulate, and First French Empire. His liberal 1789 pamphlet became the manifesto of the Revolution that helped tran
Marquis de Lafayette
he was the commander of the National Guard of France. He was part of the clergy.
Cahiers de doleances
were lists of concerns drawn up by each of the three Estates in France, the year in which the French
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
This was the motto of the French Revolution. It showed the three new ideas that people were starting value and wanted to spread. The motto was sometimes seen as controversial because many did not see how fraternity tied in with equality and liberty.
National Assembly�
On June 17, 1789, the third estate approved a motion by Sieyes that declared the third estate be called this and the true representative of national sovereignty (like legislature). The third estate claimed an authority parallel to the king of France. On J
Fall of the Bastille�
On July 14, 1789 a group of 80,000 peasants attacked the Bastille, which had been converted to a prison and at the time only held seven prisoners, to capture the arms and ammunition stored there. Beyond the physical attack, the storming of the Bastille be
Tennis Court Oath
was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 out of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789 in a tennis court. The deputies pl
the Great Fear
was the nobles fearing a peasant revolt on August 4th because the nobles were hoarding grain and slashed fields of grains which made the peasants angry.
Night of August 4th
1789, delegates offered new reforms and wanted to surrender class privileges. The system in which peasants were owned by their landlords through obligations were abolished, so were tithing to churches. The nobility gave up their exemptions from taxes. At
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen�
was a remarkable document that proposed the universal principles of humanity. The National Assembly created this document in order to begin to create a new regime. The Assembly established this constitution on August 26, 1789. It set forth the basic princ
October Marches
A series of marches made from Paris to the Palace of Versailles. The first march was when the "Patriots" marched to Versailles hoping to bring King Louis back to Paris after the officers of the Flanders Regiment insulted the newly adopted tricolor emblem.
Jean-Paul Marat
(1743-1793) he was a radical journalist who had a newspaper called The Friend of The People. He was a physician and an ambitious "scribbler" from Voltaire. He developed the mood for those he wrote about by his colorful word choice and stirring emotion.
Olympe de Gouges
he wrote a book called the Declaration of the Rights of Women
Declaration of the Rights of Women
encouraged women to demand their natural rights. Olympe de Gouges called on an assembly to acknowledge women's rights as mothers of the citizens of the nation. She fought for womens' right to education, to control property, and to initiate divorce.
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Passed in France by the National Assembly on July 12, 1790, thia redefined the relationship between the clergy and the state, henceforth creating a national church. It also required bishops to be elected by the electoral assembly at the department level.
Constitution of 1791
formalized the break with the Old Regime by substituting a constitutional monarchy for absolute rule. It was the first written constitution of France. Constitutionality was one of the basic precepts of the revolution along with popular sovereignty. It mad
non-juring/refractory clergy
were clergy members who refused to swear an oath of allegiance to the state under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; also known as refractory clergy, priests and bishops
emigres
were people that were encouraged by Louis XVI to leave France because they were part of his court and he feared that they might be killed during all of the violence of the Revolution. They also encouraged foreign intervention to help restore Louis XVI to
sans-culottes
They were known as the Persian revolutionaries. They didnt wear the fancy knee britches (culottes) which were associated with the aristocracy. They could be identified by the Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom. The sans-culottes were shopkeepers, artisans,
Jacobin Club
were the more radical people of the assembly. But they were radical with respect to others. They wanted centralized power to save the country from internal treason and foreign debt. They were pro- sans-culottes. They had enemies within and had concerns ab
Club of the Feuillants
It came into existence from a split within the Jacobins from those opposing the overthrow of the king and proposing a constitutional monarchy
Cordeliers Club
Founded in 1790 by the members of the district of Cordeliers. This was made when the constituent assembly suppressed the 60 district into only 48 sections. This was a populist group during the French Revolution.
Declaration of Pillnitz
was made by Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire and King Frederick William II of Prussia on August 27, 1791. It stated their concerns on the state of the French monarchy. It also stated how both sovereigns had interest in helping to restore order
Flight to Varennes
(June 20 and 21 1791 ) was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family were unsuccessful in their attempt to escape, disguised as the servants of a Russian baroness, from the radical agitat
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Written by British writer Edmund Burke attacking the French Revolution. He said that the abstract rationalism of the Enlightenment threatened the historic evolution of nations by undermining their monarchy, established church, and the natural ruling elite
Brunswick Manifesto
A proclamation issued by Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Allied Army (Austria and Prussia), on July 25, 1792 to the population of Paris, France during the French Revolutionary Wars. It threatened that if the French Royal Fam
Paris Commune
is a radical committee that over threw the city council and established a revolutionary authority on August 9th. They named Antoine-Joseph Santerre commander of the National Guard.
Storming of the Tuileries
On June 20, 1792, people threatened the royal family and called for the end of the monarchy and invaded the Tuileries Palace. On August 10th of the same year the Sans-Culottes attacked the palace and killed 600 of the King's guars and servants after they
Battle of Verdun
was fought on August 20, 1792 between French Revolutionary forces and a Prussian army. The Prussians were victorious. This therefore opened the path to Paris
Battle of Valmy
�(September 20, 1792) is largly considered one of the most significant battles during the French Revolution and largly ensured the Revolution's survival. During this battle a ragtag group of French soldiers and sans-culottes faced off against the Prussian
Georges-Jacques Danton
He was known for over throwing the monarchy and establishing the first French Republic. He was a Jacobin and he had given up on the idea that a constitutional monarchy could guarantee the liberties of the people.
September Massacres
(September 1792) because of the invading foreign armies and the fear of betrayal at home, many people in France were put in prison. A rumor circulated that he people in the jails were planning an escape, and then mobs dragged the prisoners from their cell
National Convention
was a new assembly that consisted of a universal male suffrage in elections dominated by Jacobins and met in Tuileries Hall. The first act was to abolish the monarchy and proclaim the republic. They promised "fraternity and assistance to all peoples who w
Execution of Louis XVI
Letters between Louis XVI and the Austrian government doomed the monarchy. The Convention tried the King him and sentenced him to death and he was guillotined on the Place de la Revolution.
Girondins
During the war they wanted free the Europe from Monarchy and nobility. During the second revolution this group wanted to take the revolution beyond just France as well as promoting economic liberalism. They were opposed to centralized power and instead fa
Mountain
the people or groups that were of the far left (mostly Jacobins and their followers). They wanted to centralixe the authority in the capital in order to save the revolution for foreign defeat and internal treason.
Plain
was the political center. It was backed by the Parisian sans-culottes. The Jacobins insisted on the necessity of centralizing authority in the capital to save the revolution from internal treason and foreign defeat.
Uprising in the Vendee
a full scale insurrection against the revolution that began in March of 1793 in western France in regions where the Civil Constitution of the French Clergy had met much resistance. It was the beginning of the Counter-Revolution.
Law of Suspects
created by the Convention in September, deprived criminals accused of treason (crimes against the nation) of most of their rights. This law created revolutionary tribunals to try those suspected of treason and to punish those convicted with death. It was
Committee of Public Safety
created in April 1793 by the National Convention, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror. It was set up to oversee the defense of the new republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. Under war conditions
Lazare Carnot
was a talented military engineer, brilliant administrator, and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He survived being executed because he opposed Robespierre.
Levee en Masse
Mass Conscription". August 1793. This was the act of the revolutionary government enrolling people into the army. Everyone from young people to elders were put into a role of some sort to help out the military.
Maximilien Robespierre
Born in 1758 and died in 1794, he became a leading figure on the Committee of Public Safety and in the Terror. The son and grandson of lawyers, he depended on scholarships for school (his father abandoned him and his family) and was chosen to read a Latin
Enrages
the Enraged Ones." They were a radical active group during the Revolution. They were to the left of the Jacobins, believing that liberty for all meant more than constitutional rights.
Representatives on mission
An envoy of the Legislative Assembly. The term was given to deputies that were appointed by the National Convention, these people maintained law and order within the armies and they oversaw conscription into the army and monitored local military command.
De-Christianization
During Year II of the new calendar, radical revolutionaries campaigned a war on religious institutions and symbols. They closed down churches and removed crosses standing in public places. The goal was to destroy the religious practice. The campaign faile
Republic of Virtue
was a period in French history (1791-1794) where Maximilien Robespierre remained in power. It was part of the de-Christianization of the French Revolution
Thermidorian Reactio
was an uprising against the Committee of Public Safety, in which Robespierre and his followers were killed. Afterwards, the Committee's powers were restricted and shortly thereafter the Committee was dissolved.
Constitution of 1795
This was an important transition between the political system of the Old Regime (which was primarily based on monarchical absolutism and noble privilege) and modern representative government grounded in the sanctity of property. It also preserved the cent
Royalists
basically people who supported the King's brother
Whiff of grapeshot
is a type of ammunition used in cannons. Instead of a solid round ball, they put a canister in that is full of small iron balls. When fired, the canister splits apart and all the iron balls fly out, converting the cannon to a giant shotgun. The reason it'
Fran�ois-No�l Babeuf
known as Gracchus Babeuf,was a French political agitator and journalist of the Revolutionary period. In spite of the efforts of his Jacobin friends to save him, Babeuf was arrested, tried, and convicted for his role in the Conspiracy of the Equals. Althou
Treaty of Campo Formio
A treaty which left France in the position of having supplanted Austria as the dominant foreign power in Italy. This victory, and Napoleon's boldly independent diplomatic negotiations in the Italian campaigns, made him the toast of Paris.
Egyptian Expedition
In May 1798 Napoleon sailed with an army to Egypt, which Turkey controlled and hoped to strike at British interests in India. Fearing that France sought to break apart the Ottoman empire, and extend, Russia allied with Britain. Austria also joined that al