Unit 16 & 17

Introduction to History:
The French Revolution
1. Basic questions to be asked of a primary source

• The 1st point to be established about a primary source is its authenticity. Was
a letter written by David surely written by him or is it forged? Authenticity is
often established through the place of origin of the sources (its provenance).
• As a student of history, not a professional historian, it is recommended that
you apply this list of questions to all the primary sources you study:

1. Date: what date is the source? How close it is to event? Relation to other
important dates.

2. Kind: what kind of source is it? (a private letter, official report, etc).
Different types have strengths & weaknesses depending on purpose.
3. How & why & by whom did the source come into existence? Purpose,
prejudices of creators. For whom is the document intended, addressed? To
flatter a king to seek a position.
4. Is the originator a reliable source of information? Persons who took part in
actions provide more interesting accounts to historians.
5. What did the source mean to people of its time (contemporaries)? Sometimes
this is difficult because of the language of the source, or technical terms,
inscriptions, allusions. Sums of money should be understood – something
costs 1,000 livres means nothing if you do not relate it to average earning of a
worker. Statistics must be set in context a- a town of 10,000 inhabitants – is it
small or large? Allusions to the Bible or to Classics are common in 18th cent.
All allusions must be understood to understand full meaning of documents as
contemporaries would have understood them.
6. How the source relates to other primary & secondary sources - and
information obtained from them. This is called contextual knowledge.

• The French Revolution is taken here as a case study. Read Resource book 2,
A1.
• The following lines provide some info about France in late 18th Century &
social groups & political institutes involved in the Revolution.
i. Throughout 18th Cent. Europe, it was accepted in large
countries that monarchy was the most legitimate & effective
from of government (for achieving tranquility at home & glory
abroad). Rousseau believed in none of this and that is why he is

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an important figure. There was reverence (admiration) for
ancient law which guaranteed certain freedom& privileges to
certain sections of the population – which sets limits on power
of king. In France there was no parliament of the British type.
The king chose his ministers, who would be, if unsuccessful,
disgraced & exiled and replaced by others. Kings needed cash
especially in case of wars, it was mainly raised through taxes.
The French system of taxation in the 18th Century was complex
and constantly reviewed.

ii. The French society was a large one made up of various

social groups. Nobles & bourgeoisie might be arguing
over certain principles of taxation in a formal assembly.
While elsewhere, harvest failure might result in
peasants rampaging in countryside and bread riots in
towns. For most of the 18th century, France was free of
serious popular disturbances. A central feature of the
period of the revaluation was that – disturbances began
to pressurize and interact with assemblies where mainly
bourgeois figures made their demands against the old
regime. These demands marked the beginning of a
revolution – it stimulated further popular action – this
involved social groups which had little political
consciousness before that time.

iii. The revolutionary period spread over many years &

there was an interaction between different
developments and events. The Revolution took on a
momentum (force, energy) of its own not always related
to the causes of the original outbreak. So it is impossible
to put a simple model: CAUSES => REVOLUTION =>
CONSEQUENCES. The Revolution (or Revolutions)
was NOT proceeding in a single direction, at times there
were tendencies towards greater radicalism, extremes,
but sometimes there could be reactions, or revulsion
against bloodshed, or a desire for order & stability.
Historians think of the period as that of several
revolutions going on at different levels of society in
addition to the original revolution which resulted in
something similar to the British limited monarchy.

iv. It is important while studying a historical event to look

at the significance of events themselves – isolating them
from long-term forces – e.g. The storming of the Bastille

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 on 14 July 1789. We also cannot ignore contingency (or
accidents) e.g. disastrous harvest.

v. Medieval France had been divided into 3 orders (or

estates): The clergy-the nobility, and the rest (about 95
% of population).

In the 18th century it was very different.

• Old nobility (nobility of the Sword) powerful, but sometimes poor, of only
local importance.
• New rich & powerful nobility (nobility of the Robe) – held important
positions in the service of the Crown, sometimes they bought these positions.
• The bourgeois = sometimes very rich & powerful - neither noble nor worked
with their hands, but generally wanted to join the nobility.
• Below the bourgeois in towns => craftsmen, artisans, & other workers
• in the countryside (peasants) = small farmers or mainly landless workers
who often had to do other kinds of work apart from agriculture.
• The clergy at the top (bishops, abbots, etc) were noble; the parish (town)
clergy were little removed from peasants.

vi. The three orders of society, historically represented in a

body analogous to the English Parliament called Estates
General. No Estates General had met since 1614. Some
French regions had Estates of their own, usually
unimportant, but could become centers of opposition to
royal policies.

-The Parlements= there was a major one in Paris & 12 others in provinces= judicial
bodies, but they also registered royal legislation therefore confirming its legitimacy.

• The following is an example of a primary source. Let's apply the 6 questions

previously mentioned about primary sources on this case. Read pp14-15.

A person called Count de Germiny sent an account of complaint to the National

Assembly – on the 20th of August 1789. He complained that on the 29th July 1789, a
group of brigands – and some of his own vassals (servants) and others from the next
parish – all 200 people –came to his chateau at Sassy – broke the locks containing
the title deeds, seized the important registers and burned them. They also had the
tocsin (danger bells) rung in nearby parishes to collect people. He says that he never
let his vassals "feel the odious weight of ancient feudalism". He is asking the
National Assembly for reimbursing him for his loss, damage of property, and the
use of common land, useful to his parishioners as it is to his own estate – whose title
deeds they had burned. The brigands had also killed his pigeon.

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 • Date: the 1st summer of the Revolution, the summer of the Great Fear in the
countryside.
• Type of source: a document of record- it is an official complaint to an official
body. How accurate: by nature it is assumed to be broadly accurate.
• Who created source? For what purpose> Biases expected? The author is a
noble man – his purpose is to persuade the National Assembly to pass a law
to allow him to be reimbursed for the damage he claims. It is expected that
the count would express his case as strong as possible to be compensated.
When he says that the trouble makers were not really his own vassals, but
nearby ones and other brigands, he might be trying to protect his own
interest. So this has to be well-researched.
• Is the author reliable? It is his property, so he ought to give an accurate
account. But he mentions that he is not resident in the area where the trouble
took place. He must be relying on other sources of info – probably from his
warden. The guard who was not able to defend the place is expected to
exaggerate about the numbers of ppl, brigands, etc.
• What did the document mean to contemporaries? Problems of interpretation?
Word "brigands" suggests professional criminals. Vassals are peasants who
are not completely free but owe feudal duties to their lord. There are also
names of places in France – basic rule is to find the exact geographical
locations. Château is not always a fortified castle, could be sometimes a
manor house. Title deeds & registers are written documents to prove the
count's legal rights to lands and certain feudal duties (taxes, etc). Tocsin is a
peal of church bells to arouse alarm; it had become a symbol of the
revolutionary mobs. The "odious weight of ancient feudalism" is an
important phrase, Germiny is claiming that he is generous with his Vassals
and shows his inclination of abolishing ancient dues. Common land: this is
the land which everyone in the parish, not only the lord, had equal rights for
(grazing, gathering wood, etc.) Pigeons were kept by nobility for pigeon
shooting, but pigeons were hated by peasants since pigeons fed on their
crops.
• How does the source fit into contextual knowledge we already have? Date fits
into time of Great Fear. Brigands at that time scared peasants & lords.

2. Witting Testimony & Unwitting Testimony

These phrases show a distinction in what is contained in Primary sources.

• Witting: means direct, deliberate or intentional message of a document or

source – the information that the person who originally created the
document or source intended to convey.
• Unwitting: means indirect, unaware or unintentional evidence a source
contains.
• Testimony: means evidence.

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Example: the document by the Count de Germiny.

Witting testimony, e.g.:

1. He has suffered at the hands of brigands & peasants; he hopes to be

compensated by the National Assembly (refers to breaking locks, burning of
registers & title deeds. Refers to vassals from another parish, amplifying this
with reference to tocsin rung in other parishes to collect people. Title deeds
expressing his ownership of land have been burned, pigeons killed.)
2. He wants to clearly show that he is not a wicked practitioner of ancient
feudalism, but a believer in abolishing feudalism. Wants to emphasize his
goodness by referring to common land, relevant to vassals as to himself. He is
not taking direct actions against his peasants even though they acted with
brigands.

Unwitting testimony: e.g.

For the historian, de Germiny reveals other things:

1. of which he is not conscious

2. of which he is partially conscious, but he is unaware of its historical
significance.
3. Which are so obvious to him that he mentions them in passing: e.g. title
deeds & registers.

We, as historians realize how important these documents are to him to back up his
feudal claims (cannot do that by power & prestige alone); the vassals know this. We
have a clear (unwitting) testimony to the importance of legal document in this
society. We also learn how important to him is pigeon shooting (& how it's hated by
peasants).

• Unwittingly, he reveals that he is a non-resident landlord, or he has at least 2

residences. Seems something usual for nobles to be living in a (lavish)
extravagant way.
• Unwittingly too, in his opening sentence (e.g. Of 2) the Count does not intend
to make a historical point about whom the brigands were collaborating with:
but would see, unwittingly, to be giving evidence against the common view
among peasants that brigands work on behalf of nobility against peasants. It
is also clear (this is maybe one of most important historical points in the
document) that the Count has absolute confidence that National Assembly
will sympathize with him, no clash of interest (personal or class) between
himself as a nobility & National Assembly (represented by Bourgeois). They
will value property rights as he does.

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 • As historians we might ask ourselves questions about this document and the
results of it.
• He asked for a law to reimburse him, but this does not mean this law was
actually passed.
• What really happened is: pressure from the peasant activism of the "Great
Fear" forced the National Assembly in August to abolish all Feudal
privileges.
• This is not contained in document, but creates a context for the historian. So
the nobleman, despite his confidence in the Assembly, fails in his appeal.

3. Understanding the past from the "inside"

Historians=must understand the mental outlook or belief system of the people of the
past (mentalities is the word historians use). This point applies to all historical
periods, even as recent as the 1960s.

• 3 aspects of mentalities of Western Europeans that astonish the modern

mind, and are relevant to the study of 18th Cent. France:
1. The continuing influence of the classical tradition (read Resource
book 2, A17 by Michael Bartholomew & Anthony Lentin & A18 by Colin
Cunningham).
2. The centrality of Christen belief & practice.
3. A belief in the supernatural (superstition is the accurate word, but
avoided today as it suggests criticism of past attitudes & failure of
understanding people on their own terms).

4. Handling primary sources

 Exercise: imagine researching certain aspects of the French

Revolution. We have a specific source to analyze.
 We should concentrate on actual words & phrases of the
source.
 It is necessary to have basic contextual information.
 Imagine that you want to write a study of "The attitudes of the
French people towards monarchy & constitutional government
during the French revolution".
 Your source=Passage p. 20- an extract from a petition,
addressed to the National Constitution Assembly, drawn up by
members of 2 radical republican clubs: the social circle & the
Cordeliers Club.
 The authors were mainly bourgeois figures, including the
lawyer Danton who became later a notorious enthusiast for the
Terrors. It was published in the Social Circle newspaper on 16
July 1791.

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  contextual information= p.20- background information:
 King Louis XVI (16) attempted to flee the country in June,
leaving behind a denunciation of the Revolution.
 After this, the king had been suspended from his royal powers
by the National Constitution Assembly.
 The decree of 15 July confirmed: the Assembly's acceptance of
the inviolability (holiness) of the king's person & the theory
that he had been abducted against his will.
 The decree also stated that the king would not be reinstated
until he had accepted the new constitution currently being
drafted.
 This petition of 16 July was in protest against the decree; the
drafters were hoping to collect mass signatures at a
demonstration on the Champs de Mars on 17 July. About
6,000 signatures had been collected before the demonstration
was suppressed in the "Massacre of Champs de Mars".
 Questions to ask about the source:

i. What kind of primary source is this? Strength & weaknesses?

ii. Which words & phrases require comment before they can be used?

iii. What can you learn from it in relation to your studies (witting & unwitting
testimony)?

o Read pp. 15-16 of your book (in this summary pp.1-2) – the 6 points
about a source.
o Listen to audio CD 4, tracks 1-4.
o Pp. 21-22-23.24 =read later

5. Facts in History

• The French Revolution is a historical fact. A complex historical fact like this
– spread over so many years, must contain, a vast number of other historical
facts, e.g. That the Bastille was stormed on 14 July (national day of France
today) 1789 & Louis XVI was guillotined (executed) on 21 January 1793.
Historical events cannot be reduced to single building bricks – historians
study many other things in addition to events: states of mind, living
conditions, evidence of links between circumstances – all of these things are
more than just facts. The important question is NOT "is it a fact?" but "is
there reliable evidence for it in the sources?"

6. Essential Contextual Knowledge of the French Revolution

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Research on the French Revolution:

o In recent writings on the French Revolution, contingency is important.

o It is important to see that there is much which is not determined by
"historical laws" - part of the general move away from Marxism.
• An ultra-traditional Marxist interpretation would see the French Revolution
as:

1. inevitable: because the growing bourgeoisie could no longer be held down by

the reactionary aristocracy

2. Necessary: to clear the way for bourgeois industrial /capitalist society.

o Nowadays – nobody believes that exactly anymore.
o Detailed archived work which provided a more complex & convincing
picture of the Revolution was carried out by scholars who were themselves
Marxists.
o How was the historical context produced? To answer this, we will pick
out 4 British historians. 3 produced excellent textbooks. One produced a
huge tome for the 200th anniversary of the Revolution – a bestseller.
o William Doyle: did scholar work in the provincial archives, especially,
the Parlement at Bordeaux. Wrote 2 textbooks (1980-1989) in the non-
Marxist tradition. He regards himself as one of those who changed the
previous Marxist consensus (agreement).
o Gwynne Lewis: studied coal-mining in the provincial region of the
Bas-Cevennes & the arrival there of capitalist methods in late 18th century. In
his text book, 1993, p. 26. he identifies 2 different approaches: revisionist
approach: included Doyle & marxisant approach (French word meaning
inclining towards Marxism). Doing so he recognizes that the Marxist
approach is no longer credible. Lewis is of strong left-wing political
commitment. Be sure that disagreements between historians are about
content, not simply tone. Content is what counts, tone can be affected by
political or other reasons.
o Simon Schama: mostly statistical work on the Dutch Republic at the
time of the French Revolution. Later he used paintings as sources, published
an original study of the Dutch Republic at its height in the 17 th Century. His
book, Citizens: a chronicle of the French Revolution, 1989, is long & full of
illustrations to celebrate 200th anniversary of 1789. He used paintings,
drawings, designs, etc, as basic source materials. Also used memoirs,
autobiographies, published letters from the time & things with personal
detail & anecdote. Sense of immediacy: how was it like to live through the
Revolution? Lives of important and ordinary people. Calls the book a
"chronicle" partly to distance himself from those who tried to analyze deeper
origins & nature of Revolution (these are mainly Marxist), and also to show
his knowledge of fashionable postmodernist ideas about history being
"narrative" like novels. He consulted work of recent professional historians,

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 Differs from Doyle & Lewis in expressing anti-Marxist views in positive
terms. He maintains that France was moving towards capitalism anyway, the
Revolution was an interruption of that development. He finds the massacres
& bloodshed inexcusable. He argues: 1 important outcome of the Revolution
was a new phase of more intensive war based on national citizen armies. His
book is aimed at wide readership. Schama's book differs from the previous
ones in color & details.
o Colin Jones: study of hospitals in 18th century France using untouched
archive materials from throughout France. Challenged and confirmed
speculations on this subject of the French philosopher Michel Foucault.

Phases of French History: C. 1750-1815

• This information is not to be memorized. It provides a context for exercises

on primary sources. Read & use it for reference.

French Society 1750-86

• historical outline of France in 18th Century: Resource Book 2, A19.

• Remember:
o The importance of classicism among the educated
o The importance of religion among all classes
o The strong belief in superstitions among the poor (and some of the
educated).
o The brutality & cruelty of life=seeing the past from the inside is
sometimes difficult and we can tend to judge people and their
behavior. Historians will have to call a massacre a massacre.
o French judicial system was more brutal than the English (torture to
extract confessions, cruel death sentences.
o Near starvation for many people
o Social hierarchy & belief in monarchy
o Most enlightment philosophers believed that the division of society
into ranks was proper & monarchy provides the most secure and
legitimate form of government.
o Rousseau was against the ideas of automatic legitimacy of monarchy –
he proposed the notion of 'social contract' between rulers and ruled.
Rousseau believed in the idea of the 'general will' of the people, not
that of a mere monarch. (Rousseau units 18&19).

Exercise:

• Women: read A3 in Resource Book 2 'Petition of the women of the This

Estate to the King, 1 January 1789'.

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 • This is a primary historical source that will explain what happened to women
during the revolution.
• The women knew that France was on the move, which stirred them into
action.
• One of the best-known French historians, Francis Furet, discussed the
expansion in publishing, printing, and the reading public in 18th C. France.
The minister responsible for censorship at the time (severe in France) was
called Malesherbes. He was a true Enlightment figure and believed in letting
people read what they wanted – so the Enlightment works of Rousseau,
Voltaire, etc, were not only written, but widely read.

The Pre-revolutionary crisis, August 1789-December 1788

• On 20 August 1789 Calonne, comptroller-general of the royal finances, told

Louis XVI that a complete collapse in the nation's finances was about to
happen.
• France had achieved glory and revenge on an old enemy by supporting the
Americans in their successful revolutionary war against Britain.
• But the cost had been enormous. From the sources left by 18 th C.
accountants, it is impossible to know exact figures, but all historians agree to
the reality of the crisis.
• Schama, however, believes that the king could have found a way out, as king
had done in the past, e.g. when they had gone bankrupt and refused to pay
off existing debts. Neither Calonne and the king nor any one else at the time
thought that an option – at that stage of economic development, not paying
debts will make it difficult to raise future loans. Calonne was clear that there
was no scope for increasing taxes, so no extra money could pump from
there. He wrote his analysis (Resource Book 2, A2).

Exercise:

Read A2, an extract from Calonne's reform programme, and answer the following:

1. Louis XVI took months to be convinced that Calonne's analysis was

correct, and that his suggestions were essential. Read, does Calonne
convince you? Or was he just making it all up? Give reasons to
support your claim. (This checks the standard questions of reliability
& bias).
2. What needed to be done, according to Calonne? How would you
characterize his conclusion (timid, sweeping, crazy, etc)?

Discussion:

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 1. There seems to be no reasons why Calonne should want to make it up – his
royal master would not like such an analysis, so he is doing himself no favor.
As comptroller-general, Calonne ought to know the situation better than
anyone.
2. He says there is a need for an end to the lack of uniformity throughout the
kingdom, and to the abuses which makes it impossible to govern the kingdom
well. The conclusion is certainly sweeping or "revolutionary' because it
would offend established interests (the implication that the rich should pay
their fair share of taxation, for e.g.). On the other hand, both the analysis and
conclusion were not new, they agree with what Rousseau and other
Enlightment philosophers had been saying for decades.

........

• Sweeping changes in the organization of the monarchy and in the taxation

could not be declared by the king, there had to be some means of securing
consent for them (at least from the mighty and strong), of establishing their
legitimacy.
• Calonne formed a special "Assembly of Notables"= powerful men carefully
selected by the government who could represent all the major interest
throughout the kingdom.
• The 144 notables included 7 princes, 14 bishops & 36 titled noblemen, 12
high officials of the king, 38 magistres & 12 representatives of regional
estates or assemblies (62 bourgeois origins who became, because of the office
they held, members of the lesser nobility) & 25 mayors and civic dignitaries,
examples of the successful bourgeois not yet ennobled. (Not a very
revolutionary body)!
• They assembled on 22 Feb. 1787 in Versailles.
• The notables agreed that in future, the nobles would have to bear a fairer
share of the tax burden. But the bishops resisted applying the same
principles to the Church. The magistrates argued that these new proposals
require a more legitimate body to consent on them. They meant the Estates
General, which had last met in 1614. The educated and politically informed
and the others believed that if France was to be reformed and the crisis
resolved, the solution lay in the operation of the summoning of an Estates
General. See figure 16/17.1 – p. 31.
• The Assembly of Notables did not exactly achieve what Calonne had wanted.
Calonne was therefore criticized by his rival for the king's favor, called
Brienne.
• First Calonne was dismissed from his post, then on 30 April 1787 Brienne
became first minister.
• The Brienne ministry had a program even before the revolution on a reform.
(if it had been applied maybe the French revolution was to be unnecessary)
• Brienne's plan of a reform included several points:
o Legal reform

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 o Abolition of judicial torture
o Religious toleration
o Granting Protestants a full civil status
o Central control and audit of taxation
o The establishment of elective provincial assemblies.
• But Brienne was no more successful than Calonne in winning the support of
the Assembly of Notables.
• The routine for legislation was for it to be registered by the parlement of
Paris and 12 other provincial parlements.
• But the parlement declared that its voice is not enough-this far-reaching
legislation needed the approval of a national body – they joined in asking for
an Estates General.
• The unsuccessful trick of the Assembly of Notables made it clear that the
monarchy had already accepted that its program needs the validation of a
national body.
• The parlement of Paris was an unelected body of magistrates who enjoyed
noble status and assumed a symbolic importance.
• International events affected France. A Prussian (Prussia: former region of
North Germany) invasion of the Netherlands was likely. In normal
conditions, France would interfere to help the Dutch patriots and to
demonstrate its power in Europe. But bankrupt government could not risk
being embroiled in a European war. France wanted to preserve its national
prestige and that would be only possible through reforms (especially reforms
to improve tax returns).
• Louis and Brienne alternated between threatening and cajoling (flattering)
the Paris parlement.
• On 19 Sep. 1787, the king was present at a day-long sitting to have new loans
approved.
• At the end of the session Louis refused to allow a vote to be taken, insisting
that the loans simply be registered (because I wish it), he said.
• That opened the conflict with the opposition, led by the un-bourgeois Duke of
Orleans.
• The government suspended the Parlement going ahead with the registration
of reforms.
• From May 1788, there were different agitations at many levels of the society.
• The unauthorized assemblies of nobles which organized petitions in support
of the parlment were so prominent that some historians have referred to this
period as "the revolt of the nobility".

As important was the massive attack of political pamphlets calling for summoning
of the Estates General and deploying or installing the language of Rousseau – the
general will had been defied, and the social contract broken.

• Meanwhile the government was still suffering its financial crisis.

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 • By August, the final disaster which Calonne had warned of have arrived and
the government went bankrupt.
• There have been dispute amongst historians as to whether this bankruptcy
was real, but Brienne thought it was.
• Brienne thought that the only way to restore royal credit is by announcing
that an Estates General would indeed be convened on 1 May 1789.
• He resigned quietly after that. Making sure that Necker, the former financial
minister (who was in disgrace with the king but widely popular) replaced
him.
• By this, the Royal government now seemed to go into suspension awaiting the
convocation of the Estates General.
• There were intense maneuverings between the politically conscious groups-
nobles and bourgeois together, nobles and bourgeois separately-over what
form the Estates General would take and which group would control it.
• By the end of 1788 royal government had collapsed which caused the French
Revolution.

From Estates General to National Assembly to Constituent Assembly,

January-June 1789

• The parlement of Paris returned to the Palace of Justice as Necker cancelled

all the reforms without its consent.
• Sharing the widespread view that salvation lay with the summoning of the
Estates General, Necker advanced the date to 1st January 1789 (decision
registered by the Paris parlement).
• Necker also legalized the Paris political clubs, first formed in the spring of
1787 but banned by Brienne.
• The parlement stepped up the level of agitation, while Necker sought an
answer to the question: what form should the Estates General take by
convening a second Assembly of Notables?
• The major question debated in clubs, assemblies in Paris and throughout the
country concerned:
o how each of the 3 orders should elect its representatives?
o Whether the 3rd estate (representing 95% of population) should have
double the representation of the other two
o Whether the estates should meet together as one assembly on a one-
representative-one-vote basis, as against each estate meeting
separately and arriving at its own decision.
• No clear answers were reached.

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• Early in 1789, the complex processes of actually electing representatives went
ahead as basic issues of principle continued to be debated.
• In theory- the Third Estate electorate was a wide one-extending to peasants
and artisans; however they seemed happy to leave the actual choosing of
individual representatives to local assemblies dominated by bourgeois
figures.
• Look at figure 16/17.1 – the gentlemanly breeches worn by the person
representing the Third Estate is nothing like what peasants or artisans wear.
• Sometimes nobles were chosen.
• Finally when the Estates General did convene on May 4 – the Third Estate
consisted of
o 43%of officials of the lesser (non-noble) courts.
o 25% of lawyers
o possibly up to 19% of landowners (noble & non-noble)
• The Third Estate was bourgeois in the eighteenth –century French sense –it
was not bursting with capitalists but certainly excluded peasants and workers.
• Another important procedure took place simultaneously with the choosing of
representatives –each order, in every part of the country was invited to draw
up lists of grievances (complaints) for debate when the when the Estates
General finally convened.
• These lists of grievances (cahiers de doleances), which are in the archives and
some of which were printed into documents have formed the central source
for the study of the French Revaluation.
• In accordance with tradition, the Estates General convenes in its 3 separate
components-despite he arguments raised against this within the Third Estate
& the non-noble clergy and some nobles.
• On 10th June-the Third Estate passed a resolution calling on all 3 estates to
meet as one body, and resolving to carry on as such a body even if the other 2
estates refused to join it.
• On 17th June the Third Estate did that. Joined by 19 clergy, it constituted
itself as a National Assembly, and immediately asserted sovereign rights over
taxation.
• The king decided that the next session of the Estates General on 23 June,
would be a Royal Session at which he would propose a programme.
• The Third Estate was not informed that the hall where they had their
meetings would be closed. Turning up as usual on 20 June, the members
were outraged and full of suspicion.
• Instead, they went to meet at the tennis court (Unit 10 & plate 120 in the
Illustration Book).
• In this tennis court, they took a famous oath never to disperse until they had
given France a constitution.
• Necker wanted the king to escape the new situation, involving the Estates
General instead in the reform and taxation program.
• When the king insisted on annulling the resolutions of 10 &17 June –Necker
resigned.

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 • The Third Estate reaffirmed the Tennis Court Oath, and was joined by most
of the remaining clergy and 47 of its supporters in the noble estate.
• The king insisted that Necker come back and instructed all nobles and clergy
to join the Third Estate in forming a genuine National Assembly.
• France now was a limited or parliamentary monarchy and on the way to
becoming a constitutional one, as the National Assembly stressed by
renaming itself the "National Constituent Assembly" a body whose task was
to draw up a constitution.
• The problem: it looked like the king was going to use the army to reverse all
the concessions he had made.

Famine and popular involvement in the Revolution July-August 1789

• By the end of June 1789the "bourgeois revolution" had been attained.

• The king was still there-the nobles had given up their remaining tax
exemptions, but many of their privileges and 'feudal rights' remained
unchanged.
• There was a danger that the king will overthrow this 'bourgeois revolution'.
• The peasants and townsfolk especially in Paris were affected by the elections
and meetings of the Estates General. It made them aware of the possibility of
change and gave them hopes of ending their poverty.
• The harvest of the year 1788 was catastrophic. It produced
o Starvation
o Loss of income
o Unemployment (wine-making, silo-making-grain-milling & other jobs
people could not pay for).
• So forces of nature joined the social and human acts and people's anger
reached its climax.
• The people of Paris were very conscious of being at the center of national
events, and rich businessmen united with poor artisans in demonstrating.
• They first demonstrated on behalf of the Paris parlement in its
confrontations with the king, and then in support of the third estate.
• The cafes in the Palais Royal, private property of the Duke of Orleans,
became a meeting place of the better off and more intellectual sort.
• The first bread riots in 1789 were separate from these activates. But hunger
spread. The king's hopes for reversing the constitutional changes were
identified with a policy to starve the people.
• Necker, whom the king finally dismissed, was seen as a champion of
traditional regulation and subsidy (funding).

15
• News of Necker's dismissal broke on Sunday 12 July, a convenient day to
start a demonstration.
• The demonstration of 5000 -6000 people involved both the Palais Royal
revolutionaries and the bread rioters.
• The king had already been moving troops into Paris to curb both rioters and
the Third Estate as he planned.
• There was an immediate clash, with 2 results: the troops withdrawn and the
Parisians decided to arm themselves more effectively.
• William Doyle wrote an account of what happened next:
• On 14 July, the insurrection (revolution) leading to the taking of the Bastille
Prison started. First it was a search for arms / throughout the 13 th every
place in the city where arms were known to be stored was ransacked.
• The Bastille was the last depot the rebels had reached.
• Later it became significant that a royal fortress and a sinister state prison
where victims of tyranny had often languished should have fallen to popular
assault.
• But the insurrection was also a food riot.
• During the night of 12 &13 July, 40 out of 54 gates in the new customs wall
were attacked and burned, the wall itself was demolished.
• The people who participated in the attacks were hard hit by high prices of
food, wine and firewood – the result of the Octrois, duties on goods entering
Paris. These people were shopkeepers, petty tradesmen and wage-earners.
• The Abbey of Saind-Lazare was also looted as rumors spread that grain was
stored there.
• Now that rebels had armed themselves, they took direct action on the
problem of hunger. (Doyle, 1988, pp.188-9).

• Rich citizens were also afraid of bread rioters but they wanted to use them
for their own political purposes.
• On 13 July, the citizens who participated in choosing the deputies of the
Third Estate set up a communal committee, the 'Paris Commune' a body of
the same social composition as the third Estate, and it became very
important in its own right. It setup its own citizen's militia.
• On 16 July Louis was advised that he could not rely on the loyalty of his
troops, who sympathized with poor bread rioters though not necessarily with
richer citizens.
• Louis abandoned his plans to scare the National Constituent Assembly by
force. He recognized Lafayette as commander of the National Guard (militia
of the newly formed Paris commune).
• Peasants had the opportunity in early 1789 to have their grievances included
and seem to have believed that remedy therefore was at hand.
• Starvation and dashed expectations account for the revolution of the spring
of 1789.
• Rumors of the delays at Versailles and of the king's plan led to a belief that
aristocrats were about to reassert all their old powers.

16
 • With news of the 12 July rising in Paris, began the peasant rampage known
as the 'Great Fear': peasants feared that the aristocrats set brigands against
them. While searching for grain hordes, the peasants were interested in
destroying documents which gave their holder the rights to feudal dues, often
whole castles were burned down as well.
• The National Constituent Assembly produced, on 4 August, their
'Declaration of the rights of man and the citizen' (Resource Book 2, A4). The
Assembly felt that night it was important to respond to the anarchy and
violence in the country side or everything gained would be jeopardized.
• Exercise: read the account by the Marquis de Ferrieres of the debates of the
night of 4-5 August in his letter to a neighbor in the province (Resource Book
2, A5). Doyle calls Ferrieres 'a moderate skeptical nobleman'.
• The 'Rights of man' (the beginning of the constitution) had been asserted.
• Feudalism - abolished under pressure from the peasantry.
• The first phase of the Revolution was completed.
• On 24 August, the king formally broadcasted the Civil Constitution of the
Clergy, which controlled the powers of the Church and provided for the
clergy to be elected just like other public officials.

From Constitutional Monarchy to Republic, September 1789-January

1793

• It was very difficult for the Revolution to stop with constitutional monarchy
on a model similar somehow to the British one.
• Two factors made this almost impossible:
o The reluctance of the king to accept new legislation and his new
diminished role
o The determination of the activist groups in Paris to ensure that the
revolution continued in the directions they approved of.
o The refusal of many clergy to accept the Civil Constitution.
• The king tried to strengthen his position by summoning the loyal and
disciplined Flanders Regiment (part of army loyal to king) to Versailles.
• Against a background of banquets and the drinking of loyalist toasts, he
announced his reservations about

1. The decrees abolishing feudalism

2. The very "declaration of the rights of man' itself.

• The politically sophisticated were outraged – rumors spread among ordinary

people that the king was about to impose blockade on food supplies.
• On the morning of 4 October women assembled in the various markets, then
led a procession to the Town Hall.
• Later, a large assemblage of people set of for Versailles with the weapons.

17
• The king had no alternative but to obey the wish of the crowd. Not only to
assent to the legislation, but also to move to Paris and reside in the Tuileries
Palace.
• Shortly the Constituent Assembly followed and stayed in the nearby
premises of a riding school.
• Bread riots continued till November, when cheaper supplies became
available.
• This brought to end the 'October Days' which brought the king away from
the home of kings, Versailles, and under the direct surveillance of the people
of Paris.
• The Constituent Assembly addressed itself to the basic task of elaborating the
constitution: voting rights, new government map with legal recognition to
establishment of municipal institutions during the summer of 1789, and
replace the medley of regional government with a uniform system of
'departments'.
• About a month before the move to Paris of the Constituent Assembly, an
extreme radical newspaper L'Ami du Peuple (The Friend of the People) was
founded by the conspiratorial Jean Paul Marat.
• Shortly after the move, the radical leaders of the Assembly established a
political club "Society of the Friends of the Constitution'.
• The club began meeting in a former monastery near the Assembly of the
Jacobin order of monks, and the club members were labeled the "Jacobins".
This is originally a mockery as they were irreligious radicals.
• Similar clubs were formed in great cities and remote towns and affiliated
themselves to the Paris Jacobins.
• The provincial Jacobins were educated people who had formed discussion
groups of the Enlightenment, now taking on the sharper purpose of
safeguarding the Revolution and maintaining its momentum.
• One Leading Paris Jacobin was Maximilian Robespierre.
• The pre-Revolution crisis had been one of a bankrupt state and the problem
remained.
• Necker proposed a limited issue of paper money.
• Against that, the radical noblemen Mirabeau proposed interest-bearing
bonds (assignats) –secured on the nation's land.
• Reissued several times, assignats became a form of paper money, trust in
which became a token of revolutionary loyalty.
• Necker resigned on 3 September 1790.
• At the same time, land taken from the Church and from émigrés began to be
sold off, with peasants among the purchasers.
• About the same time, the new local authorities, supported by 'patriots'
(extreme supporters of the Revolution) and Jacobins began to protest to the
Assembly about the clergy who resisted the Civil Constitution.
• After 2 days of debate, the Assembly voted on 27 November to dismiss all
clerics who did not accept the new dispensation and imposing on all clergy an
oath of loyalty to nation, king, law and constitution.

18
• Over 40% of clergy refused to take the oath-supported by their parishioners.
• Thus, a geographical split can be perceived between those parts of the
country still committed to the ongoing Revolution and those now beginning
to have doubts.
• A number of insurrections were plotted –the most famous being in Lyon (city
in France) in Dec. 1790, while protests against unemployment and rising
prices merged into attacks on clergy who had refused to take the oath.
• The king had fulfilled his role as constitutional monarch in broadcasting the
Civil Constitution – but he remained un-reconciled to it or to any
revolutionary legislation.
• His flight and denunciation of the Revolution made people angry.
• On 20 &21 June 1791, took place his famous 'flight to Varennes' (the town
where the royal party was stopped).
• The king was brought back to Paris and the proclamation denouncing the
Revolution that he had left behind was made widely known.
• This strengthened the radical sentiment among the various popular
movements.
• It also resulted in division of opinions. The majority of the Assembly busy
with elaborating a constitution for a constitutional monarchy, wished to
retain the monarchy and restrain radical, republican sentiments.
• They produced a lie that the king had been kidnapped against his will,
simply announced that he had been suspended from his duty but that the
monarchy would continue.
• A popular demonstration against the continuance of monarchy (about 50,000
people) gathered on the Champs de Mars in Paris, a couple of suspected
loyalists were hanged up.
• Trying to restore order, Lafayette & the National Guard shot & killed
possibly 50 people.
• This "Massacre of the Champs de Mars" crushed the republican movement.
• On 13 September, the king restored to full power as a constitutional
monarch, approved the new constitution.
• On 30 September the Constitution Assembly was dissolved.
• In accordance with a resolution espoused by Robespierre, none of its
members could stand for the Legislative Assembly which had to replace it.
• The Constituent Assembly was essentially the Estates General by another
name.
• The legislative Assembly was (as Robespierre intended) a new body-no
nobles, no clerics, almost composed of younger men who came to the fore
during the revolutionary agitations and discussions since 1789. But they were
prosperous men – the Constituent Assembly had seen that the popular forces
whose external pressures had often been critical would not actually be
represented within the Assembly.
• The vote was confined to men over 25 –paying the equivalent of 3 days labor
in taxes – these voters defined as 'active citizens' numbered about 4.3 million
in 1790.

19
• These 'active citizens' then chose 'electors' one for every hundred of their
number.
• These electors had to be paying taxes to the value of 10 days' labor –only
about 50,000 active citizens met these requirements.
• Then the electors met in departmental assemblies to choose the actual
deputies who had to be landowners paying at least a 'silver mark' in taxes,
the equivalent of 54 days' labor.
• The legislative Assembly had 2 major concerns: the upholders of traditional
Catholicism (mainly priests refusing to take the oath of loyalty to the Civil
Constitution, but also the papal enclave at Avignon which the Assembly
decided to take over by force) and the émigrés (the opponents of the
Revolution who had fled the country and were constantly plotting a royalist
invasion –the Declaration of Pillnitz of August 1791, between the rulers of
Austria and Prussia, guaranteed them the support of those two monarchs.
• Punitive decrees were promulgated against both. The king used his right
under the new constitution to vote both decrees.
• The potential confrontation between king and the assembly became
swallowed up in another set of important events that influenced the
development of the Revolution – resulting from France changing
relationships with foreign powers.
• For entirely different reasons, various groups in France looked forward to be
involved in a foreign war: extremist deputies thought it would consolidate the
Revolution and encourage risings throughout Europe.
• Lafayette saw opportunity for extending his own military powers.
• The king thought that war and foreign victories would sweep away the
revolution.
• The basic excuse was that foreign powers and especially the Austrian Empire
were aiding the émigrés.
• By mid April 1792 the Austrian army was mobilizing so on 20 April France-
king and assembly apparently joined in delirious unity, declared war on
Austria.
• Meanwhile, starting on 14 August, a slave rebellion stimulated by
revolutionary doctrines, had broken out in the West Indian sugar plantation
of Saint-Dominique. This produced a sugar shortage in France from January
1792 onwards.
• Women again led the mob which surged through Paris.
• Paris had enough grain –only because it had drawn in supplies from the
surrounding countryside.
• There were grain riots in northern France, and protests and demonstrations
everywhere as the fall in value of French money (the assignants and the
traditional livres) produced sharp price rises.
• As the war began, peasant attacks on all the remaining vestiges of feudalism
resumed.
• Early defeats for the French forces created fear and suspicion in Paris.
• In theory, France was run as a constitutional monarchy.

20
• Mid June, the king dismissed his anti-clerical, pro-war ministers (usually
known as the Girondins).
• This was the occasion for the invasion on 20 June of the Tuileries Palace by
10,000 to 20,000 armed demonstrators calling themselves 'sansculottes.
(figure 16/17.2).
• The king responded bravely and there was no immediate outcome, but the
sansculottes had established themselves as an extra parlementary force.
• One of the self-fuelling features of the Revolution was the annual celebration
of the major events like the Tennis Court Oath and most important Fall of
the Bastille.
• In advance of 14 July 1792 battalions of provincial National Guards (federes)
began to pour into Paris.
• Sansculottes, federes and Jacobins talked about storming the Tuileries and
establishing a republic.
• Danton was emerging as a leader of this tendency-membership of the Paris
sections was expanded beyond 'active citizens' and debate, discussion and
coordination with the federes in a central committee became a permenant
feature.
• On 28 July news reached Paris that the Austrians had invaded north –east
France and the Duke of Burnswich had threatened Paris with 'exemplary
and forever memorable violence' if they took any action against the king.
• War and revolution became interlinked and the Assembly authorized
distribution of arms to all citizens.
• The French Revolution could be represented by series of concentric circles.
(figure 16/17.3)
• On 10 August power moved decisively from the innermost ring to the second
from the center. The forces of the central committee representing the Paris
commune, mounted the second invasion of the Tuileries.
• The assembly declared the monarchy suspended, and announced a new
Convention based on universal suffrage would be convened to assure the
sovereignty of the people (this excluded servants, the unemployed and
women).
• The monarchy was at an end. The king was imprisoned in the Temple, a
medieval fortress, while over half of the members of the Assembly quietly
disappeared.
• The reminders were under the domination of the Commune, who in the
'First Terror' took renege on all they saw as enemies.
• Meanwhile, elections for the Convention took place.
• On 21 august 1792, the new invention, the guillotine was first used on a
political prisoner.
• People were paranoid and this increased by the news: Prussians had invaded
French territory.
• Danton instituted a systematic search on 30-31 August for arms and suspects,
resulting in 3000 arrests.

21
 • In the 'September Massacre' between 2-7 Sep., over 1000 prisoners were
done to death.
• The leading figure calling for the massacre was Marat, too unbalanced and
bloodthirsty to command much support.
• The ordinary artisans and shopkeepers who carried them out were motivated
by a fear of leaving the Paris prisons full of dangerous enemies, while they
themselves marched to resist the Prussians.
• On 20 Sep. the defeat of the Prussians at Valmy indicated that the new
citizen armies (patriotic & revolutionary) would outfight the static armies of
the 18th Century absolute monarchs.
• The Prussians were prepared to offer peace.
• On the day of Valmy, the Convention met, the following day France was
declared as a republic.
• The Prussians broke off negotiations.
• It was decided to put Louis on trial before the Convention itself, beginning
on 11 December.
• The Girondind argued that any sentence must be subject to confirmation by
the people as a whole in a referendum – their hope was that the provinces
might reject the death sentence obviously wanted by the Parisians.
• On 14 January 1793 the Convention focused on the question" 'is Louis guilty
of conspiracy against public liberty & of attacks upon the general security of
the State?"
• On the first vote next day- 693 deputies voted ''guilty' none for his release.
• On the question of confirmation by referendum, the Girondins secured 283
votes to- 424 against.
• A further day and night passed as the Convention discussed and voted upon
the actual penalty: 361 voted for immediate execution, 72 for death in
principle but with varying delaying conditions, 288 for a variety of forms of
imprisonment.
• Even after the sentence was communicated to Louis on 17 January many
deputies called for a reprieve.
• The vote was close: 310 for a reprieve -380 for carrying out the sentence.
• Louis was guillotined on 21 January 1793

War, Counter-revolution and terror – February 1793-July 1794

• Reverence for monarchy was strong.

• Against many kinds of resentment in the provinces, the Paris groups
(Jacobins, patriots and the new extreme enrage "angry brigade") were
establishing control.
• International war influenced France – overconfident revolutionaries saw
themselves bringing revolution to the whole of Europe.
• Britain organized a coalition of European powers against the threat of both
revolution and potential French dominance of the continent.

22
 • French victories in 1792 were followed by defeats in 1793.
• Continuous hunger provoked further agitation and violence among the
general populace.
• Resistance to Paris-dominated revolution entailed open civil war in several
parts of France.
• There was a period of terror in both Paris and the provinces - caused by
struggles for power, the determination of the Jacobins and their associates to
'complete' the revolution and create a new society, the fear of foreign army,
fear of counter-revolution at home, fear of starvation.
• The terror devoured members of ousted revolutionary factions, many kinds
of moderates, the utterly innocent, and the out and out opponents of the
revolutionary regime.
• People were forced into taking up extreme positions on one side or the other.
• Almost anyone could be ensnared by the law of Suspects -17 Sep. 1793-which
among other provisions called for the arrest of anyone who either by their
conduct –contacts, their words or writings showed themselves to be
supporters of tyranny, of federalism or to be enemies of liberty and of former
nobles who did not manifest attachment to the revolution.
• Anyone saying 'monsieur' instead of 'citizen' immediately fell under
suspicion.
• Between Sep. 1793 and July 1794 there were about 16,000 executions
(including Mary Antoinette on 17 Oct. 1793 and Robespierre).
• Almost 2,000 of those took place in Lyon between October and April during
the brutal repression of counter-revolution there.
• Look @ chronology in Resource Book 2 (A1).
• Exercise: Read – Resource Book 2- The Decree establishing the levee en
masse (mass conscription)
1. This is a document of record: sets law regarding conscriptions of
persons and sources. Not a description of the law but the law itself.
2. this document signals a critical development in European and French
history – Schama the historian identifies a war based on national citizen
armies – married men are exempted from fighting – there was an
involvement of women, and an employment of old men in propaganda –
there was a war economy (of setting up factories, nothing being wasted
(extracting saltpeter from cellar floors)/ power is concentrated in the
Committee of Public Safety – a response to threatening military situation.

...................

 October to December 1793=new revolutionary calendar:

 Replacing Christianity with Reason
 Adopting Revolutionary Government
 Centralizing power into committee of public safety and
General Security (Robespierre & followers)

23
  Parisian extremist groups (enrages, sansculottes, etc)
eliminated after creating disorder –Mar. 1794
 April & June= Rousseau given recognition
 Festival of the Supreme Being, withdrawal from
extreme anti-Christian position.
 Classical model festivals regular, designed by David

The 'Thermidorean reaction' the Directory, the Consulate and the Empire, August
1794-1804

• Look @ outline –events –August 1794-1804 in the chronology (A1)

• Revolution came to end
• Attention attached to Napoleon's victories and important struggle with
Britain.
• Exercise:
o Power in the hands of one man-Napoleon
o 3 fundamentals of Revolution 1789-94 overthrown by 1804:
 government by National Assembly or Convention
 integration of Church with civil authority & dechristianization
 abolition of hereditary rule
• Power returned to be in fewer hands, something not very different from the
tyranny identified by Rousseau and anathema (abhorrence) to all
revolutionaries.
• Exercise with primary sources: Read A15 & A16

1. Refer to chronology in Resource Book 2 (A1) and see what even each
document records? A15-aftrer the coup led by Napoleon against Directory, a
provisional government was established. A16 – new constitution proclaimed
to French ppl.

2. Each document claims the Revolution and aftermath created problems that
the new arrangement will resolve-what are these problems? A15-The
problems include attacks of seditious men, succession of revolutions,
instability, disorder, conspirators, malevolent ppl. A16-uncertainties, failure
to guarantee rights of citizens and interest of State. Both arrangements
promise stability.
3. Do these documents abandon revolutionary principles? Both claim to be
preserving revolutionary principles but the power being in fewer hands, and
a hereditary emperor make this questionable. they give promises of equality
and property and liberty.

The Napoleonic Empire and nationalist reactions to it

24
 • Political map of Europe end of 18th Cent. Was very different than it is today.
(figure 16/17.4) a country with political boundaries containing national
cultures and languages not yet formulated. Scattered territories across (now
Germany) & Eastern Europe) belonged to Holy Roman Empire, ruled from
Vienna by Austrian Hapsburg family –other German speaking territories
belonged to Prussia. Major continental powers: France, Holy Roman
Empire, Prussia & Russia.
• Ideas of democracy & liberty spread across Europe. French Revolution
victory not only for monarch but nation. When the French under Napoleon
had vast conquests, they were regarded as illegitimate invaders and
conquerors. Esp. to the German speaking territories. West side of Rhone
totally absorbed by French between 1801-4.in 1806 rest of western German
lands =grouped as Confederation of the Rhine under French Control.
Napoleon meantime=abolished Holy Roman Empire.
• Effects of the French Revolution & Napoleonic aftermath on people in other
European countries came as:
o Earthquake: Revolution fostered ideas of liberty & democracy –
manifestos issued by French armies marching across Europe –
Revolution also fostered ideas of nationality.
o After-shock: Napoleon's conquests produced strong reactions –
equipped with new ideas- people in the conquered territories used the
ideas of the Revolution against Napoleon.

Nationalism
• Nationalism became a major historical force during the 19th C.
• Signs of nationalism included:
o Growth of vernacular languages (German, Polish, etc. rather than
Latin
o Growth of education and literacy –discovering national literature,
music, myth, and traditions
o Nationalism and Romanticism (reaction against classicism) were
interrelated
o Emergence of bourgeois class not committed to older monarchical or
imperial loyalties – saw nationhood as fulfillment promising power
and chances for trade
o The successes of movements against imperial oppressors
(Netherlands=Patriots against Austrian ruler).
o Revival of religious passion.

 German-speakers were scattered across many separate

territories – fantasies began about a union of German peoples.
 The French Revolution had an effect but more effective was
the Napoleonic conquest.

25
  People in small German states were anti-Napoleon so they
thought of something they are pro.
 German nationalism began to form.

Conclusion:

• The consequences of the Revolution are a large issue with a big scope for
disagreement.
• Napoleon was defeated in Waterloo 1815-the Bourbon monarchy restored.
• Further revolutions in 1830 – limited form of monarchy
• 1848 establishment of a republic-soon gave way to an empire
• 1870 second French empire defeated by Prussia –Third Republic established.
• Excerciese:
o Read A1 Resource Book2- there were types of underprivileged people
who enjoyed some improvement with Revolution.
o They are women and black slaves. Black slaves as rebels and as
beneficiaries of abolition of slavery. Women = leaders of riots –
housewives seeking essentials for family –some women put forward
political and social claims.

 Resource Book 2 –extract The Rights of Woman (A8) by

Olympe de Gouges (1749-93)-famous writer –daughter of
butcher.
 Her writing is an appeal to Marie-Antoinette, and widely
circulated. It had claims to the right of women - no proof the
claims were recognized. But new laws for marriage and
divorce passed during the reform after the Revolution.
 Revolution – not bourgeois revolted against nobility and took
over as the ruling class but rather – a period of turmoil where
internal and external developments produced further
developments and reactions.

26