Who was involved in the French revolution?
People
Marie Antoinette: Was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1755 and married the future French king Louis XVI when she was just 15 years old. The young married couple soon came to all desires of the criticised French monarchy and Marie Antoinette herself became the target of a great deal of vicious gossip. In 1793, king Louis XVI was executed. Marie Antoinette was arrested and tried for trumped-up crimes against the French republic. She was convicted and sent to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. Mostly known for her famous quote "Let them eat cake!" |
King Louis XVI: Although he was a good student he wasn't prepared to become King. He was too irresponsible and mostly interested in hunting though in 1774 Louis ascended to the French throne and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In 1789, in a last-ditch attempt to resolve his country’s financial crisis, Louis assembled the States-General, a national assembly that represented the three “estates” of the French people. In August 1792, Louis XVI was suspended and the following month, the monarchy itself was abolished when France was declared a republic. Found guilty of treason by the National Convention, he was executed on January 21, 1793. |
Charles de Calonne: A French statesman whose efforts to reform the structure of his nation’s finance and administration provoked the governmental crisis that led to the French Revolution of 1789. On November 1783, his financial genius and court connections led to his appointment as controller general of finance. At the time, the French government was heavily in debt. On August 1786 he submitted a far-reaching plan to improve the government that involved increasing the taxation of the privileged nobles, but the King rejected it and in April 1787 he was dismissed from the office. |
Estates
The
French society was divided into three estates, the First Estate - The Clergy,
the Second Estate - The Nobility and the Third Estate - The Commoners.
The First estate was the clergy. This estate consists of the higher clergy and the lower clergy. The lower clergy were basically the commoners or ordinary people and were parish priests, while the higher clergy consisted of nobles. The clergy kept records, ran schools and supported the poor. The higher clergy often lived in Paris and Versailles, which while parish priests led a hard life, living simply. It would be very reasonably to say that the lower clergy resented the higher clergy, for living better quality lives but doing much less work.
The First estate was the clergy. This estate consists of the higher clergy and the lower clergy. The lower clergy were basically the commoners or ordinary people and were parish priests, while the higher clergy consisted of nobles. The clergy kept records, ran schools and supported the poor. The higher clergy often lived in Paris and Versailles, which while parish priests led a hard life, living simply. It would be very reasonably to say that the lower clergy resented the higher clergy, for living better quality lives but doing much less work.
The Second estate was the nobility. Nobles held the highest positions at court, in the church, and in government. Nobles had many privileges, and we as good as exempt from paying taxes. They had the ability to collect taxes from the peasants on their land, including old feudal taxes that should have been irrelevant in the day, but were collected so the noble could live extravagantly. The nobles owned between 20 and 30 percent of the land in France, but only consisted of about 1.5 percent of the population. Ironically, it was these nobles who offered their estates as places to hold salons, when the philosophes were the ones who ended up criticizing the nobles. Under nobility there was nobility of the robe and nobility of the sword.
The Third estate was everybody else which was 98% of the population, who owned 60-70 percent of the land in France. The third estate were divided into three groups: the bourgeoisie, the sans culottes, and the peasants.