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Artwork of the three estates of the Estates-General (from Google)

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Originally called because of deadlock between the monarchy and aristocracy, the Estates-General was comprised of three estates,  groups of representatives from the clergy, nobility, and everyone else (the Third Estate). The Third Estate would not permit the aristocracy and monarchy to decide the fate of the nation.
There was a large debate over organization and voting; the aristocracy and nobility wanted to limit the influence of the Third Estate. The debate was whether the Estates-General should vote with 1 vote per estate (giving the clergy and nobility more power) or per head (the third estate wants this). This argument was not solved by the time the Estates-General gathered to meet at Versailles.

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Photo of a 1789 page of a Cahier (from Google)

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The Cahiers de Doléances were a list of demands that the representatives brought to the king upon arriving at Versailles. The document criticized the government, corruption, taxes, etc. They called for more local control, equitable taxes, and most importantly, for equality of rights. There was broad agreement among the representatives that the French government needed reform. Up until May 1789, the three estates would have been willing to cooperate with one another to reach reform, but infighting prevented this.

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The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques Louis David (1791)

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Creation of the National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath (June 1789)

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Creation of the National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath (June 1789)

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Creation of the National Assembly:
The discussion of reforms remained stalled while the disagreements over voting remained. On June 1, this standoff was broken when members of the Third Estate invited the nobility and clergy to form a new legislative body. On June 17, they voted to become the National Assembly, with the Second Estate joining two days later.

Tennis Court Oath:
Louis XVI wanted to reassert his role, calling a "Royal Session" on June 23 and then locking the National Assembly out. The National Assembly then moves to meet at a nearby indoor tennis court, where they took an oath to sit until France was given a constitution. The king ordered the representatives to stop, but by June 27, had lost control of the situation and agreed to meet. Since the Third Estate's representative number had been doubled, the king was forced to cooperate with the assembly. The National Assembly renames themselves to the National Constituent Assembly (because they intend to write a constitution)

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Storming of The Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël (1789)

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Louis XVI attempts to regain political initiative by mustering troops near Paris and Versailles. He contemplates using force against the National Assembly. He dismisses Jacques Necker, minister of finance. This action marks the start of his poorly executed attempt to undermine the Assembly. The mustering of troops led to heightened anxiety in Paris, where high bread prices had caused riot. On July 14, Parisians organized a civilian militia and marched on Bastille to take up arms. Troops fired into the crowd, killing 98. The crowd stormed the fortress. The militia gives command to Marquis de Lafayette and they adopt the colors of the tricolor flag. The attack on Bastille is the first of many civilian redirections of the Revolution. As a result of Bastille, Louis visits Paris wearing the Revolutionary cockade and recognizes the militia (National Guard)

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“The Great Fear” comprised of rumors that royal troops would be sent into rural districts. This intensified peasant disturbances that had begun that spring.
The Great Fear saw:

Burning of chateaux, destruction of legal records and docs, and refusal to pay feudal dues

Peasants determined to take possession of food and land

Reclaim rights and property that had been lost

On August 4, 1789, aristocrats tried to halt disorder by having several members renounce feudal rights, dues, tithes, hunting and fishing rights, judicial authority, and legal exemptions. As a result, after August 4, all French citizens were subject to the same and equal laws. This opened political and military positions to talent rather than birth or wealth

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Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen by Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier (1789)

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (August 27, 1789)

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The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (August 27, 1789)

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A declaration issued by the Assembly on August 27, 1789. States that:

All men were “born and remain free and equal in rights”

Rights: “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression”

Citizens equal before law

Due process of law, innocent until proven guilty

Freedom of religion

Equal taxation

This revolutionary document finally put into words what the National Assembly had been fighting for. The document was heavily influenced by the Declaration of Independence and the works of Enlightenment philosophers. The document ascribed to Rousseau's view on women, in that this declaration applied only to men.

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A contemporary illustration of the Women's March on Versailles (via Google)

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The Parisian Women’s March on Versailles (October 1789)

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The Parisian Women’s March on Versailles (October 1789)

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On October 5, 1789, 7000 Parisian women armed with arms, swords and knives marched to Versailles demanding more bread (this was amidst bread scarcity). They milled about the palace and stayed the night. This intimidated the king and he agreed to the sanctions proposed by the Assembly. Parisians wanted to keep an eye on Louis, and demanded him and his family to return to Paris. On October 6, he and his family settled into the old palace of Tuileries.

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Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)

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Civil Constitution of the Clergy (July 1790)

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July 1790 - The National Constituent Assembly issued the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which transformed the RCC in France into a branch of the secular state. This legislation reduced the number of bishoprics, making one diocese for the new department. The Assembly dissolved all religious orders in France except those that cared for the sick or ran schools. They consulted neither Pope Pius VI nor the French clergy. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was the major blunder of the National Constituent Assembly, as it embittered relations between the French church and state. The measure immediately created immense opposition within French Church, even among bishops who had once championed Gallican liberties over papal domination. In face of the resistance, the Assembly unwisely ruled that all clergy must take an oath to support the Civil Constitution. In response to the clergy's angry reactions, Pope Pius condemned the Civil Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, marking an opening of an RCC offensive against the revolution and liberalism. The pope’s action created a crisis of conscience and political loyalty for all Catholics.

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Civil Constitution of the Clergy (French Revolution: Part 5)

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In the constitution of 1791, the National Constituent Assembly established a constitutional monarchy. The main political authority of the nation was established as the “Unicameral Legislative Assembly” - where all laws would originate, could also make war and peace.
Citizens of France could be divided into active vs passive citizens. Active citizens were landowning men over the age of 25. They could choose electors who then could vote for the members of legislators. Passive citizens were everyone else, like women, who could not vote or hold office.

Judicial Restructuring:
While reconstructing the judicial administration, the National Constituent Assembly used ideas of the Enlightenment. Ancient judicial courts and parliaments were abolished and replaced by uniform courts with elected judges and prosecutors. The Assembly also established departments, which were then subdivided into districts, cantons, and communes.

Economic Policy:
In 1791, the National Constituent Assembly limited the attempts of urban workers to protect their wages by foreboding worker’s associations. The Assembly saw the efforts of the workers as opposing the new values of political and social individualism (what the revolution valued).

Continuing financial problems in the National Assembly led to the Assembly’s most divisive action: Financing the debt by confiscating and selling RCC land. This results in further inflation, religious schism, and civil war. Through this action, theNational Constituent Assembly opened a new chapter in relations of church and state in Europe.

To deal with the financial problems, the Assembly authorized the issuance of assignats (​​or gov’t bonds) in Dec 1789. These bonds proved so acceptable to the public they began to circulate as currency, which led to the Assembly issuing a larger amount of them to liquidate national debt and create a large body of new property owners with a direct stake in the revolution. Within a few months, the value of assignats began to fall and inflation increased, thereby putting more stress on the urban poor. This fluctuation in the worth of currency would plague the revolutionary government in the 1790s.

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Artwork representing the King's flight and discovery in Varennes (from Google)

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The revolution had other enemies, aside from the Pope and Catholics. As the social order had begun to change, many aristocrats, known as émigrés, had begun to leave France and move to border countries to foment counterrevolution. The most notable émigré was the King's brother, who eventually attempted to have King Louis and his family flee the country. On June 20, 1791, Louis and his family disguised as servants and left Paris, traveling to Varennes on their way to Metz in eastern France where the royalist military force waited for them. At Varennes, the King was recognized and his flight was halted. On June 24, a company of soldiers escorted the royal family back to Paris. Leaders of the National Constituent Assembly, determined to save the constitutional monarchy, announced the king had been abducted. This didn’t cloak the reality that the king was now the chief counter-revolutionary in France and the constitutional monarchy wasn’t going to last long.

August 27, 1791: Under pressure from emigres, Leopold II of Austria (brother of Marie Antionette) and King Frederick William II of Prussia issued the Declaration of Pillnitz.
These two monarchs promised to intervene in France to protect the royal family and preserve the monarchy if other major European powers agreed. Britain would never consent to this declaration, so it was essentially rendered useless. However, the declaration was taken seriously in France where the revolutionaries saw the nation surrounded by aristocratic and monarchical foes seeking to undo all that had been accomplished since 1789.

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Olympe De Gouges Issues a Declaration of the Rights of Woman (September 1791)

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Olympe De Gouges Issues a Declaration of the Rights of Woman (September 1791)

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In September 1791, Olympe De Gouges published a Declaration of the Rights of Woman that paralleled the National Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. De Gouges was a self-educated woman that had written widely on reform. Though radical, she remained loyal to the monarchy and was executed by the revolutionary government in 1793. Her Declaration states:

Woman is born free and lives equal to man

Purpose of any political association is the conservation of the natural rights of woman and man; rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression

Liberty and justice consist of restoring all that belongs to others

Law must be an expression of general will → all female and male citizens must contribute personally to its formation

No one is to be disquieted for his very basic opinions

For support of public force and expenses of the administration, woman and man are equal and share all duties

Property belongs to both sexes whether united or separate → an unalienable right

“Woman, wake up; the tocsin of reason is being heard throughout the whole universe; discover your rights.”

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Olympe de Gouges and the Rights of Woman (Women and the French Revolution: Part 3)