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The Old Regime was established in France in the 15th century, and the latter on the 18th century. The three estates were the different social classes of France, There are estates, the first class is made up of clergy, the second class is made up of the nobility (The first two estates had to pay little to no taxes) and the third estate were made up of commoners, people who poor.

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22.1.3: The Ancien Regime

The Ancien Régime was the social and political system fin the Kingdom of France from the 15th until the end of the 18th centuries. It was based on the rigid division of the society into three disproportionate and unequally treated classes.

Learning Objective

Describe the structure of the Ancien Régime and the societal rules at play

Key Points

The Ancien Régime (Old Regime or Former Regime) was the social and political system established in the Kingdom of France from approximately the 15th century until the latter part of the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties.

The estates of the realm were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christian Europe from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates evolved over time. The best-known system is the three-estate system of the French Ancien Régime.

The First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" (nobility) and "lower" (non-noble) clergy. In 1789, it numbered around 130,000 (about 0.5% of the population).

The Second Estate was the French nobility and (technically, although not in common use) royalty, other than the monarch himself, who stood outside of the system of estates. It is traditionally divided into "nobility of the sword" and "nobility of the robe," the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government. The Second Estate constituted approximately 1.5% of France's population

The Third Estate comprised all of those who were not members of the above and can be divided into two groups, urban and rural, together making up 98% of France's population. The urban included the bourgeoisie and wage-laborers. The rural included peasants.

The French estates of the realm system was based on massive social injustices that were one of the key factors leading up to the French Revolution.

Key Terms

the gabelle

A very unpopular tax on salt in France that was established during the mid-14th century and lasted, with brief lapses and revisions, until 1946. Because all French citizens needed salt (for use in cooking, for preserving food, for making cheese, and for raising livestock), the tax propagated extreme regional disparities in salt prices and stood as one of the most hated and grossly unequal forms of revenue generation in the country's history.

estates of the realm

The broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates evolved over time. The best-known system is a three-estate system of the French Ancien Régime used until the French Revolution (1789-1799). This system was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobility (the Second Estate), and commoners (the Third Estate).

the taille

A direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household based on how much land it held.

Ancien Régime

The social and political system established in the Kingdom of France from approximately the 15th century until the latter part of the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal social and political order of the time elsewhere in Europe.

The Ancien Régime (Old Regime or Former Regime) was the social and political system established in the Kingdom of France from approximately the 15th century until the latter part of the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties. The term is occasionally used to refer to the similar feudal social and political order of the time elsewhere in Europe. The administrative and social structures of the Ancien Régime were the result of years of state-building, legislative acts, internal conflicts, and civil wars, but they remained a patchwork of local privilege and historic differences until the French Revolution ended the system. Despite the notion of absolute monarchy and the efforts by the kings to create a centralized state, Ancien Régime France remained a country of systemic irregularities. Administrative (including taxation), legal, judicial, and ecclesiastic divisions and prerogatives frequently overlapped (for example, French bishoprics and dioceses rarely coincided with administrative divisions).

The estates of the realm were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates evolved over time. The best-known system is the three-estate system of the French Ancien Régime used until the French Revolution (1789-1799). This system was made up of clergy (the First Estate), nobility (the Second Estate), and commoners (the Third Estate).

The First Estate comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were effectively clerical nobility from the families of the Second Estate. In the time of Louis XVI, every bishop in France was a nobleman, a situation that had not existed before the 18th century. At the other extreme, the "lower clergy" (about equally divided between parish priests and monks and nuns) constituted about 90 percent of the First Estate, which in 1789 numbered around 130,000 (about 0.5% of the population).

The Second Estate was the French nobility and (technically, although not in common use) royalty, other than the monarch himself, who stood outside of the system of estates. It is traditionally divided into "nobility of the sword" and "nobility of the robe," the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government. The Second Estate constituted approximately 1.5% of France's population and were exempt from the corvée royale (forced labor on the roads) and from most other forms of taxation such as the gabelle (salt tax) and most important, the taille (the oldest form of direct taxation). This exemption from paying taxes led to their reluctance to reform.

The Third Estate comprised all who were not members of the above and can be divided into two groups, urban and rural, together making up 98% of France's population. The urban included the bourgeoisie and wage-laborers. The rural included peasants who owned their own land (and could be prosperous) and peasants who worked on nobles' or wealthier peasants' land. The peasants paid disproportionately high taxes compared to the other Estates and simultaneously had very limited rights. In addition, the First and Second Estates relied on the labor of the Third, which made the latter's unequal status all the more unjust.

The Third Estate men and women shared the hard life of physical labor and food shortages. Most were born within this group and died as part of it. It was extremely rare for individuals of this status to advance to another estate. Those who crossed the class lines did so as a result of either being recognized for their extraordinary bravery in a battle or entering religious life. Some commoners were able to marry into the Second Estate, although that was very rare.

The population of France in the decade prior to the French Revolution was about 26 million, of whom 21 million lived in agriculture. Few of these owned enough land to support a family and most were forced to take on extra work as poorly paid laborers on larger farms. Despite regional differences and French peasants' generally better economic status than that of their Eastern European counterparts, hunger was a daily problem and the condition of most French peasants was poor.

The fundamental issue of poverty was aggravated by social inequality as all peasants were liable to pay taxes from which the nobility could claim immunity, and feudal dues payable to a local lord. Similarly, the tithes (a form of obligatory tax, at the time often paid in kind), which the peasants were obliged to pay to their local churches, were a cause of grievance as the majority of parish priests were poor and the contribution was being paid to an aristocratic and usually absentee abbot. The clergy numbered about 100,000 and yet owned 10% of the land. The Catholic Church maintained a rigid hierarchy as abbots and bishops were all members of the nobility and canons were all members of wealthy bourgeois families. As an institution, it was both rich and powerful. It paid no taxes and merely contributed a grant to the state every five years, the amount of which was self-determined. The upper echelons of the clergy also had considerable influence over government policy.

Successive French kings and their ministers tried to suppress the power of the nobles but did so with very limited success.

Attributions

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The Ancien Régime was the social and political system fin the Kingdom of France from the 15th until the end of the 18th centuries. It was based on the rigid division of the society into three disproportionate and unequally treated classes.

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Marriage of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, April 19th, 1770 

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Marriage of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, April 19th, 1770 

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The Marriage of King Louis and Queen Marie Antoinette led to two Countries becoming allies.  When they married, King Louie was fifteen and Mary Antoinette was fourteen. Their wedding took place in the Augustine church, later they went to the Palace of Versailles.

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April 19, 1770: Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI | Knappily

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On this day, 249 years ago, Marie Antoinette of Austria and Louis XVI of France were married by proxy. Marie would later provoke the popular unrest that led to the French Revolution and the overthrow of the monarchy in August 1792. She became, rather unfairly it must be said, a symbol of the excesses of the monarchy.

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In the years 1787-1788, some crops failed to grow, and bread was expensive especially for the third estate. This factor was a major cause of the French Revolution, The farmers would farm the ingredients but their wages to buy bread were miserable, too expensive. Apart from that they also had to pay taxes, something that the first two estates did not have to go through.

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Harvest failures, high food prices and hunger all shaped the course of the French Revolution, particularly for the working classes. Inefficient farming methods, adverse weather events and an increasing population meant that by the 1780s, France was struggling to regularly produce enough food to feed itself.

An agrarian economy

Agriculture dominated France's domestic economy, accounting for around 75 percent of all production and 70 percent of land use. Freehold peasant farmers owned around 40 percent of agricultural land. The remainder was owned by the nobility (25 percent), bourgeoisie (25 percent) and the church (10 percent), who distributed it as tenancies.

Agricultural production in 18th-century France had changed little since the Middle Ages. Farming was still labour intensive, carried out by hand or with beasts of burden. Little was known of agronomy or effective fertilisation. The soil was replenished with manure and periodically rested. This meant productivity was poor and crop yields were low.

Food harvests were also susceptible to unpredictable factors - climate events like unseasonably cold or dry weather, drought or hail, outbreaks of crop diseases or insect plagues.

An increasing population

These post-medieval cycles and methods of farming shaped the lives of France's lower classes. The size of a harvest determined how peasants would live in the coming year. When the season's wheat, corn or rye was harvested, most of it was retained for subsistence, feudal dues, seed grain and winter stores. Whatever was left was sold at market or to wholesalers.

The market economy was relatively straightforward: if crops failed or yields were lower than expected, less food reached markets in the cities and towns. Any shortages of food would drive up demand and prices.

In the 17th and early 18th centuries, scarcity and high food prices were relatively infrequent. Demographic changes in the 18th century placed new pressures on farmers. France in 1700 had a population of just under 20 million but by the 1780s, it was approaching 28 million. The population of cities and towns had also grown, Paris increasing from 500,000 to 650,000 people in the same period.

Agricultural growth, in contrast, had been negligible. Production increased by 10 to 20 percent in some regions but hardly at all in others. In short, France had eight million more mouths to feed - but its agricultural productivity had not kept pace with its population growth.

"The [French] country is a heap of ashes. Grass is scarcely to be seen and all sorts of grain is short, thin, pale and feeble, while the flax is quite dead... I pity this people from my soul... No green peas, no salad, no vegetables to be had upon the road, and the sky is still as clear, dry and cold as ever. The flocks of sheep and herds of cattle stalk about the fields like droves of walking skeletons."
John Adams, US diplomat, 1775

The dire 1780s

As mentioned previously, farmers in pre-revolutionary France were also at the mercy of the weather. Adverse weather events did not have to be prolonged or occur nationwide to affect the entire nation's food supply. Drought, flooding rainfalls or severe frosts could wipe out an entire harvest in a major crop-growing region, driving up the demand for crops from other regions.

France's food supplies were affected by poor harvests in 1769, 1770, 1775 and 1776. The last of these coincided with Anne-Robert Turgot 's proposed reforms to free up the grain trade. Between 1777 and 1781, France enjoyed a string of warm dry summers that produced excellent harvests. Cereal and grape harvests were particularly strong, allowing bread and wine prices to hold firm or drop slightly.

In contrast, the 1780s were dire for French farmers. In 1782, a long winter and wetter than average spring postponed sowing, resulting in a poor harvest. In June 1783, the Laki volcano in Iceland began erupting and spewing ash, dust and sulphur into the atmosphere. This eruption lasted months, clogging the skies over Europe and causing significant drops in temperature. France's harvests in 1783 and 1784 were consequently poor, as were harvests across most of Europe.

The droughts of 1785 and 1788

France's problems with adverse weather did not end there. From September 1784, its farmers endured a drought that hampered cereal crops, causing a poor harvest in 1785 and a below-average yield the following year. Normal conditions returned in 1787 when there was a bumper harvest.

The rain dried up again in early 1788, however, and by May around three-quarters of the nation was in drought. The food bowl regions of northern and northwestern France received almost no rainfall for months; the ground could scarcely be furrowed and whatever was planted quickly died.

To make matters worse, crops and vegetables in the north-west and the districts around Paris were decimated by severe hailstorms on July 13th 1788, a year and a day before the fall of the Bastille. According to chroniclers like the Englishman Arthur Young, on this day "hail fell as large as a quart bottle", killing several people, macerating crops and destroying trees.

Freezing winters

The poor harvest of 1788 was compounded by the winter that followed, which was the coldest in decades. From late November to March, much of northern France suffered constant freezing temperatures, ice and snow. Paris reportedly suffered 57 straight days of frost.

The bitter winter killed off fruit trees and spoiled stored grain and vegetables. It turned barrels of wine and cider to icy slush and froze rivers hard, rendering mills and machinery inoperable.

When the cold snap broke in late January and February 1789, thawing ice and snow caused rivers, streams and canals to swell and burst their banks. After weeks of frozen idleness, thousands of French peasants had to contend with flooded fields and granaries, impassable roads and uncrossable waterways. Yet for all the misery in the countryside, it was the cities and towns who would feel the worst of the food shortages.

Critical food shortages

By the start of 1789, France was critically short of food. Jacques Necker, who had been reappointed as director of finances in 1777, was alert to the problem and took steps to avoid a famine. In the autumn of 1788, Necker introduced several emergency measures, banning all food exports and requiring all grain to be sold to official markets. Necker also organised the importation of foreign cereal and grain, totalling around 148,000 tonnes.

While these measures prevented a mass famine, they did not alleviate shortages. The availability of bread in Paris dwindled steadily through late 1788. By January 1789, it had become critical. In February 1789, city officials increased the price of bread from nine sous to 14.5 sous for a four-pound loaf.

This price increase pushed Parisian workers to the brink of despair. In 1788, an unskilled labourer in Paris spent around half his daily wages on bread. Now, in the spring of 1789, he was spending between 70 and 90 percent. Some wages did increase slightly but nowhere near enough to match rapid increases in the price of food.

1. Harvest failures contributed to revolutionary sentiment by leaving the nation short of food crops, which created bread shortages and drove up prices, particularly in France's towns and cities.

2. Farmers in 18th century France used antiquated labour intensive methods that did not produce large yields, plus they were susceptible to adverse weather conditions.

3. The 1780s was a particularly poor decade for harvests, caused by heavy rains, severe droughts, a volcanic eruption in 1783 and a July 1788 hailstorm that decimated a large volume of crops.

4. In 1788-89 the national government took action to prevent a famine, however by the start of 1789 the nation's cities found themselves critically short of food.

5. These shortages were particularly acute in Paris, where bread prices increased from eight sous to 14.5 sous, or between 70 and 90 percent of the daily wage of an unskilled worker.

Citation information
Title: 'Harvest failures'
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/harvest-failures/
Date published: September 21, 2019
Date updated: November 8, 2023
Date accessed: December 7, 2023
Copyright: The content on this page is © Alpha History. It may not be republished without our express permission. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use.

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Harvest failures and hunger all shaped the course of the French Revolution, particularly for the working classes. Extreme weather and natural disasters contributed to a string of poor harvests in the 1780s, causing grain shortages and driving up food prices in Paris and other locations.

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Meeting of the Estates General, May 5, 1789

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Meeting of the Estates General, May 5, 1789

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The Estates General are representatives of each of the three estates, they have not been summoned since the year 1614. The meeting was called concerning the financial and agricultural state of France. The first two estates are wealthy people, people with power, but the people in the thirds estate are commoners, the poor. Each estate has one vote, but it seems that the votes for the first and second estate seem to count and not the third estate even though they were 98% of the population.

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Events

May 5, 1789

June 17

Key people

Jacques Necker

Director general of finance who returned to office after Calonne's dismissal

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

Author of influential "What Is the Third Estate?" pamphlet, which influenced the Third Estate to break off from the Estates-General

Necker and the Estates-General

In the wake of Calonne's dismissal, Louis XVI brought back Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who had previously served a ten-year stint as director general of finance. After assessing the situation, Necker insisted that Louis XVI call together the Estates-General, a French congress that originated in the medieval period and consisted of three estates. The First Estate was the clergy, the Second Estate the nobility, and the Third Estate effectively the rest of French society.

On May 5, 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General. Almost immediately, it became apparent that this archaic arrangement-the group had last been assembled in 1614-would not sit well with its present members. Although Louis XVI granted the Third Estate greater numerical representation, the Parlement of Paris stepped in and invoked an old rule mandating that each estate receive one vote, regardless of size. As a result, though the Third Estate was vastly larger than the clergy and nobility, each estate had the same representation-one vote. Inevitably, the Third Estate's vote was overridden by the combined votes of the clergy and nobility.

Resentment Against the Church

The fact that the Estates-General hadn't been summoned in nearly 200 years probably says a thing or two about its effectiveness. The First and Second Estates-clergy and nobility, respectively-were too closely related in many matters. Both were linked intrinsically to the royalty and shared many similar privileges. As a result, their votes often went the same way, automatically neutralizing any effort by the Third Estate.

Additionally, in a country as secularized as France at the time, giving the church a full third of the vote was ill-advised: although France's citizens would ultimately have their revenge, at the time the church's voting power just fostered more animosity. There were numerous philosophers in France speaking out against religion and the mindless following that it supposedly demanded, and many resented being forced to follow the decisions of the church on a national scale.

Divides in the Third Estate

Beyond the chasm that existed between it and the other estates, the Third Estate itself varied greatly in socioeconomic status: some members were peasants and laborers, whereas others had the occupations, wealth, and lifestyles of nobility. These disparities between members of the Third Estate made it difficult for the wealthy members to relate to the peasants with whom they were grouped. Because of these rifts, the Estates-General, though organized to reach a peaceful solution, remained in a prolonged internal feud. It was only through the efforts of men such as Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès ( see below) that the members of the Third Estate finally realized that fighting among themselves was fruitless and that if they took advantage of the estate's massive size, they would be a force that could not be ignored.

"What Is the Third Estate?"

To add insult to injury, delegates from the Third Estate were forced to wear traditional black robes and to enter the Estates-General meeting hall by a side door. Necker tried to placate the Third Estate into tolerating these slights until some progress could be made, but his diplomatic efforts accomplished little. Fed up with their mistreatment, activists and pamphleteers of the Third Estate took to the streets in protest.

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The French Revolution (1789-1799): The Estates-General: 1789 | SparkNotes

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Events May 5, 1789 June 17 Key people Director general of finance who returned to office after Calonne's dismissal Author of influential "What Is the Third Estate?" pamphlet, which influenced the Third Estate to break off from the Estates-General In the wake of Calonne's dismissal, Louis XVI brought back Swiss banker Jacques Necker, who had previously served a ten-year stint as director general of finance.

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The National assembly were people form the third estate. They were the first government of the French Revolution, and the creation of the assembly was created when the Estates General Couldn't decide what to do with France's financial debt or how to vote among themselves. The third estate was not content with the meeting so they went into a tennis court oath and that's where they took the Tennis Court Oath.

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HISTORY CRUNCH - History Articles, Biographies, Infographics, Resources and More

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National Assembly of the French Revolution

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The French Revolution was a major event in the history of Western societies, and has had a profound effect on the world today. Beginning in 1789, the French Revolution saw the French people…

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On June 20, 1789,  members from the third estate met in a "tennis court" but really it was hand ball court. They met there in defiance of King Louie, they made sure not to disband until they formed until a they formed a new French Constitution.

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In Versailles, France, the deputies of the Third Estate, which represent commoners and the lower clergy, meet on the Jeu de Paume, an indoor tennis court, in defiance of King Louis XVI 's order to disperse. In these modest surroundings, they took the historic Tennis Court Oath, with which they agreed not to disband until a new French constitution had been adopted.

Louis XVI, who ascended the French throne in 1774, proved unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In 1789, in a desperate attempt to address France's economic crisis, Louis XVI assembled the Estates-General, a national assembly that represented the three "estates" of the French people-the nobles, the clergy, and the commons. The Estates-General had not been assembled since 1614, and its deputies drew up long lists of grievances and called for sweeping political and social reforms.

The Third Estate, which had the most representatives, declared itself the National Assembly and took an oath to force a new constitution on the king. Initially seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly under the Third Estate but then surrounded Versailles with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a popular minister of state who had supported reforms. In response, Parisians mobilized and on July 14 stormed the Bastille-a state prison where they believed ammunition was stored-and the French Revolution began.

Fact Check

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Third Estate makes Tennis Court Oath | June 20, 1789 | HISTORY

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In Versailles, France, the deputies of the Third Estate, which represent commoners and the lower clergy, meet on the Jeu de Paume, an indoor tennis court, in defiance of King Louis XVI's order to disperse. In these modest surroundings, they took the historic Tennis Court Oath, with which they agreed not to disband until a [...]

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On July, 15 1779, A mob gathered at the Bastille in order for them to storm in and steal guns and ammunition. De Launay offered to surrender but the mob told them no. After they successfully stormed the Bastille, they freed the 7 prisoners that were there the dragged De Launay and beat him and beheaded him.

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History Crunch - History Articles, Summaries, Biographies, Resources and More

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Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution

The Bastille was defended by 82 Invalides (soldiers who had been injured and could no longer fight in the field) and 32 Grenadiers. The commander at the time was Bernard-Rene de Launay. The crowd of Parisians numbered around one thousand and demanded the surrender of the Bastille and the removal of the arms and ammunition within. As the mob grew the undefended outer drawbridge offered an opportunity for the crowd to enter the courtyard of the Bastille. De Launay offered to surrender the Bastille if he and his troops would be allowed to leave unharmed, but the crowd replied, "No surrender! Lower the bridge!" Realizing that his troops could not defend the Bastille de Launay order the second drawbridge lowered. The mob swarmed into the inner courtyard of the Bastille armed with axes. The crowd ran to the prison cells and freed the 7 inmates.

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storming of the bastille in the french revolution

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storming of the bastille in the french revolution

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storming of the bastille in the french revolution

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storming of the bastille in the french revolution

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storming of the bastille in the french revolution

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Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution

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Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution - A major event in the French Revolution was the Storming of the Bastille. In general, it was the first major act of violence in the French Revolution by the revolutionaries against Louis XVI and the Fren

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On October 5, 1789, the women rioted because bread was scarce and extremely expensive. They began to march and soon more men and women joined. They marched to Hotel De Ville where they took it over and also took some weapons. After they marched all the way to the Palace of Versailles where they protested, the King let some people in, and other killed the guards. They demanded to see the King and Queen, and so they did, they were then told by the crowd to head back to Paris with the Mob.

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The Women's March on Versailles, which took place in October 1789, is often credited with forcing the royal court and family to move from the traditional seat of government in Versailles to Paris, a major and early turning point in the French Revolution.

Context

In May of 1789, the Estates-General began to consider reforms, and in July, the Bastille was stormed. A month later, in August, feudalism and many of the privileges of the nobility and royalty were abolished with the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen," modeled on America's Declaration of Independence and seen as a precursor to forming a new constitution.

It was clear that major upheaval was underway in France.

In some ways, this meant that hopes were high among the French for a successful change in government, but there was reason for despair or fear as well. Calls for more radical action were increasing, and many nobles and those who were not French nationals left France, fearing for their fortunes or even their lives.

Because of poor harvests for several years, grain was scarce, and the price of bread in Paris had increased beyond the ability of many of the poorer residents to buy bread. Sellers also were anxious about the shrinking market for their goods. These uncertainties added to a general anxiety.

The Crowd Assembles

This combination of a bread shortage and high prices angered many French women, who relied on bread sales to make a living. On October 5, one young woman began beating a drum at the market in eastern Paris. More and more women began to gather around her and, before long, a group of them were marching through Paris, gathering a larger crowd as they stormed through the streets.

Initially demanding bread, they shortly began, possibly with the involvement of radicals who had joined in the march, to demand arms as well.

By the time the marchers arrived at the city hall in Paris, they numbered somewhere between six thousand and ten thousand. They were armed with kitchen knives and many other simple weapons, with some carrying muskets and swords.

They seized more weapons at city hall, and also seized the food that they could find there. But they were not satisfied with some food for the day. They wanted the situation of food scarcity to end.

Attempts to Calm the March

Stanislas-Marie Maillard, who had been a captain and national guardsman and helped attack the Bastille in July, had joined the crowd. He was well known as a leader among the market women, and is credited with discouraging marchers from burning down the city hall or any other buildings.

The Marquis de Lafayette, meanwhile, was trying to assemble the National Guardsmen, who were sympathetic to the marchers. He led some 15,000 troops and a few thousand civilians to Versailles, to help guide and protect the women marchers, and, he hoped, keep the crowd from turning into an uncontrollable mob.

March to Versailles

A new goal began to form among marchers: to bring the king, Louis XVI, back to Paris where he would be responsible to the people, and to the reforms that had begun to be passed earlier. Thus, they would march to the Palace of Versailles and demand that the king respond.

When the marchers reached Versailles, after a walk in driving rain, they experienced some confusion.

Lafayette and Maillard convinced the king to announce his support for the Declaration and the August changes passed in the Assembly. But the crowd did not trust that his queen, Marie Antoinette, would not talk him out of this, as she was known by then to oppose the reforms. Some of the crowd returned to Paris, but most remained in Versailles.

Early the next morning, a small group invaded the palace, attempting to find the queen's rooms. At least two guards were killed, and their heads raised on pikes, before the fighting in the palace calmed.

The King's Promises

When the king was finally convinced by Lafayette to appear before the crowd, he was surprised to be greeted by the traditional "Vive le Roi!" The crowd then called for the queen, who emerged with two of her children. Some in the crowd called for the children to be removed, and there was fear that the crowd intended to kill the queen.

The queen stayed present, and the crowd was apparently moved by her courage and calm. Some even chanted "Vive la Reine!"

Return to Paris

The crowd now numbered around sixty thousand, and they accompanied the royal family back to Paris, where the king and queen and their court took up residence at the Tuileries Palace. They ended the march on October 7. Two weeks later, the National Assembly also moved to Paris.

Significance of the March

The march became a rallying point through the next stages of the Revolution. Lafayette eventually attempted to leave France, as many thought he'd been too soft on the royal family; he was imprisoned and only released by Napoleon in 1797. Maillard remained a hero, but died in 1794, only 31 years old.

The king moving to Paris, and being forced to support the reforms, was a major turning point in the French Revolution. The marchers' invasion of the palace removed all doubt that the monarchy was subject to the will of the people, and was a major defeat for the Ancien Régime. The women who initiated the march were heroines, called "Mothers of the Nation" in the Republican propaganda that followed.

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Women's March on Versailles: Turning Point in the French Revolution

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The Women's March on Versailles, which took place in October 1789, is often credited with forcing the royal court and family to move from the traditional seat of government in Versailles to Paris, a major and early turning point in the French Revolution.

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King louie was executed for treason, he tried leaving France towards Austria but was caught. He failed to address the Frances Financial problems. 9 months after his execution by the guillotine, his wife Marie Antoinette met the same fate.

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Robespirre was guionteened, July 28, 1794

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Robespirre was guionteened, July 28, 1794

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Maximilien Robespierre was a key figure in the French Revolution, he had put many to death the he thought were a threat to The Revolution. When Robspierre was elected President of the National Convention, a law passed in which states that suspects had no right to trials. That installed great fear to both the left and right of the govt, so they sent him on house arrest, he was later beheaded by the guilotined.

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Robespierre overthrown in France | July 27, 1794 | HISTORY

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Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the R…