Chapter 6 - The Attempts To Establish A Constitutional Monarchy Flashcards
What did the NA set to make between 1789-1791?
A new constitution
What was the first thing the assembly wanted to change?
The church
What made it the obvious thing to change?
It’s association with the AR
Privileges with the first estate
What did the writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier complain?
Paris was ‘full of priests and tonsured clerics who serve neither the Church nor the state’
Who were seen as ‘wasters’?
Nuns and monks
Contributed little to the community
Who disapproved of binding religious vows?
Philosophes
They were taken by those who barely mature enough to understand their full meaning
Who were in favour of church reform?
Clergymen
What did the clergymen want for the church?
The temporal power of the church removed allowing for it to concentrate on its spiritual function
What was a gain that could solve Frances financial position?
The wealth of the church
What was agreed in the August Decrees?
Give up the tithe
Allow the govt to take over church funding
What were the religious changes aug 1789 - Jun 1790?
Pluralism abolished
Annates ended
Taxes to the church gone
No don gratuit
Church property nationalised
Full citizenship granted to Protestants
Religious orders ended unless providing for poor and sick
What did these orders mean for the assembly?
Weakened the churches power
Relieved burden of debt
How did they keep the economy afloat?
Sold monastic wealth and property
What is pluralism?
Holding more than one ecclesial office
What are annates?
A years revenue paid to the pope on the appointment of a new Abbot
What did the Civil Constitution of the Clergy do?
Reorganised the administrative structure of the church
Clergymen were paid state officials
Bishops and priests elected
What did the civil constitution of the clergy make the church?
Subservient to the state
Why was the Pope Pius VI in no place to object to anything?
He was in delicate negotiations with the French state about his Papal territory in Avignon that he didn’t want to jepodise
Who were critical of the measure?
Conservative clerics
Higher ranking clergy
What did the NA dismiss?
A proposal by French bishops and clergy to hold a synod
What’s a Synod?
Meeting of the French Church
What did they want a synod for?
To discuss the grounds that synods had been abolished
What was Louis forced to accept in Dec 1790?
The Civil Constitution
What was made from doubts about the Church’s support for the CC?
A decree that all clergy should ‘be faithful to the nation, the law and the King and to maintain with all their power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly’
What happened to clerics if they didn’t swear to this oath?
Deprived of their offices and salaries
What was the oath good at showing?
Which clerics were loyal to the revolution
What percentage of the parish clergy took the oath?
55%
What was the effect of the Pope finally going against the CC?
Some who formerly were supportive retracted their oath
What did the Assembly do to respond to the retractions?
Occupied Avignon annexing it to France
Declared that non-juring or refractory priests were ‘counter-revolutionaries’
What also happened to the non-juring and refractory priests?
Income stopped
Forbidden from using religious buildings
Religious dress banned - emphasise priests were no more than ‘citizens’
RP could be deported
What did the clergy do in response to these reforms?
Many fled abroad joining others who avoided rev change in foreign countries
Why were more conservative catholics alarmed?
They thought that the Assembly wanted to change their faith - made them turn against the measure
What were 50% of the population more scared of than their commitment to the revolution?
Eternal damnation
What did the Civil Constitution of the Clergy do overall?
Destroyed national unity
Led to counter-revolution and civil war
What did historian J.F Bosher say about the CCofC?
It ‘was fated to divide the nation more than any other single measure’
What Philosophes ideas had influence in the new political system?
Montesquieu
Locke
What other constitutions did the French look at to help them?
British
US
Where were the broad concerns made clear?
Declaration of the Rights of Man
What form of system did they decide the constitution should take to ensure that the King’s absolute power was destroyed?
Jul/Aug 1789 : a system of representative democracy where
- An elected governing body acted as the legislative
- The King and royal ministers made up the executive
- The judiciary made independent
Was the governing body given one or two chambers?
One chamber
Was the king allowed to veto laws or suspend enactment?
Allowed a suspensory veto but after 4 years the measure would become law
It was granted to balance power with deputies
What other powers did the king have?
Allowed to select and appoint ministers to form a cabinet
(They weren’t allowed to sit in the assembly)
What title did the King’s change to?
‘King of the French’
Not king of France
(Showed power under law not divine right)
What was the King’s income changed to to support him?
25 million
(Reduction of 20 million)
How often were elections held and how were they held?
Once every 2 years
Through an indirect system of electoral colleges
Who had the right to vote?
Active citizens
What were active citizens?
Males over 25
Lived in one place for a year
Spoke French
Paid direct taxes = to 3 days labour
What were passive citizens?
Everyone else
When was this constitution reluctantly accepted by Louis?
September 1791
What was central government reform followed by?
Local government reform
What happened in Nov 1789?
Abolishment of old provinces
What was France divided into?
Roughly equal sized land areas
Making 83 Départements
Divided into districts
Divided into communes (local govt) representing towns, parish or community
How many people were in the elected council of each department?
36
Why was this significant?
It now meant they weren’t subject to central control
Why was decentralisation a key revolutionary idea?
It helps to prevent returning to monarchical absolutism
What were the majority of voters?
Propertied and educated bourgeoisie
What was the problem in filling the offices in rural communes?
Not enough literate people
What were the duties of the councils?
Law and order
Collection of taxes
Construction of roads
What was created to improve the judiciary?
A hierarchy of courts
What were the new administrative divisions in the hierarchy of courts?
- Justices of the Peace = hear minor civil cases in the communes
- District courts = more severe civil cases
- Each department had a court in its capital for criminal cases ( 2 juries one for investigation and one for judgement)
- tribunal de cassation = single central high court of appeal
How were Justices of the Peace elected?
By active citizens for 2 year periods
Had to pay 10 days wages
How were jurors elected?
By a lot
(To reduce venality)
How were judges paid?
Salaries instead of fees from who they served
What were the legal rights?
- Accused person to be put before a judge within 24 hours of arrest
- Accusations, proceedings and judgements open to the public
- Accused to be assisted by a lawyer
- Torture, branding and hanging abolished
-Sentences to be fair and proportionate, equal and no consequences for their family - Accused person’s property can’t be seized
What was the only ‘humane’ form of capital punishment?
The guillotine
What was the overall change?
Punishments were less severe
Less crimes punishable by death
Cheaper more accessible system
What did the govt issue to delay restricting finances?
Assignats
How did assignats work?
Like govt bonds
Purchaser ‘loaned’ money to the govt but could exchange it for the newly nationalised church land
What were assignats soon being used like?
Paper money for business transactions
What did assignats cause with overprinting?
Inflation
What was retained despite the Aug Decrees?
Some old taxes
What did the peasants expect their liability on taxes to do once the privileged classes were taxed?
To fall
What else did they order for those whose income exceeded 400 livres a year?
‘Patriotic contribution’
25% of income paid over two years
What did the deputies then think about?
An economic restructuring programme
What did the economic restructuring programme aim to do?
Replace the direct taxes : taille + vingtieme
Compensate for the loss of indirect taxes
What were the three focuses of taxation?
Land
Pill or property
Limited tax on commercial activity
Was the tax lighter for some after this?
Not really just differently assessed
What did the programme do overall?
It was a fairer system that provided a basis for further reform
What economic policies increased french trade and industry from restrictive controls?
- Internal tariffs disappeared (grain deregulated)
- Corporate bodies abolished (monopolies + guilds = barriers to trade)
- Devolution of powers = increased boost to bourgeois entrepreneurs
- New land owning bourgeois helped agriculture farming more profitably
Who lost out most from the economic policies?
Poor peasants
(Couldn’t afford new high prices)
Created a new class of ‘capitalists’
What did the Aug Decrees of ‘abolishing’ venality and privilege not take away?
Wealth or influence
What allowed social mobility?
State charities for the poor
Public education
Removal of barriers to get to high office
What changed socially with the church?
Reduction in influence
More toleration
Marriage being made civil rather than religious institution
What replaced divisions of birth?
Gender
Wealth
Office
Who had more rights than women?
Men
Who had more rights than employees?
Employers
What did workers have to carry around despite a greater freedom of opportunity?
A livret
(record of employment)
What restrictions were under Le Chapelier law of June 1791?
Limited freedom of association
Workers forbidden from striking
No trade unions
Who were the biggest beneficiaries of the revolutionary changes?
The bourgeoisie
Why did the bourgeoisie benefit the most?
Their interests were dominant in the Assembly
They gained the most from the new opportunities to gain land, official positions and political influence
