French Revolution

Question 1

When was the scandal of the Diamond Necklace affair and what happened?

Answer 1

This took place in August 1785, the expensive necklace estimated at being worth 1.5 million livres was rumoured to have been stolen and Mary Antoinette was claimed to have participated in the crime to defraud the crown jewellers of the cost of a very expensive diamond necklace. This affair was historical as it contributed to the French populaces disillusionment with the monarchy.

Question 2

What is the assembly of notables?

Answer 2

The notables was a council of high ranking nobles and clergymen that was summoned at the Kings pleasure. It’s role was to provide ideas and advice for the crowns in times of uncertainty. They were called on February 22 1787 to discuss fiscal reform.

Question 3

When did the king close the assembly of notables?

Answer 3

25 May 1787

Question 4

What was Calonne idea of financial reforms?

Answer 4

To avoid bankruptcy the finance minister Calonne, drew up a plan to reform the taxes on 20 August 1786. The biggest change was a new tax which all landholders would have to pay, the nobles and clergy who were exempt from most taxes made it difficult for the tax to be out in place. Hoping to bypass this, the assembly of notables was called to review the tax, but they refused to pass it. Louis tried to pass it himself but the nobles refused to register the tax.

Question 5

When and what was the aristocrat revolution?

Answer 5

The first phase of the revolution occurred in June-July 1788 and it refers to the fact that the resistance to monarchy came from nobles in the assembly of notables and those within Parlements. However even at this stage many other social groups were also resisting.

Question 6

When did Louis call in the estates general?

Answer 6

On 8 August, the king called for an estates general for May. They planned to block his plans to tax them.

Question 7

Describe the voting system of the estates general.

Answer 7

The estates general was made up of roughly 750 people, 250 from each estate. They all met in three separate rooms and when they voted each estates vote counted for one. This meant the 1 and 2nd estate could outvote the third and this caused outrage among the third estate who asked that they have their members doubled and each individual’s vote account for one.

Question 8

When did parish priests join the third estate?

Answer 8

13 June.

Question 9

What was the bourgeoisie revolution?

Answer 9

Refers to the deputies of the third estate stepping forward and claiming a new constitutional role for themselves. They were supported by other social groups such as liberal nobles and priests. The third assembly which was majority of the population declared a itself a National Assembly. 17 June 1789.

Question 10

When and what was the tennis court oath?

Answer 10

Took place on 20 June 1789. After the estates meeting the third estate was joined by the clergy, when returned next day the third estate found the hall locked and guarded by soldiers, this angered and excited deputies who took shelter on a local tennis court and took an oath to carry on meeting until they changed the way France was governed.

Question 11

When do deputation of nobles join the third estate?

Answer 11

25 June 1789.

Question 12

When do the three orders unite?

Answer 12

They unite on the 27 June 1789.

Question 13

When does the king order troops into Paris

Answer 13

30 June 1789.

Question 14

What was Bastille and when was it captured?

Answer 14

The people of Paris hated Bastille, they saw it as a prison where prisoners of the crown were kept through orders of sealed letters. The fortress was a symbol of all they hated about the king, the people broke in and captured this symbol of royal power.

Question 15

When and what was the peasant revolt?

Answer 15

Late July 1789- was the gradual escalation of rumour and fears in the country side and led to rural rebellions.

Question 16

When was feudalism abolished?

Answer 16

4-11 August 1789.

Question 17

What is the National Assembly?

Answer 17

A revolutionary assembly of the representatives of the third estate, that demanded change in the way France was governed.

Question 18

When was Louis XVI officially crowned king of France?

Answer 18

11 June 1775.

Question 19

Who was the ruler during the French Revolution?

Answer 19

Louis XVI, succeeded his grandfather Louis XV as King of France in 1774.

Question 20

When did Louis marry Mary Antoinette?

Answer 20

In 1770, they married to consolidate an alliance between France and Austria.

Question 21

Why was Mary Antoinette hated?

Answer 21

For the fact that she was foreign, disliked for spending huge amounts of money while majority of the population lived in poverty and and because they thought she was unfaithful to Louis.

Question 22

What was the old regime?

Answer 22

French society before the revolution.

Question 23

How was France ruled before the revolution.

Answer 23

Through absoloute monarchy, a political system in which the monarch rules personally without being accountable to an elected parliament.

Question 24

What was divine right?

Answer 24

The belief that the French King received his power directly from God and was considered infallible. To criticise the king was to criticise God.

Question 25

What was the council of state?

Answer 25

The King’s cabinet of ministers which whipom heads had complete power over.

Question 26

What was arbitrary power or despotism?

Answer 26

The ruling of king in which he ruled badly, with absolute power and without respect for existing laws.

Question 27

What was the highest courts of appeal?

Answer 27

Otherwise known as Parlements, the role of these thirteen high courts checked and registered royal laws.

Question 28

What was the public belief of the King before the revolution?

Answer 28

The belief in royal legitimacy and competence was reinforced by a third belief that the king was father and protector of his people. He was assumed to protect his subjects welfare and therefore drew upon a certain amount of trust.

Question 29

What is deference?

Answer 29

Deference was the instinctive respect for your betters.

Question 30

Define corporate society?

Answer 30

A society made up of number of powerful groups each enjoying its own special customs, laws and privileges.

Question 31

What are fiscal concessions?

Answer 31

Privileges relating to taxes.

Question 32

What are legal concessions?

Answer 32

Privilege relating to law.

Question 33

Who and What was the role of the first estate?

Answer 33

The first estate included all the clergy from wealthy bishops and archbishops down to humble priests. The task of the clergy was to pray and keep the kingdom free of evil influences. Made up 0.6% of the population.

Question 34

Who and what was the role of the second estate?

Answer 34

The second estate was made up of the nobility, ranging from the most powerful nobles to impoverished minor nobles. Their role was to fight for the king and maintain sufficient equipment and soldiers in case of war. They made up 0.4% of the population.

Question 35

Who and what was the third estate?

Answer 35

The third estate was defined negatively as everyone who didn’t belong to the first two estates, their role was to produce food for the remainder of society. Made up 90% of the estate. Third estate had a broad range of social groups within it such as; bourgeoisie, artisan workers, serfs, day labourers, share cropping farmers and landowning and tenant farmers.

Question 36

What is the bourgeoisie?

Answer 36

The middle class.

Question 37

What are artisan workers?

Answer 37

Workers who were trained and skilled in some trade such as barrel-making or glass-making.

Question 38

What is the tithe?

Answer 38

Tax between 8-10 per cent of people’s income or of the value of their crops and livestock paid to the local catholic priest.

Question 39

What were the noblesse d épée (older nobility of the sword)?

Answer 39

The nobles of the sword were families who could trace their ancestry back centuries to come military achievement.

Question 40

Who were the noblesse de robe (nobility of the robe)?

Answer 40

Nobility of the robe was a more recently nobility of high civil servants, created only from seventeenth century onwards.

Question 41

What was the venal public office?

Answer 41

The legal purchase of public office, often with a noble title attached by wealthy and ambitious bourgeois who wanted to rise into the second estate. Cost between £50000-£500000

Question 42

What was enlightenment?

Answer 42

A European wide intellectual movement in the eighteenth century that criticised absolute monarchy and despotism and attacked organised religion and its tendency to intolerance.

Question 43

What new political ideas did Montesquieu bring about?

Answer 43

He was a member of one of France’s great noble families, suggested in the spirit of laws (1748) that France should have a constitution and that civil liberties should be guaranteed to ensure that everybody had personal security. Insisted that if a monarchy’s power was not controlled it would become despotic, he demanded that people be guaranteed freedom to think as they wished, to speak and to meet freely in assembly. Demanded an end to slavery.oegal system be free of any ruler.

Question 44

Views of Voltaire

Answer 44

He taught his contemporaries to think independently and critically about the society in which they lived. He suffered imprisonment for being too bold and lived in England from 1726-1729. Although he was not able to criticise France openly, he used unspoken criticism by praising England’s system of legal and parliamentary system and taxations.

Question 45

Views of Rousseau

Answer 45

Wrote the social contract in 1762. He explained the contract that existed between the king and his people. Once this mutual agreement is broken, the obligation of people to their ruler ceases. A king is not out on the throne by God: instead, real sovereignty- the source of all political power- comes from below, from the whole mass of citizens, and they are the ones who should make the laws.

Question 46

What were the privileges of the first estate?

Answer 46

Had their own law courts, did not have to pay certain taxes.

Question 47

Privileges of the second estate

Answer 47

Had the right to carry a sword, got special treatment in law courts, exempted from some taxes and did not have to do military service.

Question 48

Give three examples of direct taxes.

Answer 48

Taille- a tax on either land or income.
Corvee- a labour tax requiring unpaid work mending royal roads.
Capitation-a poll tax, a fixed sum paid each year to the government.

Question 49

Give three examples of indirect tax

Answer 49

Gabelle- a tax on salt.
Octroi- a tax paid at the town gates, on goods being taken to the market.
Traites- a tax on goods being transported from area to another.

Question 50

What was the Calas affair?

Answer 50

In 1761, Calas a Protestant found his son had hung himself. He was accused to have been hung by his father after accursedly trying to stop him from converting to Catholicism. He was then convicted of murder, tied to a cartwheel, smashed his limbs and strangled him. Voltaire took up the case and accused the magistrates of convicting Calas simply because he was a Protestant.