FTE 2: Louis XVI and the onset of the revolution Flashcards
Louis XVI ‘wanted to be loved’ when he came to the throne in 1774.
- Louis XVI recalled the parlements and Maupeou, Louis XV’s controversial minister.
- As traditional, he touched those suffering from scrofula following his coronation.
Louis XVI was an indecisive ruler from the early years of his reign.
- He initially appointed Turgot as his Comptroller-General, a physiocrat who was known to favour major reforms to French finances, noble privileges and the French economy (e.g. abolishing the corvée, free trade in grain, no tax exemptions for the nobility).
- Louis XVI failed to back his minister when his reforms proved unpopular. Turgot was dismissed in 1776 when the parlements obstructed his proposed reforms to the tax system.
Necker’s policies as minister were beneficial in the short-term, but damaging in the long-term.
- In the short-term, Necker’s optimistic assessments of the crown’s financial position enabled him to secure new loans to cover the costs of the American War of Independence.
- The Compte Rendu au Roi (1781) showed a small surplus in crown finances in 1781.
- In fact the crown was spending 43% of its income on servicing debts, and the deficit was increasing. Necker’s false accounting made it impossible for his successors to argue for the necessity of major financial reforms later in the 1780s.
Calonne’s reform plans were radical and wide-ranging.
- Calonne proposed the following in 1786: A land tax on all three estates; sale of Church land to repay its debts to the state; elected provincial assemblies to replace the parlements; Abolition of customs duties and the corvée; civil status for protestants.
- To get round the parlements, he summoned a handpicked Assembly of Notables to discuss the reforms in 1787, but they refused to accept the proposed changes.
Public opinion did not trust the court to reform the taxation system in the interests of the nation.
- Calonne tried to win support for his reforms by publishing a justification to be read aloud in churches throughout France.
- However, most ordinary people remained convinced that this was another example of the corrupt court trying to enrich itself from the nation’s resources.
The parlements successfully presented themselves as the defenders of the nation between 1787 and 1788.
- Louis XVI tried to exile the parlements in 1787 after they continued to resist financial reforms under Brienne. He famously the Duke of Orleans: ‘it is legal because I wish it’.
- This was followed by a nationwide storm of protest, including the ‘Day of Tiles’ in Grenoble.
Louis XVI had an opportunity to restore public faith in the monarchy between August 1788 and May 1789, but he failed to take it.
- When the summoning of the Estates-General was announced in August 1788, it was said that people cried ‘long live the king and the Third Estate’ in response.
- Although the doubling of the Third Estate was announced in December 1788, Louis XVI failed to agree to voting by head, which essentially kept power in the hands of the privileged estates.
The deputies of the Third Estate had a clear agenda at the outset of the Estates-General in May 1789.
- Many cahiers expressed widely shared ideas about the need for a written constitution, abolition of privileges and the need for appointments based on talent rather than birth.
- A key example of this: Abbé Sieyès, ‘What is Third Estate?’ (published in January 1789)
There were severe socio-economic pressures on Parisian workers in 1789.
- Hailstorm destroyed the harvest in the Paris Basin in 1788: bread prices rose by 50% between August 1788 and March 1789.
- On average, Parisian labourers were forced to spend up to 88% of their income on bread.
- There was a 50% fall in employment in the textiles industry due to recession in 1789, which led to the disturbances in April 1789: Réveillon riots.
- Price of bread peaked on 14 July 1789.
Ordinary Parisians identified with the National Assembly and against the court in July 1789.
- The dismissal of Necker and the rumours of advancing troops provided the spur to action.
- 80,000 people joined the protests in Paris in July 1789.
