May-October 1789

Question 1

Estates-General

Answer 1

• 5th May 1789
• 1200 representatives at Versailles
• No agenda for ‘reform package’
• No indication of voting procedures

Question 2

National Assembly

Answer 2

• 17th June 1789
• Third estate refused to meet separately
• Voted 490-90 to call themselves ‘National Assembly’

Question 3

What did the National Assembly claim

Answer 3

• To represent the French nation
• Have right to decide taxation

Question 4

Tennis Court Oath

Answer 4

• 20th June 1789
• Members of National Assembly swore oath
• ‘To never disband until France had a new constitution’

Question 5

Why were tensions high in Paris on 11th July 1789

Answer 5

• 30,000 troops in Paris
• Popular Necker dismissed - confirmed fears of King preventing reform
• Poor harvest = bread prices highest since 1715

Question 6

Storming of Bastille

Answer 6

• 14th July 1789
• 8000 Sans-Culottes armed with muskets - Descended on Bastille
• De Launey murdered - 93 killed
• King forced to address Parisians - reinstated Necker and accepted National Assembly

Question 7

The Great Fear

Answer 7

• 17th July 1789
• Rumours of disorder in Paris - spread to Countryside
• Peasants refused to pay taxes - destroyed masters records of obligations

Question 8

Abolition of Feudal rights

Answer 8

• 4th August 1789
• To appease peasants after Great fear
• National Assembly voted for August Decrees

Question 9

4 August decrees

Answer 9

• Abolition of feudal rights
• Tithe abolished
• All citizens to be taxed equally
• All eligible to any office in Church, state or army

Question 10

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Answer 10

• 26th August 1789
• Derived from Enlightenment principles
• All citizens equal
• Conceding these measures went strongly against King’s belief of Divine Right

Question 11

Suspensive veto for Louis

Answer 11

• September 1789
• National assembly vote for suspensory veto
• He could delay laws for 4 years - But not veto them completely

Question 12

March to Versailles

Answer 12

• 5th October 1789
• King’s banquet - tricolore reportedly desecrated - rising bread prices - Created intense public outrage
• Armed crowd 6000 (mostly women) marched to Versailles from Paris
• Louis forced to accept August decrees
• Royal family imprisoned in Tuileries