To what extent was Louis to blame for the end of the Ancien Regime?

Lecture aims

1. To explain key events in 1789.

2. To judge the significance of events in relation to each other.

3. To create a substantiated judgement regarding which event is most to blame for the collapse of the Ancien Regime.

Estates General

• Hadn’t met since 1614,initial issue related to voting by head vs. voting by order.

• Louis allows number of 3rd Estate deputies to be doubled in December 1788, but confusion still reigned over voting method.

• 1st Estate = mainly parish priests, only 51/291 deputies were bishops.

• 2nd Estate = mainly nobles and conservative, but 90/282 were liberal, including Sieyes.

• 3rd Estate = 43% venal office holders, 35% lawyers and only 13% from industry. NO PEASANTS

Voting method = indirect election by tax paying men over 25, deputies then selected from these representatives.

Role of Cahiers• Each estate drew up list of

grievances and suggestions.• 1st Estate demanded

Catholicism remain untouched, but wanted end to bishops holding more than one diocese.

• 2nd Estate quite liberal, 89% were prepared to give up financial privileges. Argued for meritocracy. Attacked government despotism and inefficiency.

• 3rd Estate argued for fairer taxation and more consultation re: government decisions.

• Change is in the air…

• Assess what Louis should have done now.

And so it all goes wrong…

Tennis Court Oath

• Louis refuses to offer terms demanded in cahiers.

• Necker agreed taxation needed to be fairer, but no one mentioned a constitution.

• A huge delay was caused by the 3rd Estate checking credentials.

• 3rd Estate became increasingly more agitated and declared the National Assembly on June 17th. Argued it had the right to organise its own affairs and taxation. On the 19th, the clergy voted to join the 3rd Estate.

• Louis was beginning to lose control…

• Louis agreed to a royal séance, but before this could be held on the 23rd of June, the 3rd Estate held the Tennis Court Oath, vowing to not be disperse until France had a constitution.

• Louis was pressured by the Queen and refused to accept the decisions of the 3rd Estate and tried to declare them null and void.

• He would accept:– End to the lettres de cachet– Freedom of the press.– The gabelle and corvee abolished

• Too little too late. 3rd Estate refuses this and 47 nobles joined the 3rd Estate.

• To counter this, Louis ordered 4,000 troops to be stationed around Paris, followed by 11,500 more on the 1st July.

• Tensions rose and the National Assembly feared a forceful shut down.

Paris and the Provinces in Revolt

Paris burns

Economic crisis • 1788 food prices increased, by spring

1789 workers could spend 88% of wages on bread.

• 28th April the Reveillon wallpaper manufacturers were burnt down.

• Living standards were collapsing and this caused a popular movement against the economic situation.

• Palais Royal in Paris became the HQ for dissatisfied politicians, people like Camille Desmoulins spoke to vast crowds.

• A peoples militia was set up to protect middle class interests, but when Necker was sacked, riots targeted customs posts and barricades were set up in Paris.

Bastille• Bastille stormed by the mob

seeking weapons and ammunition. 28,000 muskets seized from Les Invalides. Reports stated that the Gardes-francaises was deserting the army to help protestors.

• Mob gathered at the Bastille and the army was powerless to intervene, 5/6 battalions were reported as not loyal.

• When the Bastille was stormed, 98 protesters were shot and the governor of the Bastille was decapitated by the crowd.

The disturbances of July 1789 were not planned by anyone, so

why did they happen?

Significance of the Bastille – unleashes ‘the Parisian spirit of commotion’

• King lost control of Paris.• Lafayette controlled the bourgeois National Guard.• National Constituent Assembly looked to draw up a constitution.• Louis no longer able to dictate to people.• Revolt spread into the provinces, including Normandy. These

attacks saw chateaux burnt down, grain stores attacked, ‘terriers’ (lists of peasant obligations) were seized and destroyed and grain convoys were attacked. Started the Great Fear as peoples saw the loss of order in the countryside.

• In the Provinces, the King’s authority was dead and order would only be obeyed if supported by the National Constituent Assembly.

Dismantling the Ancien Regime

Dismantling of Ancien Regime…

August Decrees• Patriot party (loose bunch

of reformers) propose ending feudal system.

• 4TH August they suggest ending serfdom without compensation. Followed by legal reform 5-11th August. Little reaction in countryside.

Main changes• Tithes to the Church abolished.• Venality abolished.• Financial and tax privileges

abolished.• Equal taxation.• All citizens eligible to hold all

offices.

• MORE EXTREME THAN CAHIERS.

Impact of Decrees

• End of noble power and privileged birth rights.• Meritocracy established, though in reality only for

the bourgeois. • Peasants committed to the new regime, gained

out of it, but unhappy about paying compensation for feudal dues.

• Provincial estates swept away and room allowed for a uniform, national policy.

• A lot of work began to replace the old, corrupt system and this took over two years.

The end is nigh…

Declaration of the Rights of Man

• Hugely liberal and forward thinking.

• Involved ideas like:– all men are born equal and

free.– Power rested with the

people.– Freedom of worship.– Freedom of expression.– Proportional taxation.

Nationalisation of Church Lands• Due to the continued financial

difficulty in France, the National Assembly agreed to nationalise Church land on the 2nd November 1789.

• Assignats (paper money) were issued to cover state debts and these were backed by the sale of Church land.

• The aim was to raise 400m livres.

Reaction of Louis XVI

• Louis refused to co-operate with the changes, arguing that he could not consent to the “spoilation” of the clergy.

• This forced the Assembly to re-assess Louis and his position, though the idea of abolishing the monarchy was still avoided.

• The Assembly decided to allow him a ‘suspensive veto’, allowing him to suspend laws for up to four years. They termed this ‘supreme executive power’, whilst the deputies had legislative power.

The October Days – how foolish…• On the 1st October, Louis held a banquet

for the Flanders regiment of troops at the opera house in the Palace of Versailles.

• During the banquet, officers trampled the tricolour and paraded the fleur de lis. When news got out about this, tempers flared and, amidst a food shortage in Paris, women marched on the Hotel de Ville.

• The women, followed by a march of 20,000 National Guards, then invaded the Assembly and sent a message to the King, demanding grain.

• Louis consented to this and, on the 6th of October, he was forced to return to Paris, along with the National Assembly.

The impact…

Louis, and the National Assembly, were now prisoners of the Parisian mob…

His new title was “Louis, by the grace of God and the constitutional law of the state, King of the French”.

How significant are events of 1789?

“However unbelievable the Revolution that has just been accomplished may appear, it is none

the less absolutely certain that from now on the city of Paris has assumed the role of a king in

France and it can, if it pleases, send an army of forty to fifty thousand citizens to surround the

Assembly and dictate laws to it.”- Austrian Ambassador