The French Monarchy in Chaos Chapter 19:i

Louis XIV

“After us, the deluge.” - attributed to Louis XV

France under King Louis XV led Europe in culture and manners.

French philosophers led the Enlightenment.

Europeans slavishly copied French fashions in clothes, art, and cooking.

The French economy was in serious trouble Before long the French monarchy would be destroyed.

France under the Ancien Regime (Old Regime) king was an absolute monarch -power was centralized in the royal bureaucracy people of France were divided by law into three estates

The clergy formed the First Estate under the Ancien Regime.

The French nobility formed the Second Estate under the Ancien Regime.

The French nobility, led by the Nobles of the Robe, tried to regain the political power they had lost during the reign of Louis XIV.

Commoners, who formed the Third Estate, had many grievances against the Ancien Regime.

The Third Estate included peasants, city workers, and bourgeoisie.

Over-taxed peasants made up the largest group of people within the Third Estate.

City workers such as servants, apprentices, and day laborers suffered, when inflation caused food prices to rise faster than wages.

The Growing Economic Crisis poor harvests antiquated regulations limited the expansion of trade guilds still monopolized certain trades

Louis XVI was not a very determined or able ruler. He preferred to spend his days hunting or tinkering with puzzles, rather than coping with the problems of France.

Facing a financial crisis, Louis XVI call the Estates- General for first time in 175 years

Tennis Court Oath Members of the Third Estate, along with sympathetic members of the other Estates refused to attend the Estates-General They met at a local tennis court, and agreed not to leave until they wrote a new Constitution They called themselves the National Assembly

Fall of the Bastille

End of the Old Order In August 1789 the nobility voted to end their privleges. This ended feudalism in France No more feudal dues No more noble exemption from taxes Allowed all male citizens to hold government, military, or Church office

In October 1789 King Louis XVI agrees to move to Paris under pressure

Political Reforms Catholic Church put under government control Unicameral Legislature elected by tax paying males Deep divide between left wing, moderates, and the right wing

Fearing that Austria would help Louis XVI reclaim power France attacks Austria, throwing France into upheaval