 The French Revolution It begins with privilege and excess…

The Breakdown of French Estates Everybody else… (60-70% of the land) Bourgeoisie – middle class of France; controlled most of the wealth Sans-Culottes – Urban workers and traders/artisans Peasants – worked on farms for the nobles, struggled to survive Nobility of France (1.5% of the population controlled 20-30% of the land) Roman Catholic Clergy (.5% of the population 10% of the land)

Louis XVI  Married Marie Antoinette at 15  Bored with affairs of state, preferred physical activities, like hunting  King at 20  Wanted to improve the lives of the common people  Gave up at little resistance

Marie Antoinette  Symbol of excess  Promised to Louis XVI to cement ties between Austria and France  Frivolous at a young age  Hated being at the French court  Queen at 19  Loved to spend money and gamble

Jacques-Pierre Brissot  Leader of Girondins – moderate bourgeois faction that opposed the Jacobins  Clerk in lawyer’ offices at Chartes, then Paris  Wanted to write  Member: third estate  Argued for the maintaining the monarchy  Opposition: Robespierre

Marquis de Lafayette  Major role in American Revolution  Served Washington  Fled France during the revolution but was important in rebuilding afterward  Member: 2 nd estate  Advocated for a governing body representing the three social classes  Helped draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes  Churchman and constitutional theorist  Popular sovereignty – rule by the majority of the people  Member: First estate  Wrote “What is the Third Estate?”  Only the Third Estate had the right to draft a new constitution because they were the backbone of France

Olympe de Gouges  Active in political and social issues  Divorce, maternity hospitals, and the rights of orphaned children and unmarried mothers  Famous work, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [Female] Citizen”  Moderate Girondin  Citizens to chose their government

Jean-Paul Marat  Hated aristocracy  Radical Jacobin party who was hated by the Girondin  Assassinated by the Girondin Charlotte Corday  Martyr for his cause, solidifying the radical views he supported on the Jacobin side

Maximilien Robespierre  Radical Jacobin  Leader of the Committee of Public Safety  Wanted a public role, became a follower of Rousseau  “The Incorruptible”  Helped to write Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizen

Georges Danton  Chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and establishment of the First French Republic  Member of the Committee of Public Safety  Started to lose support because he wanted to stabilize the government  Disapproved of Robespierre’s Great Terror