Revolution May-Oct 1789

• May 1789 - First Estates General
• The sigfig of the National assembly:

  • 3rd estate self asserting power
• Tennis court oath = 20th June 1789
• June 1789 Royal Session:

  • Lettres de cachet abolished
  • Movement of troops to Paris
• 12-14th July 1789 = Fears of royal troops, attacked prisons.
• 14th July 1789 = Storming of the Bastille, de Launay beheaded.
• Aftermath of Bastille:

  • Louis wore revolutionary bonnet
  • Symbol of loss of Royal authority
• June 1789 - 3rd Estate named themself the National Assembly through voting
• 23rd June 1789 - Louis consented to new taxation, abolished lettres de cachet and was calling the assembly the estates general instead.
• TENSIONS RISING - Movement of troops to Paris, 20,000, fears of an invasion and quelling of the revolution.
• Summer of 1789 - Necker dismissed (feared going back on reforms), bread prices soared (half income on bread).
• 15th July 1789 - National Guard established (restore order and protect attack on property).
• 17th July 1789 - Louis addresses the assembly, reinstatement of Necker, assembly acceptance and wore the cockade!
• SIGNIFICANCE of the 14th July storming of the Bastille:

  • Showed the power of the Parisian mob
  • Belief that the role cause was lost, nobles emigrated.
  • Breakdown of physical symbol of repression and lettres de cachet.
• Paris acts mirrored across France:

  • Refusal to pay taxes
  • Burned down chateaux's
• The Great Fear July - August 1789, driven by rumours, grain theft and attacks on farmers by brigades (alligned w/ nobles)
• Fear of the return of nobles with foreign armies, never came, attacks on landlords!
• 4th August 1789 - National A. abolishes feudal rights, church and noble privileges stripped away. THE AUGUST DECREES
• AUGUST DECREES:

  • Rights abolished such as pigeons and hunting
  • Tithes abolished
  • No more tax exemptions
  • People known only as "CITIZENS"
• August - Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

  • Derived from Enlightenment ideas (Rousseau) and cahiers
  • King REFUSED to accept it
  • Stressed power of the people
• Faults to Declaration were only bourgeoisie interests and women excluded.
• Women's March on Versailles?

  October 1789 - King and family taken to Paris
• OCTOBER DAYS - rumours King and nobles tarnished tricolore.
• Why did the women march to Versailles?

  Couldn't feed their families, particularly angry at Marie Antionette
• 5th October - 7000 crowd march to Versailles, Louis forced acceptance of August Decrees and Dec. of Rights of Man
• Where did the Royal family move after the October march to Versailles?

  Paris
• 19th October - National Assembly moves to Paris, keeping an eye on the King.