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History 12

November 30

History Chronology

Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama.

5:35 am I finished reading chapter 15 yesterday. Now to continue making notes, beginning with chapter 13.

The book is divided into 4 major parts. Here is the overall structure of the book:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

Part Two: Expectations

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

In greater detail:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

1. New Men
2. Blue Horizons, Red Ink
3. Absolutism Attacked
4. The Cultural Construction of a Citizen
5. The Costs of Modernity

Part Two: Expectations

6. Body Politics
7. Suicides
8. Grievances
9. Improvising a Nation
10. Bastille

Part Three: Choices

11. Reason and Unreason, July - November 1789
12. Acts of Faith, October 1789 - July 1790
13. Departures, August 1790 - July 1791
14. "Marseillaise", September 1791 - August 1792
15. Impure Blood, August 1792 - January 1793.

Part Four: Virtue and Death

Now to review chapters 13, 14 & 15 and make additions to the following table (using a brighter green to indicate the additions).

 

Date
Person
Event
Commentary
Page
1200 -1800   Parlements

"The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130."

They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs."

The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.'

105

 

 

106

1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular  
1715 - 1774 Louis XV  

indecisive and unpopular

his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars

"Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy."

"As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist."

100

 

 

103

1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.

He was very popular.

he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation

"Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..."

100

 

 

 

102

1700 - 1788   system of "privilege"

Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption.

Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received.

"Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility."

"the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy."

115

 

118

1700 - 1788   system of "venality"

Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."

 

68
1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72
1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French  
1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular  
1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152
1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155
1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker

emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution.

the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato)

167
1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131
1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108
1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19    
1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs    
1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.  
1775 Louis XVI Coronation    
1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110
1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213
1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176
1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24
1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe

"... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy"

"No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time."

"More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state."

62
1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle.
Lafayette idolized Washington
24
1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General    
1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA    
1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather    
1779 Lafayette returns to France    
  Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic  
  Talleyrand      
1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General    
1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA  
1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65
1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64
1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General

Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries.

227-237
Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties

The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality.

rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries

243
  Assembly of Notables   "Representation and consent were now required not as the auxiliary to government but as its working condition." 259
1787 Brienne head of government

initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach

"Neither the seriousness of the financial crisis in the late spring of 1787 nor the acknowledged excellence of the government's reforms was enough to disarm what had become insuperable political objections to traditional government procedure."

259
Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264
1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements    
Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles

the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order.

  • it signified the breakdown of royal authority
  • it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot
  • it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups
274
Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble

Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that:

  • identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor
  • the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it
  • they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation
 
Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.  
Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.  
Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris  
Fall 1788     "The opportunity for constitutional reform was lost when the preservation of social distinctions - the orders of the old regime - became stigmatized as unpatriotic." 292
Fall 1788 - Winter 1789   famine, anger The fall of 1788 and the severe winter of 1789 severely damaged crops and led to widespread hunger, unemployment and starvation - leading to widespread anger. 305
Jan 24, 1789 Estate-General   The process for electing the nobility and clergy to the Estates-General was well defined but the procedure for the Third-Estate was complicated and indirect, leading to much confusion and dissatisfaction. 308
Spring 1789 Estate-General   The general population was encouraged to prepare lists of their grievances and these would then form the basis for the discussions of the Estate-General. In part this helped highlight many of the problems and injustices with the present system of govenment as well as creating a set of unrealistic expectations. 316
Spring 1789 Clergy   The church in France at this time was in upheaval between "the claims of the pastoral clergy to embody the true spirit of the primitive evangel - humble, property-less and teaching the Gospel through works of charity and education - " versus "the worldly reality of episcopal big business." 350
1789     The situation was rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly.  
May 4, 1789 Estate-General   Opening march of the members of the Estate-General from Notre Dame to the Church of Saint Louis. But instead of a ceremony that dissolved existing ranks into a form of patriotic duty, it became another extension of existing court ceremony. "The more brilliantly the first two orders [clergy, nobility] swaggered, the more they alienated the Third Estate and provoked it into exploding the institution altogether." 339
May 1789 Estate-General   During the entire month of May the Estate-General was bogged down in endless bickering about procedures of verification of its members. 353
June 4, 1789 the Dauphin   Dies at age 7, having been weak all of his life. (The Dauphin was the heir apparent to King Louis XVI. However there was another younger son to inherit the title.) But this event distracted the King from the business of the Estate-General. 356
  Estate-General   King Louis XVI fails to endorse the plans of the Estate-General and closes the building for renovations for a final ceremonial meeting.  
June 22, 1789 Estate-General Tennis Court Oath The Estate-General meets in a nearby royal tennis court and affirmed their right to represent the country. They adopted the Roman posture of having the right arm oustretched as they swore an oath "to God ad the Patrie never to be separated until we have formed a solid and equitable Constitution as our constituents have asked us to." 359
June 27, 1789 Estate-General   This body is no longer recognized by the King. 366
June 28, 1789 National Assembly   The same group that made the Tennis Court Oath now called themselves the National Assembly and declared themselves the true government of the country, rather than the King and his advisors. They continue to meet at the Palais-Royal in Paris. The King returns to Versaille. The King backs down from the confrontation and the group is recognized by the King to large public demonstrations of singing and dancing. 365
July 12, 1789 Necker   Necker ( by now he was a symbol of the victory of the Third Estate) is dismissed by King Louis XVI. There is a power struggle between the King and his close relatives and the National Assembly. The King mobilizes a number of military regiments but it is not clear how well they may follow orders. 372
July 12, 1789   Palais-Royal A large crowd gathers and voices its opposition to the King. The military is unable to control the crowd who now begin to demand arms to protect themselves from the King's army. This quickly became a struggle for control of Paris between the popular people and the King's authority. "During that single night of largely unobstructed riot and demolition, Paris was lost to the monarchy." 387
July 13, 1789   Paris A citizen's army of local militia is quickly formed.  
July 14, 1789   The Bastille The citizen's army attacks the Bastille in an effort to obtain arms and powder. The local commander surrenders and the mob quickly begins tearing down the building which looks like a small fortress. The destruction of the Bastille immediately became a symbol for the Revolution. 425
July 1789   "The Great Fear" There is widespread rumour, unrest and panic throughout much of France as villagers armed themselves against brigands (small armies said to be formed by the aristocracy to wreak revenge on the Third Estate) or foreign invasions (Austrian troops in the Netherlands, English marines on the north coast, Swedish troops from the northeast, Spanish troops from the south). "The result was a wholesale breakdown in the structure of local command, swiftly followed by the formation of new armed authorities, empowered to contain the unrest. ... The real significance of the Great Fear was the vacuum of authority it exposed at the heart of the French government." 434
      "The effect of this prolonged state of anxiety was to create the politics of paranoia that would eventually engulf the entire Revolution." 436
August 4, 1789 National Assembly   In a spirit of patriotism, the nobility renounces all of its titles and privileges. "Giving something of one's own to the Nation became a demonstration of patriotic probity." 439
August - September, 1789 National Assembly   Efforts were made to draft a "Declaration of the Rights of Man" as well as a new constitution. But there was little common agreement on what this should contain. There was also a strong difference of opinion on the appropriate role of the monarchy in the new France. 442
      "All these issues boiled down to one great question: What is the relationship between violence and legitimacy? It was one that would dog the French Revolution through its entire history as successive regimes fell before their opponents' willingness to sanction punitive violence in the interests of patriotic righteousness." 445
Fall, 1789 Lafayette   "For at least a few months Lafayette was the father-provider of Paris; its judge-arbitrator, the source of police protection and military authority." 451
Fall, 1789 Lafayette   He invented the tricolor cockade as an obligatory badge of patriotic duty 454
Fall, 1789 National Guard   They became the new police/army of the New France. They had to control both royalist conspiracies as well as mob anarchy. 452
October 5-6, 1789 working women of Paris March on Versailles

The women of Paris spontaneously decide to march to Versailles to demand that bread be made available. The National Guard decide to support them and Lafayette joins the march against his own wishes.

The National Guard protects the King and Queen from the mob and they then "escort" the royal family back to Paris. They were placed under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace.

470
Spring 1790 Jacobins Paris Originally a social/political club of deputies of the National Assembly. The name was first used to describe the Dominican religious order because their first house was on St. Jacques street. This building became the meeting place of the deputies and they quickly became know as the Jacobins. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin_Club  
Spring 1790 National Assembly   France is divided into 83 Departments (regional jurisdictions). 477
Spring 1790 Constituent Assembly   The National Assembly now called itself the Constituent Assembly 471
May 1790 Mirabeau   Mirabeau begins advising King Louis XVI on how to re-establish his authority 533
June 19, 1790 Constituent Assembly   Eradicate all titles of heriditary nobility. This was considered incompatible with the concept of citizenship. Expressly banned were all insignia of social superiority such as coats of arms. 477
July 1790 Constituent Assembly Civil Constitution of the Clergy The clergy had to swear an oath to the country rather than to the pope. 491
1790     There were sharp divisions between those who wanted a populist government and those that wanted a form of constitutional monarchy. 497
July, 1790   Fete de la Federation in Paris A large week long celebration on the first anniversay of the fall of the Bastille. Lafayette administered the oath to the country and the King declared as "King of the French" to "employ all the power delegated to me by the constitution to uphold the decrees of the National Assembly". There was a strong feeling of a fraternal coming together of all Frenchmen, but serious economic problems still persisted. 511
September 30, 1790 Constituent Assembly   Abolishment of the local Parlements. The hierarchies of appointed royal officials were replaced by elected officials (who were often the same individuals). 515
      "With the momentous exception of the expropriation of the Church, between 1789 and 1792 the Revolution produced no significant transfer of social power. It merely accelerated trends that had been taking place over a longer period of time." 520
      "The liberties enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man for the protection of free speech, publication and assembly had brought forth a politcal culture in which the liberation of disrespect literally knew no bounds. ... the removal of censorship and prosecution made it possible for political argument to reach an unprecedentedly broad audience." 521
March 1791 Mirabeau   Mirabeau dies of a lymphatic disease. 542
April 18, 1791 Louis XVI   An attempt by the royal family to leave for Saint Cloud where they could relax and celebrate Easter was blocked by an angry mob. Lafayette tried to lead a National Guard escort through the mob but the soldiers refused to obey him. The royal family eventually returned to their rooms clearly aware that they were powerless and prisoners of the people. 550
June 20, 1791 Louis XVI   The royal family attempts to escape Paris but they are recaptured at the small town of Varennes and escorted back to Paris 560
September 1791 Louis XVI   The King formally accepts the constitution drafted by the Constituent Assembly 573
October 1 1791 Legislative Assembly   This elected Assembly replaced the Constituent Assembly who had completed its work by drafting the constitution. 581
  Feuillants   This group separated from the Jacobins over the issue of the future of the monarchy. The name comes from the name of the monestary where they met.  
November 1791 Legislative Assembly   136 members were Jacobins, 264 Feuillants and about 400 were uncommitted. 582
Spring 1792 Girondists   This became another group within the Legislative Assembly that opposed the monarchy and helped force the war against Austria.  
April 20, 1792 Legislative Assembly   France declares war on Austria but suffers a number of military defeats on the borders. 597
June 20, 1792 Louis XVI   An angry mob storms the Tuileries palace and force Louis XVI to wear the red hat of the revolution and to drink a toast to the revolution. 608
August 10, 1792 National Guard   The National Guard storm the Tuilerie palace and massacre the Swiss Guards that were protectors of the monarchy. 615
August 10, 1792 Legislative Assembly  

Decrees that a National Convention should be conveened, elected by all Frenchmen over the age of 25.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Convention

 
August 19, 1792 Prussian army   The Prussian army cross the French border and begin to slowly advance on Paris. 627
September Paris the September massacres In a move to kill conspirators before the volunteers leave Paris to defend the country, large mobs took over the prisons and began killing the inmates. Over 1400 unarmed prisoners were killed  
September 20, 1792 National Convention   First session of the elected assembly  
September 21, 1792 National Convention   Royalty was abolished.  
September 22, 1792 National Convention   Considered to be the first day of the new republic.  
January 17, 1792 National Convention   The decision is made that the King must die as it would be inconsistent with the concept of a republic.  
January 21, 1793 Louis XVI   King Louis XVI is beheaded. 670
1789 - 1799   French Revolution

"The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it."

It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought."

The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'."

6

 

 

40

 

 

 

1789   Storming of the Bastille    
         

7:50 am The table now contains important sections for chapters 11 and 12. Now to read chapters 13 - 15.

 

History 11

November 28

History Chronology

Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama.

5:40 am I like the general approach that I was taking just over 2 months ago. The idea of identifying key people, key events, key terms are three important dimensions in an understanding of the events. Another category is to try to capture the ethos of the times.

The book is divided into 4 major parts. Here is the overall structure of the book:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

Part Two: Expectations

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

In greater detail:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

1. New Men
2. Blue Horizons, Red Ink
3. Absolutism Attacked
4. The Cultural Construction of a Citizen
5. The Costs of Modernity

Part Two: Expectations

6. Body Politics
7. Suicides
8. Grievances
9. Improvising a Nation
10. Bastille

Part Three: Choices

11. Reason and Unreason, July - November 1789
12. Acts of Faith, October 1789 - July 1790

13. Departures, August 1790 - July 1791
14. "Marseillaise", September 1791 - August 1792
15. Impure Blood, August 1792 - January 1793.

Part Four: Virtue and Death

Now to review chapters 9, 10, 11and 12 and make additions to the following table (using a brighter green to indicate the additions).

 

Date
Person
Event
Commentary
Page
1200 -1800   Parlements

"The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130."

They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs."

The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.'

105

 

 

106

1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular  
1715 - 1774 Louis XV  

indecisive and unpopular

his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars

"Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy."

"As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist."

100

 

 

103

1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.

He was very popular.

he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation

"Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..."

100

 

 

 

102

1700 - 1788   system of "privilege"

Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption.

Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received.

"Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility."

"the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy."

115

 

118

1700 - 1788   system of "venality"

Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."

 

68
1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72
1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French  
1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular  
1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152
1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155
1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker

emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution.

the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato)

167
1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131
1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108
1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19    
1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs    
1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.  
1775 Louis XVI Coronation    
1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110
1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213
1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176
1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24
1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe

"... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy"

"No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time."

"More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state."

62
1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle.
Lafayette idolized Washington
24
1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General    
1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA    
1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather    
1779 Lafayette returns to France    
  Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic  
  Talleyrand      
1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General    
1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA  
1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65
1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64
1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General

Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries.

227-237
Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties

The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality.

rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries

243
  Assembly of Notables   "Representation and consent were now required not as the auxiliary to government but as its working condition." 259
1787 Brienne head of government

initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach

"Neither the seriousness of the financial crisis in the late spring of 1787 nor the acknowledged excellence of the government's reforms was enough to disarm what had become insuperable political objections to traditional government procedure."

259
Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264
1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements    
Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles

the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order.

  • it signified the breakdown of royal authority
  • it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot
  • it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups
274
Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble

Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that:

  • identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor
  • the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it
  • they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation
 
Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.  
Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.  
Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris  
Fall 1788     "The opportunity for constitutional reform was lost when the preservation of social distinctions - the orders of the old regime - became stigmatized as unpatriotic." 292
Fall 1788 - Winter 1789   famine, anger The fall of 1788 and the severe winter of 1789 severely damaged crops and led to widespread hunger, unemployment and starvation - leading to widespread anger. 305
Jan 24, 1789 Estate-General   The process for electing the nobility and clergy to the Estates-General was well defined but the procedure for the Third-Estate was complicated and indirect, leading to much confusion and dissatisfaction. 308
Spring 1789 Estate-General   The general population was encouraged to prepare lists of their grievances and these would then form the basis for the discussions of the Estate-General. In part this helped highlight many of the problems and injustices with the present system of govenment as well as creating a set of unrealistic expectations. 316
Spring 1789 Clergy   The church in France at this time was in upheaval between "the claims of the pastoral clergy to embody the true spirit of the primitive evangel - humble, property-less and teaching the Gospel through works of charity and education - " versus "the worldly reality of episcopal big business." 350
1789     The situation was rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly.  
May 4, 1789 Estate-General   Opening march of the members of the Estate-General from Notre Dame to the Church of Saint Louis. But instead of a ceremony that dissolved existing ranks into a form of patriotic duty, it became another extension of existing court ceremony. "The more brilliantly the first two orders [clergy, nobility] swaggered, the more they alienated the Third Estate and provoked it into exploding the institution altogether." 339
May 1789 Estate-General   During the entire month of May the Estate-General was bogged down in endless bickering about procedures of verification of its members. 353
June 4, 1789 the Dauphin   Dies at age 7, having been weak all of his life. (The Dauphin was the heir apparent to King Louis XVI. However there was another younger son to inherit the title.) But this event distracted the King from the business of the Estate-General. 356
  Estate-General   King Louis XVI fails to endorse the plans of the Estate-General and closes the building for renovations for a final ceremonial meeting.  
June 22, 1789 Estate-General Tennis Court Oath The Estate-General meets in a nearby royal tennis court and affirmed their right to represent the country. They adopted the Roman posture of having the right arm oustretched as they swore an oath "to God ad the Patrie never to be separated until we have formed a solid and equitable Constitution as our constituents have asked us to." 359
June 27, 1789 Estate-General   This body is no longer recognized by the King. 366
June 28, 1789 National Assembly   The same group that made the Tennis Court Oath now called themselves the National Assembly and declared themselves the true government of the country, rather than the King and his advisors. They continue to meet at the Palais-Royal in Paris. The King returns to Versaille. The King backs down from the confrontation and the group is recognized by the King to large public demonstrations of singing and dancing. 365
July 12, 1789 Necker   Necker ( by now he was a symbol of the victory of the Third Estate) is dismissed by King Louis XVI. There is a power struggle between the King and his close relatives and the National Assembly. The King mobilizes a number of military regiments but it is not clear how well they may follow orders. 372
July 12, 1789   Palais-Royal A large crowd gathers and voices its opposition to the King. The military is unable to control the crowd who now begin to demand arms to protect themselves from the King's army. This quickly became a struggle for control of Paris between the popular people and the King's authority. "During that single night of largely unobstructed riot and demolition, Paris was lost to the monarchy." 387
July 13, 1789   Paris A citizen's army of local militia is quickly formed.  
July 14, 1789   The Bastille The citizen's army attacks the Bastille in an effort to obtain arms and powder. The local commander surrenders and the mob quickly begins tearing down the building which looks like a small fortress. The destruction of the Bastille immediately became a symbol for the Revolution. 425
July 1789   "The Great Fear" There is widespread rumour, unrest and panic throughout much of France as villagers armed themselves against brigands (small armies said to be formed by the aristocracy to wreak revenge on the Third Estate) or foreign invasions (Austrian troops in the Netherlands, English marines on the north coast, Swedish troops from the northeast, Spanish troops from the south). "The result was a wholesale breakdown in the structure of local command, swiftly followed by the formation of new armed authorities, empowered to contain the unrest. ... The real significance of the Great Fear was the vacuum of authority it exposed at the heart of the French government." 434
      "The effect of this prolonged state of anxiety was to create the politics of paranoia that would eventually engulf the entire Revolution." 436
August 4, 1789 National Assembly   In a spirit of patriotism, the nobility renounces all of its titles and privileges. "Giving something of one's own to the Nation became a demonstration of patriotic probity." 439
August - September, 1789 National Assembly   Efforts were made to draft a "Declaration of the Rights of Man" as well as a new constitution. But there was little common agreement on what this should contain. There was also a strong difference of opinion on the appropriate role of the monarchy in the new France. 442
      "All these issues boiled down to one great question: What is the relationship between violence and legitimacy? It was one that would dog the French Revolution through its entire history as successive regimes fell before their opponents' willingness to sanction punitive violence in the interests of patriotic righteousness." 445
Fall, 1789 Lafayette   "For at least a few months Lafayette was the father-provider of Paris; its judge-arbitrator, the source of police protection and military authority." 451
Fall, 1789 Lafayette   He invented the tricolor cockade as an obligatory badge of patriotic duty 454
Fall, 1789 National Guard   They became the new police/army of the New France. They had to control both royalist conspiracies as well as mob anarchy. 452
October 5-6, 1789 working women of Paris March on Versailles

The women of Paris spontaneously decide to march to Versailles to demand that bread be made available. The National Guard decide to support them and Lafayette joins the march against his own wishes.

The National Guard protects the King and Queen from the mob and they then "escort" the royal family back to Paris.

470
Spring 1790 National Assembly   France is divided into 83 Departments (regional jurisdictions). 477
June 19, 1790 National Assembly   Eradicate all titles of heriditary nobility. This was considered incompatible with the concept of citizenship. Expressly banned were all insignia of social superiority such as coats of arms. 477
July 1790 National Assembly Civil Constitution of the Clergy The clergy had to swear an oath to the country rather than to the pope. 491
1790     There were sharp divisions between those who wanted a populist government and those that wanted a form of constitutional monarchy. 497
July, 1790   Fete de la Federation in Paris A large week long celebration on the first anniversay of the fall of the Bastille. Lafayette administered the oath to the country and the King declared as "King of the French" to "employ all the power delegated to me by the constitution to uphold the decrees of the National Assembly". There was a strong feeling of a fraternal coming together of all Frenchmen, but serious economic problems still persisted. 511
         
1789 - 1799   French Revolution

"The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it."

It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought."

The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'."

6

 

 

40

 

 

 

1789   Storming of the Bastille    
         

7:50 am The table now contains important sections for chapters 11 and 12. Now to read chapters 13 - 15.

 

History 10

November 22

History Chronology

Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama.

12:30 PM I like the general approach that I was taking just over 2 months ago. The idea of identifying key people, key events, key terms are three important dimensions in an understanding of the events. Another category is to try to capture the ethos of the times.

The book is divided into 4 major parts. Here is the overall structure of the book:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

Part Two: Expectations

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

In greater detail:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

1. New Men
2. Blue Horizons, Red Ink
3. Absolutism Attacked
4. The Cultural Construction of a Citizen
5. The Costs of Modernity

Part Two: Expectations

6. Body Politics
7. Suicides
8. Grievances
9. Improvising a Nation
10. Bastille

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

Now to review chapters 9, 10, 11and 12 and make additions to the following table (using a brighter green to indicate the additions).

 

Date
Person
Event
Commentary
Page
1200 -1800   Parlements

"The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130."

They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs."

The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.'

105

 

 

106

1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular  
1715 - 1774 Louis XV  

indecisive and unpopular

his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars

"Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy."

"As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist."

100

 

 

103

1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.

He was very popular.

he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation

"Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..."

100

 

 

 

102

1700 - 1788   system of "privilege"

Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption.

Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received.

"Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility."

"the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy."

115

 

118

1700 - 1788   system of "venality"

Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."

 

68
1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72
1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French  
1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular  
1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152
1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155
1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker

emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution.

the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato)

167
1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131
1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108
1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19    
1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs    
1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.  
1775 Louis XVI Coronation    
1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110
1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213
1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176
1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24
1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe

"... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy"

"No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time."

"More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state."

62
1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle.
Lafayette idolized Washington
24
1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General    
1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA    
1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather    
1779 Lafayette returns to France    
  Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic  
  Talleyrand      
1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General    
1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA  
1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65
1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64
1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General

Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries.

227-237
Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties

The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality.

rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries

243
  Assembly of Notables   "Representation and consent were now required not as the auxiliary to government but as its working condition." 259
1787 Brienne head of government

initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach

"Neither the seriousness of the financial crisis in the late spring of 1787 nor the acknowledged excellence of the government's reforms was enough to disarm what had become insuperable political objections to traditional government procedure."

259
Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264
1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements    
Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles

the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order.

  • it signified the breakdown of royal authority
  • it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot
  • it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups
274
Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble

Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that:

  • identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor
  • the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it
  • they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation
 
Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.  
Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.  
Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris  
Fall 1788     "The opportunity for constitutional reform was lost when the preservation of social distinctions - the orders of the old regime - became stigmatized as unpatriotic." 292
Fall 1788 - Winter 1789   famine, anger The fall of 1788 and the severe winter of 1789 severely damaged crops and led to widespread hunger, unemployment and starvation - leading to widespread anger. 305
Jan 24, 1789 Estate-General   The process for electing the nobility and clergy to the Estates-General was well defined but the procedure for the Third-Estate was complicated and indirect, leading to much confusion and dissatisfaction. 308
Spring 1789 Estate-General   The general population was encouraged to prepare lists of their grievances and these would then form the basis for the discussions of the Estate-General. In part this helped highlight many of the problems and injustices with the present system of govenment as well as creating a set of unrealistic expectations. 316
Spring 1789 Clergy   The church in France at this time was in upheaval between "the claims of the pastoral clergy to embody the true spirit of the primitive evangel - humble, property-less and teaching the Gospel through works of charity and education - " versus "the worldly reality of episcopal big business." 350
1789     The situation was rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly.  
May 4, 1789 Estate-General   Opening march of the members of the Estate-General from Notre Dame to the Church of Saint Louis. But instead of a ceremony that dissolved existing ranks into a form of patriotic duty, it became another extension of existing court ceremony. "The more brilliantly the first two orders [clergy, nobility] swaggered, the more they alienated the Third Estate and provoked it into exploding the institution altogether." 339
May 1789 Estate-General   During the entire month of May the Estate-General was bogged down in endless bickering about procedures of verification of its members. 353
June 4, 1789 the Dauphin   Dies at age 7, having been weak all of his life. (The Dauphin was the heir apparent to King Louis XVI. However there was another younger son to inherit the title.) But this event distracted the King from the business of the Estate-General. 356
  Estate-General   King Louis XVI fails to endorse the plans of the Estate-General and closes the building for renovations for a final ceremonial meeting.  
June 22, 1789 Estate-General Tennis Court Oath The Estate-General meets in a nearby royal tennis court and affirmed their right to represent the country. They adopted the Roman posture of having the right arm oustretched as they swore an oath "to God ad the Patrie never to be separated until we have formed a solid and equitable Constitution as our constituents have asked us to." 359
June 27, 1789 Estate-General   This body is no longer recognized by the King. 366
June 28, 1789 National Assembly   The same group that made the Tennis Court Oath now called themselves the National Assembly and declared themselves the true government of the country, rather than the King and his advisors. They continue to meet at the Palais-Royal in Paris. The King returns to Versaille. The King backs down from the confrontation and the group is recognized by the King to large public demonstrations of singing and dancing. 365
July 12, 1789 Necker   Necker ( by now he was a symbol of the victory of the Third Estate) is dismissed by King Louis XVI. There is a power struggle between the King and his close relatives and the National Assembly. The King mobilizes a number of military regiments but it is not clear how well they may follow orders. 372
July 12, 1789   Palais-Royal A large crowd gathers and voices its opposition to the King. The military is unable to control the crowd who now begin to demand arms to protect themselves from the King's army. This quickly became a struggle for control of Paris between the popular people and the King's authority. "During that single night of largely unobstructed riot and demolition, Paris was lost to the monarchy." 387
July 13, 1789   Paris A citizen's army of local militia is quickly formed.  
July 14, 1789   The Bastille The citizen's army attacks the Bastille in an effort to obtain arms and powder. The local commander surrenders and the mob quickly begins tearing down the building which looks like a small fortress. The destruction of the Bastille immediately became a symbol for the Revolution. 425
         
1789 - 1799   French Revolution

"The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it."

It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought."

The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'."

6

 

 

40

 

 

 

1789   Storming of the Bastille    
         

7:50 am The table now contains important sections for chapters 7 and 8. Now to read chapters 9 & 10.

 

History 09

November 9

History Chronology

Notes for "Citizens" (1989) by Simon Schama.

6:30 am I like the general approach that I was taking just over 2 months ago. The idea of identifying key people, key events, key terms are three important dimensions in an understanding of the events. Another category is to try to capture the ethos of the times.

The book is divided into 4 major parts. Here is the overall structure of the book:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

Part Two: Expectations

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

In greater detail:

Part One: Alterations - The France of Louis XVI

1. New Men
2. Blue Horizons, Red Ink
3. Absolutism Attacked
4. The Cultural Construction of a Citizen
5. The Costs of Modernity

Part Two: Expectations

6. Body Politics
7. Suicides
8. Grievances
9. Improvising a Nation
10. Bastille

Part Three: Choices

Part Four: Virtue and Death

 

My notes include the time line of events described in the first seven chapters. Yesterday I completed reading chapter 8 and began chapter 9. As a result of reading "Marie Antoinette" I have a much better appreciation of the role of royal families in Europe in the 18th century - in particular the Bourbons (French/Spanish) and the Habsburgs (Austrian). The role of inter-marriage among the royal families of European countries was one of the primary ways of establishing political alliances among countries.

Now to review chapters 7 and 8 and make additions to the following table (using a brighter green to indicate the additions).

 

Date
Person
Event
Commentary
Page
1200 -1800   Parlements

"The Parlements were 13 sovereign courts of law, sitting in Paris and provincial centers, each comprising a body of noble judges that, in different Parlements, numbered from 50 to 130."

They handled both criminal and civil cases and acted as censors of theatre and literature and as guardians of social and moral propriety. "they also shared with the King's bureaucrats ... administrative responsibility for provisioning cities, setting prices in times of dearth and policing markets and fairs."

The robins (the judicial nobility of the 'robe') `were intensely self-concious of their collective dignity and jealous of any attempts to encroach on their local authority.'

105

 

 

106

1643 - 1715 Louis XIV "the sun king" very popular  
1715 - 1774 Louis XV  

indecisive and unpopular

his fiscal policies became more aggressive following each of his major wars

"Since the 1750's the tone of Parlementaire resistance to royal policy had been irate vehemence. ... it represented a concerted effort to replace the unconfined absolutism of Louis XIV with a more 'constitutional' monarchy."

"As the disputes with the Parlements over religious and tax policies at the end of his reign became more acrimonious, so the King became more adamantly absolutist."

100

 

 

103

1721 - 1794 Malesherbes In charge of the royal houshold under both Louis XV and Louis XVI.

Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.

He was very popular.

he tried to constrain rather then enforce the authority of absolutism and supported fundamental liberties such as freedom of the press and unfair taxation

"Much of Malesherbes' urging that the King should give public demonstrations of a new candor and public-spiritedness fell on deaf ears, or was defeated by the claims of traditional decorum..."

100

 

 

 

102

1700 - 1788   system of "privilege"

Privilege was defined as various forms of tax exemption.

Under Louis XVI "the crown's own position with regard to privilege was deeply ambiguous" On one hand it wanted to extend its control over the bureaucrats but on the other it wanted to extend the number of privileges because of the money it received.

"Privilege was not a monopoly of the nobility."

"the reasons for promotion were service, talent and merit. ... At the very heart of the French elite, then, was a capitalist nobility of immense significance to the future of the national economy."

115

 

118

1700 - 1788   system of "venality"

Venality was the sale and purchase of office. This was "more deeply and broadly rooted in France than in any other major power in Europe."

 

68
1700 - 1788   taxation there was eloquent hatred among all sections of society of the tax collecting apparatus, particularly the Farmers-General. This was a syndicate of men who paid the Treasury a certain sum in return for the right to "farm" (i.e. collect) certain indirect taxes such as for salt and tobacco. 72
1756 - 1763   Seven Years War European counterpart to the war in America between the English and the French  
1740 - 1780 Denis Diderot writer & playwrite popular  
1760 - 1800 Jean-Baptiste Greuze artist painted French culture with a Romantic sensibility 152
1760 - 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau author political ideas influenced the French Revolution 155
1760's Simon Linguet lawyer, public speaker

emphasized the value of the spoken word over that of the printed word and this became highly prized during the Revolution.

the Revolutionaries emulated the great Roman orators (Cicero, Senaca, Cato)

167
1770 - 1800     "The closing decades of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged." 131
1770     The system of Parlements was abolished. 108
1774 Louis XVI Ascended to the throne at age 19    
1774 Vergennes Appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs    
1774 Turgot Appointed Controller-General Malesherbes and Turgot were 2 of the most powerful men in France.  
1775 Louis XVI Coronation    
1775     The system of Parlements was reinstituted 110
1775 - 1790 Marie Antoinette   she made no concessions to her public role, becoming brazenly outgoing. She gave gifts. offices and money to her favorites and their families 213
1775 - 1800     there was a strong underground press that produced books, pamphlets, daily newspapers about the latest events and ideas 176
1775 - 1783   American War of Independence "For France, without any question, the Revolution began in America." 24
1776 - 1783 Vergennes French foreign policy of supporting the American alliance ... while maintaining a strong army in Europe

"... the costs of Vergennes global strategy policy brought on the terminal crisis of the French monarchy"

"No other European power attempted to support both a major continental army and a transcontinental navy at the same time."

"More than any inequity in a society based on priviledge, or the violent cycles of famine that visited France in the 1780's, the Revolution was occasioned by these decisions of state."

62
1777 Lafayette Valley Forge USA Lafayette was with Washington at this battle.
Lafayette idolized Washington
24
1777 Jacques Necker promoted to Director-General    
1778   France enters into treaty relations with the USA    
1779   French plans to invade England thwarted by bad weather    
1779 Lafayette returns to France    
  Benjamin Franklin   promoted the patriot cause on both sides of the Atlantic  
  Talleyrand      
1781 Jacques Necker resigns as Director-General    
1783   Treaty of Paris Great Britain recognizes the USA  
1783 Vergennes cash-flow crisis "So in absolute terms, even after the immense fiscal havoc wrought by the American war, there are few grounds for seeing the scale of the French deficit as necessarily leading to catastrophe. But it was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality, that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic. The determining elements in the money crisis of the French state, then, were all political and psychological, not institutional or fiscal." 65
1783 - 1788   debt although the French debt was comparable to the British debt, the French deficit was viewed as "royal" while the British was considered "national" 64
1784 -1786 Calonne Controller-General

Calonne assumed that his policies would be imposed on the people rather than proposed to them (as did Necker). He also revelled in appearances and costly luxuries.

227-237
Feb 27, 1787 Assembly of Notables Calonne convenes the Assembly to publicly consider measures to resolve France's financial difficulties

The notables began to display their independence and failed to follow Calonne's or Louis XVI's ideas, often going beyond them to more extreme measures of equality.

rather than being the tail-end of the ancien regime, they were more like the first revolutionaries

243
  Assembly of Notables   "Representation and consent were now required not as the auxiliary to government but as its working condition." 259
1787 Brienne head of government

initiated a number of reforms but antogonized the public with his approach

"Neither the seriousness of the financial crisis in the late spring of 1787 nor the acknowledged excellence of the government's reforms was enough to disarm what had become insuperable political objections to traditional government procedure."

259
Nov 19, 1787 Paris Parlement block the government's program The Parlement was supported by loud and public support 264
1787 Brienne disbands the Parlements    
Jun 7, 1788 Grenoble The Day of Tiles

the first urban insurrection. The citizens threw tiles down on the soldiers who had been called out to maintain order.

  • it signified the breakdown of royal authority
  • it warned the elite beneficiaries of the disorder of the unpredictable consequences of encouraging a riot
  • it delivered the initiative for further political action into the hands of younger, more radical, groups
274
Jun 14, 1788 Mounier Grenoble

Mounier begins to organize opinion more systematically. The assembly prepared a list of statements that:

  • identified anyone who opposed them as a traitor
  • the new political order should pay attention to the material grievancences of the people who had empowered it
  • they appealed to the entire region to meet and prepare for their new representation
 
Jul 21, 1788 Mounier Grenoble Meeting of the second assembly. Adopt the principle that goverments were founded to protect individual liberties, a new "American" concept.  
Aug 8, 1788 Louis XVI Announces that the Estates-General would meet on May 1, 1789 This was a reversal of his earlier position where he had disbanded the Parlements and the local Estates. This encouraged the revolutionaries.  
Aug 25, 1788 Brienne the government resigns large celebrations in Paris  
Fall 1788     "The opportunity for constitutional reform was lost when the preservation of social distinctions - the orders of the old regime - became stigmatized as unpatriotic." 292
Fall 1788 - Winter 1789   famine, anger The fall of 1788 and the severe winter of 1789 severely damaged crops and led to widespread hunger, unemployment and starvation - leading to widespread anger. 305
Jan 24, 1789 Estate-General   The process for electing the nobility and clergy to the Estates-General was well defined but the procedure for the Third-Estate was complicated and indirect, leading to much confusion and dissatisfaction. 308
Spring 1789 Estate-General   The general population was encouraged to prepare lists of their grievances and these would then form the basis for the discussions of the Estate-General. In part this helped highlight many of the problems and injustices with the present system of govenment as well as creating a set of unrealistic expectations. 316
1789     The situation was rapidly escalating and getting out of hand. Louis XVI indecisiveness and reversing of decisions helped fuel the situation as there was a strong sense of a lack of leadership and control. At the same time the new patriotic fervour was growing quickly.  
1789 - 1799   French Revolution

"The causes of the French Revolution were located deep within the structure of the society that preceded it."

It is at the top, rather than in any imaginary middle of French society, that the cultured roots of the revolution should be sought."

The revolution did not create French patriotism, rather it gave the patriotism an opportunity to define itself in terms of 'liberty'."

6

 

 

40

 

 

 

1789   Storming of the Bastille    
         

7:50 am The table now contains important sections for chapters 7 and 8. Now to read chapters 9 & 10.

 

 

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