French revolution

French Revolution AOS 1 Revs Revision Notes — Part I AOS 1 — French Revolution Index: 1. PRE REVOLUTION FRANCE a. France in the 18th Century b. Power and Limitations of the King c. Privilege and its Spread d. Frances Taxes (How and What) e. The Estates 2. IDEAS, INPUTS AND CAUSES f. Very Short List of Causes of the Revolution g. Shift to Sensibility h. American Revolution Input i. The Liberal Economic Theory (Physiocracy) j. The Philosophes 3. FINANCIAL CRISIS AND MANAGEMENT k. Frances Financial Crisis l. Frances Finance Ministers (Comptroller-General) m. Compte Rendu n. Parlements and Their Role o. Assembly of Notables and Their Role 4. EVENTS PRECEEDING AND DURING EXILE AND RECALL OF PARLEMENTS p. Ségur Ordinance q. Diamond Necklace Affair r. Eden Treaty s. Calling of the Assembly of Notables t. The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787) u. Last Chance with the Notables v. Notables Dissolved w. Attempts to Pass Reforms at the Parlements x. Exile and Recall of the Parlements y. Society of Thirty 5. EVENTS PRECEEDING CALL OF ESTATES GENERAL z. The Reduction of Parlement’s Rights {. The Day of Tiles (Grenoble) |. The Famine of 1788 }. The Calling of the Estates-General 6. ESTATES-GENERAL ~. Issues Before 5th May . Abbé Sieyès: Qu’est-ce que le tiers état? . The Réveillon Riot . The Composition of the Estates-General . Cahiers De Doléances . Convening of the Estates-General 7. THE FORMING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY . Credentials and Commons . Tennis Court Oath . Séance Royale 8. BASTILLE . Preceding Bastille . Storming of the Bastille 9. AUGUST DECREES . August Decrees 10. ETCETERA . Important Dates . Important People . Historians Views . Books used/read / Bibliography . Afterword : PRE REVOLUTION FRANCE THE BACKGROUND France in the 18th Century: * 26, 000, 000 people, about 21, 000, 000 lived by farming * Over ¼ of the land was for peasants but it still wasn’t enough to support them * Lack of technology for agriculture * Many were unable to farm themselves and instead worked or hired farming gear * Clergy made up less than 100, 000 people but owned 1/10 of the land * Majority of priests were NOT rich, only bishops and the organization itself * Nobles made up 400, 000 and owned 1/5 of the land * Literacy rates were nearing 50% (many revolutions happened when the literacy rate was at 50%) ‘ 18th Century France was a land of mass poverty in which most people were vulnerable to harvest failures’ — Mcphee ‘ 18th Century France was a society of corporations, to which privilege was integral to social hierarchy, wealth and identity’ – McPhee Power and Limitations of the King: * King was answerable to no one but God * However the King had to consult his ministers to make laws (considerable power with the ministers) * Intendants acted as mini-kings to their provinces (34 areas in France) * The King had no power over some organizations, like the Assembly of Clergy who had rights and privileges granted by law To most contemporaries the monarchy of Louis XVI appeared the most stable and powerful of the regimes. While protest was endemic — this was almost always within the system, that is, against threats to idealized ways in which the system was believed to have once worked.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ The King bore the fiscal responsibility for everything the state did — or did not do.’ — William Doyle Privilege and its Spread: * ¼ of the entire French nobility were ennobled during the 18th Century * Rich nobles dipped their hands into business (line blurred between bourgeois and nobility) * About 70, 000 offices that could be bought, sold and inherited * Official theatres for nobles gave way to popular theatres etc. ‘ The closing decade of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Prominent contributions of nobles to capitalist ventures and the strong presence of bourgeois on land show that from the point of view of economic function, the two groups were a single class.’ — Donald Sutherland Frances Taxes (How and What): * Citizens disliked Finance Contractors who were labeled as ‘ blood suckers fattening themselves off the substance of people’ Farmers General: * Contracted by the Crown to ‘ farm’ indirect taxes every Six Years in return for a fixed sum to the Treasury * Gave 1/3 of all revenues * Largest employer in France after the army * Had the right to search, enter and seize property or household deemed suspicious * Had a monopoly over goods such as salt and tobacco, they bought goods at a fixed price and distributed and sold them with tax Taxes in France: * Taille — Land tax — Direct — Third Estate * Vingtieme — 5% on income — Direct — Everyone * Capitation — Poll Tax — Direct — Everyone * Gabelle — Salt Tax — Indirect — Everyone * Aides — Food and Drink Tax — Indirect — Everyone * Octrois — Customs Tax — Indirect — Everyone * Corvée — compulsory labour service * Tithes — Fee paid to Churches yearly by landowners ‘ By 1788 the government had no alternative but to abandon fiscal fine-tuning and turn instead to drastic political solutions for its problems. These solutions turned out to be revolutionary.’ — Simon Schama The Estates: First Estate: Disliked because: * Plurality and Absenteeism * Tithes * Tax exemption * Power over people (wealth and resentment of change) Provided: * Education/aid * Mass/marriage/deaths/divorce * Don gratuit to the government (free gift) in return for a monopoly over public worship, education and relief ‘ Throughout rural France, the parish clergy were at the hearts of the community.’ — Peter McPhee Second Estate: * 4000 court nobility -> noblesse de robe (legal and admin nobles -> rest lived in various ranges of prosperity * However, for every noble factory owner there were TEN who ‘ vegetated on their country estates in a condition of genteel shabbiness’ * Few privileges common and many varied in their impact ‘ The entrenched hostility of most nobles towards fiscal and social reform was generated by two long term factors: first, the long term pressures of royal state-making which reduced the nobility’s autonomy; and secondly, by the challenge from a wealthier, larger and more critical bourgeoisie and an openly dissatisfied peasantry towards aristocratic conceptions of property, hierarchy and social order.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ The Old Regime aristocracy was comparatively young and in a constant state of renewal.’ — Donald Sutherland Privileges: * Special courts * Except from military * Exempt from gabelle * Exempt from corvée * Received signeurial dues * Exclusive rights to hunt and fish * Held monopoly to operate mills, ovens etc. The nobility has become colonized by what modern historians think of as ‘ bourgeois’ values: money, public service and talent.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Like the First Estate, the nobility was characterized by great internal diversity.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ What all the nobles had in common, was a vested interest in a highly complex system of status and hierarchy which came material privilege and preferment.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ Nobles were richer and relatively more privileged.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ the ‘ révolte nobiliaire’ is presented as a prelude or curtain raiser… not only did it pave the way directly for the triumph of the Third Estate but by drawing the urban masses into activity, it ended the period of social peace.’ — George Rudé ‘ Nobility was a club which every wealthy man felt entitled, indeed obliged, to join. Not all nobles were rich, but sooner or later, all the rich ended up noble.’ — William Doyle Third Estate: Bourgeoisie: * Mainly those who live in town and made a living through intellectual of business skills * 2. 7 million * Felt that their power and wealth should be reflected in political system * Used by Marxist historians as the beneficiaries of the revolution ‘ There was no Parisian bourgeoisie in the eighteenth century.’ — David Garrioch Urban Workers: * Small property owners * Artisans in Paris were known as sans-culottes Peasantry: * 85% of population * Top end were farmers who owned copious amounts of land and employed workers * ½ were share-croppers who owned no land but farmed by renting it * ¼ were landless laborers * Taxes took between 5-10% of their income * Penniless comprised about 40% of the population ‘ The typical rural community then, was a hierarchy, not an unrelieved lump of destitute cultivators.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ The poor played almost no role in the national politics in 1789 or after. Fear of them was one of the complex elements in the Great Fear and the peasant revolts of the summer of 1789.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ This basic identity of interest [food] was to prove one of the most solid of the links that bound together the social groups forming the sans-culottes of the Revolution.’ — George Rudé It was the rural population above all which underwrote the costs of the three pillars of authority and privilege in France: the Church, the Nobility and the Monarchy.’ — Peter McPhee ‘[The bourgeoisie] was a rising class, with a belief in progress, the bourgeoisie saw itself as representing the interest of all and carrying the burdens of the nation as a whole… they were thwarted by the aristocratic spirit that pervaded laws and institutions.’ — Albert Soboul : IDEAS, INPUTS AND CAUSES Very Short List of Causes of the Revolution: Long term: * Poor governing (especially taxes) * Deeply divided structure of France * Spread of ideas to challenge authority Short term: * Foreign policy * Financial crisis * Economic crisis Four ways that pushed France from evolution into revolution: * Groups within aristocracy determined to abandon role for the citizen-leader * Crowds brought into the streets to stop royal absolutism would not go back * Government let open the issue of the composition of Estates General * King expressed wish that his people register grievances at the same time they elected their representatives connected social distress with political change ‘ The disintegration of the old order occurred not when the outsides exasperated with their exclusion from privilege determined to destroy it by force. It came instead from insiders, enamored by D’Argenson’s vision of aristocrats-become-citizens, pulling down the walls of their own temple and proclaiming the advert of democratic monarchy in its debris.’ — Simon Schama ‘ By the 1780’s however, the series of long term changes in French society was undermining some of the fundamental bases of authority and challenging a social order based on privilege and corporations. Deep-seated financial difficulties would further test the capacity for elites to respond to the imperatives of the change. An abrupt political crisis would then bring these tensions and problems to a surface.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ By that time [14th July 1789] the old order was already in ruins, beyond reconstruction. This was the result of a chain of events that can be traced as far back as 20 August 1786 [when Calonne told Louis that finances were insolvent].’ — William Doyle ‘ One of the many crises of the Old Regime was a crisis of social mobility [bourgeois moving up in social distinctions].’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ The revolution was made in men’s minds before it became reality.’ — Alexis de Tocqueville ‘ The constitutional crisis coincided with economic calamity.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ Though, in their outcome, these events left the outward appearance of Paris singularly untouched, they drastically disturbed the lives and properties of its citizens.’ — George Rudé ‘ The cause of conflict had its roots deep in the old regime… capital investment and expansions of manufacture [bourgeois] were everywhere impeded by restrictions imposed by privileged corporations.’ — George Rudé Shift to Sensibility: * “ Roman Patriotism’ brought forth by lawyers who became orators, often quoting Romans such as Cicero * ‘ Heart was to be preferred to head’, emotion to reason; nature to culture; spontaneity to calculation; simplicity to orate; innocence to experience; soul to intellect * ‘ Virtuous statesmen before the clever politician’ — Mercier in 1787 * Rousseau’s Social Contract gave familiarity to formal works of political theory and with which virtue and freedom could be sustained American Revolution Input: * Introduced ‘ liberty’, ‘ patriotism’, ‘ the nation’ and ‘ citizen’ * Influenced by Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and other French plays, articles and books * Widened gap between things natural (Humanity; Freedom; Patriotism) and those things artificial (Privilege; Despotism; the court) * Emptied Frances coffers ‘ On their own they could no conceivably have constituted any kind of independent ‘ revolutionary’ opposition to the crown. Once the money crisis of the monarchy was transformed into a political argument, the vocabulary of ‘ liberty’ was apt to take on a life of its own’ — Simon Schama The Liberal Economic Theory (Physiocracy): * Corporatism, regulations and protection was stifling the productivity and enterprise in France and should be abolished (laissez-faire) * Indirect taxes and property levies should be swept away and replaced by a SINGLE property tax * Agricultural sector was the only source of financial income for France * The end product would be the urban + rural sectors co-existing in ‘ charmed reciprocity’ The Philosophes: Voltaire: * Argued that the Church was corrupt and guilty of oppression and intolerance * Believed no ecclesiastical law should be legal without government approval * All ecclesiastics subject to the government * Magistrates, laborers and priests should be paid equally * Citizens should believe in reason and respect his country Montesquieu: * Believed in a constitutional monarchy * End of absolutism, NOT monarchy * Three types of government: republic, monarchial and despotic * Despotic states can only grow corrupt as it is in their nature * Republics must avoid inequality and excess equality * Democracies and aristocracies are like water, growing corrupt when unmoved * Monarchial governments must have power split into the LEGISLATIVE, MAGISTRACY and the EXECUTIVE Rousseau: * Believed in liberty, equality and democracy * All men are born equal * A law not ratified by the people is no law at all * General Will * System of laws, PROPERTY OWNERSHIP in civilized society lead to corruption and then to debasement and misery * Social Contract (General will) could be broken if ‘ all citizens assembled and wished to break it’ Encyclopedie edited by Diderot and many other philosophes, distributed among France illegally. Interpretation: * They DID NOT cause the revolution, they were but a voice expressing reform * They provided a vocabulary of dissent * The ‘ citizen-nobles’ who fought in the War of Independence brought back with them the ‘ Spirit of America’ and these ideas made them the ‘ first revolutionaries’ in the struggle to limit the absolute powers of Louis XVI – Schama ‘ It undermined the ideological foundations of the established order and strengthened the bourgeoisie’s consciousness of itself as class’ — Soboul ‘ Every century has its own characteristic spirit. The spirit of ours seems to be liberty.’ — Diderot ‘ The Enlightenment does appear as a class based ideology’ — Peter McPhee ‘ The Enlightenment was not simply a self-conscious cultural movement: it was lived out subconsciously.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ They advocated a change in outlook, a way of looking at the world less dependant on religion and tradition… It was only when the established order had collapsed… that the attitudes propagated by the Enlightenment were to lead Frenchmen into revolutionary directions.’ — William Doyle ‘ No one thinks of dirty books [ie. Pornography of Antoinette etc.] as coded manifestos of the future or imagines how they could be linked to the Declaration of the Rights of Man,’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ Became a huge archive of ideas about what to do once the Old Regime collapsed.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ The ideas of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau and many others were widely disseminated and were absorbed by an eager reading public, both aristocratic and plebian.’ — George Rudé ‘…undermined the ideological foundations of the established order and strengthened the bourgeoisie’s consciousness of itself as a class.’ — Albert Soboul : FINANCIAL CRISIS AND MANAGEMENT Frances Financial Crisis: * By 1789, France had a debt of more than 1. 3 Billion livres excluding interest * 91% of Frances money came from loans * Misleading to see privileged classes en block removed altogether from the revenue base of the sate — the nobles were subject to capitation and vingtieme * Registered triple vingtiéme in 1782, loan of 125 million in 1784 and another loan of 80 million in 1785 ‘ It was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic’ — Simon Schama ‘ It was the policies of the old regime rather than its operational structure that brought it close to bankruptcy and political disaster.’ — Simon Schama ‘ At the root of its problems was a cest of armaments when coupled with political resistance to new taxes and a growing willingness to accept high interest tearing obligations…’ — Simon Schama ‘ As the prices rose during the years of shortage, so did the tension between urban populations dependent on cheap and plentiful bread and the poorer sections of the rural community.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ The French state lacked rational organization and uniform principles, and it was not enough to attempt to solve financial problems.’ — William Doyle Frances Finance Ministers (Comptroller-General): Jacques Necker — Director-General of the finances (he was a Protestant) * Compte Rendu * Loved by the nation * Advocated loans to finance French involvement in the American Revolution Charles Alexandre de Calonne — * Proposed new land tax in proportion to the land owned and no social rank * Submitted financial reforms to Assembly of Notables * Lost popularity as his reforms halted in the Notables and he was found to have profited from a land proposal he gave to the King de Brienne — Archbishop of Toulouse — * Originally in the Notables, attacked Calonne’s fiscal policies * Succeeded in persuading the parlement to register edicts regarding internal free trade, the establishment of provincial assemblies and the redemption of the corvée * Upon realizing France’s financial situation, he proposed a new land tax (similar to Calonne’s) and a new stamp duty, both rejected by Parlements * Persuaded King to exile Parlement * Recalled Parlements to accept edict for raising loans (120 million) and was rejected * Suggests for Estates-General to be called after the Parlement’s resistance Compte Rendu: February 1781 — Necker publishes Compte Rendu What? * Report that stated Frances 10 million livre surplus (did not account for the fact that Necker had already raised 520 million livres worth of loans) * To boost confidence among lenders and ordinary people Effect? * Boosted Necker’s reputation * Created a feeling amongst the people of France that once Necker left office, France’s financial situation hit rock bottom very fast * People wanted Necker back to save France * His popularity would cause outrage when he was sacked on 11th June 1789 Parlements and Their Role: * 13 sovereign courts of law in Paris and provincial cities (Paris was the most important with the ability of administration and with jurisdiction spanning over 1/3 of France) * NO edicts could be made Laws without their consent, although a lit de justice could be help to force it * Believed that they were an intermediate body between King and people * Believed that they could not be brought down without bringing down the Constitution of France (there wasn’t one, ok?) Assembly of Notables and Their Role: * Included royal princes, peers, archbishops, important judges and major town officials * Served as a consultative body only * Became known as the ‘ first revolutionaries’ as they refused to register edicts and demanded the Estates-General to convene * Assisted the Parlement in creating provincial assemblies, the reestablishment of free trade in grain, the conversion of the public works corvée into a cash payment, and the short-term loans : EVENTS PRECEEDING AND DURING EXILE AND RECALL OF PARLEMENTS Ségur Ordinance: 22nd May 1781 * Ordinance stating that any officer above sublieutenant needed to prove he came from a family having four degrees (generations) of nobility * Was aimed to professionalize the army to prevent any nobles who had recently amassed a fortune in commerce or finance * Was taken by the bourgeois as an attempt to restrict that social distinctions even further Diamond Necklace Affair: 1785 What happened? * Long story short, a man by the name of Cardinal de Rohan is tricked by a con artist (de Valois) and buys for the Queen an expensive diamond necklace * However, the Queen never wanted it and thus this issue of a 2 million livre necklace came to surface Effect? * The real victim was Marie Antoinette * Many people thought that the Queen had used de Valois to satisfy her hatred against Rohan and labeled her as a spendthrift and a vindictive slut * Louis XVI had used much of his influence to get Rohan convicted, except he was acquitted — which showed that few paid attention to him * Led to renewed convictions of the Queen ‘[These accusations] represented the king as a passive victim of sexually powerful, not to say, domineering women. France itself had been debauched.’ — Donald Sutherland Eden Treaty: * Signed in 1786 * Anglo-French treaty to reducing import tariffs on British products in France * Greatly weakened the textile industry (lead to unemployment, vagrancy and begging eg. 20, 000 sacked in Lyons by 1789) * Partly contributed to unemployment and rise of bread prices during 1789 Calling of the Assembly of Notables: 20th August 1786 — Calonne informs Louis XVI that royal finances were insolvent. * ‘ enough money for the government to function one afternoon’ – Schama 22nd February 1787 — Assembly of Notables Convene, last called in 1626 * Calonne’s answer to the crisis: * Fiscal Justice — New land tax on all subjects * Political consultation — Local assemblies elected in administration of the tax * Economic Liberty — corvée replaced by money tax and single stamp duty * Met with some approval but still heavily debated * Notables as ‘ first revolutionaries’ * Calonne rapidly loses popularity as the opposition of the Notables halt his reforms ‘ It was not because Calonne had shocked the Notables with his announcement of a new fiscal and political world; it was either because he had not gone far enough or because they disliked the operational methods build into the program’ — Simon Schama ‘ They concluded that the disorder in the finances was the result of incompetent government; they asked for independent safeguards against further incompetence. They were offered none.’ — William Doyle ‘ By opposing a single and proportional tax, they were protecting their own interests and at the same time gratifying public opinion’ — François Furet ‘ Calonne became the personification of the deficit and a wasteful financial system.’ François Furet ‘ After criticizing the planned tax, demanded a statement of the Treasury’s accounts. The resulting paralysis of the monarchy as a result of the quarrel between the King and then nobility led to revolution.’ — Albert Soboul ‘… intent on doing away with much of the old structure of France to being about a more liberal and economic regime.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Politically, [the aristocratic reaction] referred to the undermining of the absolutism of Louis XVI.’ The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787, September): What was it? * Dutch revolutionary patriots had captured Princess Wilhelm and Prussia had declared war on her * The people of France believed that they must aid the Dutch in their path to ‘ Freedom’ * Except, France was too poor to intervene and so they bluffed that they had an encampment of 30, 000 soldiers at the southern border of the Dutch * It was found out to be a sham Effects: * Traditional absolutism was ‘ dead’, the King couldn’t even pass his decrees to enable France to recover its financial status and aid its allies Options to save France: * Reform from above * Abdicate * Louis XVI did neither and instead tried to use coercion ‘ What the Dutch Crisis had done was expose the loss of credibility of France power in the most brutally naked way’ — Simon Schama ‘ France had been reduced by her own internal crisis to an international cipher.’ — William Doyle Last Chance with the Notables (Brienne): 8th April 1787 — Calonne dismissed 30th April 1787 — de Brienne becomes new Comptroller General Reforms already made: * Recognized Protestants * Provincial assemblies composed of Three Orders to move beside intendants and gradually replace them (about twenty began to operate by the end of the year) New reforms included: * Instead of proportionate tax, a specific amount of money was determined by revenues each year * Tax extended to all sections of the population, not just those the corvéable * Notables were allowed to see government books, highlighting the deficit Except the problems were: * Emancipation of Protestants had created civil unrest in pious areas * Provincial assemblies that had been introduced during 1787-8 had become stigmatized as ‘ playthings’ of the government Result: * Although agreeing to the reforms, the Notables now believed that the Estates General was the ONLY body with the jurisdiction to pass them * In demanding more economies in government expenditure it convinced the public that the source of the financial problem was tax privilege and this created the illusion that eliminating tax privilege would lower the liability for the non-privileged, this was not so * It proved that Montesquieu’s theory was correct, the Notables defended the nation against rampant fiscality ‘ The French King’s government could not command the confidence of its most eminent subjects.’ — William Doyle ‘ Thus a revolution had occurred before the Revolution, effected by the monarch which, by renouncing its nature, was making way for society [on topic of the new assemblies]’ — François Furet Notables dissolved: 25th May 1787 — Notables dissolved Options: * Convene Estates General * Prevail over opposition in Parlements through incentives and threats ‘ To survive the French monarchy needed both determined reform and artful politics. From the government of de Brienne, it got a full measure of the former and absolutely none of the latter.’ — Simon Schama Attempts to Pass Reforms at the Parlements: The Parlement was mixed between two main groups: D’Eprémesnil’s Group (high rank magistrates): * Believed in a constitutional reconstruction with the Estates General responsible for creating new laws Adrian Duport’s group (barristers, trial lawyers etc.): * Believed in a new sovereignty to be embodied in a national representation 2nd June 1787: Parlement rejects stamp duty (and then new land tax two weeks later) 6th August 1787: ‘ Lit de justice’ held in Parlement. King disregards the debate and thanks the deputies for accepting the principles accepted by the Notables and orders the laws to be registered, citing ‘ Le roi le veult’. 7th August 1787: D’Eprémesnil declares the enforcement of the edicts illegal 10th August 1787: Calonne is attacked by the Parlements with criminal proceedings, labeled as the fanatic-head of infamy and corruption. First time the prosecution of an individual was worked against a sitting administration. ‘ The Parlements had the responsibility to guard the ‘ fundamental laws’ of France against ministerial designs on the ‘ liberties of the people’. — Simon Schama ‘ 1788 saw the culmination of the old struggle which had begun after Louis XIV’s death, absolutist administration and parlementaire resistance.’ — François Furet ‘ Thought of it [Estates General] as augmenting their constitutional powers and consequently protecting their privileges.’ — Donald Sutherland Exile and Recall of the Parlements: 15th August 1787 — Parlements exiled to Troyes and closure of all political clubs in Paris * Provincial Assemblies take over the role of intendants to undermine claims of the Parlements to represent the people 15th September 1787 — Brienne makes a compromise with the Parlements, rescinding the land tax and stamp duty and opting for a new vingtieme tax over 5 years, where at the end, the Estates-General would be called (1792). Parlements recalled. 19th November 1787 — Séance Royale held to register new loans becomes a lit de justice when the King calls off the voting and orders the edicts to be registered. The Duc D’Orleans objects, calling it illegal before Louis replies, “ Oh well, I don’t care, you’re the master of course. ” ‘ The effect of this peculiar performance [that of Orleans] could not have been more damaging; despotism that failed to have the courage of its convictions.’ — Simon Schama ‘ No reply could have bee more catastrophic… the King’s words turned what seemed destined to be a Government triumph into a disaster.’ —William Doyle Society of Thirty: * Of the 55 members, fifty were nobles * Formed after political clubs were banned * Believed that there was not a fundamental constitution * Only fundamental law was the welfare of the people * Believed France should have a constitution * Wanted double representation for the Third Estate as the state and the people were one and the same * Believed that cahiers meant change * Concepts of enlightenment (General Will) ‘ It was men like the members of the Society of Thirty whom the philosophes influenced most.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘… courtiers against the court, aristocrats against privilege, officers who wanted to replace dynastic with national patriotism.’ — Simon Schama : EVENTS PRECEEDING CALL OF ESTATES GENERAL The Reduction of Parlement’s Rights: 5th May 1788 — Two leading parlementaires are arrested, D’Eprémesnil and de Goislard 8th May 1788 — May Edicts – Parlements are deprived of their right to oppose the King’s will * Minor courts given status of ‘ grands baillages’ and given right to deal in majority of cases while the Parlements were restricted to noble and civil cases over 20, 000 livres * Parlements are stripped of the right to register edicts before they become enforceable. Right transferred to one central ‘ plenary court’ appointed by the government Effects: * Loss of monopoly over justice in neighboring towns (as they fought for the new minor courts) * Pamphlet campaign against Lamoignon and Brienne * Riots appeared demanding the reinstatement of Parlements * Parlements had become the tribunes of the people ‘ The sheer volume and audacity of the anti-government polemics guaranteed that whatever concessions to the ‘ public good’ were embodied in Lamoignon’s reforms would be preempted by their political repercussions.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Lamoignon’s coup was a classic case of over-reach.’ — Donald Sutherland The Day of Tiles (Grenoble): Prior to 7 June 1788, a large meeting at Grenoble decided to call together the old Estates of the province of Dauphiné. Troops are called to put down the movement. 7th June 1788 — Crowds converge to stop the troops from dispersing the parlementaires and hurl roof-tiles at the soldiers below them. Commander of the troops allows the meeting of Estates to converge at Vizille. Effects: * Breakdown of royal authority and helplessness of military force in face of urban disorder * Warned beneficiaries of disorder that a price had to be paid for their encouragement * Delivered initiative for further political action 21st July 1788 — Assembly of Vizille convene and later issue its demands to the King, he accepts them on 2nd August 1788. Demands included: * the convocation of the Estates-General of France * pledged the province to refuse to pay all taxes not voted by the States-General * abolition of letters de cachet ‘ A national will was taking shape, behind anti-absolutist unanimity.’ — François Furet The Famine of 1788: 15th July 1788 — Hailstorms bursts over central France followed by drought. Death follows in 1789 due to expensive supplies and lack of supplies due to frozen waters. * Many became homeless as they were consumers, not producers * Four pound loaf because 12-15 sous (14. 5 sous was the legal maximum) * People believed that a new political institution could provide sustenance where old ones could not * However, people still believed that their King-Father had been nice enough to give them an opportunity to voice their opinions and expected reforms — people were still not discontented enough to revolt ‘ It was the connection of anger and hunger that made the revolution possible. But it also programmed the revolution to explode from overinflated expectations.’ — Simon Schama The Calling of the Estates-General: 8th August 1788 – Brienne sets May 1, 1789 as the date for the Estates-General in an attempt to restore confidence with his creditors. 16th August 1788 — All repayments on government loans stop, France is bankrupt 25th August 1788 — Brienne resigns and Necker takes over his position as Director-General of Finances ‘ In September 1787, France had abandoned a foreign policy until she could afford one. In August 1788, she was abandoning a financial policy until she could agree on one.’ — Simon Schama ‘ The calling of the Estates-General facilitated the expression of tensions at every level of French society, and revealed social divisions which challenged the idea of a society of orders.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ In August 1788, the old monarchy collapsed. It was not overthrown by the opposition to its policies, much less by revolutionaries dedicated to its destruction. It fell because of its inner contradictions.’ — William Doyle ‘ So the Estates-General came about through the nobles’ grand plan to regain control of the state.’ — François Furet ‘ Absolutism had collapsed.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘… not to reinforce the powers of the Parlements but to revive the Estates-General.’ — Donald Sutherland : ESTATES-GENERAL Issues Before 5th May: 5th September 1787 — Parlement of Paris suggests that the Estates-General should be convened like that of 1614 — start of the revolt of Bourgeoisie according to Marxists * Calls by Duport to double representation in the Third Estate and for voting by Head * Duport rejected a ‘ fundamental constitution’ that the Parlements had to conserve and urged a new one be made by the Estates General 6th November 1788 — Necker convenes second Assembly of Notables to discuss Estates-General 5th December 1788 — Parlements acknowledge that there is no constitutional precedent for the Estates General to follow but ‘ reason, liberty and the General wish’ 12th December 1788 — Second Assembly dissolved as it refuses to consider doubling of Third Estate 27th December 1788 —Necker announces that representation of the Third would be doubled 24th January 1789 – Estates-General is convoked for the first time (not the same as ‘ meeting of Estates-General’) and in the bill regarding the Estates-General on the same day, watertight separation of orders and the Estates-General as an ‘ advisory body’ only are emphasized — back to tradition even though the Monarchy already moved a step forward by allowing double representation … served only to highlight the crucial issue of political power, because he [Louis] remained silent on how voting would occur.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ At the end of 1788, it [the Third] put forward the quintessential revolutionary idea: going beyond liberal unanimity, it demanded equality.’ — François Furet ‘ Through the intermediary of its minister, the monarchy itself set reason and justice against tradition. [making double representation]’ — François Furet ‘ The royal government was on the other hand reinforcing its aristocratic character, falling back on its own tradition.’ — François Furet ‘ Without which, there would have been no revolution of 1789.’ — George Rudé ‘ The bourgeoisie, the leading element of the Third Estate, now took over. Its aim was revolutionary… Before long, however, it was carried forward by the pressure of the masses, the real motive force behind the revolution.’ — Albert Soboul Abbé Sieyès: Qu’est-ce que le tiers état?: January 1789 What Is The Third Estate? Everything. What Has It Been Heretofore In The Political Order? Nothing. What Does It Want To Be? Something. What is it, what else can it be, this privilege, if not the ultimate corruption of the concept of law, since it forms categories of individuals who are strangers to what makes the community? It was nothing, yet it was everything… Arguments on why the Third was the MOST important: * Produced food for the population * Processed and manufactured * Were dealers and merchants * From scientific and liberal professions to domestic services — the privileged relied on the Third Estate to do all the work * Basically, society could thrive without the presence of these privileged orders Desires and requests: * Political representation (vote by head) * End of privilege (established the aristocracy as an alien body acting outside of the general will) * Government responsibility to the people through regular meetings of Estates General * Personal liberties * Form a National Assembly if it is in a manner beneficial to the nations * Make a constitution Sieyès addressed the issues that caused the dissatisfaction among the Estates-General and by doing so, created an inspirational voice that rallied the Third Estate to form as a political force. He was able to logically define society without the privileged and thus changed centuries of common principles and beliefs upside down. Sieyès pamphlet was distributed in their droves and was one of the prime influences of the actions taken by the Third Estate against the feudalistic traditions of the Ancien Régime. Main idea: excludes the nobility. ‘ Sieyès issued a ringing declaration of commoner capacity.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ Qu’est-ce que le Tiers Etat? Offers us the French Revolution’s biggest secret, which will form its deepest motivating force — hatred of the nobility.’ — François Furet The Réveillon Riot: 28th April 1789 — Hundreds march the streets of Paris to bring down Réveillon and Henriot’s factory * Réveillon was rumoured to be lowering the wages of his workers (actually he was asking bread prices to be lowered so that people could afford it) * The workers, outraged, and concerned with food shortages, high unemployment and low wages took violent action against Réveillon * Réveillon’s factory was successfully guarded on the first day by the French Guard, so the crowd went to destroy Henriot’s factory where the same threat of lowering workers’ wages were made * Réveillon’s factory and manor were destroyed * Insurrectionary movement of wage-earners Effects: * It was when the sans-culottes entered struggle against the government but were not yet allies with the bourgeoisie (Rudé) * Unmistakeable sign of things to come (save the obedience of the troops) Two forms of revolutionary temper were apparent: * A constitution through the Assemblies and political means * Arm the citizens and banish the aristocrats The Composition of the Estates-General: * Turnout for voting of only about 25-30% in populated areas like Paris First Estate: * Only 51 of the 291 deputies were bishops and the rest were priests * The most influenced by the Third Estate Second Estate: * Majority were old noble families in the provinces, thus poor and conservative * Although about ¼ of them could be classified as liberals (90 of 182) * Liberal nobles had much in common with the Third as they were young, urban and hostile to privilege Third Estate: * 43% Venal office holders * 35% lawyers, but 60% in the legal profession * Only 13% from trade in industry — one reason why it was not bourgeois Stances Involved with the Estates-General: * Radicals (majority of Third Estate) * Moderates (Majority of First Estate) * Supporters of the Ancien Regime (majority of the Second Estate) * Those seeking a compromise (Majority) ‘ The system of indirect elections then produced an embryonic political elite with remarkably similar ideas.’ — Donald Sutherland Cahiers De Doléances: Numbering some 25, 000, the nobles and clergy could vote and submit these cahiers directly from 24th January 1789, while the Third Estate had to go through their local assemblies. The cahiers were safe from censorship and are thus a ‘ reliable’ source [take note that most of the people in the countryside couldn’t write, and so relied on others to write it for them, normally someone of professional background] of information on what the citizens of France desired. The ‘ national unanimity’ displayed was a revolution in itself (François Furet). Two voices could be heard: * Political and legal matters * Survival (countryside) Political: * Assent to new taxes, liberty and abolition of letters de cachet (freedom from press and speech) Financial: * Liability of crown consolidated as national debt, published budgets, abolition of venal offices and if the nobility were to remain, they would only do so for honorific titles Common: * Many of the First called for the end of plurality and absenteeism * Many nobles agreed for the abolition of its own exemptions (89% agreed), although provincial nobles regarded their rights too important to lose * Many expressed their hatred of the tax officers * Bourgeois spoke of ‘ careers open to talent’ * Only main dispute was the issue of double representation and voting by head * Believed that the Estates-General would convene regularly * Ministers were ‘ castigated for their fiscal inefficiency and arbitrary powers’ * Main disputes: power, wealth and privilege Surprisingly: * Many of the peasants wanted traditional landowning rights again (equal partition for heirs), while artisans wanted economic regulation and control on grain trade * Many of the peasants and artisans wanted MORE government, to protect their animals and take over taxes and disputes * The peasants wanted to go backwards, not change… Artisans wanted no change ‘ While the cahiers of the liberal nobility offered an alluring picture of a briskly modernizing France that would consummate the great alterations by shaking off restrictions like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, those of the Third Estate wanted, very often, to return to the cocoon.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Resentment of seigneurialism above all bonded rural communities together against their lords.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ People were being consulted about reform proposals, not about whether they wanted a revolution… only later to become the focus of concerted action.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ In Paris, revolution was already widely expected, but the French en masse still expected the reforms they considered essential to come from the king.’ — François Furet ‘ The nobles trusted the institutions they controlled to curb the arbitrariness of the monarch, whereas skepticism was greater among the Third.’ – Donald Sutherland ‘ The ‘ aristocratic revolt’ was past and now it was time for the two other main contenders — the bourgeoisie and the common people… to make their own distinct contribution to the revolution that now took place.’ — George Rudé Convening of the Estates-General: 5th May 1789 — Estates-General meets — Third Estate dissatisfied about the discriminatory protocols that lead them to seem inferior to the First and Second 6th May 1789 — King addresses Estates-General while Necker gives a long and boring speech — the matter of voting by head is not mentioned * Great Hat Fiasco as the King and Nobles put their hat on and the Third do so as well, a breach of protocol — it was the Third’s expectation that the Estates-General would be putting privilege aside * The opening showed an extension of court ceremony, not patriotic duty * The image of Louis being the ‘ New Augustus’ who would renew the age was instantly proven to be false * Nobility’s position had hardened due to violence in the countryside and were now uncertain as to whether to give up local seigneurial dues or make a General Assembly * Clergy was divided between the minority of Bishops and the majority of priests/cures ‘ Not only did it bequeath democracy to the Revolution but, before expiring, offered it the means of forming itself into a national body politic against the aristocracy.’ — François Furet ‘ The convening of the Estates-General had served to focus noble, bourgeois, and peasant images of a regenerated France with dramatic clarity.’ — Peter McPhee : THE FORMING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Credentials and Commons: * The issue of verifying credentials (whether the elected deputy was eligible) sparked the beginning of a number of disputes within the Estates-General * Third Estate suggested that the verifying of credentials should be done in a common session * Other two Estates saw this as a precedent of whether the Estates-General should meet as one body (and vote by head) when discussing France’s matters * Both First and Second Estate declared themselves a separate Order (133 to 114 and 188 to 46 votes respectively) * The Third refused to proceed without having the other two Estates join them * First clash between bourgeoisie and privileged order (Rudé) 28th May 1789 — Frustrated at the inactiveness of the Estates-General, the Third Estate meets on its own to discuss matters and calls itself the Commune (Commons) 4th June 1789 — Necker proposed that the Estates should examine their own credentials. The Dauphin dies and the King goes into retreat! 10th June 1789 — Third would verify credentials of all deputies with or without them (suggested by Sieyès) 12th June 1789 — As per Sieyés suggestion, a roll is opened for those nobles and clergy willing to join the Third Estate 13th June 1789 — Some priests join the Third Estate (three curés) 17th June — Third Estate declares itself to be the National Assembly (490 to 90) * Invited tax riots if the Assembly was dissolved by force ‘ Louis’ acquiescence in the nobility’s demand for voting to be in three separate orders galvanized the outrage of the bourgeois deputies.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ What turned them from reformers to radicals was not the experience of the old regime but… that of the months of May, June and July 1789.’ — William Doyle ‘ That long month of May 1789 was one of passive revolt.’ — François Furet ‘[The Third Estate] created a new power, independent of the king,’ — François Furet ‘ The lawyers of the Third Estate had become revolutionaries.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ It was in the church, that the separation between rich and poor was most bitterly articulated.’ — Simon Schama “ was the founding act of the French Revolution. If the nation was sovereign, the king no longer was. ” — William Doyle Tennis Court Oath: 20th June 1789 — Finding the doors of their chamber locked, the deputies of the Third Estate converge at an indoor tennis court and take an oath. One member voted against the oath, (Martin Dauch). Was lead by Mirabeau and Sieyés. ‘ Never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the realm is established and fixed upon solid foundations’ – Mounier * First time citizens stood in defiance of the King * Sparked rioting across the French countryside and renewed calls for a written constitution * Proposed that the National Assembly was the supreme state power and not the King’s Divine Right * Majority of Clergy join the next day * Symbol of national unity ‘ Wherever they gathered, was to be the National Assembly.’ — Simon Schama ‘ It was one more assertion that they were subject to no other power in France.’ — William Doyle Séance Royale: 23rd June 1789 — King holds a Séance Royale to give his concessions * The King attempted to preserve the Estates-General and annul the illegal proceedings on the 17th * 35 reform proposals were issued by the King which included two main ones: * Freedom of press provided it did not harm religion, morals or ‘ honour of citizens’ * Tax exemptions ‘ could’ be void if the privileged agreed * The members of the National Assembly refuse to leave after the session and the King gives in saying, “ Oh well, let them stay. ” * The King had successfully shown his authority, but then immediately changed his mind straight after, showing the weakness of his character * ‘ The assembled nation cannot take orders’ — Bailly * ‘ You are today what you were yesterday’ — Sieyès * ‘ We shall not leave our places save at bayonet point’ – Mirabeau 24th June 1789 – 48 nobles with the Duc D’Orleans leading them and numerous clergy join the Third Estate 27th June 1789 — Estate-General ‘ dies’, as the King orders the other two Estates to unite with the Third to achieve his paternal goals, thus recognizing the National Assembly 30th June 1789 – Large crowd storms left bank prison and frees mutinous French Guards 9th July 1789 — National Assembly becomes the National Constituent Assembly ‘ The King had thrown away his authority almost as soon as he had tried to reassert it.’ — William Doyle ‘ From then on, the resistance of the privileged was broken down by successive defections.’ — François Furet ‘ The royal program was nonetheless important because it represented the transformation of absolute to constitutional monarchy.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ The King offered nothing which would flaunt the desires of the privileged.’ — Donald Sutherland : BASTILLE Preceding Bastille: * Bread prices had reached levels symptomatic of famine (88% of income) * Custom barriers were frequently attacked * Bakers were forced to keep unsold loaves at the end of the day for discounts * Terme had just finished on the 7th, when bills and rent were paid, many were homeless * Fears of a plot to starve the people become more serious with the King’s troops surrounding Paris * By 11 June Louis surrounded Paris with 30000 troops * Public had support of Gardes Francaise who called themselves native patriots 11th July 1789 — Necker is dismissed, but not before he goes to reassure the Dutch the safety of their loans 12th July 1789 — News of Necker’s dismissal reaches Paris * Riots follow which are urged by Camille Desmoulins * 40 of the 50 Custom posts around Paris are sacked * Gunsmiths were robbed for weapons * Saint-Lazare monastery is sacked of grain (proving the conspiracy to starve the people) 13th July 1789 — Electors at the Hôtel de Ville organize citizen militias to regain control — Permanent Committee formed * Over 48, 000 men were called to re-establish control * They were marked by ‘ red and blue’, the colours of Paris with the red being the ‘ blood shed for freedom’ and the blue being ‘ the celestial constitution that would be the eventual blessing’ * Powder and weapons were stolen from the Tuileries and St. Nicolas to aid them for that nights patrol ‘ Substantial enough to perform its twin duties of facing down any further attempt at military repression, and if necessary, punishing unlawful violence.’ — Simon Schama ‘ The signal for popular action was the dismissal of Necker.’ — Peter McPhee ‘[The military concentration in Paris helped] unite the fears of both the Parisan mob and the deputies of Versailles.’ — François Furet ‘[Dismissal of Necker was] interpreted as a double unlucky omen: bankruptcy and counter-revolution.’ — François Furet Storming of the Bastille: How? * About 900 Parisians, mostly artisans and the majority having immigrated to Paris * Four-pound load reached a record high on the 14th What happened? * Initial aim was to neutralize guns and take powder * The stubbornness of de Launay to give up his powder and at the same time refuse to fire at the crowds caused tensions to boil * The rope to the drawbridge was cut and the mobs march in and are fired upon and retaliate * Companies of Gardes Francaise and defected soldiers join the effort * A note of capitulation is rejected Effect? * De Launay and his guards are decapitated and have their heads stuck on pikes * Seven prisoners were rescued * The symbol of Frances despotism was demolished in one day (symbol of arbitrary authority) * Demonstrated that the bourgeoisie relied on the ordinary people for support * Spurred similar risings throughout the country, decentralizing authority * A new government was formed for Paris, the Commune de Paris with Bailly as the mayor * Districts drew up their own conditions of enrollment to the militia but the large part of the wage earning population was excluded * Irregulars were to be disarmed (illustrates degree of authority quickly asserted by the electors) * Militia could now be relied on to protect the ‘ people’ * The King had lost Paris, the towns and next he lost the peasants * The Great Fear had started as the rural areas went beyond destroyed the Monarchy’s authority * La Fayette becomes Commander of National Guard * Royal troops began with fraternize with citizens * National Assembly was saved * Revolutionary temper was given leadership (Rudé) 16th July 1789 — Necker is recalled and all royalist troops are pulled out of Paris 27th July 1789 — King Louis XVI accepts the tri-colour cockade (white was added by LaFayette for bourbons) from Bailly in Paris, thus accepting the change of power in France ‘ It gave a shape and image to all the vices against which the Revolution define itself. Transfigured from a nearly empty, thinly manned anachronism into the seat of the Beast Despotism, it incorporated all those rejoicing at its capture as the members of the new community of the nation.’ — Simon Schama ‘ During that single night of largely unobstructed riot and demolition. Paris was lost to the monarchy.’ — Simon Schama (I was get confused with this quote) ’The people of Paris [were] convinced that they alone had saved the National Assembly’ — William Doyle ‘ Louis VXI, having taken resolve on 11 July, had effectively abdicated on 14 July.’ — François Furet ‘ The real point of revolutionary outbreak was only reached when the separate and scattered actions of peasants, urban craftsmen and bourgeois journalists, lawyers, and deputies merged in common struggle in July 1789.’ — George Rudé The Great Fear: What was it? * Continuation of the riots in Spring directed against their landlords * Originally an organized resistance to fight ‘ brigands in the pay of landlords’ who were rumoured to destroy their crops * Châteaux and many other symbols of privilege were destroyed, like the shooting of game (first heavy casualties of the Revolution were rabbits — Schama) * ‘ revolution of the peasants’ * Louis accepted the tri-colour cockade was taken as an endorsement of popular rebellion Effects? * Broke down level of command and lead to formation of new armed authorities to contain arrest * Created brutal distinctions: patriots-enemies, citizens-aristocrats * Louis’ title became ‘ King of the French’ not ‘ King of France’ ‘ The real significance of the Great Fear was the vacuum of authority it exposed at the heart of the French government. Although it created by default, a France of a myriad of communes, this armed decentralization was not as all what most people wanted.’ — Simon Schama ‘ No longer should it be implied that the realm [France] was a kind of property.’ — Simon Schama ‘ Like the menu people of Paris, peasants adopted the language of bourgeois revolt to their own ends.’ — Peter McPhee ‘ Hunger, hope and fear were the main ingredients of the rural crisis of 1789.’ — William Doyle ‘ It provided an excellent excuse to arm the people against royal power… and this reaction in the countryside gathered the peasants together to turn against the aristocracy… it allowed the peasantry to achieve a full realization of its strength and… played its part in the preparation for the night of August 4.’ — Georges Lefebvre : AUGUST DECREES August Decrees: 4th August: Members of the National Constituent Assembly abolish feudalism and all seigneurial rights of Second Estate and the tithes of the First Abolished changes included: * Tithes * Venality * Financial and tax privileges related to land and persons * All citizens taxed equally * Special privileges (including tax exemption) for provinces etc. * All citizens were eligible for offices Effect? * Encouraged a cult of dispossession * Sparked by a moment of frenzy and ‘ drunkenness’ * Started process of dismantling Ancien Regime * Benefited bourgeoisie but the old society of orders and privilege had gone * Peasants became committed to the revolution as they didn’t want to return to the old taxes * A national, uniform system of administration could now be made as the old institutions were swept away * Careers open to talent ‘ This was largely the achievement of one group who until now had no say in what happened — the peasants.’ — William Doyle ‘ In terms if revenue, the clergy were the principle losers on 4 August.’ — François Furet ‘ Was a way of escaping a parliamentary impasse, as well as a device to appease the peasantry.’ — Donald Sutherland ‘ Seigneurialism abolished itself ‘ from below’ in any case,’ — Donald Sutherland : ETCETERA Important Dates: February 1781 — Necker publishes Compte Rendu 22nd May 1781 — Segur Ordinance 1785 — Diamond Necklace Affair 20th August 1786 — Calonne informs Louis XVI that royal finances were insolvent. 22nd February 1787 — Assembly of Notables Convene, last called in 1626 The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787, September) 25th May 1787 — Notables dissolved 2nd June 1787: Parlement rejects stamp duty (and then new land tax two weeks later) 6th August 1787: ‘ Lit de justice’ held in Parlement. King disregards the debate and thanks the deputies for accepting the principles accepted by the Notables and orders the laws to be registered, citing ‘ Le roi le veult’. 10th August 1787: Calonne is attacked by the Parlements with criminal proceedings, labeled as the fanatic-head of infamy and corruption. First time the prosecution of an individual was worked against a sitting administration. 15th August 1787 — Parlements exiled to Troyes and closure of all political clubs in Paris 5th September 1787 — Parlement of Paris suggests that the Estates-General should be convened like that of 1614 — start of the revolt of Bourgeoisie according to Marxists 15th September 1787 — Brienne makes a compromise with the Parlements, rescinding the land tax and stamp duty and opting for a new vingtieme tax over 5 years, where at the end, the Estates-General would be called. Parlements recalled. 19th November 1787 — Séance Royale held to register new loans becomes a lit de justice when the King calls off the voting and orders the edicts to be registered. The Duc D’Orleans objects, calling it illegal before Louis replies, “ Oh well, I don’t care, you’re the master of course. ” 8th May 1788 — May Edicts – Parlements are deprived of their right to oppose the King’s will 7th June 1788 — Crowds converge to stop the troops from dispersing the parlementaires and hurl roof-tiles at the soldiers below them. Commander of the troops allows the meeting of Estates to converge at Vizille. 21st July 1788 — Assembly of Vizille convene and later issue its demands to the King, he accepts them on 2nd August 1788. 15th July 1788 — Hailstorms bursts over central France followed by drought. Death follows in 1789 due to expensive supplies and lack of supplies due to frozen waters. 8th August 1788 – Brienne sets May 1, 1789 as the date for the Estates-General in an attempt to restore confidence with his creditors. 16th August 1788 — All repayments on government loans stop, France is bankrupt 25th August 1788 — Brienne resigns and Necker takes over his position as Director-General of Finances 6th November 1788 — Necker convenes second Assembly of Notables to discuss Estates-General 5th December 1788 — Parlements acknowledge that there is no constitutional precedent