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Reign of King Louis XIV
King Louis xiv ruled from 1643 to 1715. He was an important reason why many french citizens wanted to revolt. He never cared about his subjects and instead spend his time organizing parties and events. This made many citizens get angry. -
L'Ancien Regime
The old regime was the period of time before the revolution. There were 3 social classes called ‘the estates’. The first two were privileged while the 3rd one was poor and underprivileged. -
Economic Problems
King Louis and Marie Antoniete’s spent a lot of money on parties and unnecessary events which later resulted in France owing money. This made the government's debt bigger and caused Louis to tax poor people more than they could afford. -
General Estate's assembly
King Louis was left with no money, he imposed taxes upon his subjects. The second estate made an assembly for representatives from all of the estates to approve the king's new taxes. -
Tennis court oath
People in the third estate were not allowed to enter a meeting room so they broke down a door to a tennis court and they decided to prepared a new constitution. Other nobles and members of the clergy from other estates who agreed with them joined the third estate people. -
National assembly
The third estate wanted the government to change and they asked that all estates vote for a change. Delegates of the third estate agreed in making the National Assembly and they commanded no more absolute monarchy and they demanded a representative government. -
Storming the Bastille
King Louis decided to use his army to defeat the National Assembly. As a result, people got angry and they began collecting weapons to defend the city. On July 14 there was a huge battle where prisoners revolted and attacked the guards. This was an important event that started the revolution. -
Women’s march in Versailles
Women living in Paris decided to stand up and protest over the increasing bread prices. They violently went to Versailles demanding the king and queen to give them bread. They eventually broke into the castle and they ordered that Louis and Marie Antoniette returned to Paris. The king and queen obeyed and they went to Paris, never again to see the Versailles Palace. -
The Great Fear
Peasants were afraid that nobles would attack them, so instead many peasants started to break into nobles' houses in very violent manners. This started to cause a lot of fear in Versailles. -
King Louis XVI Execution
The whole royal family was kept prisoners for many years. On the 21 of January 1793, King Louis was executed on the guillotine. This took place in the Place de la Révolution.