Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch painter, born in 1853. Whilst many of his paintings today are celebrated as some of the greatest paintings of all time, his art did not sell during his time alive. His greatest artistic endeavours unfortunately came at a time of great decline in his mental health, culminating in 1888 when he famously cut off his own ear as a gift for a sex worker. Not long after this incident, he admitted himself to an insane asylum, where he painted some of his most iconic work, including A Starry Night. Many describe Vincent today as a great artist with a tortured soul.
A self portrait of Vincent Van GoghSunflowers (1888)A Starry Night (1889)Bedroom in Arles (1888)
By May 1890, he was released from the institution, he moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small commune just outside of Paris, where he would keep in regular contact with his brother, Theo, who lived in the city. On a visit, Theo told Vincent that he was considering starting up a new business. Vincent was apparently deeply troubled by this, believing that he had become a burden after living off his brother’s money during his years of unemployment and this gamble with his personal finances would only financially cripple Theo more.
On July 27th, 1890, Vincent had lunch and went out with his art supplies and came back around sundown. Due to the nice weather, many people were still eating, drinking and socialising outside of the inn he was staying at by the time he got back. He shuffled past, made no attempt at eye contact and, most notably, came back with none of the art supplies he had left with. His jacket was buttoned all the way up, which was particularly peculiar for such a warm night. The owner of the inn, Gustave Ravoux, went to go check on Vincent after he had been spotted clutching his abdomen limping upstairs. He found him lying on his bed curled up. When Ravoux asked what was wrong, Vincent stated that he had “wounded himself”, before opening his shirt and revealing a gunshot wound in his chest. At around midnight, he passed away, being cradled by his brother, saying “I want to die like this”
The main theory to this day is that Vincent committed suicide, considering his dire mental health and him feeling like a financial burden to his brother. The possible circumstances surrounding this theory come from Adeline Ravoux, daughter of Gustave Ravoux, who claims that Vincent went to a wheat field that he often painted in, shot himself in the chest and, as the night got colder, was woken up. Upon struggling to find the gun in the field to finish the job, he returned to the inn and the story goes as previously said. This story is incredibly strange, as the gun not being able to be found, unless he tossed it for some reason, is very odd. Not only that but the chest is an incredibly odd place to kill yourself and is very uncommon in suicides. And, finally, if this story is to be believed and he passed out after shooting himself, only to wake up later, then the wound would be much bloodier than it was when he arrived back at the inn. Upon a search of the field, no-one else could find a gun or the art supplies in the field. In addition, Vincent was quite religious, and openly condemned suicide in all forms. Despite this, he was adamant at the inn that he had shot himself.
Van Gogh’s painting of the field that it is alleged he shot himself in
With the suicide theory having many holes, it’s time to turn to the theory of biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, who theorise that Vincent was shot by a group of local boys and protected their identities. Often, Vincent was the subject of public bullying. When he asked people to sit for paintings, they’d often refuse. His appearance didn’t help, with his straggly hair, unkempt clothes and missing ear. Some of his worst bullies were the boys, who’d pretend to be nice to Vincent, only to play practical jokes on him, like spiking his coffee with salt, putting snakes in his painting supplies and rubbing chilli pepper on a brush he was known to suck.
One of his most notrious pranksters was a young boy called René Secrétan who said “Our favourite game was making him angry, which was easy.” Gaston, René’s older brother, was an aspiring artist himself and often spoke with Vincent about the Parisian Art World. Vincent thought that René was something he’d just have to put up with in order to have an actual friendship with Gaston. René, on the other hand, often enjoyed fishing and hunting and, after seeing a Wild West show in Paris, became obsessed with cowboys. It got to the point where René would often wear Western Attire, to which Vincent would often call him “Puffalo Pill” a mispronunciation of Buffalo Bill due to his accent, which often angered René.
An illustration of René in his cowboy get-up
One part of the boy’s Western Ensemble outfit was a .380 calibre revolver, which Naifeh and Smith allege was accidentally discharged on the day of Vincent’s death, and struck him in the abdomen, whereupon he stumbled back to the inn and testified that he had committed suicide. It is alleged that the boys took the supplies for themselves or perhaps destroyed them. Not only that but eye witnesses claim that he was headed to a small hamlet, where René liked to fish. In addition, it is more believable that Vincent was killed here rather than at the field, as the mile long trek down from the field would be much harder to do with a hole in his chest, than the much shorter, more flat walk from the hamlet.
Not long after Van Gogh’s death, René left town, notably without his pistol, which hardly left his side. He claimed Vincent had stolen it. Whilst Vincent died in his 30s, not seeing much financial success from his work, his art is admired today as some of the greatest in the world.
Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time. The most beloved, his command of colour most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world, no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.
By 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte had established himself as First Consul of the French Republic, making himself functionally the autocratic head of state of a centralised republican government. Wielding his newfound and profound executive power, he pacified royalist rebels, established a new national bank to stabilise the economy, cracked down on banditry in the French countryside, reforms that were only exemplified by state owned newspapers. In what many describe as a benevolent dictatorship, Napoleon transformed France from the chaos of the early Republic into the stability of the Consulate. However, France’s foreign affairs position was nowhere near as good as its domestic one.
A portrait of Napoleon as First Consul
After Napoleon’s initial triumph in Northern Italy, the Second Coalition declared war on France. The powers of the Second Coalition sought to reverse French expansion across Europe, dismantle the satellite republics established during the Revolutionary Wars, and weaken France’s new republican regime. Specifically, Russian Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov had recaptured the Northern Italian territories that Napoleon had conquered in 1797, leaving French forces under the command of General André Masséna starving and in desperate need of supplies on the Mediterranean coast. When Tsar Paul I withdrew Russia from the coalition, it still left almost 100,000 Austrians in Northern Italy, under the Command of Field Marshal Michael von Melas.
Napoleon eventually rallied 60,000 reserve troops in order to liberate the French Forces at Genoa, reclaim Northern Italy and defeat the Austrians. A much more cautious man than Napoleon might have reinforced Masséna from the west, taking advantage of pre-existing friendly supply roots and would avoid a treacherous trek over the Alps. However, he believed that driving back enemy forces on his own supply depots could leave to a stalemate. So he took an incredibly bold plan. Though armies had crossed the Alps many times since antiquity, few had attempted to move a large force with artillery through such difficult terrain at speed and in secrecy. What it did require, however, was Masséna holding the line. By April, this was a very real fear that eventually materialised.
A map of French Positions by 1800 (Epic History, YouTube)
On April 6th, Melas launched a massive offensive against Masséna’s forces, which split his army in two and forced him to retreat into the city of Genoa, beginning a siege from both the land and sea. Fearing that the fall of Genoa would force him to be trapped between the mountains and the Austrian forces, Napoleon rallies his forces on May 6th to advance from Geneva across the Alps.
An army can pass always, and at any season, wherever two men can set their feet.
Napoleon, May 1800
The Alps are a great land to cross. At around 100 miles in width and peaks reaching over 14,000 feet, the Army of the Reserve, numbering roughly 40,000 men, crossed through several Alpine passes, with the main body using the Great St Bernard Pass, which has a peak of around 8,600 feet, a march that was led by General Jean Lannes on May 8th. Despite the spring season, the mountains were blanketed in thick snow and. To reduce the likelihood of an avalanche decimating the troops, they travelled at night and early morning. Despite the men considering mutiny due to the rough conditions, they eventually reached St Bernard Hospice, where food and rest was prepared.
An illustration of the hospice on the pass
Despite the brutal conditions, losses during the crossing were surprisingly light. Contrary to the propaganda of the era, Napoleon himself made the crossing on a sure-footed mule as opposed to a charger. Lannes’ advanced guard swept aside Austrian outposts and surprised an outpost at Châtillon. However, they encountered fierce opposition by Captain Josef Stockard von Bernkopf at Fort Bard.
Conditions in besieged Genoa became desperate, with food shortages reducing troops and civilians to eating horses and other animals as famine intensified. Not only that, but General Jean-de-Dieu Soult was badly wounded and captured by Austrian Forces. At Fort Bard, a small Austrian garrison temporarily blocked the French advance. Unable to quickly storm the fort, Napoleon ordered artillery dragged past the position at night with wheels wrapped to reduce noise. Lannes attacked the enemy at Ivrea before advancing on Romana. Napoleon rapidly entered Lombardy, seized Milan, and threatened Austrian communications, forcing Melas to abandon his wider strategic position and confront the French army. Napoleon had seized the strategic initiative, but Austria’s army remained intact. The campaign’s outcome would be decided weeks later on the plains near Marengo.
We have struck here like lightning […] the enemy can hardly believe it
Napoleon to Joseph Bonaparte, 24th May, 1800
An idealised portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps in 1800
By October of 1799, Napoleon had returned from Egypt. Despite his humiliating defeat at the siege of Acre, his popularity could not be higher, thanks to his self published propaganda. However, France was still in crisis. With prices soaring, taxes on the rise and banditry rife, people called for Napoleon to save the country.
However, not everyone was happy with this. The French Directory, a group of 5 individuals who had executive power in France, believed that Napoleon should be court-martialled for abandoning his men in Egypt under the command of Jean-Baptiste Kléber. However, moving against such a hugely popular general would cause mass upheaval, and make the Directory’s position weaker than it already was. Napoleon was a notable critic of the Directory, stating to General Paul Thiélbault that:
These men are bringing France down to the level of their own blundering. They are degrading her. Well, what can generals expect from this government of lawyers.
Napoleon speaking to Thiélbault, October 26th, 1799
A painting of the formation of the French Directory
The members of the Directory consisted of Paul Barras, permanent member of the Directory since its formation in 1795 and a close ally of Napoleon but was seen as corrupt, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, one of the leading political thinkers in France and author of “What is the Third Estate?” which was a widely influential political pamphlet in the Revolution, Louis-Jérôme Gohier, a staunch Jacobin and former Minister of Justice, Jean-François Moulin, another staunch Jacobin and General, and Roger Ducos, a more moderate ally of Sieyès. This executive branch was not without a legislative one, that being the Council of 500, who proposed laws, and the Council of Elders, who passed them. The two councils all dressed in clothes reminiscent of robes worn in the Roman Republic. However, all three of these institutions were seen as corrupt and unfit to govern France. And one of the people who say it was Sieyès himself.
Sieyès, who believed that the current system was corrupt and in need of desperate change with a constitution that he would pen, began webbing a mass conspiracy to overthrow the French Government as it stood. It began with Maurice de Talleyrand, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and an influential political figure. He also recruited a fellow Director, the ever loyal Roger Ducos, as well as roping in the Presidents of both the Council of 500 and the Council of Elders. Joseph Fouché, Minister of Police, became aware of the conspiracy. Whilst he did not join, he stated that he would not intervene. However, there was one man that Sieyès needed in order to secure the army. He called this man “The Sword”, a populary military figurehead to be used at the decisive moment before being “sheathed” afterwards. After considering multiple options, Sieyès eventually approached General Jean Victor Marie Moreau, who declined, but personally recommended a different man.
There’s your man. [Napoleon Bonaparte] will make a better job of your coup d’état than I could.
Moreau on Napoleon Bonaparte
A portrait of Emmanuel Sieyès
Despite the President of the Council of 500 being Napoleon’s own brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Sieyès disliked Napoleon’s clear ambition. However, Talleyrand managed to convince Sieyès to let Napoleon into the plot. Eventually, a conspiracy came together within a week of Napoleon and Sieyès’ first encounter. The date was set for November 7th, or the 16th of Brumaire on the Revolutionary Calendar (RC), and would take two days. In case anything went awry, the conspirators had safety measures. Sieyès had a briefcase full of money and good to go. Fouché had an arrest warrant drafted for Napoleon in case he needed to switch sides. Napoleon himself slept with a pair of loaded pistols at his bedside.
However, the plot had to be delayed by 48 hours, during which time, Napoleon visited the house of General Jean Bernadotte, where he had dinner with Bernadotte, Moreau and General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, in order to get more allies in the army for the coup. Whilst Moreau agreed to assist and Jourdan agreed to stay neutral, Bernadotte was outraged, crying that Napoleon would be guillotined. Napoleon responded with two simple words.
We’ll see.
Napoleon to Bernadotte
November 9th (17 Brumaire RC) finally rolled around. Having rallied 60 officers to his house, Napoleon initiated the call to arms. Meanwhile, an unscheduled meeting of the Council of Elders was held in the Tuileries Palace, the seat of the French Government. Here, the Moderates quickly passed two measures, that Napoleon would take charge of the Paris Military District and that the next days Council Meetings shall take place at the Château de Saint-Cloud, a palace approximately 5 miles outside the city, both of which were under the pretence that a Jacobin Revolution was underway in Paris. Across town at Luxembourg Palace, Ducos and Sieyès both resigned their positions as Directors and attempted to convince Barras, Gohier and Moulin to do the same. Whilst Barras complied with the help of a hefty bribe, Gohier and Moulin refused. As a result they were placed under house arrest under the observation of General Moreau. With the executive branch now gone, the conspirators could make their move.
On November 10th (18 Brumaire RC), Napoleon woke up early to travel to the Château de Saint-Cloud. Joachim Murat, a newly promoted General of Division, had rallied 6,000 troops at the Château. As deputies of the Councils arrived, the vast military presence could not go unnoticed. At this meeting, the Jacobin deputies were permitted, who were furious at not having been included in the meeting of the previous day. When the sessions began at 1pm, chaos quickly descends upon the two chambers. Napoleon, having lost patience, barged into the meeting of the Council of Elders. Whilst he was trying to speak, he was heckled. When one deputy asked him “What about the constitution?” Napoleon responded by saying:
The Constitution! You yourselves have destroyed it. You violated it on 18 Fructidor [September 14th]; you violated it on 22 Floreal [May 11th]; you violated it on 30 Prairial [June 18th]. It no longer has the respect of anyone.
Napoleon to the Council of Elders
At this remark, there was an uproar in the council. Napoleon went on, demanding action and implying that the Elders were paid off with British money. Eventually, he was dragged out of the room by 4 soldiers. It did not take him long before he walked into the Council of 500. It was even more raucous in there. Napoleon could hardly get a word in, as he was shoved, grabbed and even punched, amid cries comparing him to Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell.
A painting of Napoleon (central) in the chaotic Council of 500
Eventually, a group of grenadiers retrieved Napoleon an took him out to the courtyard. Despite it not being a desirable option, military action had to be taken. A bruised and bloody Napoleon ordered grenadiers to go inside and dispel the chaos, but were stopped by the Council Guard at the doorstep. However, Lucien finally took initiative on the matter. On horseback, Lucien cried:
Citizen soldiers! The great majority of the Council is at this moment being terrorised by a handful of deputies armed with daggers. These brigands are doubt in English pay… I declare to you that these madmen have made themselves outlaws by their assaults on the liberty of this Council!
Lucien speaking to the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard
He then drew a sword and pointed it directly at Napoleon’s chest.
I swear that I will stab my own brother to the heart if he ever makes an assault on the liberty of Frenchmen.
Lucien speaking to the crowd of soldiers in the courtyard
Eventually, the grenadiers were let inside and the Councils were dispersed quickly. Some accounts suggest that robes and hats were left behind as deputies leapt out of windows. Soon, a new measure was passed by the remaining moderate deputies. It detailed that the Councils shall not meet for 4 months, that the Directory be abolished and replaced with a consulate. The third consul would be Ducos, the second would be Sieyès and the first consul would be Napoleon Bonaparte.
Just six years earlier, Napoleon was a young Corsican leading his first major victory at 24 at Toulon. Now, he was 30 and leading one of the most powerful nations in the world. And yet, somehow, his ambitions still lead higher and higher. An ambition that would conquer Europe in years to come.
Napoleon returned to Paris from his campaign in Italy and was lauded as a hero. His campaign was so successful that the French Government believed that Napoleon was capable of an invasion of mainland Britain. However, as the War of the Second Coalition broke out, Napoleon soon realised that the French Navy was nowhere near powerful enough to take on the powerful Royal Navy. Instead, he decided to take out Britain’s supply line to India by taking control of Ottoman Controlled Egypt, whilst also securing the Sultan of the Indian Mysore Kingdom as a potential ally.
By 1798, Napoleon was elected to the French Academy of Sciences, after which he went to Egypt with 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of 167 scientists, mathematicians, naturalists, chemists and geodesists. However, on the way there, he managed to capture Malta, then under the control of The Order of St John of Jerusalem. They put up little fight and Napoleon only lost 3 men. On July 1st of 1798, Napoleon’s forces landed in Alexandria. They combatted the Ottomans on multiple occasions, most notably at the Battle of the Pyramids, which was located approximately 24km (15 miles) from the Great Pyramids of Giza. In the battle, there was less than 30 French casualties compared to the nearly 2,000 they inflicted.
A painting of the Battle of the Pyramids (July 21st, 1798)
Despite this increase to French morale, disaster struck when Admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed or captured all but 2 out of 17 French Ships in the Battle of the Nile. After this decisive loss in the Mediterranean Campaign, Napoleon travelled north to Damascus with 13,000 men, capturing the port towns of Gaza, Arish, Haifa and Jaffa. Most notably, Napoleon noticed that, when he attacked Jaffa, the defenders were largely made of Albanian prisoners of war on parole. As a result, when he conquered the town, he ordered the garrison to be executed by bayonet and drowning. Then, all the men, women and children were pillaged, murdered or raped for 2 days and nights.
Napoleon’s army eventually reached the city of Acre. Believing it to be an easy victory, Napoleon decided to only use infantry to attack the city, believing that they would capitulate easily. He believed it would only take two weeks to capture the city before he would then march on Jerusalem. However, after one and a half months, the city stood firm. Many believe this was in part due to the large Albanian population of the city, fearing that they may share the same fate as Jaffa if they fell. Not only that but the British came in to assist, supplying the city’s defences with fresh sailors and marines, and sunk multiple French siege artillery ships. Once the French forces had finally managed to make a break through the wall of the city they discovered that the defenders had built a much deeper wall within. A cold, hungry and plague ridden French Army eventually retreated on May 21st, 1799, after a two month long siege.
A painting of the Siege of Acre (March 20th – May 21st 1799)
Napoleon returned to Egypt, having lost over 5,000 men in the siege, 2,000 of whom had succumbed to the bubonic plague. After this humiliating defeat, Napoleon decided to return to France without his army, fearing that the French Republic may soon collapse. Or was it perhaps him taking advantage of an opportunity?
After the Siege of Toulon, and a subsequent crushing of a Parisian Royalist uprising, Napoleon had managed to land himself the rank of Major General, one of the highest ranks in the French Revolutionary Army. He was assigned his own army and decided that, in order to rise the social hierarchy, he needed a woman. Despite many women finding him creepy and disgusting, he managed to marry Josephine de Beauharnais, an older widow with two children and a rather promiscuous background, on March 9th, 1796. Only two days later, the French Government ordered an all out offensive against Austria. Napoleon was assigned to a southern campaign through Italy as more of a distraction away from Jean-Baptiste Jourdan and Jean Victor Marie Moreau. This would be his first major campaign, and it would be the first of many successes for Napoleon, at only 28-years-old.
You to whom nature has given spirit, sweetness, and beauty, you who alone can move and rule my heart, you who know all too well the absolute empire you exercise over it!
A letter Napoleon sent to Josephine in Februrary of 1797, during the Italian Campaign
The army assigned to him was demoralised, underpaid and in desperate need of equipment. However, Napoleon lifted their spirits with inspirational speeches, something that would become a staple of his career to come. Severely outnumbered, he would split his enemies into two and take them on separately, which would later become the iconic Napoleon strategy of dividing and conquering. Using this strategy, Sardinia was knocked out of the war and the Austrians were sent running. During the Austrian retreat, Napoleon was in the fray himself at the famous Battle of Lodi, aiming cannons and getting covered in mud, earning the respect of his men, to such an extent to the point where he ordered an almost suicidal charge over a river, they followed and succeeded.
A painting of the Battle of Lodi (May 10th, 1796)
Napoleon swept through Northern Italy, being welcomed in town after town with open arms, believing them to liberating the people from their Austrian oppressors. However, Napoleon would plunder towns and send riches back to France. It is estimated that Napoleon collected 45 million Francs in money, 12 million Francs worth of jewellery and precious metals, as well as an additional 300 art pieces, such as sculptures and paintings. He also used some of the money he plundered to pay his men, some of the first real money they had seen in ages.
During the campaign, Napoleon also became more influential in French politics. He created two newspapers, one for circulation amongst soldiers and the other for the French populous. Recognising his ambition, French Royalists warned that Napoleon may be on the path to becoming a dictator. In response, Napoleon sent General Charles-Pierre Augereau to Paris to support a coup that purged royalists from legislative councils. This meant that Paul Barras, one of the Directors of the Executive Branch of the French Government, had a firm grip on power but was now more dependent on Napoleon.
A drawing of Generals being rounded up during the coup
Whilst the northern front was at a stalemate, Napoleon began making a bee-line straight for Vienna. Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, had to withdraw forces to Vienna, despite gaining a successful victory against the northern forces, due to Napoleon’s assault. After losing to Napoleon at the Battle of Tarvis, the Austrian government sued for peace when they learnt that Napoleon had arrived at Leoben, a city just 100km (62 miles) away from Vienna. With Napoleon overseeing negotiations himself, Austria allowed France to take control of much of Northern Italy as well as the low countries. He managed the establishment of many Sister Republics for the French Republic, of which he wrote constitutions and organised governments. Napoleon’s first success had been a great one, and it was only the beginning of his military career.
From that moment, I foresaw what I might be. Already I felt the earth flee from beneath me, as if I were being carried into the sky.
Napoleon after his victory at the Battle of Lodi
Casualties
First French Republic – 45,000 killed, captured or wounded
Coalition Forces (Sardinia, Habsburg Empire, Papal States, Venice) – 27,000 killed, 160,000 captured
The year was 1793. Louis XVI, the 45th King of France, was dead, beheaded by his own people. Outside of Paris, Royalist sentiment was abundant and, in an attempt to unite France behind one cause, the Revolutionary government declared war on Austria-Hungary, who believed that France’s anti-monarchist sentiment would spread across the continent. Austria called upon its allies and France was no in all out war with most major powers, including the United Kingdom, Sardinia, Spain and Prussia.
Naturally, this did not help the French cause and violent uprisings began sparking up across France. One such place these uprisings was the port city of Toulon, a highly strategic naval base in the Mediterranean. This uprising was, unsurprisingly, backed by the British, who were welcomed into the port with open arms. France had now lost the naval power of the Mediterranean without a shot being fired. France needed this port back desperately and sent 19,000 troops down to deal with the uprising. One of these forces was commanded by a then relatively unknown artillery officer, by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte.
A painting of the young Napoleon
Napoleon was from the island of Corsica, which was purchased by France from Genoa not long before Napoleon was born. The island had widespread anti-French sentiment, which Napoleon agreed with. His father, on the other hand, gladly embraced the new French rulers, leading to father and son often butting heads. He was sent to military school in France, where he was heavily bullied due to his accent and his families lack of wealth. However, he held his ground and often stood up to bullies. When he wasn’t beating up the bullies, he would often be found alone reading about the conqueror’s of old, like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. He wondered if it was possible if he could be as great and powerful as them.
Once he graduated, he was made Second Lieutenant in an artillery regiment. But Napoleon was not content with this. He had ambition and wanted more power. However, in pre-revolutionary France, military ranks were most often gained by nobility and nepotism, not by actual talent. Luckily for Napoleon, the Revolution occurred and the people of France were now on a more equal playing field. Whilst Napoleon was not too big on the violence and mass beheadings, he believed that, in order to rise the ranks, he must become pro-revolutionary.
General Jean-François Carteaux, the leader of the forces at Toulon, was a court painter by trade with zero military training so was not highly skilled in leadership positions. Not only that but one of his only professional officers was seriously wounded in battle. Antoine Saliceti, a Corsican deputy of the National Convention, recommended Napoleon, who was travelling near Toulon on his way to the front lines. Despite Napoleon having almost no military experience yet, Saliceti appreciated his manner and political aspirations. Carteaux had almost no choice but to accept Napoleon to lead the Siege of Toulon.
A map of Toulon, with the Fort’s labelled
Napoleon’s plan was simple. They needed to build up significantly more guns and train the infantry to operate them. Then, they would capture the southern Fort L’Eguilette, allowing them to inflict heavy artillery casualties on the British ships, forcing them to leave, which was important as the ships were the key source of defence. The first part of this plan, however, involved the capture of Mount Caire, where British troops were stationed. After an unsuccessful assault, due to Carteaux being hesitant to send the 3,000 men required to accomplish the task, command of Toulon was handed over to General Dugommier. He stated that:
There is only one possible plan – Bonaparte’s
General Dugommier speaking on Toulon
In order to build up the fortifications of Toulon, the British built a new fort called Fort Mulgrave. The area was so fortified it was called “Little Gibraltar” by the French. An unsuccessful British counter attack followed and, in the early hours of the 18th of December, 1793, in the pouring rain and howling wind, Napoleon’s forces charged up the hill. The muskets were useless as guns due to the rain and could only be used as clubs and bayonets. The second charge came, with Napoleon in this wave. During this, his horse was killed and he was wounded in his thigh, mere inches away from a fatal stab. However, despite this, the British were driven off the Mountain after severe hand to hand combat, and French artillery now observed Toulon.
The British, not wanting to lose their ships, began evacuating the city. Citizens, who feared being executed as traitors to the Republic, attempted to board the ships. Some 14,000 were evacuated whilst the rest of the city either drowned in the chaos or were executed by firing squad in the morning. This was the first victory of Napoleon Bonaparte, a path that would lead Europe down a 21 year long path of near endless war. At the time, Napoleon was only 24 and was promoted to Brigadier General.
The French managed to push back the Austrians into the lowlands but more countries joined the coalition against France so they were pushed back out. Realising they were losing the war, the began mass conscription. Despite the revolution fever being high in Paris, outside the city, people were very fond of the clergy and nobility, as they had not been effected too badly by the economy compared to Paris. Now these people were being conscripted to fight for a Republic that they despised. Because of this, multiple counter-revolutionary uprisings occurred across the nation. One suppression of these counter revolutions ended in violent pacifism, where Jean Baptist Carrier tied thousands of priests and civilians, including women and children tied to ship which were then sunk. Carrier was found guilty of war crimes and executed.
Eventually the British ended up occupying the city of Toulon, an important Mediterranean naval port. To deal with the occupation, France sent down a relatively unknown captain at the time, by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. Due to his successful capture of the city, Napoleon was promoted to Brigadier General.
Napoleon commanding the Siege at Toulon
At the time, the government was still a majority moderate government. With the uprisings, the war effort going badly and the economy returning to it’s awful state, people began to distrust the government. Marat blamed the moderates, saying that all moderates who remained should be executed, who in turn called for Marat’s arrest. The moderates in the radicals were in heated conflict, until the radical Jacobins stormed the National Convention, arresting the remaining moderates. Robespierre and the Radicals now controlled the government.
Now we meet a woman called Charlotte Corday, who lived in Caen. Like many outside of Paris, she was upset and angered by the violence from the radicals. The one man she blamed the most was Marat. She wanted peace in France, so travelled down to Paris, telling Marat he had a list that she wanted him to publish in his paper. She was invited into his bathroom, where she stabbed him fatally in the chest, piercing an artery near his heart. He died quickly and became a martyr for the cause. Symbols of Christ in Temples of Reason were changed to Marat. Corday was executed by guillotine
A painting of Morat’s body
Soon, Robespierre began to get paranoid, believing that there were people inside France wanting to upend the Republic. He set up a secret police and spies to watch his own citizens. He founded a new tribunal, which speed lined the process of trying traitors and having them executed. Anything that remotely criticised the Republic or praised the old monarchy would result in execution. During the Reign of Terror, commanded by Robespierre, over 40,000 people were executed by guillotine. The most famous victim of the Reign of Terror was Marie Antoinette.
She was finally put on trial after years in prison and sentenced to death via guillotine. She expected a royal carriage to bring her the gallows, like her husband. What she got was a wooden cart. Antoinette was pulled by horse through the streets of Paris in a white dress, maintaining composure despite the jeering of the crowd. He last words were her apologising for stepping on her executioner’s shoe. She was beheaded at 12:15 on October 16th, 1793. She was only 37.
A drawing of the execution of Marie Antoinette
Unfortunately, Robepierre’s strategy had worked and France was finally back on it’s feet. The food shortage was fixed and the French army had even made a successful push against the coalition. Georges Danton decided it was time to normalise the Republic, by proposing the deescalation of executions, the reestablishment of the church and suing for peace against the coalition. Because of his thoughts, Danton, one of Robespierre’s closest friends and allies who helped him found the Jacobin Club, was promptly executed. Many others who even slightly opposed Robespierre were also executed. He started another religion, in which he basically declared himself God. It’s a round this time, historians believe, that Robespierre had gone mad. Eventually, the legislative assembly had enough and, in a unanimous vote, had Robespierre put on trial. He was sentenced to death and was executed by guillotine, making him the last victim of the Reign of Terror that he started.
By July 1789, France was already in the middle of a political revolution. The Estates-General had transformed into the National Assembly, the Tennis Court Oath had challenged the authority of the King, and Louis XVI’s government was struggling to maintain control over Paris. What had begun as a dispute over taxation and political representation was rapidly becoming a confrontation between the monarchy and a population increasingly willing to use force to defend the Revolution.
One of the first meetings of the National Assembly in a Tennis Court
The situation became even more dangerous when Louis XVI began concentrating troops around Paris and Versailles. Several thousand soldiers, including foreign regiments in French service, were brought into the region. To many Parisians, this appeared to be preparation for a military coup against the National Assembly. Their fears intensified when Louis dismissed Jacques Necker, his popular finance minister, on July 11th. Necker had become a symbol of financial reform and was regarded by many ordinary people as one of the few members of the government sympathetic to their suffering. His dismissal therefore convinced many Parisians that the King intended to crush the revolutionary movement. The news spread rapidly. Paris erupted.
The revolutionary response was not initially a plan to storm a fortress. Parisians began arming themselves. Crowds gathered throughout the city, searching for weapons with which they could defend themselves against the troops surrounding Paris. On July 13th, a citizens’ militia was organised, eventually becoming known as the National Guard. The Marquis de Lafayette, an aristocrat and veteran of the American Revolution who had joined the revolutionary cause, was appointed its commander. Even some regular French soldiers began refusing to fire upon the population or defecting to the revolutionary side. The monarchy’s ability to control Paris was rapidly disappearing. On the morning of July 14th, thousands of Parisians attacked the Hôtel des Invalides, a large military complex and veterans’ hospital. They seized thousands of muskets and several cannons. There was, however, one major problem. They had very little gunpowder. The revolutionaries knew where they could find more. The Bastille.
An illustration of the Bastille
The Bastille was a medieval fortress in eastern Paris that had been used as a royal prison. By 1789, it was no longer the enormous prison of popular imagination. Only seven prisoners were being held there when the Revolution began. Its military importance was nevertheless considerable. The fortress contained a substantial supply of gunpowder, and its enormous walls and cannons made it a powerful defensive position. More importantly, however, the Bastille had become a symbol of royal absolutism. For centuries, the French monarchy had possessed the power to imprison people through lettres de cachet, allowing individuals to be detained without a conventional trial. Although the Bastille was not filled with political prisoners in 1789, its reputation had become associated with arbitrary royal power. To the revolutionaries, therefore, the fortress represented much more than a collection of stone walls. It represented the authority they were trying to overthrow.
The Bastille was commanded by Bernard-René de Launay, a relatively inexperienced military governor. His garrison consisted primarily of about 80 elderly soldiers known as Invalides, supported by several dozen Swiss soldiers. Thousands of Parisians surrounded the fortress. They demanded that de Launay surrender the Bastille and hand over its gunpowder. De Launay refused. The situation became increasingly tense as representatives of the Parisian population attempted to negotiate with him. The defenders lowered a drawbridge at one point, allowing some of the crowd into the outer courtyard. Confusion followed, and fighting eventually broke out. The revolutionaries attacked.
A painting of the storming of the Bastille
The Bastille’s defenders opened fire, killing and wounding numerous people. The attackers, however, vastly outnumbered the garrison. The fighting continued for several hours. Eventually, de Launay realised that the fortress could not be held indefinitely. With the possibility of a much larger massacre looming, he agreed to surrender. The drawbridge was lowered. The Bastille had fallen. The surrender did not save de Launay.
As the revolutionary crowd entered the fortress, the governor was seized. He was beaten and eventually killed. His head was cut off and placed on a pike, before being carried through the streets of Paris. The violence shocked even some revolutionaries. The Bastille’s defenders also suffered casualties, although the majority of those killed during the battle were among the attackers. Around a hundred revolutionaries were killed or wounded during the fighting, while only a small number of the defenders were killed. The revolutionaries had nevertheless achieved something enormously significant. They had captured a royal fortress. More importantly, they had demonstrated that the government could no longer simply order the people of Paris to obey.
A portrait of De Launey
The fall of the Bastille sent shockwaves throughout France. Louis XVI was reportedly informed of the events by the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. According to the famous story, the King asked whether the events constituted a revolt. Liancourt allegedly replied:
No, Sire, it is a revolution.
Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt to Louis XVI
Whether the exchange occurred exactly as later accounts claimed is uncertain, but the sentiment captured the reality of what was happening. Louis was losing control. The King eventually recalled Necker and ordered the withdrawal of many of the troops surrounding Paris. He also travelled to the city himself, where he appeared before the revolutionary authorities and publicly accepted the newly established National Guard. The Bastille had therefore achieved something that the National Assembly had struggled to accomplish through political debate. It had forced the monarchy to retreat.
The consequences were not limited to Paris. News of the Bastille spread throughout the countryside, where rumours circulated that aristocrats were preparing to use armed forces to crush the Revolution. Peasants began attacking aristocratic estates and destroying documents recording feudal obligations. This wave of panic became known as the Great Fear. Across France, peasants demanded an end to feudal privileges. Some attacked manor houses and burned records relating to rents and obligations. The National Assembly now faced a problem. The Revolution was no longer merely a political movement taking place in Paris. It had become a mass uprising across the country.
An illustration of farmers rebelling in the countryside
On the night of August 4th, 1789, members of the National Assembly responded by abolishing many of France’s remaining feudal privileges. In a matter of hours, centuries of aristocratic and feudal rights were swept away. The old social order was beginning to collapse. The Revolution was not simply about destroying the existing system. It was also about deciding what would replace it. Inspired by Enlightenment philosophy and influenced by the American Revolution, the National Assembly began developing a new political philosophy based upon individual liberty, equality before the law and popular sovereignty. One of the figures involved was the Marquis de Lafayette, who had fought alongside the Americans and had become familiar with the political ideas that had inspired their revolution. Lafayette also corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as the American ambassador to France. Jefferson offered suggestions and discussed the principles of the emerging document, although he was not its author. On August 26th, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It proclaimed that men were born free and equal in rights and that sovereignty ultimately belonged to the nation. It was one of the most important political documents of the Revolution.
However, its vision of equality had significant limitations. Women were not granted equal political rights, slavery continued in French colonies, and the declaration’s language about universal liberty would coexist uneasily with the realities of colonialism and economic inequality. Nevertheless, its principles represented a fundamental challenge to the old order. Political authority was no longer supposed to exist simply because a king or aristocrat possessed it by birth. It had to be justified by the rights of the nation. The Storming of the Bastille therefore represented a turning point. The Revolution had begun as a constitutional and financial dispute between Louis XVI and the representatives of the French people. By July 14th, it had become a popular uprising capable of overthrowing royal authority by force. The Bastille itself was not particularly important as a prison by 1789. Its real importance was symbolic. The people of Paris had destroyed one of the most recognisable symbols of arbitrary royal power and demonstrated that the monarchy could be challenged directly. But the violence of July also foreshadowed the increasingly radical character of the Revolution.
A painting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
One of the most prominent voices calling for further violence was Jean-Paul Marat, a radical journalist whose newspaper, L’Ami du peuple (“The Friend of the People”), attacked aristocrats, royal officials and political opponents. Marat increasingly argued that the enemies of the Revolution could not be defeated through moderation alone and that force would be necessary to destroy them. His rhetoric became increasingly extreme as the Revolution progressed. Marat was not responsible for the Storming of the Bastille, nor did the National Assembly simply order or endorse the killing of de Launay. However, the events demonstrated how quickly political conflict could turn into popular violence once the authority of the state began to collapse.
The Revolution had crossed a threshold. The King could no longer rule France in the way his predecessors had. The aristocracy was beginning to lose its privileges. The National Assembly claimed to represent the French nation. And the people of Paris had discovered that they possessed something that the monarchy could not easily take away: the power of the crowd. The Bastille had fallen. The French Revolution was only beginning.
By 1756, France was considered to be one of the greatest countries on Earth. They had grand monuments, incredible military campaigns and a fantastic life. However, underneath the surface lurked a social hierarchy that threatened the stability of the nation. The nobility and the clergy were very well known for partying like there was no tomorrow, whilst the poor suffered and starved, hardly ever making enough money to buy a loaf of bread.
Meanwhile, the New World was being conquered and Britain and France were arguing over a strip of land that both of them claimed to own. Thus erupted the Seven Years War, and France lost hard. Due to the war reparations, France was in severe financial ruin. Despite this, the nobility continued to party, neglecting the people who had work their backs off to make the nobility’s life good. This was when France’s poor began to question the social hierarchy, beginning the Age of Enlightenment.
Great philosophical thinkers across the country began questioning if the greatest country on Earth was really all it was cracked up to be. During this time, Louis XVI was crowned the new King of France. Louis was notoriously weak, hardly competent enough to run a country, never mind one in severe financial debt that was questioning the establishment of the monarchy.
A painting of King Louis XVI
One of the first acts he did was to get revenge on the British by helping fund the American Revolution. Once the war was over with, America didn’t pay France back, meaning that France was now in even more debt than before. The poor envied the elite even more, because they were suffering with the effects of this financial ruin, whilst the nobility still acted like there was no problem. Most of their hate was targeted at Louis’ wife, former Archduchess of Austria, Marie Antoinette. Her high spending on her increasingly lavish lifestyle, fashion and beauty earned her the nickname “Madame Deficit”
A painting of Marie Antoinette
People began ridiculing the royals, over a scandal that Louis apparently took a very long time to consummate the marriage. Graphic artwork was drawn, depicting Antoinette as a whore and the King as a weakling who wouldn’t put out. As support for the monarchy was at an all time low, the King and his advisors decided that now would be a good time to tax the poor, for basically anything you can think of, with an especially ridiculous one being on salt. Some of these were collected by private companies, who walked around with armed thugs. Resistance against these taxes often ended in violence. Meanwhile, the clergy and nobility either had to pay little or no tax at all, which angered the peasants even more. France was now on the brink of revolution, and the push they needed was a bad harvest.
A series of harsh summers and winters came and went, killing the harvest for those years. They now had no food or money, whilst the cost of bread drastically went up. Naturally, the nobility had stocks of grain and wheat so, yet again, believed nothing was wrong. This was the final push that the poor needed to riot. Bakeries were raided for their bread, whilst some bakers who were suspected of hoarding were hanged in the streets.
The revolutionaries spread propaganda saying that Marie Antoinette had been informed that the rioters were starving and responded saying “Then let them eat cake” in an effort to make her seem out of touch. In actuality, Antoinette never said this. When dealing with a crisis, Louis did what he always did was run off, and get someone else to do the work for him. Specifically, he turned to the Estates General, which was an advisory body that was rarely ever summoned, where representatives from each of the three estates, that being the clergy, the nobility and everyone else, would gather to decide important issues.
A drawing of the Estates General of 1789
Louis decided that to come to any form of conclusion, he had to set up a voting system. However, each class only got one vote. Despite making up 98% of the population, the 3rd estate would often find their proposals, which often helped the poor which would destabilise the rich, outvoted by the clergy and the nobility. They instead decided to set up their own government, the National Assembly, where the third estate controlled. Louis attempted to stop the National Assembly by locking them out of their building but they very quickly found a solution by finding a different building that wasn’t locked, that being a tennis court down the street, where they all swore the Tennis Court Oath, where they pledged to continue to meet until the King gave into their demands for economic reform.
A drawing of the Tennis Court Oath
The National Assembly included many great thinkers. Two important ones we’ll mention were Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton. Other members of the first two estates joined, most importantly Marquis de Lafayette, a former military officer from the American Revolution. Some of these great thinkers, including Robespierre and Danton formed a political party called the Jacobin Club. Some radicals within the party did not just campaign for economic reform but the removal of the monarchy.
Fearing his stability, Louis ordered the army to convene around Paris. Hearing of this, the third estate feared that the King was going to arrest and execute them. During this, the King dismissed popular financial advisor Jacques Neckler, who had been trying to fix the economy on his own. The people of France, who had suffered, starved and been treated like gum on a shoe had enough and decided that they had to act now. They began to revolt.
Believing that the French Military would attack, the National Assembly formed the Bourgeois Militia or National Guard. Many French soldiers began to defect. On July 14th, 1789, the revolutionaries began storming the Hôtel les Invalides, a military hospital where they secured a large number of guns. However, these guns had no ammunition. Luckily, the Bastille was only 3 miles away, a large military fort. They demanded that Governor de Launay hand the fort and gunpowder over. De Launay refused and the revolutionaries violently stormed the Bastille, killing the French troops, cutting off De Launay’s head and parading it around Paris on a pike.
A painting of the Storming of the Bastille
The National Assembly fully endorsed the act. Many historians state that the endorsement of the Storming of the Bastille paved the way for the extreme violence that followed, which the French Revolution is known for. A lot of this violence was encouraged by Jean-Paul Marat, a violent radical with a skin condition that confined him to his bath tub. He wrote a newspaper called “The Friend of the People” in which he wrote ramblings about killing the nobility.
[The Friend of the People began] with a severe but honest tone, that of a man who wishes to tell the truth without breaking the conventions of society. I maintained that tone for two whole months. Disappointed in finding that it did not produce the entire effect that I had expected, and indignant that the boldness of the unfaithful representatives of the people and of the lying public officials was steadily increasing, I felt that it was necessary to renounce moderation[…]. Strongly convinced of the absolute perversity of the supporters of the old regime and the enemies of liberty, I felt that nothing could be obtained from them except by force. Revolted by their attempts, by their ever-recurrent plots, I realized that no end would be put to these except by exterminating the ones guilty of them.
Marat’s writing in The Friend of the People
It quickly became one of the popular publications in Paris at the time. By August, the National Assembly, with the help of Thomas Jefferson, had written up “The Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen” declaring equal rights for all men. Despite shortcomings in gender rights, it was considered a great document. However, the French People were still starving, and believed that the reason was because Louis didn’t see the problem himself, as he lived in Versailles, not Paris where most of the revolution and economic problems were occurring. The women of Paris decided to do something about it.
They marched on Versailles, gathering support along the way until a crowd in the tens of thousands had arrived at the Palace of Versailles, demanding to see the King. The rioters broke into the palace, intending to kill Antoinette, who had escaped through a secret passage. The rioters killed the royal guard, cut off their heads and stuck them on pikes.
A painting of the Women’s March on Versailles
The King eventually came out to the crowd, saying that he would accept working along side the revolutionary government. He moved pack to Paris with the revolutionaries along side the rest of his family. Once he moved, the government, piece by piece, began stripping his power. Fearing for his life, he had to become more friendly with the revolutionaries, even at one point wearing the revolutionary beret. Louis knew he had to get out of the country and fast. He hoped to seek sanctuary in Austria due to his wife’s ties to the Austrian Royal Family. However, they were stopped at Varennes, after postmaster Jean-Baptiste Drouet recognised him due to the stamp with his face on it on his assignat and was arrested.
An assignat with Louis’ face at the top
The façade of revolutionary support that Louis had been putting up suddenly crumbled in the blink of an eye. Many considered him a traitor who attempted to abandon his people. The New Constitution of 1791 made Louis nothing more than a figurehead for the country. Jacobin radicals were still furious that the King hadn’t been removed outright. They organised a large protest, at which the National Guard shot at the revolutionaries. This revealed the division between the two factions of the revolution, the moderates who wanted to keep the King as a figurehead and the radicals who wanted the King deposed and killed.
Whilst nobility were leaving the country, other European superpowers with monarchies feared that France’s revolutionary ideas might spread. Fearing an attack, the newly renamed Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria, beginning the War of the First Coalition. With an alliance being made with the Prussians, France hardly stood a chance. Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick sent a letter to the revolutionaries, warning that if any harm were to come to Louis, he would burn Paris to the ground. In a surprising turn of events, this invigorated the French people to do the exact opposite, as they were angered by the threat. The riots escalated and the Palace was eventually stormed, where fighting broke out between the revolutionaries and the King’s Guard. The King ran to the Legislative Assembly, where a vote was held. The monarchy was suspended almost unanimously. Louis, no longer King of France was put in prison along side Antoinette.
On September 22nd, 1792, the Legislative Assembly, now called the National Convention declared the French Republic, where ideas of democracy and equality were thrown around. But those ideas were drowned by their thirst for blood. In order to remove any artifact of their monarchist past, they began by deporting or arresting members of the clergy and replacing Catholicism with the state sponsored, Atheist religion called the Cult of Reason. Churches and cathedrals such as Notre Dame had their Catholic relics taken or destroyed and the buildings were turned into “Temples of Reason”. The Christian Calendar was gotten rid of, replacing it with the French Republican Calendar. The lengths of minutes, hours and days were changed with an entirely new set of months. The nobility were also arrested on mass along side the clergy.
Meanwhile the Austrian lines were advancing, and thousands of men were sent away from Paris to the frontlines. This was when paranoia began to set in. People began to believe that the clergy and nobility, all clustered together in prisons, were plotting their revenge, ideas that were pushed further by Marat. Fearing an uprising, revolutionaries broke into the prisons and killed everyone. The priests, the aristocrats and even the women and children. 1,600 people were tried and executed on the spot. A journalist for the London times wondered:
Are these “the Rights of Man”? Is this the liberty of Human Nature?
The London Times, Sept 10, 1792
Meanwhile, on the front lines, Prussia and Austria told France that if they won the war, they would reinstate Louis to the throne. In response to this, a trial was held for Louis for the crime of treason. While some recommended deportation, Robespierre insisted that Louis would be executed. The execution choice won out by only 1 vote. He was to be execute using the newly invented guillotine.
On the morning of January 21st 1793, Louis was woken at 5 in the morning. He ordered his royal seal be given to his son and his wedding ring to his wife. He was transported to the Place de la Revolution. He walked up the gallows, with snare drums rolling as he went up. He requested that the drummers stop so he could deliver some final words.
Frenchmen, I die guiltless of the crime imputed to me. I forgive the authors of my death and pray God my blood fall not on France.
Louis’ last words to the people of France
The snare drums started up again, drowning out his true final words. His hair was cut and his collar was opened. His neck laid on the block and the blade came down, slicing his head clean off. The cannons fired, signifying that he was dead.
By the middle of the eighteenth century, France was one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Kingdom possessed a huge population, a powerful army and navy, a vast colonial empire and one of Europe’s most influential cultures. Paris was a centre of intellectual and artistic life, while the royal court at Versailles represented the extraordinary wealth and power of the French monarchy. But beneath this grandeur was a society divided by enormous inequalities. French society was organised according to a system known as the Ancien Régime. The population was formally divided into three estates. The First Estate consisted of the Catholic clergy, the Second Estate consisted of the nobility, and virtually everyone else belonged to the Third Estate.
A political cartoon depicting the Three Estates
The divisions were not merely social. The first two estates possessed significant privileges that were denied to the overwhelming majority of the population. Members of the clergy and nobility were often exempt from some of the taxes imposed upon ordinary people, while many nobles enjoyed feudal rights over the peasants who worked their land. The Third Estate, meanwhile, contained everyone from wealthy merchants and lawyers to urban workers and impoverished peasants. Although these groups had vastly different lives, they shared one important characteristic: they lacked the legal privileges enjoyed by the first two estates. This created an increasingly uncomfortable contradiction. France was becoming wealthier and more commercially sophisticated, yet political power remained concentrated among a relatively small section of society.
France’s problems were made considerably worse by its rivalry with Britain. Both countries were competing for territory, trade and influence across Europe, North America, the Caribbean and India. Tensions eventually erupted into the Seven Years’ War in 1756, one of the first conflicts to become genuinely global in scale. France initially appeared capable of challenging Britain, but the war ended disastrously for the French. Britain captured important French possessions in North America and India, while the Treaty of Paris in 1763 forced France to surrender much of its colonial territory.
A painting of Frederick II and his army during the Seven Years War
The defeat was more than a military humiliation. France had spent enormous sums fighting the war and was left with a massive national debt. The monarchy now faced a problem that would haunt it for decades: it needed more money, but the people with the greatest wealth and political influence were often the very people most resistant to taxation.
At the same time, an intellectual revolution was taking place across Europe. The Enlightenment was a broad movement of philosophers, writers and political thinkers who questioned traditional assumptions about government, religion and society. Thinkers such as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu argued, in different ways, that political authority should be subjected to reason and that individuals possessed rights that governments were expected to respect.
A painting of a group of Enlightenment thinkers reading a classical tragedy
Montesquieu promoted the idea of separating political power between different branches of government. Rousseau argued that legitimate political authority ultimately came from the people, rather than simply from hereditary rulers. Voltaire attacked religious intolerance and abuses of authority. These ideas did not automatically call for the destruction of monarchy. Many Enlightenment thinkers initially supported the idea of reforming existing governments rather than overthrowing them.
Nevertheless, their arguments provided Europeans with a new way of thinking about political authority. If government existed to serve society, why should a king possess almost unlimited political authority simply because he had been born into the royal family? And if all people possessed natural rights, why should some be granted legal privileges simply because of their birth? These questions would become increasingly dangerous for the French monarchy.
A painting of the French Royal Family
In 1774, Louis XVI became King of France following the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. Louis inherited a country with enormous potential but equally enormous problems. He was not the caricature of an entirely incompetent ruler sometimes portrayed by later revolutionary propaganda. He could be conscientious and genuinely wanted to improve France. However, he was indecisive, politically inexperienced and frequently struggled to make difficult decisions. More importantly, he inherited a financial system that was deeply resistant to reform. France’s debt had continued to grow since the Seven Years’ War. The monarchy had also spent enormous sums supporting the American colonists during the American Revolutionary War, hoping to weaken Britain and recover some of the prestige France had lost during the Seven Years’ War.
The strategy worked militarily. France helped the Americans defeat Britain and played a crucial role in the victory at Yorktown in 1781. Financially, however, it was disastrous. The French government had effectively spent enormous amounts of money helping another country win independence while already struggling to pay its own debts. Successive ministers attempted to solve the problem by reforming taxation and reducing government expenditure. However, these reforms repeatedly encountered resistance from powerful groups who feared losing their privileges. Finance ministers such as Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Jacques Necker and Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed different solutions, but none could permanently resolve the crisis. The problem was not simply that France lacked money. It was that the monarchy struggled to reform the system through which money was collected.
Jacques Necker, a finance minister from the period
France possessed a complicated collection of taxes, exemptions and privileges that made taxation deeply unequal. Attempts to make the wealthy contribute more were often blocked by institutions dominated by privileged elites. The monarchy therefore found itself trapped. It needed to reform the system to survive, but reform required the cooperation of people who benefited from the existing system. By the late 1780s, the situation had become critical. Poor harvests caused the price of bread to rise dramatically, placing enormous pressure on ordinary families. For peasants and urban workers, bread was not merely another expense: it was a necessity of life. A sudden increase in its price could mean hunger.
At the same time, unemployment and poverty were increasing in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, France’s political elite continued to debate how the kingdom should be governed. The contrast was becoming impossible to ignore. At Versailles, the monarchy remained surrounded by the ceremony and splendour of the royal court. Outside the palace, ordinary French people increasingly questioned why they were expected to bear the financial burden of a system that appeared to benefit the privileged. The monarchy’s financial crisis was therefore becoming a political crisis.
A painting of Versailles in the 1770s
By 1788, the French government was effectively approaching bankruptcy. Louis XVI’s ministers could no longer solve the problem through ordinary financial measures. France had helped create a new republic partly to weaken Britain, but the financial consequences of that decision would help undermine the French monarchy itself. As the financial crisis worsened, resentment towards the royal family intensified. Much of this anger became concentrated on Louis XVI’s wife, Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. She had arrived in France as a teenager after marrying the future king in 1770, symbolising the diplomatic alliance between France and Austria.
Marie Antoinette became an extraordinarily unpopular figure. Her expensive clothing, jewellery, entertainments and lavish lifestyle made her an easy target at a time when ordinary French people were struggling to afford basic necessities. She became associated with the extravagance of Versailles, even though many of the most extreme stories about her spending were exaggerated or completely fabricated. Her reputation was so poor that political pamphlets began referring to her as “Madame Déficit.” The nickname was unfair in the sense that Marie Antoinette was not responsible for France’s enormous national debt. The financial crisis had existed long before her influence became significant. Nevertheless, her lifestyle provided revolutionaries with a convenient symbol of everything they believed was wrong with the Ancien Régime. She was no longer simply the King’s wife. To many of his opponents, she represented the entire privileged elite.
A portrait of Marie Antoinette
The royal family’s reputation was made even worse by a series of scandals and rumours. Louis XVI’s marriage to Marie Antoinette had initially attracted enormous public attention. The couple’s failure to consummate their marriage for several years became the subject of widespread gossip. Louis eventually underwent a medical procedure that appears to have resolved the problem, and the couple eventually had four children.
However, by then the damage had been done. Pamphlets and political cartoons portrayed the King as weak and sexually incompetent while depicting Marie Antoinette as promiscuous and morally corrupt. Much of this material was deliberately designed to humiliate the royal couple rather than accurately describe their private lives.
A cartoon depicting the sexual frustrations of Louis XVI
The most notorious scandal was the Diamond Necklace Affair of 1785. Marie Antoinette had nothing to do with the scheme, but con artists managed to convince a cardinal that he was secretly purchasing an extraordinarily expensive diamond necklace on the Queen’s behalf. When the fraud was exposed, the Queen’s reputation suffered even further. The episode demonstrated how effectively political propaganda could be used against the monarchy. By the late 1780s, rumours about the royal family were no longer merely gossip. They had become political weapons.
While the monarchy struggled to pay its debts, the burden of taxation fell disproportionately upon the Third Estate. France’s taxation system was extremely complicated. Some taxes were imposed directly by the monarchy, while others were collected locally or through privileged arrangements. One of the most hated was the gabelle, a tax on salt that had existed for centuries and varied dramatically between different regions. Tax collection could also be deeply unpopular because some taxes were collected through private contractors known as fermiers généraux. These financiers effectively purchased the right to collect certain taxes on behalf of the Crown and could employ armed guards to enforce payment. For peasants and urban workers, taxation was therefore not simply an abstract financial issue. It could mean losing money they desperately needed to buy food.
A cartoon depicting the tax collecters
The resentment was made worse by the perception that the wealthy were protected from the worst consequences. The clergy and nobility possessed important tax privileges, while the Third Estate carried much of the financial burden. This created an increasingly explosive political question: why should the people who had the least wealth be expected to carry so much of the country’s financial burden?
Then France suffered a disaster that transformed political resentment into popular unrest. The harvests of the late 1780s were poor, particularly the harvest of 1788. Severe weather, including hailstorms and an exceptionally harsh winter, damaged agricultural production. Grain became more expensive and bread prices increased dramatically. For ordinary French families, this was catastrophic. Bread was the foundation of the French diet. A substantial increase in its price could consume a huge proportion of a worker’s income, leaving little money for anything else.
An illustration depicting the plight of the French people during the poor harvest
Unemployment also increased as economic difficulties affected industries that depended upon agricultural demand. The wealthy could often survive food shortages more easily because they possessed money, land or stored supplies. The poor could not. Rioting and attacks on food supplies became increasingly common. Bakeries were sometimes looted and accusations that merchants or bakers were deliberately hoarding grain could lead to violence. The crisis transformed dissatisfaction with the monarchy into something far more dangerous. People were no longer merely angry about political privilege. They were hungry.
One of the most famous stories associated with Marie Antoinette emerged from this atmosphere. According to a popular legend, when the Queen was told that the French poor had no bread, she supposedly replied:
Let them eat cake.
An alleged quote from Marie Antoinette
The story is almost certainly false. The phrase appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, written before Marie Antoinette had even arrived in France, although Rousseau attributed it only to an unnamed “great princess.” There is no reliable evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said it. Nevertheless, the story became extremely useful to revolutionaries. Whether or not the Queen had actually said it was almost irrelevant. The phrase captured the image of Marie Antoinette that revolutionary propaganda wanted the public to believe: an immensely wealthy aristocrat who could not understand the suffering of ordinary people.
A portrait of Rosseau
By 1788, the financial crisis had become impossible for the monarchy to ignore. Louis XVI’s ministers had repeatedly attempted to introduce financial reforms, but privileged groups had resisted measures that would make them pay more taxes. Eventually, the monarchy reached the point where it could no longer borrow enough money to keep the government functioning. Louis therefore agreed to summon the Estates-General, a representative assembly that had not met since 1614. The Third Estate represented the overwhelming majority of the French population, but the traditional voting system meant that each estate effectively received one collective vote. This created an obvious problem. If the First and Second Estates voted together, they could defeat the Third Estate regardless of how many people the Third Estate represented. The Third Estate therefore demanded that voting take place by head, allowing individual representatives to vote rather than giving each estate a single collective vote. The dispute quickly became about something much larger than taxation. It was becoming a struggle over who possessed political authority in France.
The representatives of the Third Estate eventually decided that they could no longer accept the existing system. On June 17th, 1789, they declared themselves the National Assembly, claiming that they represented the French nation rather than merely one section of French society. Members of the clergy and nobility gradually began joining them. Louis XVI attempted to prevent the assembly from meeting by having its usual meeting place closed. When the deputies arrived and discovered that they had been locked out, they moved to a nearby indoor tennis court. There, on June 20th, they made a dramatic pledge. Known as the Tennis Court Oath, the deputies promised not to separate until they had established a constitution for France. The political revolution had begun. The Third Estate was no longer simply asking the King to reform the tax system. It was claiming the right to determine how France itself would be governed.
A painting of the Tennis Court Oath
The National Assembly quickly attracted some of the most influential political thinkers and activists in France. Among them was Maximilien Robespierre, a young lawyer who had become increasingly influenced by Enlightenment ideas and the writings of Rousseau. Another prominent figure was Georges Danton, a powerful speaker who would later become one of the Revolution’s most important leaders. There were also revolutionaries who came from the aristocracy itself. One of the most prominent was the Marquis de Lafayette, who had fought alongside the Americans during their Revolution and had returned to France convinced that constitutional government could be established without destroying the monarchy.
These revolutionaries did not initially agree on what France should become. Some wanted a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain’s. Others wanted a much more democratic republic. Some primarily wanted economic reform and an end to aristocratic privilege. Others increasingly believed that the monarchy itself had to disappear. One of the most important political organisations to emerge from this atmosphere was the Jacobin Club. Originally a debating and political society dominated by reformers, it gradually became associated with increasingly radical revolutionary politics. Robespierre would eventually become its most famous leader. The Revolution was therefore beginning to develop factions within factions.
An illustration of the building where the Jacobin Club met
France had not yet abolished its monarchy. But the authority of the King was already being challenged by a new principle: that political power belonged to the nation rather than simply to the monarch. The financial crisis had created the conditions for revolution. The Enlightenment had provided many of its ideas. And the National Assembly had now given those ideas a political institution through which they could be turned into action. All that remained was for the crisis to become violent.
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