A Tale of Two CitiesThe Reign of Terror

The MonarchyKing Louis XVI Marie Antoinette

The Revolutionaries• Commoners• Sans-culottes• Red liberty hats• Tricolor cockade

The “Jacques”• “Jacques” was a code name used by the

revolutionaries to identify other revolutionaries• Common name representing the common

citizen• Provided anonymity• Possibly based on real-life:

o Jacquerie-peasant revolt in 1300so Jacobins-the actual revolutionaries

Estates of the Realm• First Estate

o Clergyo 0.5% of population

• Second Estateo Nobilityo 2% of population

• Third Estate o Everyone else (peasants,

laborers, shop keepers, etc.)

o 97% of population

Leading to Revolution• Third Estate

o Heavily taxed (only estate that was taxed)o Politically under-representedo The poorest were devastated by food

shortages

• The Third Estate’s growing discontent with the lavish lifestyle of aristocracy, despite France’s economic turmoil.

The Estates-General

Revolution Begins - 1789• Tennis Court Oath (June)• Storming of the Bastille(July)• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the

Citizen (August)• Women’s March on Versailles (October)

Tennis Court Oath - June

Storming the Bastille - July

• The Bastille was a prison in the center of Paris• Symbol of royal authority and abuses of monarchy• A mob of citizens stormed the Bastille• Only 7 prisoners, but a lot of gunpowder (15 tons)

Storming of the Bastille“Work, Jacques One, Jacques Two, Jacques One

Thousand, Jacques Two Thousand, Jacques Five-and-

Twenty Thousand; in the name of all the Angels or the

Devils--which you prefer--work!”

"To me, women!" cried madame. "What! We can kill as well

as the men when the place is taken!”

After the Bastille• The king was informed of the storming the

next morning by one of his dukes.

"Is it a revolt?" asked Louis XVI. The duke replied: "No sire, it is a revolution.”

Declaration of the Rights of Man

and of the Citizen - August• Fundamental document of

the Revolution• First step toward writing

constitution• Defines individual human

rights• Collective rights of all

estates of the realm as universal

• Adopted by the National Assembly (political leaders of Third Realm) after the Tennis Court Oath

March on Versailles - Oct• Women in a Paris marketplace were angered

by the high price and scarcity of bread• Grew into a mob of thousands• Ransacked the city armory for weapons• Marched to Versailles to confront the King

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Red Cap• A Red Cap, also known as Liberty cap or Phrygian

cap• Brimless felt cap, conical with the tip pulled forward• Alludes to Roman manumission of slaves

o Freed slave receives the cap as symbol of liberty• French revolutionaries wore it at the Bastille

The Red Cap• Mounted patriots in red caps

and tri-coloured cockades, armed with national muskets and sabres…”

• The red cap and tri-colour cockade were universal, both among men and women.

• “Houses, with the standard inscription Republic One and Indivisible. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death!”

• “Her dark hair looked rich under her coarse red cap.”

The Red Cap in America

Reign of Terror• The most violent period of

the Revolution• Lasted approx. one year,

Sept 1793 to July 1794

• Mass executions of “enemies of the revolution“o 16,594 executed

by guillotineo 2,639 by guillotine in Paris

• Another 25,000 executions across France

Madame Guillotine• A symbol of the revolution• Many nobles (émigrés) left France

• aExecution of King Louis XVI

• a

Execution of Marie Antoinette

Charles Dickens• a

Tumbril• “Rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire…the Farmer, Death,

had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.”

• “The tumbrils now jolted heavily, filled with Condemned…all red wine for La Guillotine, all daily brought into light from the dark cellars of the loathsome prisons, and carried to her through the streets to slake her devouring thirst. Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death;—the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!”

Tricoteuse• French for “knitting women”• Nickname for the women who

regularly attended executions• Sat beside the guillotine • They were morbidly calm,

knitting between executions.

“One woman who had stood conspicuous, knitting, still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate.”