French Revolution Study Guide

Vocabulary study cards covering social estates, key figures, financial crises, political bodies, and major events of the French Revolution.

The First Estate

The clergy in pre-revolutionary France, consisting of higher and lower clergy who together made up about $0.5\%$ of the population, controlled about $10\%$ of the land, and paid no taxes.

Higher Clergy

Bishops, Cardinals, Monsignors, and other high-ranking ministers within the First Estate who typically came from noble families and lived lavish lifestyles.

Lower Clergy

Parish priests, monks, and nuns within the First Estate who lived modest lifestyles similar to the average members of the communities they served.

The Second Estate

The French nobility, comprising $1.5\text{--}2\%$ of the population while controlling $20\%$ of the land, exempt from taxes, and exclusively entitled to hold high government positions.

Nobility of the Sword

A branch of the Second Estate descended from the original knights, dukes, and barons who had pledged military service to the king during the Middle Ages.

Nobility of the Robe

Judges and holders of important administrative positions in government who comprised the second category of the Second Estate.

The Third Estate

The social class encompassing $97\text{--}98\%$ of France's population—including merchants, lawyers, scholars, landowning farmers, laborers, and serfs—who held $70\%$ of the land and paid nearly all taxes without legal equality.

The Bourgeoisie

Members of the Third Estate living in towns or cities whose jobs did not require manual labor; they accumulated significant wealth in the 17th and 18th centuries but remained frustrated as second-class citizens barred from noble privileges.

Louis XVI

The French monarch who succeeded his grandfather Louis XV in 1774 at age 19; he inherited enormous state debt, governed near absolute authority, and routinely surrendered authority under pressure, precipitating his downfall.

Marie Antoinette

The Queen of France who entered an arranged marriage with Louis XVI at age 14; she was deeply unpopular due to accusations of lavish spending, rumored affairs, opposition to reforms, and suspected foreign sympathies.

Turgot

Appointed Controller-General of Finances in 1774; he sought to curb government expenses, opposed forced Third Estate labor and guild privileges, deregulated the grain trade, and proposed a land tax before riots and opposition led to his fall.

Necker

Made Director-General of Finances in 1777; he attempted to raise loans, sought to abolish serfdom, published an inaccurate public record of French finances in 1781, and was pressured to resign that same year.

Calonne

Finance minister appointed in 1783 who advocated spending cuts, selling Church lands, free trade, and a universal land tax paid by all estates; his proposals were rejected by the Assembly of Notables, leading to his exile in 1787.

Assembly of Notables

A consultative body of high-ranking nobles, clergy, and state officials handpicked by the King in February 1787; they refused Calonne's universal land tax, insisting only the Estates-General could approve national taxes.

Parlement

One of 13 provincial supreme appellate courts in pre-revolutionary France, with the Parlement of Paris being the most influential.

Rebellion of the Parlements

A political and financial crisis wherein noble magistrates challenged King Louis XVI's absolutist power and tax reforms, ultimately forcing the summoning of the Estates-General.

National Assembly

A representative body formed by the Third Estate in 1789 to prevent being outvoted $2\text{ to }1$ by the First and Second Estates, demanding instead that each representative receive one vote.

The Tennis Court Oath

A pledge taken on June 20, 1789, by members of the National Assembly on a Versailles tennis court, vowing not to disband until they had established a written constitution for France.

The Bastille

An armory and political prison in central Paris holding only 7 prisoners; it stood as a hated symbol of royal authority and oppression until it was stormed and demolished by rioters on July 14, 1789.

Bourgeois Militia of Paris

A group of Parisian rioters organized in July 1789 who broke into government armories to seize weapons and ammunition prior to the storming of the Bastille.

Paris Commune

The revolutionary municipal government formed after the storming of the Bastille, marked by the withdrawal of royal troops, the installation of Lafayette over the city guard, and an elected council headed by a Third Estate mayor.

Sans-Culottes

Radical lower-class urban laborers, artisans, shopkeepers, and craftsmen who drove forward the radical phases of the French Revolution.

The Great Fear

A wave of mass panic, hysteria, and rural riots sweeping the French countryside between July 22 and August 6, 1789, during which peasants attacked the châteaux and properties of nobles and wealthy landowners.

The August Decrees

Legislation passed by the National Assembly in August 1789 that abolished feudalism, eliminated noble tax exemptions, banned the sale of public offices, ended church tithes, and opened state offices to all estates.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens

A foundational human rights document drafted by Abbé Sieyès and Lafayette (in consultation with Thomas Jefferson), inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and serving as the preamble to the French Constitution.

Revolutionary Wars

A series of global and European military conflicts fought from April 20, 1792, to March 27, 1802, pitting the French Republic against coalitions led by Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

National Convention

The revolutionary governing assembly of France from September 20, 1792, to October 26, 1795, which governed the First Republic and oversaw the most radical phases of the Revolution.

Girondins

A moderate revolutionary faction in the National Convention drawing support from the provinces and bourgeoisie; they supported economic liberalism, private property, and reducing the political dominance of Paris.

Montagnards

A radical faction of Jacobins and Cordeliers allied with the sans-culottes who purged the Girondins in June 1793 and spearheaded the Reign of Terror.

Committee on Public Safety

A specialized executive body established by the National Convention in 1793, granted broad authority to suppress civil revolts, secure food supplies, and defend the Republic against counter-revolution.

The Reign of Terror

A radical phase from September 1793 to July 1794 led by Maximilian Robespierre; it resulted in roughly $300{,}000$ arrests, around $17{,}000$ official executions, and approximately $10{,}000$ prison deaths.

Cult of Reason

An atheistic, humanistic alternative to Christianity instituted by radical Jacobins, which temporarily converted Notre Dame Cathedral into the 'Temple of Reason.'

Cult of the Supreme Being

An agnostic, deistic state religion created by Maximilian Robespierre to replace the Cult of Reason, marked publicly by the 'Festival of the Supreme Being.'

Thermidorian Reaction

The political reaction against the radicalism of Robespierre and the Montagnards culminating in his arrest and execution on July 27, 1794, ending the Reign of Terror; now used generally to describe any reaction against radicalism.

Nationalism

Pride in belonging to a distinct nation and active support for its interests; in the Revolution, popular loyalty shifted away from the monarch and local regions toward the French nation as a whole.