French Revolution and Napoleon Quiz #1

Absolutism

Political system in which the monarch holds centralized and extensive political power.

Chateau de Versailles

Large royal palace that became the center of French royal court life and symbolized the wealth and power of the monarchy.

Three Orders

The three social classes of Old Regime France: Clergy (First Estate), Nobility (Second Estate), and Third Estate.

Clergy

The First Estate; members of the Catholic Church in France.

Nobility

The Second Estate; hereditary elites who held privileges and owned significant amounts of land.

Third Estate

The vast majority of French society, including peasants, workers, and the bourgeoisie.

Feudalism

Social and economic system based on landholding and obligations between lords and those who worked or held land.

Seigneur

A French landowning lord who controlled an estate and received payments or services from peasants.

Taille

A major direct tax in Old Regime France that fell heavily on the Third Estate.

Bourgeois

Members of the middle class, including merchants, professionals, lawyers, and wealthy businesspeople; part of the Third Estate.

Venal Office

The practice of purchasing government offices or positions.

Parlement

High court in Old Regime France that could resist royal legislation by refusing to register laws.

Lit de Justice

Royal ceremony in which the king could force a parlement to register a law.

Estates-General

Representative body consisting of the three estates: Clergy, Nobility, and Third Estate; called by Louis XVI in 1789.

Social Contract

The idea that government is based on an agreement between people and their government.

General Will

Rousseau's idea of what is best for society as a whole or the common good.

Will of All

The sum of individuals' private interests and desires.

Jacques-Louis David

French Neoclassical painter strongly associated with the French Revolution and revolutionary political art.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

French painter known for sentimental and moralizing scenes emphasizing virtue, family, and emotion.

Louis XVI

King of France during the beginning of the French Revolution; called the Estates-General in 1789.

Marie-Antoinette

Austrian-born queen of France and wife of Louis XVI; became a symbol of royal extravagance.

Cahiers de Doleances

Lists of grievances and demands prepared by the French people before the Estates-General met in 1789.

Jacques Necker

Popular French finance minister who tried to address the monarchy's financial crisis; his dismissal in 1789 helped fuel unrest.

Assembly of Notables

Group of prominent nobles and elites called by Louis XVI to discuss France's financial crisis and possible reforms.

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes

French political thinker who wrote What Is the Third Estate? and argued that the Third Estate represented the nation.

Mirabeau

Important early revolutionary leader who favored a constitutional monarchy.

Robespierre

Radical revolutionary leader associated with the Jacobins and the Reign of Terror.

Lettre de Cachet

Royal order that could be used to imprison someone without a normal trial.

National Assembly

Body formed when the Third Estate declared itself the representative assembly of the French nation in June 1789.

Tennis Court Oath

Pledge made by members of the National Assembly on June 20, 1789, to remain together until France had a constitution.

Bastille

Paris fortress and prison that symbolized royal tyranny; stormed by revolutionaries in 1789.

July 14, 1789

Date of the Storming of the Bastille.

August 4, 1789

Date when the National Assembly abolished many feudal privileges.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

1789 revolutionary document proclaiming principles such as liberty, equality, natural rights, and popular sovereignty.

Assignats

Revolutionary French paper currency originally connected to confiscated Church property.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

1790 law that reorganized the Catholic Church in France and placed the clergy under the authority of the revolutionary state.

Olympe de Gouges

French revolutionary writer who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen and criticized the Revolution's exclusion of women.

The Sun King

a nickname that reflected his belief in and display of absolute royal power.