Primary Source Reading

Primary Source #1: A Letter About the “Diamond Necklace Affair” (1786)

“On January 24th 1785 the Cardinal of Rohan came to our store — Bohmer and Bassanges —and asked us to show him various jewels. We took advantage of this opportunity to show him a big diamond necklace, a unique and rare piece of its kind. After having examined it, this Prince told us he had heard about this jewel and that he had come because he was given the responsibility of checking the price. We told him that we wanted to sell the necklace because it had become a heavy burden on us. It cost 1,600,000 livres, even though it cost us more to make it. Nevertheless, we were determined to sell the necklace, and told him that we would be very happy that Her Majesty the Queen wear the jewel… The Prince told us that he would mention [to the queen] the meeting he had with us, and also that he would be responsible for buying the necklace…

Two days later the Prince asked us to come to his house and he told us that he could negotiate with us if we would keep everything secret. We promised we would, and he informed us of proposals to acquire the necklace… After having read these proposals, he asked us if they would be suitable for us and we answered yes…

On the morning of February 1st, the Prince wrote us a letter without signing it: “I would like Monsieur Bohmer and his partner to come to my house as soon as possible with the object in question.” We immediately went and brought him the famous necklace. During the meeting, he told us that Her Majesty the Queen was going to acquire the jewel, and he showed us that the proposals we had accepted were signed by Marie Antoinette of France. We showed our joy and satisfaction, and the Prince assured us that he would deliver the necklace during the day. At the same time he told us that Her Majesty could not meet with them as mentioned in the proposals, but he hoped that we would receive the interest we claimed and he would represent them, as he considered our request fair. This is how ended the third meeting.

The same day, we received a letter from the Prince, written and signed by him: “Monsieur Bohmer, Her Majesty the Queen’s intentions were that the interest due after the first payment at the end of August, be paid successively with capital until everything is paid for. Signed by the Cardinal Prince of Rohan.” Paris, February 1st 1785.

A few days after we received this letter we met the Prince, who told us that as soon as we had the opportunity to meet Her Majesty the Queen, we should thank her for buying the necklace. But we never had the opportunity to meet her. We waited until July, when the Prince asked us to come to his house. He told us that the necklace was too expensive for the Queen. Her Majesty had the intention to give it back to us, unless we considered lowering its price to 200,000 livres…

We were filled with sorrow and consternation after hearing this. We told the Prince of the misfortune these events were leading us into since, on one hand, we had refused to sell the jewel to the Spanish Court, where it had been asked for several times. On the other hand we had committed ourselves to several creditors after the Prince had assured us that we would receive the first payments from Her Majesty.

The Prince promised us that he would mention these facts to the Queen. A few days later, he told us that Her Majesty had accepted our last settlements, and instead of receiving 400,000 livres, we would soon receive 700,000 livres, which would allow us to honour our commitments. At the same time the Prince told us to thank the Queen. For fear that we would not be able to tell her verbally, we wrote her a thank you note, which was delivered by Bohmer to Her Majesty.

The end of July was the time of the first payment we were supposed to receive. The Prince asked us to come over and told us that this first payment could not be made; it was to be postponed to October 1st. Meanwhile, we received 30,000 livres in the interest. We gave him a receipt saying that we had received this amount from Her Majesty the Queen.

Signed,
Bohmer and Bassanges”

Primary Source #2: Louis, the King of the Third Estate

“We [the Queen’s circle] never ceased telling the King that the Third Estate would ruin everything—and we were right. We begged him to keep them in line, to use sovereign authority to block party intrigue. The King told us: “But it is not clear that the Third Estate is wrong. Different procedures have been used each time the Estates have met, so why reject joint verification? I am for it.”

The King, it has to be admitted, numbered among the revolutionaries at that time — a strange twist of fate that can only be explained by admitting that the hand of Providence was involved. Meanwhile rumors spread in Paris and Versailles was only slightly more peaceful. The Comte d’Estaing, who was soon to be commander of Versailles’National Guard, was already playing an important role there. The King readily listened to him…

Deceived on the one hand by the Genevan [Necker] … the King paid no attention to the Queen’s fears. This well-informed princess knew all about the plots that were being hatched against the government. She brought them to the attention of Louis XVI, who told her: “But when all is said and done, is the Third Estate not also my children—and the greatest in number? And will I not still be their king even though the nobility may lose some of their privileges and the clergy a few snatches of their income?”

Primary Source #3: A ROYALIST’S ACCOUNT OF THE CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1797)

“The turning point was 1789. It was in that year that the Revolution, already apparent in the minds, customs and way of life of the French nation, began to take effect in government. I will describe the principal reasons for this and some of the events to which it led.

The king had placed his confidence in M. de Vergennes, an anxious minister, frightened of the court and of the great men, lacking character or talent and yet wise and enlightened; he influenced rather than directed the king’s conduct. Alarmed by the dangerous situation of the kingdom, he made it clear to the king and convinced him of the need for extraordinary measures and a new system of administration if disaster was to be avoided.

The most striking of the country’s troubles was the chaos in its finances, the result of years of extravagance intensified by the expense of the American War of Independence, which had cost the state over twelve hundred million livres. No one could think of any remedy but a search for fresh funds, as the old ones were exhausted.

Monsieur de Calonne, Minister of Finance, had conceived a bold and wide-ranging plan. This was put to the king, who gave it his approval and promised to support its implementation with the full weight of his authority. Without either threatening the basis of the French monarchy or damaging the sovereign’s authority, this plan changed the whole previous system of financial administration and attacked all its vices at their root. The worst of these were: the arbitrary system of allocation, the oppressive cost of collection, and the abuse of privilege by the richest section of taxpayers. This abuse extended not merely to the great and influential of the realm, but to the first orders of the state, that is, the clergy and the nobility, to the provinces, and to the towns, so that the whole weight of public expenditure was borne by the most numerous but least wealthy part of the nation, which was crushed by the burden.

The plan was to be endorsed by an Assembly of Notables of the kingdom which was to circumvent the need to consult the parlements. It was the more welcome to the king in that it fulfilled his dearest wish: the relief of the most numerous class of his subjects. The Notables were thus summoned for January 29th 1787; I was appointed to this Assembly; it had not met since 1626, in the reign of Louis XIII. The Notables, who comprised the leading figures among the clergy, nobility, magistracy and the principal towns, were naturally bound to oppose the ending of abuses from which they profited.

Nevertheless, most of the nobles, and others under direct government influence, were well-intentioned. They would have carried the rest with them but for the intrigues of the archbishop of Toulouse, Lomenie de Brienne, one of the Notables. All the assembly did was to destroy the minister who had set up the plan, M. de Calonne. Abandoned by the king, he was disgraced and forced to go into exile for fear of being given up to the fury of the people.

Lomenie de Brienne was put in charge of the administration of finance. Shortly afterwards the king was imprudent enough to make him principal minister. Brienne dismissed the Notables and was soon at the mercy of the parlements. He gathered a few remnants of M. de Calonne’s plans, containing some useful insights and suggestions for solving the immediate problems; but the magistracy [parlements] opposed a stubborn resistance to their execution.

Then the troubles began. They broke out first in Brittany, where the government was compelled to bring in armed forces but did not dare use them owing to the reluctance shown by the troops, especially the officers. In Paris, the people’s discontent, already raised to the point of rebellion by factious members of the parliament, gave rise to riots which had to be put down by military force.

The upheavals were even more violent in 1788. Tired of opposition from the parlements, Brienne persuaded the king to adopt the fanciful idea of setting up a plenary court intended to prevent them from achieving that share in the legislature they were trying to grasp. Then the parlements, inspired by the idea of the Assembly of Notables, demanded the convocation of the Estates-General. They were quite sure the court would refuse it. The clergy made the same request — and the same mistake.

The government made a still greater one: it promised to call the Estates-General. They had not met for almost two hundred years, and in this long period of time there had been such great changes in the minds, the way of life, in the character, customs and government of the French nation that their meeting now could only produce upheaval.”

Primary Source #4, 5 and 6: Demands and Accounts from the Different Estates

Third Estate – (1789)

“1. The Power of making laws resides in the king and the nation.

2. The nation, being too numerous for a personal exercise of this right, has confided its trust to representatives freely chosen from all classes of citizens. These representatives constitute the national assembly.

3. Frenchmen should regard as laws of the kingdom those alone which have been prepared by the national assembly and sanctioned by the king…

5. The laws prepared by the States General and sanctioned by the king shall be binding upon all classes of citizens and upon all provinces of the kingdom, They shall be registered literally and accurately in all courts of law. They shall be open for consultation at all seats of municipal and communal government; and shall be read at sermon time in all parishes…

10. Deputies of the Third Estate, or their president or speaker, shall preserve the same attitude and demeanour as the representatives of the two upper orders, when they address the sovereign. As regards the three orders there shall be no difference observed in the ceremonial made use of at the convocation of the estates.

11. Personal liberty, proprietary rights and the security of citizens shall be established in a clear, precise and irrevocable manner. All lettres de cachet shall be abolished forever, subject to certain modifications which the States General may see fit to impose.

12. And to remove forever the possibility of injury to the personal and proprietary rights of Frenchmen, the jury system shall be introduced in all criminal cases, and in civil cases for the determination of fact, in all the courts of the realm…

15. A wider liberty of the press shall be accorded, with this provision alone: that all manuscripts sent to the printer shall be signed by the author, who shall be obliged to disclose his identity and bear the responsibility of his work; and to prevent judges and other persons in power from taking advantage of their authority, no writing shall be held a libel until it is so determined by twelve jurors…

20. The military throughout the kingdom shall be subject to the general law and to the civil authorities, in the same manner as other citizens.

21. No tax shall be legal unless accepted by the representatives of the people and sanctioned by the king.

22. Since all Frenchmen receive the same advantage from the government and are equally interested in its maintenance, they ought to be placed upon the same footing in the matter of taxation.

23. All taxes now in operation are contrary to these principles and for the most part vexatious, oppressive and humiliating to the people. They ought to be abolished as soon as possible, and replaced by others common to the three orders and to all classes of citizens, without exception…

28. In case of war, or other exceptional necessity, no loan shall be made without the consent of the States General, and it shall be enacted that no loan shall be effected, without provision being made by taxation for the payment of interest, and of the principal at a specified time…

49. All relics of feudalism, still remaining in certain provinces, shall be abolished.

50. New laws shall be made in favour of the Negroes in our colonies; and the States General shall take measures towards the abolition of slavery…

52. It shall be ordained by the constitution that the executive power be vested in the king alone…

55. His consent shall be necessary to all bills approved by the States General in order that they may acquire the force of law throughout the realm. He may reject all bills presented to him, without being obliged to state the reasons of his disapproval…”

Second Estate – (1789)

“The spirit of unity and agreement, which has always reigned between the three orders, is equally manifest in their cahiers. The question of voting by head in the assembly of the Estates-General was the only one to divide the Third Estate from the other two orders, whose constant wish has been to deliberate there by order… it is with the greatest satisfaction that the orders have seen that their cahiers, although separate, could be seen as effectively comprising only one, motivated by the same spirit.

Constitution

Article 1. The deputies will seek to discuss any other matter only when they will have stated in the most positive manner and in the form of fixed and unalterable law:

1. The recognition of administrative power belonging fully to the king;

2. The rights of the nation to consent to laws as well as the grants [taxes], their sharing out and collection;

3. Public and individual freedom, from which derives that of the press, guaranteed according to the law;

4. The sacred and inviolable right of property, the stability of the courts, the irremovability of their officers…

7. The periodic return of the Estates-General.

8. The establishment of provincial Estates in each province…

Grants [taxes]

Article 1. The deputies will present to the Estates-General a picture of abuses resulting from the arbitrariness employed in assessments of the taille, capitation, one-twentieth levies [vingtiemes], contributions to roads, and will demand the abolition, modification, combination or conversion of these taxes.

Article 2. They will demand the abolition of the salt tax and the replacement of this imposition by another that is less onerous…

Nobility

The deputies of the order of the nobility of Berry at the Estates-General will ask:

Article 1. That all venal nobility will be abolished.

Article 2. That the provincial Estates be able to present to the king those of their fellow citizens whose services rendered put them in the position of obtaining nobility.

Article 3. That in each province a nobiliary be formed by a court made up of nobles.

Article 4. That seigneurial justice be preserved… as well as honorific and useful rights, inherent in lands or people…”

First State – (1789)

“The clergy of the diocese of St-Malo, summoned by the king’s command to consider means of promoting the prosperity of the kingdom, being anxious to respond to the benevolent intentions of the monarch and to prove to the whole nation its zeal in all that concerns public well-being, has in its various assemblies drawn up the following cahier.

That in the national assembly, and in all political assemblies in the provinces, votes shall be counted by head and not by order.

That it shall be laid down in the same assembly as a fundamental law of the kingdom that no tax will be imposed, except by the agreement of the assembled nation.

That in future the Estates-General shall meet at fixed periods.

That at each meeting of the Estates-General an account shall be given to the nation of the use made of public money since the previous meeting.

That request be made for the safeguarding of all the rights, franchises and immunities of our province of Brittany.

That no attempt shall be made upon the liberty of any citizen without giving him means of defence at the very moment of his detention.

To ask for the abolition of the corvee (forced labour service).

To seek for means of protecting the people from the distress caused by seigneurial rights pertaining to pigeon-houses, dovecotes, warrens, hunting, mills, presses, seigneurial ovens and other feudal rights.

That only the Catholic religion be publicly exercised in France.

To request proper and effective means of giving young people in town and country an education that will be solid and useful to religion and to the state.

Admission of the deputies of all classes of the clergy to all ecclesiastical assemblies, national and provincial, as well as to the political assemblies of this province; and, in these assemblies, a proportional and adequate representation of the Third Estate.

To ask for implementation of the canons against holding benefices in plurality.

And the clergy conclude by exhorting their representatives in the Estates-General to support with all the zeal in their power any other useful suggestions which may be made and which may have escaped their consideration.”

Primary Source 7 – The Execution of Danton (1794)

“Danton was the first to climb into the first of three carts which were to take the group to the Place de la Revolution. He had to wait until all three carts were loaded so that they could go to execution together. The loading took over an hour because Camille Desmoulins struggled a long time with the executioner, and knocked him down twice. He refused to have his hands tied or his hair cut, and they say the gendarmes had to help the executioner overcome Camille’s resistance.

During this time Danton was laughing in the cart and nodding to the other condemned men, who were by now bound and placed in their carts, to show that he was being kept waiting too long. He chatted to Lacroix and Herault, who were next to him, saying within the hearing of the people beside the carriages near the palace courtyard rails: ‘What annoys me most is that I am going to die six weeks before Robespierre’. Eventually, Camille appeared in the cart. His shirt was in ribbons, he was out of breath, frenzied, loudly cursing Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety and the infamous Tribunal which served these monsters.

The condemned went to their deaths in the midst of a huge crowd of republicans, who were there to watch the original founders of their Republic lose their heads. Seeing the procession pass, a woman in the Rue St-Honore looked at Danton and exclaimed: ‘How ugly he is!’ He smiled at her and said: ‘There’s no point in telling me that now, I shan’t be ugly much longer’. His face did in fact look like the head of a lion, while Robespierre’s is like that of a cat or a tiger.

When they reached the place of execution, they were made to get out of the carts at the foot of the scaffold. They climbed up one by one to be executed and watched as the others died under the blade. Danton was the last. When he saw the executioner coming for him at the foot of the scaffold, he cried out in a strong voice, ‘My turn now!’ and quickly climbed the fatal ladder. As they were tying him to the block, he looked calmly at the blade dripping with his friends’ blood, and bent his head saying: ‘It’s only a sabre cut’ (a phrase Desmoulins had once used to describe the new method of execution).

Danton is dead, Robespierre triumphant. The tiger has beaten the lion. But the triumph will not last, if we can believe Danton’s prediction on his way to the scaffold – and he was a man who understood revolutions.”