During the French Revolution, a cook's helper who stood up for the Queen was cooked in butter and then set ablaze by the mob.1)
People dipped their handkerchiefs in Louis XVI's blood after his head was severed during the French Revolution and sold pieces of his hair as mementos. Over 200 years later, one of these handkerchiefs was discovered concealed in a dried squash.2)
Marie Antoinette unintentionally trod on the executioner's foot while standing on the scaffold. She uttered “Pardon me, monsieur” as her final words.3)
Lacking explosives, French rebels had to destroy the Bastille by hand.4)
Libelle pamphlets were printed by revolutionaries during the French Revolution. These booklets attempted to discredit the private lives of the French nobles by including weird eroticism.5)
A taille was a wage and land tax in France. It was only necessary to pay the Third Estate (the peasants). This disparity played a role in starting the French Revolution. The upper class, who could afford to pay taxes, paid almost no taxes at all.6)
During the French Revolution, Menagerie Jardin des Plantes, the first public zoo, was built in Paris. The National Assembly resolved that the menagerie at Versailles should receive the exotic animals owned by aristocracy.7)
Due to its involvement in both the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War, France was almost bankrupt. The French Revolution was influenced by the stress that the country's economic classes were experiencing as a result of the economic crisis.8)
Jacques Necker, France's finance minister, advised the royal family to adopt a budget before the French Revolution in order to save money. He was dismissed right away.9)
The 1794 French Revolution led to the release of African slaves. But in 1802, Napoleon brought back slavery and the slave trade.10)
The Reign of Terror, the worst phase of the French Revolution, was started by the bourgeois lawyer Maximilien Robespierre.11)
During the Reign Of Terror, there were over 16,000 executions in the years 1793 and 1794 alone.12)
With the justification that “terror is nothing more than speedy, severe, and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue”, Robespierre, one of the deadliest leaders of the French Revolution, made violence an official government policy.13)
A Tale of Two Cities, a work by Charles Dickens, is set during the French Revolution. Some of the most compelling explanations of the reasons and consequences of the French Revolution can be found in this book.14)
Leading the Reign of Terror, Robespierre established the “Cult of the Supreme Being” in place of Catholicism, with himself as its head.15)
Leader of the Reign of Terror Robespierre attempted suicide in July 1794 to elude capture. He was unsuccessful, and his jaw was seriously hurt. He said “Merci, monsieur” as he was put to death the next day at the guillotine after receiving a handkerchief to clean his bloodied jaw.16)
Thousands of individuals were executed or murdered during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794). The guillotine was designed as a humane mode of execution, but because of its effectiveness, more individuals might be put to death.17)
The guillotine was the execution tool of choice during the French Revolution. In 1977, Hamida Djandoubi became the final victim of the guillotine and the final victim of a legal beheading in the Western world. In 1981, France abolished the death penalty.18)
Madame la Guillotine, the Widow, the Patriotic Shortener, the National Razor, the Regretful Climb, and the Silence Mill were a few of the guillotine's nicknames.19)
A hailstorm that destroyed crops before to the French Revolution resulted in significant food shortages and increased bread costs.20)
The French Revolution proceeded through numerous phases until Napoleon established a dictatorship as its conclusion.21)
France observes Bastille Day as a national holiday on July 14 to commemorate the storming of the Bastille, which serves as the unofficial start of the French Revolution.22)
The French Revolution caused the fall of absolute monarchy all across the world and sparked a string of international wars, among other long-lasting repercussions on contemporary history.23)
One of the pivotal moments in human history is the French Revolution. It led to the growth of contemporary nationalism, the waning of the Catholic Church's influence, the expansion of liberalism, and the beginning of the age of revolutions.24)
In January 1793, Louis XVI was beheaded amid widespread outrage.25)
All time units, including a 10-day week, were changed from base 12 to base 10 during the French Revolution. The 12-year trial was conducted.26)
“Liberte, fraternite, egalite”, the catchphrase of the French Revolution, became the rallying cry for numerous revolutionary movements in modern history, including the Russian Revolution more than a century later.27)
Total war was brought on by the French Revolution. The administration steered France's population and their country toward the goal of armed victory.28)
The Revolution was sparked by a number of things, including rising economic inequality, natural calamities, mounting national debt, and political concepts from the Enlightenment.29)
The emergence of the public sphere, or a space beyond the jurisdiction of the state, diminished the power of the monarchy, according to German philosopher Jürgen Habermas.30)
On July 13, 1793, Charlotte Corday, a moderate Revolution supporter, shot and killed the more radical Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub. Four days later, she was executed for her crimes.31)
A French dramatist named Olympe de Gouges authored “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen”. She was beheaded by the Jacobins in November 1793.32)
Princess de Lamballe, one of Marie Antoinette's devoted companions, was utterly destroyed on the streets of Paris. She was thrown into the street where a crowd was waiting after the assembly forced her to take a loyalty pledge to the French Revolution.33)
In France, about 60,000 women protested the high cost and lack of bread. The backlash against royal rule was sparked by their protest.34)
While the guillotine is the most well-known symbol of the French Revolution, the rebels also committed other forms of mass murder. For instance, alleged anti-revolutionaries were drowned in the town of Nantes between 1793 and 1794. 1,800 to 4,600 individuals perished.35)
The September Massacres of 1792 were among the most memorable and horrifying incidents that occurred during the French Revolution. Over 1,200 individuals were killed by revolutionary crowds over the course of five days.36)
All royal emblems were assailed during the French Revolution, and the remains of buried kings, queens, and consorts were dug up and burned.37)
The tricolor cockade, a ring-shaped insignia in the colors red, white, and blue, was one of the emblems of the French Revolution. People who didn't wear the symbol risked execution since they were thought to be traitors.38)
The Phrygian cap, which resembles the hat worn by Smurfs, served as the revolution's emblem. When slaves were freed in ancient Rome, they received the hat.39)
The fasces was one of the emblems of the French Revolution. The word fascist derives from a bundle of wooden rods called a fasces, which is wrapped around an ax. The fasces in ancient Rome symbolized the strength and solidarity of the populace.40)
The Third Estate (the poor) of France gathered on a tennis court close to the castle on June 20, 1789, and took an oath not to leave unless the King promised to assist. They also established the National Assembly, a new parliament. Many nobility and clergymen participated.41)
The storming of the Bastille was gory. The mob pulled Launay, the commander of the Bastille, through the streets even though there were only seven inmates there at the time. After being battered, Launay yelled, “Enough! Let me go!”“ He was killed by a mob that also sawed off his skull and dismembered his corpse.42)
A loaf of bread was equivalent to one week's wages before the French Revolution. Many peasants just died of starvation.43)
There were just seven inmates inside the Bastille when the irate crowd seized it. The Marquis de Sade, a French aristocrat renowned for his libertine sexuality and pornographic literature, was one of them.44)
Prior to the French Revolution, practicing Protestantism or Judaism was forbidden. After the revolution, people could practice whichever religion they wanted.45)