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⁾