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List of French monarchs. From top; left to right: Robert I, Hugh Capet, Louis IX, Francis I, Henry IV, Louis XIV, Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Napoleon III. The family tree of Frankish and French monarchs (509–1870) France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in ...
The monarchs of France have played an integral role in the history of the country, from the Middle Ages to modern times. Starting with Hugh Capet in 987, and including famous rulers such as Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte, monarchs have shaped French culture and politics.
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- Causes of The French Revolution
- Estates General
- Rise of The Third Estate
- Tennis Court Oath
- The Bastille
- Declaration of The Rights of Man and of The Citizen
- French Revolution Turns Radical
- Reign of Terror
- Thermidorian Reaction
- French Revolution Ends: Napoleon’s Rise
As the 18th century drew to a close, France’s costly involvement in the American Revolution, combined with extravagant spending by King Louis XVI, had left France on the brink of bankruptcy. Not only were the royal coffers depleted, but several years of poor harvests, drought, cattle disease and skyrocketing bread prices had kindled unrest among pe...
To garner support for these measures and forestall a growing aristocratic revolt, the king summoned the Estates General (les états généraux) – an assembly representing France’s clergy, nobility and middle class – for the first time since 1614. The meeting was scheduled for May 5, 1789; in the meantime, delegates of the three estates from each local...
France’s population, of course, had changed considerably since 1614. The non-aristocratic, middle-class members of the Third Estate now represented 98 percent of the people but could still be outvoted by the other two bodies. In the lead-up to the May 5 meeting, the Third Estate began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment...
By the time the Estates General convened at Versailles, the highly public debate over its voting process had erupted into open hostility between the three orders, eclipsing the original purpose of the meeting and the authority of the man who had convened it — the king himself. On June 17, with talks over procedure stalled, the Third Estate met alon...
On June 12, as the National Assembly (known as the National Constituent Assembly during its work on a constitution) continued to meet at Versailles, fear and violence consumed the capital. Though enthusiastic about the recent breakdown of royal power, Parisians grew panicked as rumors of an impending military coup began to circulate. A popular insu...
IIn late August, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen), a statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The document proclaimed the Assembly’s commitment to replace the...
In April 1792, the newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French émigrés were building counterrevolutionary alliances; it also hoped to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare. On the domestic front, meanwhile, the political crisis took a radical turn when a group of insu...
Following the king’s execution, war with various European powers and intense divisions within the National Convention brought the French Revolution to its most violent and turbulent phase. In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the ...
The death of Robespierre marked the beginning of the Thermidorian Reaction, a moderate phase in which the French people revolted against the Reign of Terror’s excesses. On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral le...
The Directory’s four years in power were riddled with financial crises, popular discontent, inefficiency and, above all, political corruption. By the late 1790s, the directors relied almost entirely on the military to maintain their authority and had ceded much of their power to the generals in the field. On November 9, 1799, as frustration with th...
Nov 21, 2023 · The French monarchy began in 481 under Clovis I. It ended in 1870 after Louis-Napoleon was overthrown during the Franco-Prussian War. French Monarchy. The history of the French Monarchy is long...
- Who was the last monarch to rule France?Louis-Napoleon was the last monarch to rule France. He was first elected president in 1848 but would overthrow the Second Republic and name himself...
- Who was the last king of France?The last king of France was Louis-Phillipe of House Orleans. The final monarch of France was Louis-Napoleon, the Emperor, not king.
The French monarchy then sought for allies and found one in the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Admiral Barbarossa captured Nice in 1543 and handed it down to Francis I. During the 16th century, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were the dominant power in Europe.
Jan 12, 2023 · The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a period of major societal and political upheaval in France. It witnessed the collapse of the monarchy, the establishment of the First French Republic, and culminated in the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the start of the Napoleonic era.
French society in the early Middle Ages; The political history of France (c. 850–1180) Principalities north of the Loire; The principalities of the south; The monarchy; Economy, society, and culture in the Middle Ages (c. 900–1300) Economic expansion; Urban prosperity; Rural society; Religious and cultural life. The age of cathedrals and ...
