The States-General opened at Versailles on 5 May 1789; and they soon proved that they were in no mood to play the role the Crown had set apart for them. After considerable wrangling between the three orders which com posed it, the clergy, the nobility and the Third Estate, the deputies of the latter declared them selves a Constituent (17 June 1789). This was done in protest against the action of the other two orders in refusing to act with them in any measure or in any way, holding themselves above the representa tives of the people. This action was equivalent to a declaration of war in the sense that it meant that the commons had decided to main tain their rights at all costs and against all opposition. Their attitude coupled with the evident joy with which it was welcomed by the populace of Paris and the surrounding cities and country aroused the court and the nobility to their own danger; and they met in secret session, locking the doors against the Third Estate. The latter at once met in a tennis court, where all the members solemnly swore not to disband until they had secured a constitu tion for France. This was the signal for the lower clergy, who formed the great majority of the priests, to join the commons and to throw open the church of Saint Louis to them. There the assembly, though warned by the king to disperse, declared the inviolability of its members and defied the sovereign. Louis XVI realizing the danger of the situation, persuaded the other two orders to yield to the Third Estate; and a truce was patched up. The commons had won out. But the contest was not over. The court threw troops around the city. The following day all Paris showed that it was with the Third Estate in no half hearted way; and the electors of the city con stituted themselves an administrative body (13 July). They formed a guard of the citizens which, in a few hours, reached 80,000 armed men. In fear, the king withdrew the troops. Again the commons had won out. The following morning the excitement of the popu lace, which already realized its power, reached fever heat. The mob attacked the Bastile, the emblem of autocratic power and oppression, and captured it; murdered the provost and several others, and putting their heads on pikes marched in parade about the city. The Revolu tion wad in full swing; and the court and the nobility were powerless to withstand it, for arbitrary government had long ago deprived the upper classes of all organization and power of resistance.
The news of the fall of the Bastile spread rapidly over the whole country. In fear the nobles hastened to relinquish all their privileges, seigniorial, ecclesiastical and jurisdictional; and their ancient rights were restored to the mu nicipalities. The day might have been saved for the royalists had they known how' to handle the situation. But they thought only of regain ing their lost privileges by force of arms; and to this end they plotted in secret. This came to the ears of the people and they hastened to Versailles and forced the king to accompany them to Paris, and with him went the queen and the assembly. All three found themselves in the hands of the revolutionists (6 October), who from this time on, with justice, continued suspicious of the 'good faith of the king and the court. On the anniversary of the taking of the Bastile an immense crowd assembled in the Champs de Mars took the oath of fidelity to the new Constitution; and among them were the king and Lafayette, commander of the National Guards of the kingdom. The excesses of the ultra-revolutionists increased from day to day and the plottings of the nobility and the court kept pace with it. Thus the two extremes of French society drew rapidly apart. The queen, Marie Antoinette, urged the king to assert his rights. The populace replied with the establishment of all kinds of clubs which be came more revolutionary from hour to hour. Finally the royal pair decided to escape from France and to appeal to the sovereigns of Europe to help them restore the kingly power in France (20 June 1791). They had already had the promise of large bodies of troops from Austria, Spain, Prussia, Switzerland and Pied wont. The royal household were stopped in their flight, at Varenne, and sent back to Paris under guard. As a result of this attempted escape, the king was deprived of all power and placed under guard(17 July 1791) ; but on his accepting the new Constitution and solemnly swearing to strictly observe it, he was restored to power (14 Sept. 1791). There is no reason to believe that the king did not mean to ke his word. But he was not a strong character to force the nobles to keep faith with the Revolution.
The Terror.— The demands of the Con stituent Assembly and the Constitution of 1791 were moderate and wise; France might have been saved the terrible days that followed had some strong leader arisen among the nobility; but the curse of absolutism long continued had rendered, them powerless and inert and in capable of clear thinking and leadership. So all the activity and genius for leadership re mained with the masses. This was unfortunate, for it assured the throwing to the winds eventu ally of all moderation. The new Constitution formed a basis upon • which all parties might have easily agreed and worked for the restora tion of order throughout the nation. It provided
that there should be but one legislative assem bly to hold office for two years, after a general election. In it were vested the sole right to make all laws and to carry on the war. The Constitution also provided for universal suf frage. These were very moderate provisions; but they were looked upon with great disfavor by the foreign governments of Europe which were still strongly royalistic. This gave en couragement to the plotting nobles at home and to the non-juring priests and emigres abroad who stirred up the growing feeling against France in the foreign courts. A coalition of foreign kings was formed against France and their troops crossed the French frontier. In vain Louis appealed to them to withdraw the troops; they refused, and war began, a war that was to last 23 years, to engulf all Europe and to change the very nature of the French government and people. France, on her part, declared war against Austria on 20 April 1792. The king, while pretending to side with the French people, was secretly treating with the coalition. The Duke of Brunswick, command ing the Prussian army, issued a proclamation to the effect that he was coming to restore the king of France to his ancient power and dignity; and threatened dire punishment on all who dared oppose him (26 July 1792). The mob rose in Paris, and marching upon the Tuileries forced the deposition of the king and his imprisonment. This placed the ultra revolutionary Commune of Paris, with Danton at its head, in control of the affairs of the nation. The report of the success of the Prus sians in the north of France was the signal for the first outburst of ferocity on the part of the Commune, which proceeded to massacre wholesale prisoners of all classes, to the cry of `first get rid of the enemy at home" (2-6 September). This was followed by the procla mation of the republic by the Convention (20 September). Louis XVI was tried by the Con vention for conspiracy against the nation, con victed and executed (21 Jan. 1793). This act brought England and the Netherlands into the coalition against France, and it created among the political parties in France itself an un limited distrust of one another. This resulted in the most frightful atrocities perpetrated in the name of the safety of the republic. The guillotine became the best-known public office in France; untold victims were fed to it in all the cities, among them being Marie Antoinette, the queen (16 Oct. 1793). After the death of the king, the Convention became divided against itself ; and the two dominant' parties in it, the Girondists and the Montagnards, contended for supremacy and for different political aims, the former seeking to restrain the excesses of the Revolution, the latter seeking to push them to the extreme. The whole south of France rose against the Convention, which replied by sup pressing liberty of trade, commerce and action and by throwing into prison over 300,000 sus pects. The Girondists having gained the upper hand in Paris and the greater part of the country began to quarrel among themselves; one party wishing to make the Terror the gov ernment of all France and the other wishing to restrain the ferocity of their own followers. The Terrorists gained the upper hand, and Danton, Herbet and their followers were ar rested and executed at the instigation of Robespierre and his followers. The Terror be came madness, and over 1,200 people were executed in one month. Robespierre became alarmed at the tempest he had himself stirred up and attempted to restrain it, with the result that the Commune ordered his arrest and execu tion together with that of many of his followers (27-28 July 1794). This final excess was fol lowed by a reaction and the Convention sup planted the Commune. The prisons were opened; the Terror began appreciably to dimin ish; and the principal authors of the massacres were punished or exiled. The government of the Convention obtained notable military suc cesses against the allies and the French rebels in the south everywhere except on sea. One of its first acts had been to abolish the Constitution of 1793 and to vest the execu tive power in the Council of the Ancients; and the Council of Five Hundred, the duty of the latter being to propose the new laws, and that of the former to pass upon them and to accept or reject them (1795). In the meantime, royalist plots were thickening and the result of one of these was to incite the National Guard to attack the Tuileries where the Con vention was in session. Napoleon Bonaparte, then a lieutenant, defended the place, and put the Guard to rout. This feat and his previous services won him the command of the Army of the Interior and shortly afterward that of Italy. The government of the Directory continued to grow weaker and more incapable, and its in competency had already plunged the country in debt. The emigres who had in great num bers plotted almost openly for the overthrow of the revolutionary government returned in large numbers. The armies of the republic, which were republican to the core, had been almost universally successful. At this important moment Napoleon concluded a very advanta geous peace, and thus became the hero of the hour (17 Oct. 1797).