Why did radicals abolish the monarchy

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This Day In History. History Vault. American Revolution. World War II. Native American History. Within a month, leading deputies from the Third Estate had decided that to gain a share of power, they would have to seize it. Thus, on 17 June , in a truly radical departure that eclipsed past old regime conflicts, the deputies of the Third Estate declared that they alone represented the "nation. Although, as the documents make clear, the Third Estate was motivated by a sense of how unproductive and unfair noble privileges were, by swearing this oath they directly attacked the political basis of the monarchy.

Unsure of how to respond to this declaration of national sovereignty, the King refused to recognize the Third Estate deputies as the "National Assembly. Over the following year, Louis would follow this ambivalent posture with regard to the Revolution.

On the one hand, after the delegates of the Third Estate reaffirmed their stance in the famous "tennis court oath," the King locked them out of their meeting space; on the other, he participated enthusiastically in a celebration marking the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille. Te Deum for the Federation of 14 July Once the King gave in to revolutionary demands after 14 July, the National Assembly began drafting a constitution. This process took until the summer of Throughout this period, the King remained generally and genuinely popular.

He was regarded by many as the best hope for solving France's problems. Even radicals like the journalist Jean-Paul Marat continued to see the need for a strong monarchy, although Marat suspected the motives of this particular king. Still, the general problems that the King and Queen faced became most evident on the night of 5—6 October Amid the ongoing political struggles between the King and the National Assembly, bread prices in the capital remained at the highest levels of the century.

A crowd of women gathered in the Parisian marketplace to protest. As they set off to Versailles to register their complaints, they were joined by some members of the National Guard.

Upon arriving at the royal palace in the middle of the night, the crowd effectively captured the royal family and forced them to return to Paris to ensure that the King would do something about the bread prices and that the Revolution would continue. Although the King returned to Paris amid popular acclaim, clearly the mass action was a highly equivocal vote of confidence.

By the summer of , as the National Assembly was completing its new constitution, which would markedly limit the power of the King, Louis and his supporters turned decisively against the Revolution.

One issue that pushed the King against the new regime was the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, which reorganized the Catholic Church in France. This measure, passed by the National Assembly in July , made the clergy elective; moreover, those elected were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the new, revolutionary government of which they became de facto salaried employees.

This measure nullified royal and papal powers of clerical appointment and struck a blow at the religious hierarchy. Moreover, the roughly 15 percent of French land that the church owned became "national property," which the assembly began to sell off to pay its debts. To many Catholics, including the King, these changes embodied in the Civil Constitution unnecessarily politicized their religion and demonstrated that the Revolution's changes were not necessarily all going to be for the better.

Since , some of the King's entourage had been urging him to flee the country so that he would not have to compromise his theoretically absolute power. In particular, certain aristocrats who had already departed urged Louis to join them in the Austrian Netherlands, in the clerically run city-states along the Rhine or in Savoy, where they were organizing a military invasion to destroy the revolutionary government and restore the old regime.

For two years, the King resisted their entreaties, claiming he should remain with his people and that some of the changes were for the good. Now, in June , rather than approve the new constitution, he agreed to a plan whereby he would flee secretly, precipitating a military invasion led by antirevolutionary nobles with the support of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold II Marie Antoinette's brother.

Late on the night of 20 June, the royal family, disguised as servants, set out for the border. Although the family got away safely, discovery of their departure enraged many Parisians, who demanded their return.

These citizens were not disappointed; as the royal party neared the border, the King was recognized and arrested at the small town of Varennes. Brought back to Paris, Louis apologized, claiming he never intended to flee but only to demonstrate to counterrevolutionaries that he had not become a de facto prisoner of the National Assembly.

To the outrage of radical deputies in the National Assembly, a majority accepted this weak excuse, because they feared that punishing the King would further destabilize the country.

In return, and having little other choice, Louis accepted the new constitution. New elections were held in September for a Legislative Assembly. Once in power, the leaders of the new assembly quickly saw their relations with the King deteriorate. Moreover, the near-universal support that the Revolution had enjoyed within France for two years as the old regime was dismantled now began to dissolve in response to the assembly's efforts to build a new basis for French society.

In some areas, especially the western part of France, church reform proved very unpopular. But what really intensified the situation was the onset of war with other European powers. The expected popularity of such a war also motivated these leaders. Leopold resisted French provocation, but when he died unexpectedly in early March, his sixteen-year-old son Francis II did not prove as forbearing. However, the Girondins did not wait for the Austrians to act and declared war themselves in April.

As news spread to Paris of the poor performance of the French army in their first encounters with the better-supplied invaders, the reputation of the Legislative Assembly and the King suffered a serious setback.

From Paris, in late summer , it seemed that counterrevolution loomed while hostile powers threatened a weak and divided government. The Girondins, who had done so much to create this situation, escaped responsibility by focusing popular hostility on the monarch, who they claimed was subverting the Revolution from within.

In the neighborhoods of Paris, political clubs, such as the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, flourished, often led by deputies. Participants called themselves sans-culottes "without breeches" to illustrate that they were no fancy-pants lawyers as in the assembly but rather the salt of the French earth—their labor gave them greater moral authority to intervene in politics than any number of votes. From these Parisian clubs came the shock troops who unseated the monarchy in August A series of mobilizations culminated in the invasion of the royal residence at the Tuileries Palace on 10 August , where the sans-culottes arrested and effectively deposed the King.

They declared that France should become a republic. Following these events, Louis and Marie Antoinette lost whatever respect they may have had and became engulfed in scorn, as is evident in the caricatures that depicted them as animals.

With the King removed from the political scene, the recently adopted constitution became invalid, and the Legislative Assembly, elected less than a year earlier, was dissolved.

A new constitutional convention had to be called. Seated in September , this National Convention had three purposes: to draft a new constitution for France, which would henceforth be ruled as a republic; to provide rules that would keep the country going until that constitution could be put into effect; and, in the shortest term, to decide the fate of the King. On this last matter, the leaders of the Convention seemed to oppose holding a trial, because it was unclear who would be tried: Louis personally?

The monarchy as an institution? And for what? In early November, however, the discovery of a "locked chest" containing letters to the King from his ministers and former bodyguards in exile was taken as evidence that the King had been plotting against the Revolution, and the public outcry against the King was renewed.

Suffrage - the right to vote, was to be extended to all male citizens, not just property owners. On September , a convention met that wanted to abolish the monarchy and declare France a republic. The Jacobins, who controlled the Convention, set out to erase all traces of the old order. They seized lands of nobles and abolished titles of nobility.

He was later put to death by beheading in January in a public square in Paris. The popular press celebrated her death. She showed great dignity as she went to her death. In Paris the Sans-Culottes demanded relief from food shortages. The member committee had almost absolute power as it battled to save the revolution.

Soon, French armies overran the Netherlands. They invaded Italy. Robespierre, a shrewd lawyer and politician, rose to leadership of the Committee of Public Safety. He promoted religious toleration and wanted to abolish slavery. He was popular with the Sans-Culottes, who hated the old regime as much as he did. Revolutionary courts conducted hasty trials. About , were arrested. Many were victims of mistaken identity of falsely accused by their neighbors. Many more were packed into hideous prisons, were deaths from disease were common.

The engine of the Terror was the guillotine. Its fast falling blade extinguished life instantly. A member of the legislature, Dr. Joseph Guillotin had introduced it as a more humane method of beheading that an uncertain axe, but it quickly became a symbol of horror.

Weary of bloodshed and fearing for their own lives, members of the Convention turned on the Committee of Public Safety. On the night of July 27, , Robespierre was arrested. The next day he was executed.

After the heads of Robespierre and other radicals fell, execution slowed dramatically. The Constitution of set up a five-man Directory and a two-house legislature elected by male citizens of property.