134-690: Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (3 May 1748 – 20 June 1836), usually known as the Abbé Sieyès ( French: [sjejɛs] ), was a French Roman Catholic abbé , clergyman, and political writer who was the chief political theorist of the French Revolution (1789–1799); he also held offices in the governments of the French Consulate (1799–1804) and the First French Empire (1804–1815). His pamphlet What Is
268-605: A monastery without needing to render service, creating, in essence, a sinecure . From the mid-16th century, the title of abbé has been used in France for all young clergy, with or without consecration . Their clothes consisted of black or dark violet robes with a small collar, and they were tonsured . Since such abbés only rarely commanded an abbey , they often worked in upper-class families as tutors , spiritual directors , etc.; some (such as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably ) became writers. Clerical oblates and seminarians of
402-712: A counter-revolution. Louis himself held reservations against depending on foreign assistance. Like his mother and father, he thought that the Austrians were treacherous and the Prussians were overly ambitious. As tensions in Paris rose and he was pressured to accept measures from the Assembly against his will, Louis XVI and the Queen plotted to secretly escape from France. Beyond escape, they hoped to raise an "armed congress" with
536-473: A country. Mirabeau's death on 7 April, and Louis XVI's indecision, fatally weakened negotiations between the Crown and moderate politicians. The Third Estate leaders also had no desire in turning back or remaining moderate after their hard efforts to change the politics of the time, and so the plans for a constitutional monarchy did not last long. On one hand, Louis was nowhere near as reactionary as his brothers,
670-569: A coup within a coup – Bonaparte's Constitution of the Year VIII became the basis of the French Consulate of 1799–1804. The Corps législatif appointed Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Roger Ducos as "Consuls of the French Republic". In order to once again begin the function of government, these three men took the oath of "Inviolable fidelity to the sovereignty of the people; to the French Republic, one and indivisible; to equality, liberty and
804-605: A dangerous foreign attempt to undermine France's sovereignty. In addition to the ideological differences between France and the monarchical powers of Europe, there were continuing disputes over the status of Austrian estates in Alsace , and the concern of members of the National Constituent Assembly about the agitation of émigrés nobles abroad, especially in the Austrian Netherlands and
938-432: A departmental list; finally, one further list was made up from one-tenth of the members of the departmental list to create the national list. This national list is where the highest officials of the land were to be chosen. Sieyès envisioned a Tribunat and a College des Conservateurs to act as the shell of the national government. The Tribunat would present laws and discuss ratification of these laws in front of
1072-482: A distinction between active and passive citizens that justified suffrage limited to male owners of property. Sieyès's pamphlet incited a radical reaction from its audience because it involved the "political issues of the day and twisted them in a more revolutionary direction". In the third chapter of the pamphlet, Sieyès proposed that the Third Estate wanted to be "something". But he also stated that, in allowing
1206-584: A formal Treaty of Alliance , and later that year France went to war with Britain . In deciding in favor of war, despite France's large financial problems, the King was materially influenced by alarmist reports after the Battle of Saratoga , which suggested that Britain was preparing to make huge concessions to the Thirteen Colonies and then, allied with them, to strike at French and Spanish possessions in
1340-458: A jury. This jury would not have any say in terms of what the laws granted consist of, but rather whether or not these laws passed. The College des Conservateurs would be renewed from the national list. The main responsibility of the College des Conservateurs was to choose the members of the two legislative bodies, and protect the constitution by right of absorption. By this curious provision,
1474-664: A particularly bad harvest in 1775, prompted the masses to revolt . From 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists , who were seeking their independence from Great Britain , which was realised in the Treaty of Paris (1783) . The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime . This led to the convening of the Estates General of 1789 . Discontent among
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#17327570706761608-446: A pension; Ernestine Lambriquet (1778–1813), daughter of two servants at the palace, who was raised as the playmate of his daughter and whom he adopted after the death of her mother in 1788; and finally "Zoe" Jeanne Louise Victoire (born in 1787), who was adopted in 1790 along with her two older sisters when her parents, an usher and his wife in service of the king, had died. Of these, only Armand, Ernestine and Zoe actually lived with
1742-520: A position more favorable to Austria, which in the Treaty of Teschen was able to get in compensation the Innviertel , a territory whose population numbered around 100,000 persons. However, this intervention was a disaster for the image of the Queen, who was named " l'Autrichienne " (a pun in French meaning "Austrian", but the "chienne" suffix can mean "bitch") on account of it. Louis XVI hoped to use
1876-592: A public speaker as he spoke rarely and briefly, Sieyès held major political influence, and he recommended the decision of the Estates to reunite its chamber as the National Assembly ; he opposed the abolition of tithes and the confiscation of Church lands. His opposition to the abolition of tithes discredited him in the National Assembly, and he was never able to regain his authority. Elected to
2010-483: A rather uninvolved social life. His journals and papers held much information about his studies but almost nothing pertaining to his personal life. His associates referred to him as cold and vain. In particular, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord remarked that "Men are in his eyes chess-pieces to be moved, they occupy his mind but say nothing to his heart." Abb%C3%A9 Abbé (from Latin abbas , in turn from Greek ἀββᾶς , abbas , from Aramaic abba ,
2144-690: A result, the Third Estate demanded the reorganization of the Estates General, but the two other orders proved unable or unwilling to provide a solution. Sieyès proposed that the members of the First and Second order join the Third Estate and become a united body to represent the nation as a whole. He not only suggested an invitation, however, but also stated that the Third Estate had the right to consider those who denied this invitation to be in default of their national responsibility. The Third Estate adopted this measure on 5 June 1789; by doing so, they assumed
2278-494: A sailing expedition around the world (La Pérouse and his fleet disappeared after leaving Botany Bay in March 1788. Louis is recorded as having asked, on the morning of his execution, "Any news of La Pérouse?".). There is a lack of scholarship on the subject of Louis XVI's time as a constitutional monarch, though it was a significant length of time. The reason as to why many biographers have not elaborated extensively on this time in
2412-502: A series of unsuccessful foreign military campaigns, leaving France in a state of financial difficulty. The young Louis XVI felt woefully unqualified to resolve the situation. As king, Louis XVI focused primarily on religious freedom and foreign policy. Although raised as the Dauphin since 1765, he lacked firmness and decisiveness. His desire to be loved by his people is evident in the prefaces of many of his edicts that would often explain
2546-488: A title of honour, literally meaning "the father, my father", emphatic state of abh , "father") is the French word for an abbot . It is also the title used for lower-ranking Catholic clergy in France who are not members of religious orders . A concordat between Pope Leo X and King François I of France (1516) gave the monarchs of France the right to nominate 255 commendatory abbots ( abbés commendataires ) for almost all French abbeys , who received income from
2680-548: A tribunal for the occasion), found guilty of high treason and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Louis XVI's death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Both of his sons died in childhood, before the Bourbon Restoration ; his only child to reach adulthood, Marie Thérèse , was given over to her Austrian relatives in exchange for French prisoners of war, eventually dying childless in 1851. Louis-Auguste de France , who
2814-423: A wider perspective, the failure was attributable to the king's indecision—he repeatedly postponed the schedule, allowing for smaller problems to become severe. Furthermore, he totally misunderstood the political situation. He thought only a small number of radicals in Paris were promoting a revolution that the people as a whole rejected. He thought, mistakenly, that he was beloved by his subjects. The King's flight in
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#17327570706762948-696: Is never wrong." He, therefore, appointed an experienced advisor, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas who, until his death in 1781, would take charge of many important ministerial functions. Among the major events of Louis XVI's reign was his signing of the Edict of Versailles , also known as the Edict of Tolerance, on 7 November 1787, which was registered in the Parlement of Paris on 29 January 1788. Granting non-Roman Catholics – Huguenots and Lutherans , as well as Jews – civil and legal status in France and
3082-500: The College could forcibly elect to its ranks any individual deemed dangerous to the safety of the state, who would then be disqualified from any other office. This was a way to keep a closer eye on anyone who threatened the state. The power of the College des Conservateurs was extended to electing the titular head of government, the Grand-Electeur . The Grand-Electeur would hold office for life but have no power. If
3216-450: The Grand-Electeur threatened to become dangerous, the College des Conservateurs would absorb him. The central idea of Sieyès' plan was a division of power. Sieyès soon retired from the post of provisional Consul, which he had accepted after 18 Brumaire, and became one of the first members of the Sénat conservateur (acting as its president in 1799); this concession was attributed to
3350-561: The Battle of Novi and the return of Napoleon Bonaparte from the Egypt campaign put an end to this project, but Sieyès regained influence by reaching a new understanding with Bonaparte. In the coup of 18 Brumaire , Sieyès and his allies dissolved the Directory, allowing Napoleon to seize power. Thereafter, Sieyès produced the constitution which he had long been planning, only to have it completely remodeled by Bonaparte, who thereby achieved
3484-502: The Count of Provence and the Count of Artois , and he repeatedly sent messages to them requesting a halt to their attempts to launch counter-coups. This was often done through his secretly nominated regent, Cardinal Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne . On the other hand, Louis was alienated from the new democratic government both by its negative reaction to the traditional role of the monarch and in its treatment of him and his family. He
3618-567: The Declaration of Pillnitz , which declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe in the well-being of Louis and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as an easy way to appear concerned about the developments in France without committing any soldiers or finances to change them, the revolutionary leaders in Paris viewed it fearfully as
3752-480: The Encyclopédistes , and other Enlightenment political thinkers, all in preference to theology. In 1770, he obtained his first theology diploma, ranking at the bottom of the list of passing candidates – a reflection of his antipathy toward his religious education. In 1772, he was ordained as a priest, and two years later he obtained his theology license. Despite Sieyès' embrace of Enlightenment thinking, he
3886-412: The Estates General , which had not met since 1614 (at the beginning of the reign of Louis XIII ). As a last-ditch attempt to get new monetary reforms approved, Louis XVI convoked the Estates General on 8 August 1788, setting the date of their opening on 1 May 1789. With the convocation of the Estates General, as in many other instances during his reign, Louis XVI placed his reputation and public image in
4020-601: The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest also have the honorific title of abbé . Louis XVI of France Louis XVI (Louis Auguste; French: [lwi sɛːz] ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution . The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765) (son and heir-apparent of King Louis XV ), and Maria Josepha of Saxony , Louis became
4154-540: The National Assembly . Louis's indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the Ancien Régime , and his popularity deteriorated progressively. His unsuccessful flight to Varennes in June 1791, four months before the constitutional monarchy was declared, seemed to justify the rumors that the king tied his hopes of political salvation to
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4288-620: The National Assembly . Louis XVI's attempts to control it resulted in the Tennis Court Oath ( serment du jeu de paume ), on 20 June, the declaration of the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, and eventually to the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, which started the French Revolution. Within three short months, the majority of the King's executive authority had been transferred to the elected representatives of
4422-413: The Parlement , who opposed his reforms, on 6 May 1788, and even dissolving and depriving of all power the "Parlement", replacing it with a plenary court, on 8 May 1788. The failure of these measures and displays of royal power is attributable to three decisive factors. First, the majority of the population stood in favor of the Parlement against the King, and thus continuously rebelled against him. Second,
4556-649: The Seven Years' War . Vergennes, supported by King Louis, refused to go to war to support Austria in the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, when the Queen's brother Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor tried to partition Bavaria over a disputed inheritance. Vergennes and Maurepas refused to support the Austrian position, but the intervention of Marie Antoinette in favor of Austria obliged France to adopt
4690-525: The Testament politique de Louis XVI ("Political Testament of Louis XVI"), explaining his rejection of the constitutional system as illegitimate. The National Assembly was quick to decide to publish the theory that the King had been kidnapped, thus avoiding any challenge to the Constitution, which was then nearing completion, while at the same time ordering that the carriage be placed under arrest. It
4824-521: The collège of the Doctrinaires of Draguignan . His ambition to become a professional soldier was thwarted by frail health, which, combined with the piety of his parents, led to pursuing a religious career; to that effect, the vicar-general of Fréjus aided Emmanuel-Joseph, out of obligation to his father, Honoré. Sieyès spent ten years at the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. There, he studied theology and engineering to prepare himself to enter
4958-521: The diocese of Chartres . Due to the fact that the bishop of Tréguier had high regards for Sieyès, he was able to act as a representative of his diocese in the Upper Chamber of the Clergy. It was during this time that Sieyès became aware of the ease with which nobles advanced in ecclesiastical offices compared to commoners. In particular, he was resentful of the privileges granted to the nobles within
5092-856: The American Revolutionary War as an opportunity to expel the British from India. In 1782, he sealed an alliance with the Peshwa Madhavrao II . As a consequence, the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau moved his troops to the Isle de France (now Mauritius ) and later contributed to the French effort in India in 1783. Pierre André de Suffren became the ally of Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War against
5226-686: The American rebels was a disappointment, with defeats at Rhode Island and Savannah . In 1780, France sent Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau and François Joseph Paul de Grasse to help the Americans, along with large land and naval forces. The French expeditionary force arrived in North America in July 1780. The appearance of French fleets in the Caribbean was followed by
5360-458: The Assembly created the Comité des Finances, and while Louis XVI attempted to declare his concern and interest in remedying the economic situations, inclusively offering to melt crown silver as a dramatic measure, it appeared to the public that the King did not understand that such statements no longer held the same meaning as they did before and that doing such a thing could not restore the economy of
5494-516: The Austrian court did hope for the princess to exert influence over her husband. Letters sent between the Empress and the Ambassador express a desire for Marie Antoinette to exercise authority in the French court and to encourage Louis XVI to dedicate more attention to his role as prince. To their disappointment, however, the princess did not seem overly interested in "serious affairs". Over time,
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5628-697: The British East India Company from 1782 to 1783, engaging the Royal Navy along the coasts of India and Ceylon . France also intervened in Cochinchina following Pierre Pigneau de Behaine 's intervention to obtain military aid. A France-Cochinchina alliance was signed through the Treaty of Versailles of 1787 , between Louis XVI and Prince Nguyễn Ánh . Louis XVI also encouraged major voyages of exploration. In 1785, he appointed Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse to lead
5762-471: The British. This had led to a strategy amongst the French leadership of seeking to rebuild the French military in order to fight a war of revenge against Britain, in which it was hoped the lost colonies could be recovered. France still maintained a strong influence in the West Indies , and in India maintained five trading posts , leaving opportunities for disputes and power-play with Great Britain. In
5896-697: The Chamber of Peers. In 1816, after the Second Restoration , Sieyès was expelled from the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences by Louis XVIII . He then moved to Brussels , but returned to France after the July Revolution of 1830. He died in Paris in 1836 at the age of 88. In 1795, Sieyès became one of the first members of what would become the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of
6030-519: The Children of France), from 1760 until his marriage in 1770, did not prepare him for the throne that he was to inherit in 1774 after the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. Throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a good hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became. Abbé Berthier, his instructor, taught him that timidity
6164-465: The Church system and thought the patronage system was a humiliation for commoners. While remaining in ecclesiastical offices, Sieyès maintained a religious cynicism at odds with his position. By the time he determined to enter priesthood, Sieyès had "freed himself from all superstitious sentiments and ideas". Even when corresponding with his deeply religious father, Sieyès showed a severe lack of piety for
6298-705: The Constituent Assembly, he was excluded from the Legislative Assembly by the ordinance, initially proposed by Maximilien Robespierre , that decreed that none of its members should be eligible for the next legislature. He reappeared in the third national Assembly, known as the National Convention of the French Republic (September 1792 – September 1795). He voted for the death of Louis XVI , but not in
6432-473: The Crown to restore its power in a new constitutional form . Beginning in 1791, Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin , Minister of Foreign Affairs, started to organize covert resistance to the revolutionary forces. Thus, the funds of the Liste Civile , voted annually by the National Assembly, were partially assigned to secret expenses in order to preserve the monarchy. Arnault Laporte , who was in charge of
6566-519: The Directory, and is said to have taken in view the replacement of the government with unlikely rulers such as Archduke Charles of Austria and Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick (a major enemy of the Revolution). He attempted to undermine the constitution, and thus caused the revived Jacobin Club to be closed while making offers to General Joubert for a coup d'état . The death of Joubert at
6700-529: The French government in accordance with Enlightenment ideas. These included efforts to increase tolerance toward non-Catholics as well as abolish the death penalty for deserters . The French nobility reacted to the proposed reforms with hostility, and successfully opposed their implementation. Louis implemented deregulation of the grain market , advocated by his economic liberal minister Turgot , but it resulted in an increase in bread prices. In periods of bad harvests, it led to food scarcity which, during
6834-594: The French public. France's alliance with its traditional enemy Austria had pulled the country into the disastrous Seven Years' War , in which it was defeated by the British and the Prussians , both in Europe and in North America . By the time that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were married, the French people generally disliked the Austrian alliance, and Marie Antoinette was seen as an unwelcome foreigner. For
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#17327570706766968-641: The Institute of France. When the Académie Française was reorganized in 1803, he was elected in the second class, replacing, in chair 31, Jean Sylvain Bailly , who had been guillotined on 12 November 1793 during the Reign of Terror. However, after the second Restoration in 1815, Sieyès was expelled for his role in the execution of King Louis XVI, and was replaced by the Marquis of Lally-Tollendal , who
7102-540: The King agreed to retain many of the traditions which had been the norm in 1614 and prior convocations of the Estates General, but which were intolerable to a Third Estate (the bourgeoisie) buoyed by recent proclamations of equality. For example, the First and Second Estates (the clergy and nobility respectively) proceeded into the assembly wearing their finest garments, while the Third Estate was required to wear plain, oppressively somber black, an act of alienation that Louis XVI would likely have not condoned. He seemed to regard
7236-446: The King and from influence from below by the people. While voters had the right to put into or take out representatives from power, for the term they were elected, Sieyès held, representatives should be answerable to no one. In September 1789, Sieyès triumphed over the more moderate members of the Assembly led by Mounier when the Assembly voted for a unicameral legislature by a vote of 849 to 89 with 122 abstaining. Although not noted as
7370-423: The Nation. The Menus-Plaisirs du Roi was under the direction of Papillon de la Ferté and he gave details in his journal about the costs of the performances over the years 1756–1780 in three different palaces. The wedding in 1771 was especially costly. The performance of Castor et Pollux in 1779 when he was visited by his brother-in-law, Joseph II, involved more than 500 people. Royal household spending in 1788
7504-530: The Parlement of Paris to register the new laws and fiscal reforms. Upon the refusal of the members of the Parlement , Louis XVI tried to use his absolute power to subjugate them by every means: enforcing in many occasions the registration of his reforms via Lit de justice (6 August 1787, 19 November 1787, and 8 May 1788), exiling all Parlement magistrates to Troyes as a punishment on 15 August 1787, prohibiting six members from attending parliamentary sessions on 19 November, arresting two very important members of
7638-406: The Prussian envoy, Baron Goltz, reported that Louis XVI had definitely declined the operation. Louis XVI was frequently declared to be perfectly capable of sexual intercourse, as confirmed by Joseph II , and during the time he was supposed to have had the operation, he went out hunting almost every day, according to his journal. This would not have been possible if he had undergone a circumcision; at
7772-472: The Third Estate? (1789) became the political manifesto of the Revolution, which facilitated transforming the Estates-General into the National Assembly , in June 1789. He was offered and refused an office in the French Directory (1795–1799). After becoming a director in 1799, Sieyès was among the instigators of the Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November), which installed Napoleon Bonaparte in power. In addition to his political and clerical life, Sieyès coined
7906-444: The West Indies. Spain and the Netherlands soon joined the French in an anti-British coalition. After 1778, Great Britain switched its focus to the West Indies , as defending the sugar islands was considered more important than trying to recover the Thirteen Colonies. France and Spain planned to invade the British Isles themselves with the Armada of 1779 , but the operation never went ahead. France's initial military assistance to
8040-459: The Year III enacted by the Directory , and refused to serve as a Director of the Republic. In May 1798, he went as the plenipotentiary of France to the court of Berlin, in order to try to induce Prussia to ally with France against the Second Coalition ; this effort ultimately failed. His prestige grew nonetheless, and he was made Director of France in place of Jean-François Rewbell in May 1799. Nevertheless, Sieyès considered ways to overthrow
8174-415: The absence of a royal veto over the actions of the legislature. Taking the position that the National Assembly held absolute power as the only true representative of the nation, Sieyès rejected arguments that the King should be able to initiate new elections for the Assembly or have the power to veto legislation. Sieyès believed that representatives to the Assembly must be free both from influence from above by
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#17327570706768308-415: The aristocracy defined themselves as an élite ruling class charged with maintaining the social order in France, Sieyès saw the Third Estate as representing the nation whether or not the other two orders were present. The pamphlet placed sovereignty not in the hands of aristocrats but instead defined the nation of France by its productive orders composed of those who would generate services and produce goods for
8442-400: The aristocracy's privileges established it as an alien body acting outside of the nation of France, and deemed noble privilege "treason to the commonwealth". Sieyès's pamphlet had a significant influence on the structural concerns that arose surrounding the convocation of the Estates general. Specifically, the Third Estate demanded that the number of deputies for their order be equal to that of
8576-416: The authority to represent the nation. Sieyès convinced the Third Estate to adopt the term National Assembly and was elected by the Assembly to its constitutional committee in July 1789. Serving on the constitutional committee, Sieyès argued that the Assembly should not need to seek the King's approval on constitutional matters. Sieyès advocated for equality of voting power, a unicameral legislative body, and
8710-479: The benefit of the entire society. These included not only those involved in agricultural labor and craftsmanship, but also merchants, brokers, lawyers, financiers and others providing services. Sieyès challenged the hierarchical order of society by redefining who represented the nation. In his pamphlet, he condemns the privileged orders by saying their members were enjoying the best products of society without contributing to their production. Sieyès essentially argued that
8844-400: The bishop of Tréguier where he spent two years as deputy of the diocese. It is here that he sat in the Estates of Brittany and became disgusted with the immense power the privileged classes held. In 1780, the bishop of Tréguier was transferred to the bishopric of Chartres , and Sieyès accompanied him there as his vicar general , eventually becoming a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of
8978-420: The capture of a number of the sugar islands, including Tobago and Grenada . In October 1781, the French naval blockade was instrumental in forcing a British army under Cornwallis to surrender at the Siege of Yorktown . When news of this reached London in March 1782, the North ministry fell and Great Britain immediately sued for peace terms; however, France delayed the end of the war until September 1783 in
9112-422: The civil list, collaborated with both Montmorin and Mirabeau. After the sudden death of Mirabeau, Maximilien Radix de Sainte-Foix , a noted financier, took his place. In effect, he headed a secret council of advisers to Louis XVI, which tried to preserve the monarchy; these schemes proved unsuccessful, and were exposed later when the armoire de fer was discovered. Regarding the financial difficulties facing France,
9246-442: The condition seven years after their marriage. Louis XVI's doctors were not in favour of the surgery – the operation was delicate and traumatic, and capable of doing "as much harm as good" to an adult male. The argument for phimosis and a resulting operation is mostly seen to originate from Stefan Zweig 's 1932 biography of Marie Antoinette. Most modern historians agree that Louis XVI had no surgery – for instance, as late as 1777,
9380-451: The contemptuous terms sometimes ascribed to him. He participated to the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project . Menaced by the Reign of Terror and offended by its character, Sieyès even abjured his faith at the time of the installation of the Cult of Reason ; afterwards, when asked what he had done during the Terror, he famously replied, " J'ai vécu " ("I lived"). Ultimately, Sieyès failed to establish
9514-404: The country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were informed of the true extent of the debt, they were shocked and rejected the plan. After this, Louis XVI and his new Controller-General of Finances , Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne , tried to simply force
9648-425: The couple became closer, though while their marriage was reportedly consummated in July 1773, it did not actually happen until 1777. The couple's failure to produce any children for several years placed a strain upon their marriage, exacerbated by the publication of obscene pamphlets ( libelles ) mocking their infertility. One such pamphlet questioned, "Can the King do it? Can't the King do it?". The reasons for
9782-404: The couple's initial failure to have children were debated at that time, and they have continued to be debated since. One suggestion is that Louis XVI suffered from a physiological dysfunction, most often thought to be phimosis , a suggestion first made in late 1772 by the royal doctors. Historians adhering to this view suggest that he was circumcised (a common treatment for phimosis) to relieve
9916-525: The crisis from the public by explaining only that ordinary revenues exceeded ordinary expenses, and not mentioning the loans. After he was forced from office in 1781, new taxes were levied. This intervention in America was not possible without France adopting a neutral position in European affairs to avoid being drawn into a continental war which would be simply a repetition of the French policy mistakes in
10050-535: The crowd to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, the reasoning being that the King would be more accountable to the people if he lived among them in Paris. The Revolution's principles of popular sovereignty, though central to democratic principles of later eras, marked a decisive break from the centuries-old principle of divine right that was at the heart of the French monarchy. As a result, the Revolution
10184-404: The deputies of the Estates General with respect: in a wave of self-important patriotism, members of the Estates refused to remove their hats in the King's presence, so Louis removed his to them. This convocation was one of the events that transformed the general economic and political malaise of the country into the French Revolution . In June 1789, the Third Estate unilaterally declared itself
10318-539: The desires and frustrations of the alienated class of people that made up the Third Estate. He attacked the foundations of the French Ancien Régime by arguing the nobility to be a fraudulent institution, preying on an overburdened and despondent bourgeoisie. The pamphlet voiced concerns that were to become crucial matters of debate during the convocation of the Estates-General of 1789 . Whereas
10452-526: The developments in France, and considered whether they should intervene, either in support of Louis or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The key figure was Marie Antoinette's brother, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor . Initially, he had looked on the Revolution with equanimity. However, he became more and more disturbed as it became more and more radical. Despite this, he still hoped to avoid war. On 27 August, Leopold and Frederick William II of Prussia , in consultation with émigrés French nobles, issued
10586-522: The first ever accounting of the French Crown's expenses and accounts, the Compte-rendu au Roi . This misleading publication led the people of France to believe the kingdom ran a modest surplus. When this policy of hiding and ignoring the kingdom's financial woes failed miserably, Louis dismissed and replaced him in 1783 with Charles Alexandre de Calonne , who increased public spending to "buy"
10720-515: The hands of those who were perhaps not as sensitive to the desires of the French population as he was. Because it had been so long since the Estates General had been convened, there was some debate as to which procedures should be followed. Ultimately, the Parlement of Paris agreed that "all traditional observances should be carefully maintained to avoid the impression that the Estates General could make things up as it went along." Under this decision,
10854-440: The help of the émigrés , as well as assistance from other nations with which they could return and, in essence, recapture France. This degree of planning reveals Louis's political determination, but it was for this determined plot that he was eventually convicted of high treason. He left behind (on his bed) a 16-page written manifesto, Déclaration du roi, adressée à tous les François, à sa sortie de Paris , traditionally known as
10988-680: The hope of overrunning more British colonies in India and the West Indies. Great Britain recognized the independence of the Thirteen Colonies as the United States of America, and the French war ministry rebuilt its army . However, the British defeated the main French fleet in 1782 at the Battle of the Saintes and successfully defended Jamaica and Gibraltar . France gained little from the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended
11122-410: The kind of bourgeois revolution he had hoped for, one of representative order "devoted to the peaceful pursuit of material comfort". His initial purpose was to instigate change in a more passive way, and to establish a constitutional monarchy. According to William Sewell, Sieyès' pamphlet set "the tone and direction of The French Revolution … but its author could hardly control the Revolution's course over
11256-491: The king from his profile on a 50 livres assignat (paper money), had given the alert. Louis XVI and his family were taken back to Paris where they arrived on 25 June. Viewed suspiciously as traitors, they were placed under tight house arrest upon their return to the Tuileries. At the individual level, the failure of the escape plans was due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations, and poor judgments. In
11390-531: The king's life is due to the uncertainty surrounding his actions during this period, as Louis XVI's declaration that was left behind in the Tuileries stated that he regarded his actions during his constitutional reign as provisional; he reflected that his "palace was a prison". This time period was exemplary in its demonstration of an institution's deliberation while in their last standing moments. Louis XVI's time in his previous palace came to an end on 5 October 1789, when an angry mob of Parisian working men and women
11524-529: The large estate at Crosne that he received from Napoleon. After the plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise in late December 1800, Sieyès defended the arbitrary and illegal proceedings whereby Napoleon rid himself of the leading Jacobins. During the era of the First Empire (1804–1814), Sieyès rarely emerged from his retirement. When Napoleon briefly returned to power in 1815, Sieyès was named to
11658-678: The legal right to practice their faiths, this edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau that had been law for 102 years. The Edict of Versailles did not legally proclaim freedom of religion in France – this took two more years, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 – however, it was an important step in eliminating religious tensions and it officially ended religious persecution within his realm. Radical financial reforms by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes angered
11792-400: The long run". Even after 1791, when the monarchy seemed to many to be doomed, Sieyès "continued to assert his belief in the monarchy", which indicated he did not intend for the Revolution to take the course it did. During the period he served in the National Assembly, Sieyès wanted to establish a constitution that would guarantee the rights of French men and would uphold equality under the law as
11926-491: The man in charge of the diocese of Chartres. It is theorised that Sieyès accepted a religious career not because he had any sort of strong religious inclination, but because he considered it the only means to advance his career as a political writer. In 1788, Louis XVI of France proposed the convocation of the Estates-General of France after an interval of more than a century and a half. This proposal, and Jacques Necker 's invitation to French writers to state their views as to
12060-450: The marriage bed and Marie Antoinette's lack of interest in conjugal activity. Joseph described the couple as "complete fumblers"; however, with his advice, Louis XVI began to apply himself more effectively to his marital duties, and in the third week of March 1778 Marie Antoinette became pregnant. Eventually, the royal couple became the parents of four children. According to Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan , Marie Antoinette's lady-in-waiting,
12194-406: The members of France's middle and lower classes resulted in strengthened opposition to the French aristocracy and to the absolute monarchy , of which Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were representatives. Increasing tensions and violence were marked by events such as the storming of the Bastille , during which riots in Paris forced Louis to definitively recognize the legislative authority of
12328-544: The minor states of the Holy Roman Empire . In the end, the Legislative Assembly , supported by Louis XVI, declared war on Austria ("the King of Bohemia and Hungary") first, voting for war on 20 April 1792, after a long list of grievances was presented to it by the foreign minister, Charles François Dumouriez . Dumouriez prepared an immediate invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expected
12462-527: The monarchs had clearly been heading for the Austrian border . War now seemed imminent, and the King seemed to have been politically involved with France's traditional enemies, who were still widely hated despite recent cooperation. Many citizens felt betrayed, and as a result, Republicanism now burst out of the coffee houses and became a dominating philosophy of the rapidly radicalized French Revolution. The other monarchies of Europe looked with concern upon
12596-400: The nature and good intention of his actions as benefiting the people, such as reinstating the parlements . When questioned about his decision, he said, "It may be considered politically unwise, but it seems to me to be the general wish and I want to be loved." In spite of his indecisiveness, Louis XVI was determined to be a good king, stating that he "must always consult public opinion; it
12730-414: The new Dauphin when his father died in 1765. In 1770, he married Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (Marie Antoinette). He became King of France and Navarre on his grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, and reigned until the abolition of the monarchy on 21 September 1792. From 1791 onwards, he used the style of King of the French . The first part of Louis XVI's reign was marked by attempts to reform
12864-483: The night of 2–3 November 1783. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were the parents of four live-born children: In addition to his biological children, Louis XVI also adopted six children: "Armand" Francois-Michel Gagné ( c. 1771 –1792), a poor orphan adopted in 1776; Jean Amilcar ( c. 1781 –1796), a Senegalese slave boy given to the queen as a present by Stanislas de Boufflers in 1787, but whom she instead had freed, baptized, adopted and placed in
12998-429: The nobility. Aside from his opinions towards nobility, Sieyès also had a passion for music. He devoted himself assiduously to cultivating music as he had plenty of spare time. Along with cultivating music, Sieyes also enjoyed writing reflections concerning these pieces. Sieyès had a collection of musical pieces he called " la catalogue de ma petite musique ". Although Sieyès was passionate about his ideologies, he had
13132-482: The nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So, in 1776, Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned, to be replaced by Jacques Necker . Necker supported the American Revolution , and he carried out a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. He attempted to gain public favor in 1781 by publishing
13266-581: The northeastern border of France, where he would join the émigrés and be protected by Austria. The voyage was planned by the Swedish nobleman, and often assumed secret lover of Queen Marie Antoinette, Axel von Fersen . While the National Assembly worked painstakingly towards a constitution , Louis and Marie-Antoinette were involved in plans of their own. Louis had appointed Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil to act as plenipotentiary, dealing with other foreign heads of state in an attempt to bring about
13400-500: The organization of society by Estates , enabled Sieyès to publish his celebrated January 1789 pamphlet , Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état? ( What Is the Third Estate? ). He begins his answer: What is the Third Estate ? Everything. What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing. What does it desire to be? Something. This phrase, which was to remain famous, is said to have been inspired by Nicolas Chamfort . The pamphlet
13534-590: The priesthood. He quickly gained a reputation at the school for his aptitude and interest in the sciences, combined with his obsession over the "new philosophic principles" and dislike for conventional theology. Sieyès was educated for priesthood in the Catholic Church at the Sorbonne . While there, he became influenced by the teachings of John Locke , David Hume , Edward Gibbon , Voltaire , Jean-Jaques Rousseau , Condillac , Quesnay , Mirabeau , Turgot ,
13668-547: The prince's studies were "proofs of [his] intelligence and the excellence of [his] judgement," though flattery was to be expected when addressing a prince. Louis-Auguste's apparent mathematical skills are corroborated by his enjoyment of cartography, which would have required an understanding of scale and projections. He also enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather and rough play with his younger brothers, Louis-Stanislas, Count of Provence , and Charles-Philipe, Count of Artois . From an early age, Louis-Auguste
13802-400: The privileged orders to exist, they are asking to become "the least thing possible". The usage of such rhetoric in his pamphlet appealed to common causes to unite the audience. At the same time it influenced them to move beyond simple demands and take a more radical position on the nature of government. In this case, the radical position taken by the Third Estate created a sense of awareness that
13936-435: The problems of France were not simply a matter of addressing "royal tyranny", but that unequal privileges under the law had divided the nation. It was from this point that the Revolution's struggle for fair distribution of power and equal rights began in earnest. Sieyès's pamphlet played a key role in shaping the currents of revolutionary thought that propelled France towards the French Revolution . In his pamphlet, he outlined
14070-444: The prospects of foreign intervention . His credibility was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic became an ever-increasing possibility. The growth of anti-clericalism among revolutionaries resulted in the abolition of the dîme (religious land tax) and several government policies aimed at the dechristianization of France . In a context of civil and international war , Louis XVI
14204-401: The queen also suffered two miscarriages. The first one, in 1779, a few months after the birth of her first child, is mentioned in a letter to her daughter, written in July by Empress Maria Theresa. Madame Campan states that Louis XVI spent an entire morning consoling his wife at her bedside, and swore to secrecy everyone who knew of the occurrence. Marie Antoinette suffered a second miscarriage on
14338-421: The representative system". Although Sieyès had many ideas, a lot of them were disfavored by Bonaparte and Roger-Ducos. One aspect that was agreed upon was the structure of power. A list of active citizens formed the basis of the proposed political structure. This list was to choose one-tenth of its members to form a communal list eligible for local office; from the communal list, one-tenth of its members were to form
14472-400: The royal family: Jean Amilcar, along with the elder siblings of Zoe and Armand who were also formally foster children of the royal couple, simply lived on the queen's expense until her imprisonment, which proved fatal for at least Amilcar, as he was evicted from the boarding school when the fee was no longer paid, and reportedly starved to death on the street. Armand and Zoe had a position which
14606-631: The royal treasury was financially destitute to a crippling degree, leaving it incapable of sustaining its own imposed reforms. Third, although the King enjoyed as much absolute power as his predecessors, he lacked the personal authority crucial for absolutism to function properly. Now unpopular with both the commoners and the aristocracy, Louis XVI was therefore only very briefly able to impose his decisions and reforms, for periods ranging from 2 to 4 months, before having to revoke them. As authority dissipated from him and reforms were clearly becoming unavoidable, there were increasingly loud calls for him to convoke
14740-406: The short term was traumatic for France, inciting a wave of emotions that ranged from anxiety to violence to panic. The realization that the King had repudiated the Revolution was a shock for people who until then had seen him as a good king who governed as a manifestation of God's will. Many suspected the King of collaborating with the Austrians, due to Marie Antoinette's family ties and the fact that
14874-467: The social goal of the Revolution; he was ultimately unable to accomplish his goal. After the execution of Robespierre in 1794, Sieyès reemerged as an important political player during the constitutional debates that followed. In 1795, he went on a diplomatic mission to The Hague , and was instrumental in drawing up a treaty between the French and Batavian republics. He resented the Constitution of
15008-542: The special committee on the constitution , he opposed the right of "absolute veto" for the King of France , which Honoré Mirabeau unsuccessfully supported. He had considerable influence on the framing of the departmental system; after the spring of 1790, he was eclipsed by other politicians, and was elected only once to the post of fortnightly president of the Constituent Assembly . Like all other members of
15142-478: The spring of 1776, Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes , the Minister for Foreign Affairs, saw an opportunity to humiliate France's long-standing enemy, Great Britain , and to recover territory lost during the Seven Years' War , by supporting the American Revolution . In the same year Louis was persuaded by Pierre Beaumarchais to send supplies, ammunition, and guns to the rebels secretly. Early in 1778 he signed
15276-440: The term " sociologie ", and contributed to the nascent social sciences . Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès was born on 3 May 1748, the fifth child of Honoré and Annabelle Sieyès, in the southern French town of Fréjus . Honoré Sieyès was a local tax collector of modest income; although they claimed some noble blood, the family Sieyès were commoners. Emmanuel-Joseph received his earliest education from tutors and Jesuits ; and later attended
15410-422: The throne in 1774, he was nineteen years old. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment of despotic monarchy was on the rise. His predecessor, his grandfather Louis XV , had been widely hated by the time of his death. The public remembered him as an irresponsible man who spent his time womanizing rather than administrating. Furthermore, the monarchy had poured money into
15544-550: The two privileged orders combined, and most controversially "that the States General Vote, Not by Orders, but by Heads". The pamphlet took these issues to the masses and their partial appeasement was met with revolutionary reaction. By addressing the issues of representation directly, Sieyès inspired resentment and agitation that united the third estate against the feudalistic traditions of the Ancien Régime. As
15678-407: The very least, he would have been unable to ride to the hunt for a few weeks afterwards. The couple's sexual problems are now attributed to other factors. Antonia Fraser 's biography of Marie Antoinette discusses Joseph II's letter on the matter to one of his brothers after he visited Versailles in 1777. In the letter, Joseph describes in astonishingly frank detail Louis XVI's inadequate performance in
15812-439: The virtue of his own thoughts, he progressed in his ideologies from personal experiences. Starting at a young age, he began to feel repulsion towards the privileges of the nobility. He deemed this advantage gained by noble right as unfair to those of the lower class. This distaste he felt for the privileged class became evident during his time at the Estates of Brittany where he was able to observe, with dissatisfaction, domination by
15946-408: The war, except the colonies of Tobago and Senegal. Louis XVI was wholly disappointed in his aims of recovering Canada, India, and other islands in the West Indies from Britain, as they were too well defended and the Royal Navy made any attempted invasion of mainland Britain impossible. The war cost 1,066 million livres , financed by new loans at high interest (with no new taxes). Necker concealed
16080-612: The young couple, the marriage was initially amiable but distant. Louis XVI's shyness and, among other factors, the young age and inexperience of the newlyweds (who were near total strangers to each other: they had met only two days before their wedding) meant that the fifteen-year-old bridegroom failed to consummate the union with his fourteen-year-old bride. His fear of being manipulated by her for Austrian purposes caused him to behave coldly towards her in public. Correspondence between Marie Antoinette's mother and Austria's French ambassador Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau suggest that
16214-483: Was 13% of total state expenses (excluding interest on debts). French involvement in the Seven Years' War had left Louis XVI a disastrous inheritance. Britain's victories had seen them capture most of France's colonial territories. While some were returned to France at the Treaty of Paris (1763) , almost all of New France was ceded to the British, or to France's Spanish allies to compensate them for losses to
16348-474: Was a deliberately deceptive choice, since Louis XVI had left a manifesto in plain view, assuming and justifying the escape. La Fayette decided to censor the text. Letters were sent throughout the country to stop the royal carriage. Louis's indecision, many delays, and misunderstanding of France were responsible for the failure of the escape. Within 24 hours, the royal family was arrested at Varennes-en-Argonne shortly after Jean-Baptiste Drouet , who recognised
16482-403: Was a value in strong monarchs, and Abbé Soldini, his confessor, instructed him not to let people read his mind. On 19 April 1770, at the age of fifteen, Louis XVI married the fourteen-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria , his second cousin once removed and the youngest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa . This marriage was met with hostility from
16616-483: Was encouraged in another of his interests, locksmithing, which was seen as a useful pursuit for a child. When his father died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin . His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband and died on 13 March 1767, also from tuberculosis. The strict and conservative education he received from Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon , " gouverneur des Enfants de France " (governor of
16750-556: Was given the title Duke of Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles on 23 August 1754. One of seven children, he was the second surviving son of Louis , the Dauphin of France and the grandson of Louis XV and of his consort, Maria Leszczyńska . His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony , the daughter of Augustus III , Prince-elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria . Louis-Auguste
16884-525: Was incited by revolutionaries and marched on the Palace of Versailles , where the royal family lived. At dawn, they infiltrated the palace and attempted to kill the queen, who was associated with a frivolous lifestyle that symbolized much that was despised about the Ancien régime . After the situation had been defused by Lafayette , head of the National Guard , the king and his family were brought by
17018-484: Was more similar to that of Ernestine: Armand lived at court with the king and queen until he left them at the outbreak of the revolution because of his republican sympathies, and Zoe was chosen to be the playmate of the Dauphin, just as Ernestine had once been selected as the playmate of Marie Thérèse, and sent away to her sisters in a convent boarding school before the Flight to Varennes in 1791. When Louis XVI acceded to
17152-498: Was named to the Academy by a royal decree. In 1780, Sieyès coined the term sociologie in an unpublished manuscript. The term was used again fifty years later by the philosopher Auguste Comte to refer to the science of society, which is known in English as sociology. Sieyès was also among the first to employ the term science sociale . Sieyès was always considered intellectual and intelligent by his peers and mentors alike. Through
17286-462: Was opposed by many of the rural people of France and by all the governments of France's neighbors. Still, within the city of Paris and amongst the philosophers of the time, many of which were members of the National Assembly, the monarchy had next to no support. As the Revolution became more radical and the masses more uncontrollable, several of the Revolution's leading figures began to doubt its benefits. Some, like Honoré Mirabeau , secretly plotted with
17420-541: Was ordained to the priesthood in 1773, but was not hired immediately. He spent time researching philosophy and developing music until about a year later in October 1774 when, as the result of demands by powerful friends, he was promised a canonry in Brittany . Unfortunately for Sieyès, this canonry went into effect only when the preceding holder died. At the end of 1775, Sieyès acquired his first real position as secretary to
17554-526: Was overlooked by his parents who favored his older brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy , who was regarded as bright and handsome but died at the age of nine in 1761. Louis-Auguste, a strong and healthy boy but very shy, excelled in his studies and had a strong taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy and became fluent in Italian and English. His tutors in mathematics and physics had high praises for his work. Le Blonde, his mathematics instructor, wrote that
17688-473: Was particularly irked by being kept essentially as a prisoner in the Tuileries, and by the refusal of the new regime to allow him to have confessors and priests of his choice rather than ' constitutional priests ' pledged to the state and not the Roman Catholic Church. On 21 June 1791, Louis XVI attempted to flee secretly with his family from Paris to the royalist fortress town of Montmédy on
17822-547: Was suspended and arrested at the time of the Insurrection of 10 August 1792 . One month later, the monarchy was abolished and the French First Republic was proclaimed on 21 September 1792. The former king became a desacralized French citizen, addressed as Citoyen Louis Capet (Citizen Louis Capet) in reference to his ancestor Hugh Capet . Louis was tried by the National Convention (self-instituted as
17956-636: Was very successful, and its author, despite his clerical vocation (which made him part of the First Estate ), was elected as the last (the twentieth) of the deputies to the Third Estate from Paris to the Estates-General. He played his main role in the opening years of the Revolution, participating in the final drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , expanding on the theories of national sovereignty , popular sovereignty , and representation implied in his pamphlet, with
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