French Revolution; session i, Ancien Regime

Ancien Régime
The Old Order; Development
of the French Monarchy

Ancien Régime 17th century
print of
Louis XIV
as the sun
The Old Order; Development
of the French Monarchy

Celui qui n'a pas vécu au dix-huitième siècle avant la Révolution ne connaît pas la douceur de vivre
("Those who haven't lived in the eighteenth century before the Revolution do not know the sweetness of living")
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord 1754-1838

le Peuple sous l’ancien Regime
The people under the Ancien Regime

Major topics for this session

• Origins

• Medieval Monarchy

• Development of the Nation State

• Sun King

• Great War for the Empire

• France and the American Revolution

origins

The education of the children of Clovis,
1861--Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Vercingétorix jette ses armes aux pieds de Jules César, 1899, par Lionel-Noël Royer.
Vercingetorix ﬂings his sword at the feet of Julius Caesar

Gauls become Franks or Frankish people

• the Franci or gens Francorum (Lat.) were a West Germanic tribe living north
and east of the Lower Rhine, ﬁrst attested in the third century

• 3rd-5th century-some raided Roman territory, others joined the Roman
troops in Gaul

• only the Salian Franks formed a kingdom on Roman-held soil that was
acknowledged by the Romans after 357

• 5th century-as West Roman authority collapsed, all the Frankish tribes
were united under the Merovingian kings (Clovis, c.466-481-511)

• this Salian political elite would be one of the most active forces in
spreading Christianity over western Europe

Bateme de Clovis
par Sainte Remy
497

Baptism of Clovis by Saint
Remigius
497

statue in front of Reims Cathedral, 1896

Bateme de Clovis
par Sainte Remy
497

Baptism of Clovis by Saint
Remigius
497

statue in front of Reims Cathedral, 1896
painting c. 1500

From Clovis to
Charlemagne
481-814

Batai"e de Poitiers, en octobre 732
(Battle of Tours, October 732)
Carl von Steuben (1788-1856) painted between 1834 and 1837

Charlemagne (742-768-800-814)
CAROLVS MAGNVS or Karl der Grosse

• 742-born the son of King Pépin le Bref (Pippin
the Short) III, grandson of Charles Martel,
victor of Tours. Beginning of the Carolingians

• 768-at his father’s death he became king of
the Franks, began his conquests

Karl the Great & Pépin le Bossu
10th century copy of a lost original, which was made back

between 829 and 836 in Fulda for Eberhard von Friaul

Charlemagne (742-768-800-814)
CAROLVS MAGNVS or Karl der Grosse

• 742-born the son of King Pépin le Bref (Pippin
the Short) III, grandson of Charles Martel,
victor of Tours. Beginning of the Carolingians

• 768-at his father’s death he became king of
the Franks, began his conquests

• 25 December 800--crowned as Holy Roman
Emperor in Aachen (Aix la Chape"e)

• 814-at his death the empire is divided between
his sons and interminable wars follow during
the early middle ages (9th-11th centuries)

Division of the
Holy Roman
Empire under the
Treaty of Verdun,
843

Les Capétiens (the Capetian dynasty)

The ﬁrst Capetian monarch was Hugh Capet (c.940–996), a Frankish nobleman from the
Île-de-France, who, following the death of Louis V of France (c.967–987) – the last
Carolingian King – secured the throne of France by election. He then proceeded to make it
hereditary in his family, by securing the election and coronation of his son, Robert II (972–
1031), as co-King. The throne thus passed securely to Robert on his father's death, who
followed the same custom – as did many of his early successors.
The Capetian Kings were initially weak rulers of the Kingdom – they directly ruled only
small holdings in the Île-de-France and the Orléanais, all of which were plagued with
disorder; the rest of France was controlled by potentates such as the Duke of Normandy,
the Count of Blois, the Duke of Burgundy (himself a member of the Capetian Dynasty after
1032) and the Duke of Aquitaine (all of whom facing to a greater or lesser extent the same
problems of controlling their subordinates). The House of Capet was, however, fortunate
enough to have the support of the Church …

Wikipedia

Periodization of Western Civilization
Ancient History
Third Millennium BC (BCE)
introduction of writing
to
476 AD (CE)
fall of the West Roman Empire
Medieval History
476 AD
to
1500 AD
Renaissance
1450s-printing, fall of
Constantinople
1485-Tudor monarchy
1492-expulsion of the
Moors from Spain

Modern History
Early Modern Europe
1500-1815

Periodization of Medieval History
Dark Ages
5th to 9th c.s
(476-800)
fall of Rome
to Charlemagne

Early Medieval
9th through 11th c.s
(800-1095-1099)
to the First Crusade

High Middle Ages
12th & 13th c.s
(1100-1300)

Late Medieval
14th & 15th
(1300-1500)

the Two Swords of Pope Gelasius I
letter to the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius in 494

the Lords Spiritual
the higher clergy


the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal
the higher clergy the nobility


There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chieﬂy ruled, namely, the
sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. Of these that of the priests is the more
weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine
judgment. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted honorably to rule
over human kind, yet in things divine you bow your head humbly before the leaders of the
clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. In the reception and proper
disposition of the heavenly mysteries you recognize that you should be subordinate rather
than superior to the religious order, and that in these matters you depend on their
judgment rather than wish to force them to follow your will.


the Lords Spiritual the Lords Temporal
the higher clergy the nobility

the Three Estates of France
percent in
1789
First Estate
the Lords Spiritual
Cardinal Archbishops, Archbishops,
0.5%
Bishops, Abbots,even lower clergy

Second Estate
the Lords Temporal
King, Princes of the Blood, Dukes, 1.5%
Counts, Marquises, nobility of the sword,
nobility of the robe

Third Estate 98%
1st 2nd 3rd

la Noblesse--feudalism
• lord (seigneur or liege)
• vassal (vasseu)
• ﬁef (feodum, Lat.) land held by the
vassal, conferred by the lord

• homage
• fealty
• diﬃdatio

• sovereignty (the monopoly of justice
and power)
10th century representation
of Roland swearing fealty
• sovereign liege lord (king)

Très Riches Heures du Duc
de Berry (The Very Rich
Medieval Monarchy Hours of the Duke of
Berry) commissioned
around 1410

Le Tiers État
the Manorial System

• demesne (demeine, O.F., from dominiun, Lat.)
• manor
• seigneur (lord, either 1st or 2nd estate)
• serf
• vi"ein

• cottagers

• bordars

• slaves (sclavus, Lat.)

Generalized Plan
of an English ﬁef
note the three-ﬁelds crop
rotation system of the
late Middle Ages

Krak des Chevaliers
one of the best preserved castles in the world, expanded by the knights Hospitalers,
1150-1250 on the modern Syrian-Lebanese border

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres
the last of at least ﬁve churches built and rebuilt after ﬁre on this site,
9th c. to 1260

Medieval cities

Palace & Public Square

Lutece/Paris in 508
(when Clovis established it as his capital)
as drawn by Jean-Baptiste d’Anville in 1705

ca. 1180
Le Temple

Chateau du Louvre

Notre-Dame
de Paris
(begun 1163)

ca. 1223
after the reign of Philippe Auguste
population 150,000 (?)

Les Ha"es

ca. 1422 to 1589

Temple

Faubourg St
Antoine

Tuileries
Palais & Jardin

Bastion de St Antoine
(later known as the Bastille)
Louvre 1370-1383

Hotel-de-Sens
built between 1475 and 1507, one of three remaining medieval buildings

Stadter Luft macht frei (City air makes a man free)

• medieval cities either grew upon the remains of ancient cities or out of
the villages huddled outside castle walls

• castles were built upon high ground (berg burg, Ger., bourg, Fr.)

• the city people were thus burgers or bourgeois
• in the Holy Roman Empire, cities gained charters granting certain
liberties from the feudal lord. He was willing to grant these because of the
taxes, stemming from commerce, which the city paid

• a famous such liberty was that runaway serfs who lived in the city for a year and a day
became free men

• tradesmen formed guilds to protect their economic interests
• city populations, a small minority, broke down the feudal system

the Commercial Revolution; 12th-18th centuries

• 1095-1250--crusades led to the rise of banking, money economy, and
demand for the eastern goods such as:

• spices, silks, ivory, jade, diamonds, improved glass-manufacturing techniques, early
forms of gun powder, oranges, apples, and other Asian crops, and many other products

• the Knights Templars, with their headquarters in Paris and chapter houses
in all the major European cities, functioned as bankers for their order and
for laymen who carried on trade

• other medieval banking houses were the Medici of Florence (1397) and the Fuggers of
Augsburg (15th cent.)

• 1451--when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, the pressure to
establish an all-water trade route to the East grew intense, and the rest is,
as they say, “history.” Modern History

Development of the Nation State

François I of France - Jean and
François Clouet (c.1535, oil on panel)
(Louvre).

How to create a nation from bickering feudal nobles

• one Lord must emerge supreme to exercise state sovereignty, the
monopoly of justice and power

• castles must no longer provide safe refuges from which rebellious nobles
can defy their sovereign liege

• in order to accomplish this, kings need greater sources of revenue through
taxes on the new commerce

• this enables them to buy the mercenaries and the artillery to reduce the
rebels’ castles

Bombard-Mortar of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem Rhodes, 1480–1500. Founded at
the request of Pierre d'Aubusson, the bombard was used for close defense of the wa"s (100–200
meters) at the Siege of Rhodes. It ﬁred 260 kg granite ba"s. The bombard weighs about 3,325
kg. Musée de l'Armée.

Bombard-Mortar of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem Rhodes, 1480–1500. Founded at
the request of Pierre d'Aubusson, the bombard was used for close defense of the wa"s (100–200
meters) at the Siege of Rhodes. It ﬁred 260 kg granite ba"s. The bombard weighs about 3,325
early 15th century
kg. Musée de l'Armée.
Austrian Pumhart von Steyr Army History Museum, Vienna

By the 15th century, castle walls
proved no match for the crude
artillery which could be hired
by the besiegers

Le diverse et
artiﬁciose machine
del capitano
1588 engraving
by Agostino Ramelli


• one Lord must emerge supreme
• castles can no longer provide safe refuges from which rebellious nobles

• kings need greater sources of revenue through taxes on the new commerce
rebels’ castles

• 15th century-France saw the end of England’s ambitions in the Hundred
Years’ War (1336-1454) and the absorption of southern Burgundy, after the
death of Charles the Bold (1477)

Burgundy

source of contention between
France and the Habsburg Empire
for the next two centuries

Burgundy

source of contention between
France and the Habsburg Empire
for the next two centuries

Charles le Temeraire
1433-1467-1477


• one Lord must emerge supreme
• castles can no longer provide safe refuges from which rebellious nobles

• kings need greater sources of revenue through taxes on the new commerce
rebels’ castles

• 15th century-France saw the end of England’s ambitions in the Hundred
Years’ War (1336-1454) and the absorption of southern Burgundy, after the
death of Charles the Bold (1477)

• these events set the stage for the 16th century emergence of the French
nation-state under Francis I (1494-1515-1547)

France’s first Renaissance monarch
• contemporary and ally of Suleiman the
Magnificent, and of England’s Henry VIII
and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and
King of Spain, his great rivals

• man of letters, expanded the royal library
and opened it to scholars, he actually read
the books!

• patron of Cellini and Leonardo de Vinci
• 1530s--began the exploration and
settlement of New France

• 1515-46--fought a series of wars with
Charles V in Italy, actually captured on the
battlefield of Pavia (1525)
Francis 1 (1494-1515-1547)
painted in 1515

Francis receiving the last breath of Leonardo, painted by Ingres in 1818

Wars of Religion; 1517-1648
French Wars of Religion; 1559-1598

• 1559-accidental jousting death of King Henry II (Nostradamus) rise of the
ultra-Catholic house of Guise

• Huguenot iconoclasm and Catholic bloody reprisals
• 1562-1570-first three wars
• 1572-73-St Bartholomew's Day Massacre and after, the “Fourth War”
• 1574-1580-wars five-seven. Formation of the Catholic League under the
Guises

• 1585-1598-”War of the Three Henries”-King Henry III, Henry Duc de
Guise & Henri du Navarre finally King Henry IV, the first of the Bourbons

• 1598- Edict of Nantes

France during the Thirty Years War; 1618-1648

• last of the “wars of religion,” it was also about
the balance of power in Europe

• France was “encircled” by the Spanish and
Austrian Habsburgs

• 1624-beginning secretly, chief minister
Richelieu aided the German Protestant princes
against their Catholic Habsburg Emperor

• this continued the politique policy of Henri IV
• 1630s-Richelieu subsidized the Swedish
Lutheran forces of Gustavus Adolphus to enter
the war

• he functioned as the virtual ruler of France and Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu

was succeeded in this role by Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu

(1585 – 1642)

French clergyman, noble, and statesman.

Le Roi Soleil
The Sun King
1638-1643-1661-1715
seventy-two years, three months, eighteen days

Le Roi Soleil
by Hyacinthe
The Sun King Rigaud, 1701
1638-1643-1661-1715
seventy-two years, three months, eighteen days

The history of the Capetian monarchy had in fact been largely the story of
its struggle against the aristocracy. Sometimes the royal power had won
out, as under Francis I and Henry II, to go back no further, or under
Henry IV and Richelieu. Sometimes the aristocracy had regained the
advantage, through the wars of religion, the minority of Louis XIII or the
Fronde. Under Louis XIV the conﬂict seemed to be over…

Georges Lefebvre, The Coming of the French Revolution, p. 16

The Fronde
A civil war in France (1648-
1653) at the end of the Thirty
Years War. Aristocratic leaders
of armed bands challenged the
royal authority during the
minority of Louis XIV. Thus
he was determined to develop
an absolute monarchy and
break the political power of
the nobility forever.

Episode of the Fronde at the Faubourg Saint-Antoine by the Walls of the Bastille, c. 1648

Louis as Jupiter conquering
the Fronde
artist unknown
painted 1655-1667 (?)

"L'État, c'est moi" ("I am the State")
frequently attributed to him, though considered an inaccuracy by historians

• 1638-born after twenty-three years of his parents’
childlessness, hence Louis Dieu-donné

• 1643-at his father’s death, he becomes king under his
mother’s regency and the guidance of First Minister
Cardinal Mazarin

• 1661-at Mazarin’s death Louis’ ministers inquired, “Sire,
to whom shall we report?”

• the self-assured monarch replied, “To me”

• unlike both his parents, he intended to rule in his own
right, not delegate the business of state to an all-
powerful minister-in-chief

• his ﬁrst step was to investigate and imprison his ﬁnance
minister, Nicholas Fouquet, for enriching himself from in 1661
the royal treasury

Fouquet’s grandiose château
Vaux-le-Vicomte

built 1658-1661, 55 km southeast of
Fouquet’sParis
grandiose château
Vaux-le-Vicomte

Fouquet’s successor, Jean-Baptiste Colbert

• like Fouquet, one of Cardinal Mazarin’s
protégés

• both honest and ambitious, he brought
Fouquet’s corruption to Louis’
attention

• 1664-Superintendent of Buildings

in 1666


protégés

attention

• 1665-Controller-General of Finances

in 1666

en grande tenue


protégés

attention

• 1665-Controller-General of Finances
• 1669-Secretary of the Navy, also gained
appointments as minister of commerce,
of the colonies and of the palace. In
short, he acquired power in every
department except that of war
in 1685

“The art of taxation consists in plucking the goose in such a manner as to obtain the
largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing”--J-B Colbert

His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a
reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the
economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. Historians note that, despite Colbert's
efforts, France actually became increasingly impoverished because of the King's excessive
spending on wars. Colbert worked to create a favorable balance of trade and increase
France's colonial holdings. Historians of mercantilism consider Colbert a key figure.

Colbert's market reforms included the foundation of the Manufacture royale de glaces de
miroirs in 1665 to supplant the importation of Venetian glass (forbidden in 1672, as soon as
French glass manufacture was on a sound basis) and to encourage the technical expertise of
Flemish cloth manufacturing in France. He also founded royal tapestry works at Gobelins
and supported those at Beauvais. Colbert worked to improve the economy via tariffs and
the construction of internal improvements. In regard to foreign markets, Colbert aimed to
ensure that the French East India Company could obtain coffee, cotton, dyewoods, fur,
pepper, and sugar. In addition, Colbert founded a French merchant marine.

Wikipedia

principles of Mercantilism

I.Bullionism-the true measure of national wealth is the amount of
precious metal in the national treasury

II.Maintenance of a favorable balance of trade-the value of the nation’s
exports must exceed the cost of its imports. Thus, gold accumulates.

I. inevitably, this requires protectionism, protective tariﬀs on imports and the promotion
of domestic manufactures

III.Vigorous search for colonies, overseas empire-as both a source of raw
materials and a market for manufactured exports

1. rules prohibiting the colonies from trading with other nations and from competing
with the Mother Country by manufacturing goods themselves

divine right absolutism

• le roi, Jesus-Christ et l’Eglise, Dieu en ces trois noms
(the king, Jesus Christ and the Church, God in these
three names) he wrote in a characteristic letter

• a strong advocate of political absolutism and
the divine right of kings

• 1657-St Vincent de Paul convinced him to
move to Paris and devote himself entirely to
preaching

• 1660-he was preaching regularly before the
court in the Chapel Royal

• 1662-he preached his famous sermon “On the
Duties of Kings” to Louis XIV in the Louvre
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
1627-1704

Bossuet’s political theories

We have already seen that all power is of God. The ruler, adds St. Paul, "is the minister of
God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the
sword in vain : for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that
doeth evil." Rulers then act as the ministers of God and as his lieutenants on earth. it is
through them that God exercises his empire...

It appears from all this that the person of the king is sacred, and that to attack him in any
way is sacrilege. God has the kings anointed by his prophets with the holy unction in like
manner as he has bishops and altars anointed.. .

There is something religious in the respect accorded to a prince. The service of God and
the respect for kings are bound together. St. Peter unites these two duties when he says,
"Fear God. Honour the king.". . .

The royal power is absolute. With the aim of making this truth hateful and insuﬀerable,
many writers have tried to confound absolute government with arbitrary government. But
no two things could be more unlike, as we shall show when we come to speak of justice.

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Politique tiree des propres paroles de l' Ecriture sainte

Louis’ Minister of War
• 1666-Louvois succeeded his father, Michel
le Tellier, as Minister of War

• 1667-68--almost immediately he was tested
in the ﬁrst of Louis’ four wars, the War of
Devolution in the Netherlands

• over the next decades he would build the
largest army in Europe, 400,000 men

• he created many of the modern features
such as long enlistments, barracks, depots,
drill, a professional career oﬃcer class,
frontier Vauban fortresses

• IG Lieutenant Colonel Jean Martinet
François Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois
(1641 – 1691)
• he died suddenly, some suggest of poison

How to fortify in the age of cannons?

• Marshall of France, foremost military
engineer of his age

• famed for his skill in both designing
fortiﬁcations and breaking through
them

• 1667-1714--the wars of Louis XIV saw
the revolution in fortiﬁcations known
as the Vauban system

Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban
1633-1707

Vauban’s answer to the castle vs gunpowder

Louis XIV’s four wars

1.War of Devolution (1667-68) by his marriage to the Spanish princess,
he claimed much of the Spanish Netherlands (modern Belgium)

1.Opponents: United Provinces (Dutch Netherlands), Spain, England, Sweden

2.Allies: none

3.Peace Treaty: Aix-la-Chapelle

2. Dutch War (1672-78)

1.Opponents: United Provinces, Spain, Holy Roman Empire, Denmark, Prussia, Lorraine

2.Allies: Sweden and England

3.Peace Treaty: Treaties of Nijmegen (1678-79)

trenches are used in siegecraft to
encircle and approach the besieged
fortress cities

Louis XIV in a trench before a besieged city during the
War of Devolution
by Charles le Brun, 1667

Note the trenches used to approach the walls

going to war in style

Louis XIV. and Maria Teresa in Arras 1667 during the War of Devolution
Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690)

Louis XIV’s four wars (cont.)
3.War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697) the “ﬁrst world war”
called King William’s War in British North America, the ﬁrst of Gipson’s
“Great War for the Empire”

1.Opponents: England, United Provinces, Spain,Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Prussia,
Saxony, Bavaria, and Savoy (all united in the League of Augsburg)

2.Allies: none

3.Peace Treaty: Treaty of Ryswick (1697)--Spain recognizes Saint-Domingue (Haiti)

4.War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713) also called Queen Anne’s War

1.Opponents: England, United Provinces, Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, Prussia,
Denmark, Portugal, Savoy, and several small states (all members of the Grand Alliance)

2.Allies: Spain and Bavaria

3.Peace Treaty: Peace of Utrecht (1713-14) consisting of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Treaty
of Rastatt (1714) and the Treaty of Baden (1714)

world war

1713-Provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht

Great War for the Empire

The Death of Wolfe by BenjaminWest, 1770

King George’s War; 1744-48-- War of the Austrian
Succession; 1740-48

• 1739-The War of Jenkin’s Ear
• 1740-France responded to the wars begun by her rival Britain against her
ally Spain, and her ally Prussia against the ancient Habsburg enemy

• the combatants expanded to include all the European continent except
Portugal and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

• in North America both sides used their Indian allies in savage frontier
warfare

• 1745-France used the Jacobite Pretender “Bonnie Prince Charlie” to raise
an almost successful rebellion in Britain

• the other theaters included the West Indies, India, the Caribbean,
Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean

Louisbourg; the Gibraltar of New France


• 1745-as the war progressed, Massachusetts took the
lead in besieging this fortress

• 1995-your instructor spent nine days at the
reenactment of this famous battle




• the fortress fell to combined provincial and British
regular forces

• 1748-but in the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Britain
returned the fortress in return for Madras, India




• the fortress fell to combined provincial and British
regular forces

• 1748-but in the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle Britain
returned the fortress in return for Madras, India

• 1758-Louisbourg had to be taken a second time.
• 1760-this time it was demolished, not a stone left
standing

• 1970s-Parks Canada restored it into the wonderful
site we can visit today

French and Indian War; 1754-63--Seven Years War;
1756-63

• the climax of Gipson’s “Great War for the Empire” between Britain and
France. It involved virtually every European state and their overseas
possessions

• 4 July 1754-origins in the New World, Col. Washington’s failed mission to
secure “the Forks of the Ohio” for British North America

• as a result of balance of power diplomacy Britain and France exchanged
“partners” in the “stately quadrille” known as the Diplomatic Revolution
of 1756

• Frederick the Great, the “star” of the previous war, now faced an
encirclement which foreshadowed the twentieth century

• again, the war was fought worldwide, on land and sea

The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756

maps of the theater of the siege of Quebec

maps of the campaign; June-September, 1759

maps of the battle of September 13, 1759

illustrations of the Battle of Quebec, 1759

Major General James Wolfe; 1727-13 September 1759
• 1743-age 15, began his career in the War of
the Austrian Succession at Dettingen

• 1745-fought at Culloden to defeat the
Jacobite rebels of “Bonnie Prince Charlie”

• famously refused to shoot a wounded
Highlander when so ordered by “Butcher
Cumberland”

• 1758-distinguished himself at Louisbourg
• 1759-Pitt chose him to lead the expedition
against Quebec Who, at the Expence of his Life, purchas'd
immortal Honour for his Country, and
planted,with his own Hand, the British Laurel,
• the night before the battle, he remarked on in the inhospitable Wilds of North America, By
the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th. 1759."
Grey’s Elegy, “The paths of glory lead but to
the grave”

Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran; 1712 – September 14, 1759

• like Wolfe, he entered the army at a young
age and served in the Continental wars of
the Polish and Austrian Succession

• 1756-sent by Louis XV to be in overall
command of the defense of New France

• 1756-58-using his Indian allies skillfully, he
inﬂicted humiliating defeats on the British
and colonial forces

• 1759-against superior forces, he conducted
the defense of Quebec until his mortal
wounding on the Plains of Abraham

• 1760-the last French capitulation occurred
at Montreal. New France becomes Canada

both are memorialized at Quebec’s Assembly building

JE ME SOUVIENS

both are memorialized at Quebec’s Assembly building

1763-the Peace of Paris

• Britain obtained all of New France (Canada) and other gains in India and
the West Indies

• but the cost was tremendous, the debt nearly doubled to £122 million

• 1764-Lord North’s government attempted to recover some of the costs of
defending North America with the Sugar and Stamp (1765) Acts

• France was defeated but unreconciled to its loss in the Great War

• in less than ﬁfteen years, there would be a “re-match”

France and the American Revolution

France and the American Revolution

Washington and Lafayette at Mount Vernon, 1784
by Thomas Prichard Rossiter and Louis Remy Mignot, 1859

The government crisis went back to the American war. The revolt of the
English colonies may in fact be considered the principal direct cause
of the French Revolution [emphasis added], both because in invoking
the rights of man it stirred up great excitement in France, and because
Louis XVI in supporting it got his finances into very bad condition.
Necker carried on the war by loans. When peace was restored in 1783 the
increase of taxes could not make up the deficit, so that his successor
Calonne continued to borrow. When lenders showed themselves
recalcitrant, in 1786, Calonne was obliged to notify the king that fiscal
reform was absolutely necessary.

Lefebvre, p. 21

Boston’s Tea Party
16 December 1773

the Rape of Boston
the Boston Port Bill, 1774

19th of April, ’75
“Here the embattled farmers stood,
and ﬁred the shot heard round the world”

Roderigue Hortalez and
Company

In early 1776 Beaumarchais was authorized by
Louis XV to set up a ﬁctitious Franco-Spanish
front company to secretly fund the American
rebels

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
(1732 – 1799)
best known for the three Figaro plays

Minister to France; 1776-1785
• celebrated worldwide as a natural
philosopher and sage, he was a
brilliant choice as our minister to
France

France

• he was feted in all the salons

France

• he was feted in all the salons

• 1778-after the victory at Saratoga, he
accomplished his mission with the
Treaties of Alliance and Amity &
Commerce

• the trickle of secret military support
became a ﬂow: money, munitions,
military advisors, ships, French
troops, the French ﬂeet

John Paul Jones; “father of the American Navy”
• 14 February 1778-when he sailed Ranger
into Brest, nine days after Franklin’s
treaty, the American flag received its
first formal recognition, a nine-gun
salute

• after an interminable delay, Franklin
obtained for him the Bonhomme
Richard-42

• 23 Sept 1779-against HMS Serapis-50 and
Countess of Scarborough-20 he would
prevail

• when invited to surrender by the British
captain, he replied with the immortal
Houdon’s second American sitter
words, “I have not yet begun to fight!” (1781) after Franklin (1778)

The Crypt beneath the Naval Academy Chapel
Teddy Roosevelt’s monument to navalism
brought home from Paris, 1906; interred her in 1913

Washington’s surrogate son

• December 1776-age 19, arranged in Paris
to enter American service as a Major
General

• 1777-wounded at Brandywine, he still
manages to organize a successful retreat

• 1779-returning to France, he negotiates,
with Franklin, a further 6,000 French
regulars under General de Rochambeau

• 1781-back in Virginia, he pens Cornwallis
at Yorktown until Washington and
Rochambeau can invest the British there

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier,
• 1834-he is buried in Paris under soil from
the battleﬁeld of Bunker Hill
Marquis de La Fayette (1757 – 1834)

Battle of the Virginia Capes; September 1781
Admiral De Grasse defeats Admiral Graves

Washington and Rochambeau
at Yorktown; October 1781

Cornwallis surrenders
to the French and American commands
by John Trumbull

French Revenge
but at a Fatal Cost

"Give me leave, my dear General to present you with a picture of the Basti"e, just as it
looked a few days a-er I had ordered its demolition,- with the main key of the fortress of
despotism. It is a tribute, which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an Aide-de-
Camp to my General, as a Missionary of liberty to its Patriarch."
- Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington, March 17, 1790

the key as it sits today at
Mount Vernon

French Revolution; session i, Ancien Regime

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