French Revolution I Key Terms

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

A document, issued by the National Assembly in July 1790, that broke ties with the Catholic Church and established a national church system in France with a process for the election of regional bishops. The document angered the pope and church officials and turned many French Catholics against the revolutionaries. It sharpened the conflict between the educated classes and the common people that had been emerging in the eighteenth century.

Estates General

A legislative body in prerevolutionary France made up of representatives of each of the three classes, or estates. It was called into session in 1789 for the first time since 1614.

...Rights of Woman

A piece written by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792, two years after it's counterpart. She demanded equal rights for women. She also advocated coeducation out of the belief that it would make women better wives and mothers, good citizens, and economically independent. It was considered very radical at the time and became a founding text of the feminist movement.

Tennis Court Oath

A pledge made by the members of France's National Assembly in 1789, in which they vowed not to disband until they had been recognized as a national assembly and had written a new constitution.

A Vindication of the Rights of Man

A political pamphlet, written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, which attacks aristocracy and advocates republicanism. Wollstonecraft's was the first response in a pamphlet war sparked by the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, a defense of constitutional monarchy, aristocracy, and the Church of England.

Bastille

A royal prison that was stormed by several hundred people on July 14, 1789. They were afraid of the massing of the King's troops in Paris, so stormed the armory in the prison for weapons to protect the city with.

What is the Third Estate?

Pamphlet written by Abbe Sieyes in January 1789. It declared the nobility to be a useless caste that should be abolished. Only the Third Estate was necessary and was identical with the nation - should therefore be sovereign. He also explained what needed to be done to insure equality in the Estates General, a 1 person, 1 vote system.

Olympe de Gouges

A self-taught writer and woman of the people, she protested the evils of slavery as well as the injustices done to women. In September 1791, she published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman. Her position found little sympathy among leaders of the revolution, however.

Declaration of Pillnitz

After the arrest of the royal family trying to escape France, the monarchs of Austria and Prussia professed their willingness to intervene in France to restore Louis XVI's rule if necessary.

Enlightened bourgeoisie

French wealthy, educated commoners.

Edmund Burke

He was a member of British Parliament and the author of Reflections on the Revolution in France. He criticized the underlying principles of the French Revolution and argued conservative thought.

Abbe' Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

He was one of the first major people to criticize the society of orders in France. He was a clergy man but represented the Third Estate in the Estate General. He Wrote "What is the Third Estate?" which argued that the nobility was a tiny, overprivileged minority and that the third estate constituted the true strength of the French nation.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

It was issued by the National Assembly on August 27, 1789. This clarion call of the liberal revolutionary ideal guaranteed equality before the law, representative government for a sovereign people, and individual freedom. It was only two pages long and was disseminated throughout France, Europe, and the rest of the world.

Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Short work written by the French feminist Olympe de Gouges in 1791 that was modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and that made the argument that the equality proclaimed by the French revolutionaries must also include women. It stated, "Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights."

...on the Revolutions in France

Book written by Edmund Burke in 1790. He defended inherited privileges. He also glorified Britain's unrepresentative Parliament and predicted that reform like that occurring in France would lead only to chaos and tyranny.

Mary Wollstonecraft

English writer and early feminist who denied male supremacy and advocated equal education for women she wrote both A Vindication of Rights of Man and Woman.

Great Fear

The fear of noble reprisals against peasant uprisings that seized the French countryside and led to further revolt.

National Assembly

The first French revolutionary legislature, made up primarily of representatives of the third estate and a few from the nobility and clergy, in session from 1789 to 1791.