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Headless Monarchy: The French Revolution, Part II

2010-11-11 · John · watch on YouTube · History & curiosities · explainer learning

John continues his French Revolution explainer from 1790 to early 1793 (Varennes, the Champ de Mars, the 1791 constitution, Pillnitz, war, the republic, the guillotine and the king's execution), arguing that none of it fixed hunger or bankruptcy and that yesterday's revolutionaries became 'the man'.

What is said

00:00:13 — 1790 skipped (hunger, debt, the émigrés); Bouillé's offer and the flight to Varennes; the Jacobins argue the king abdicated

  • ★★ John skips ahead a year, noting only that the National Assembly made no one less hungry, the financial crisis continued, and many nobles (the émigrés) took their money and left France. — 00:00:13 · France
  • ★★ John says General Bouillé offered Louis and Marie Antoinette refuge at his country estate, and for this was later likened to a bloodthirsty despot in the French national anthem. — 00:00:54
  • ★★★ John says that in July 1791 (as he dates it) Louis and Marie Antoinette fled disguised as servants, were captured at Varennes one day later, and were humiliatingly returned to Paris. — 00:01:11
  • ★★★ John says radical revolutionaries, including the Jacobins, argued that the king's leaving Paris amounted to abdication, so France had no king and could become a republic. — 00:01:42

00:01:58 — Champ de Mars petition and shooting; the National Assembly 'becomes the man'; the constitution of 1791 and constitutional monarchy

  • ★★★ John says the Jacobins then ran a petition drive for a republic on the Champ de Mars, and troops controlled by the National Assembly fired on the crowd, killing 50 people. — 00:01:58
  • ★★★ John says the National Assembly, once the voice of the revolution that swore the Tennis Court Oath, was now firing on crowds: in economic contractions yesterday's radical hope and change becomes 'the man'. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ John says the National Assembly finally finished its constitution, fulfilling the Tennis Court Oath and creating a constitutional monarchy with power in the Legislative Assembly and a royal veto on some things. — 00:02:39

00:02:56 — Nervous neighbours: the Holy Roman Empire, Leopold II, the Declaration of Pillnitz; hunger still unaddressed; war with Austria and Prussia

  • ★★ John says neighbours grew nervous, especially the Holy Roman Empire (per Voltaire neither holy nor Roman nor an empire), whose emperor Leopold II, Marie Antoinette's brother, directly ruled only Austria. — 00:02:56
  • ★★ John says Leopold II, fearing a republic next door, issued the Declaration of Pillnitz with Frederick William II of Prussia, promising to restore the French monarchy and further radicalising the revolutionaries. — 00:03:37
  • ★★★ John stresses again that nothing the Assembly, the Jacobins or Louis XVI had done addressed the underlying problems: the French people were hungry and France was broke. — 00:03:53 · France
  • ★★ John says the king and the National Assembly then agreed to invade Austria, to plunder its wealth and food and to spread revolution, and Prussia joined Austria in a war against France. (playful) — 00:04:10

00:04:39 — Republic declared in August 1792; the guillotine and egalitarian capital punishment; execution of Louis XVI; war with most of Europe

  • ★★★ John says that with France poor, hungry and fighting two wars, radicals led by the Jacobins held a session excluding most of parliament and declared France a republic, voiding the year-old constitution. — 00:04:39 · France
  • ★★ John says the monarchy had executed commoners and nobles by different methods, but Enlightenment thinking held that capital punishment should be egalitarian and rationalist, the same humane death for all: the guillotine. (playful) — 00:05:02
  • ★★★ John says Louis XVI was guillotined in January 1793, making it hard for Austria and Prussia to keep their promise to restore him. — 00:05:25
  • ★★ John says that within a month of the king's beheading France was at war with Prussia, Austria, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal. — 00:05:37 · Netherlands

00:05:50 — Sign-off: Part III tomorrow, Hank educates on Friday; promise to prove he is not wearing pants

  • ★★ John says his last French Revolution video will be uploaded tomorrow and Hank will educate them further on Friday. — 00:05:54 · Hank Green
  • ★ John promises that in tomorrow's video he will prove he is not wearing pants. (playful) — 00:06:01

Humor (significant)

  • John names the fleeing nobles the émigrés. — 00:00:36 > «Only, I'm pronouncing it wrong because I'm American, and we pronounce everything in American.»
  • The royals sneak out in disguise; if you've read a Shakespeare play you know what happens next: — 00:01:23 > «the ruse is discovered, and everyone lives happily ever after.»
  • Like many monarchs, Leopold II liked monarchy and wanted to keep his job. — 00:03:25 > «his job as a person who gets to stand around wearing a dress pointing at nothing, owning winged lion monkeys made of gold»
  • Enlightenment reasoning demands the same humane death for everyone. — 00:05:13 > «because of course rationally we don't want to hurt condemned criminals we just want to kill them.»
  • France is at war with most of Europe after beheading its king. — 00:05:45 > «In short, things seem pretty bad, but don't worry they're about to get much worse.»
  • John ends Part II before the Terror. — 00:05:50 > «Hank, I'm gonna stop there for today so Marie Antoinette can live until tomorrow afternoon.»
  • John signs off in his formal costume, previewing tomorrow's video. — 00:06:01 > «At which point, I promise to prove that I'm not wearing pants.»

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