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Marie Antoinette, the Last Queen of France Marie Antoinette was born in Austria in 1755, the fourth daughter in the Austrian royal family. When she was fourteen, she was married to the Prince of France, Louis Auguste, at the Palace of Versailles. Her mother married her to the prince to improve relations between France and Austria. Four years later, Marie Antoinette became queen of France when her husband, Louis Auguste, became Louis XVI, the king of France.
Marie Antoinette enjoyed the party-filled life at Versailles and she spent a lot of money on expensive dresses. She was also the target of gossip among the nobles who spread rumors that she partied too much, lost huge amounts of money gambling and had many affairs. While Marie Antoinette did lead a privileged life, it wasn't that much more extravagant than that of other European monarchs.
When the French Revolution began, Marie Antoinette refused to negotiate with the revolutionaries and she was often the target of public anger toward the monarchy. In October of 1789, a mob of Parisian women marched to Versailles and forced the royal family to move to Paris. Two years later, when France became a constitutional monarchy, the royal family tried to escape from France and get to Austria, where Marie Antoinette’s brother was emperor. However, before they could get out of France, they were arrested and brought back to Paris.
When France went to war against Austria in 1792, many in France accused Marie Antoinette of being an enemy of the country and the revolution. People accused her of ordering Louis XVI to not work with the revolutionary government. When the Austrian army invaded France, the royal family was locked in prison and the monarchy was abolished (destroyed). In 1793, Marie Antoinette’s husband, Louis XVI, was executed by the Revolutionary government. After this, Marie Antoinette fought bravely to stay alive and have the lives of her children spared. However, many of the leaders in the Revolutionary government did not like her and in 1793 she was put on trial for treason. Even though she put up a strong defense, it did not matter because the Revolutionary government had already decided that she would be found guilty. Marie Antoinette was publicly executed by guillotine in the center of Paris in 1793.
Marquis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary Hero in France
Lafayette was born in France to a noble family. He was educated at the Versailles Academy for Military Training and joined the army in 1771. He was inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment and, in 1777, he traveled secretly to America to help fight in the American Revolution. He became a general in the Continental Army and a close friend to George Washington. Lafayette played an important role in winning French support for the American Revolution that was crucial to the Americans winning the war.
After the American Revolution, Lafayette returned to France and was welcomed as a hero by Louis XVI. However, he supported the Enlightenment ideas of the French Revolution and was part of the group that helped to write the Declaration of the Rights of Man. He then became the commander of the National
Guard, the army of the Revolutionary government. When a mob of Parisian women marched to Versailles, Lafayette rescued the royal family and protected them as they were brought back to Paris. This put Lafayette into a difficult situation of being both a supporter of the revolution, while at the same time being a noble who wanted to protect the royal family. After the royal family’s failed escape from France, many revolutionaries turned against Lafayette, calling him a “traitor”. In 1792 when Robespierre came to power, Lafayette fled France before he could be arrested and executed. However, he was captured by the Austrians, who accused him of being a radical revolutionary. The Austrians held him in prison for five years. At that point, the Austrians were defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte and Lafayette was freed and returned to France. In 1830, Lafayette supported Louis Philippe as the new King of France. In the last years of his life, Lafayette was the first person given honorary citizenship to United States.Maximilian Robespierre, Leader of the Reign of Terror
Robespierre was born in France in 1758. By 21 years old, he was an outstanding student and lawyer. In his work as a lawyer, he was inspired by the Enlightenment thinkers and worked to defend the rights of poor people. He was elected to be a representative of the Third Estate at the meeting of the Estates General, where he gained influence and participated in writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. He was given the nickname “the incorruptible” because people believed he was so moral he could never be corrupted. Robespierre joined a group of radical revolutionaries called the Jacobins, who wanted to get rid of the king and turn France into a republic. He quickly became a leader of the Jacobins. Robespierre was opposed to France's war against Austria because he believed it was more important to deal with all of the problems within France. When Austria started to win the war and invade France, Robespierre and the other Jacobins took control of the government and had their opponents in the government arrested and executed, including the King Louis XVI. At this point, when France was being invaded and many parts of the country were rebelling, Robespierre became a leader of the Committee for Public Safety, which became the government of France. The Committee for Public Safety was a small group of leaders who were determined to save the revolution from being destroyed. Robespierre believed it was necessary to use the death penalty to force people to obey the
government and to save the revolution. As leader of the Committee for Public Safety, Robespierre lead the Reign of Terror, in which people were arrested and executed without trial if they were accused of being enemies of the revolution. It is estimated that about 40,000 people died during this 15-month period. Robespierre even ordered the execution of his fellow Jacobins because they were not radical enough. At this point, Robespierre became a dictator who ruled France through fear. Robespierre tried to use the Reign of Terror to rebuild France into a country where everybody was free and considered equal, which he called the “republic of virtue”. However, the remaining members of the government turned against Robespierre and he was arrested and sentenced to death, without a chance to defend himself. He was then executed in the center of Paris by guillotine.
Napoleon Bonaparte, Leader of the French Empire
Napoleon Bonaparte was born in France in 1769. Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power began when he was a young officer in the French Army during the French Revolution. Napoleon was a brilliant military leader. As a result, he was very popular in France and his soldiers were loyal to him. In 1799, when he was 30, Napoleon used his army to overthrow the French government. After that, he ruled with dictatorial powers. Then, in 1804, with the support of the French people, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France.
As emperor, Napoleon insisted on directly controlling all parts of his empire and personally leading the French army in battle. As a result, Napoleon seldom rested. He would work twenty-hour days and often dictated his commands to several secretaries at once. He improved the lives of the French people by reforming the legal system, creating the Napoleonic Code, which made the laws the same for all people in France, regardless of their class. He also established public schools where any child could be educated and established the Bank of France with a new the currency called the franc, which was used by France until 1999. However, Napoleon never gave the French people democracy and did not allow them freedom of speech.
For most of the time Napoleon ruled France, he was at war with the other countries of Europe. He was very
successful in these wars and he was able to force most of Europe to follow his rule. The only country in Europe he could not defeat was England, which was protected by its powerful navy. Because he could not defeat England with his army, Napoleon tried to destroy its economy by not allowing any country in Europe to trade with England. However, this plan backfired because England used its navy to prevent Europe from trading with the rest of the world. This hurt many European countries. Russia, however, decided to ignore Napoleon and began to trade with England. In response to Russia trading with England, Napoleon decided to invade Russia with his 400,000 man Grand Army. This action marked the beginning of Napoleon’s downfall. Instead of fighting Napoleon, the Russians retreated deep into Russia, destroying everything that Napoleon’s army could use for support. The Russians even burned the city of Moscow after Napoleon captured it. Napoleon was unable to force the Russians to surrender and decided to retreat from Russia. However, the cold Russian winter hit and froze Napoleon’s soldiers. In addition, the
Russians decided to attack Napoleon’s retreating army. During this retreat, Napoleon’s army was destroyed - only 94,000 men of the Grand Army returned from Russia, less than 1/4 of his original army. After this, the combined armies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia advanced across Europe to end Napoleon’s rule in France and break-up his Empire. After two more years of constant warfare, Napoleon surrendered and was exiled to the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean Sea. However, Napoleon was not yet finished. In 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to rule France for “The Hundred Days”. The French welcomed Napoleon as a hero and he was able to quickly rebuild his army. However, the British and Prussian armies were able to defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. After Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later.
Louis Napoleon, or Napoleon III - Nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte
Louis Napoleon was born in France in 1808. He lived in France for only a few years until his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, was defeated. After that, he grew up in various European countries. As a young man, Louis Napoleon wanted to be the leader of France, like his uncle. He attempted several military takeovers of France but they all failed, which resulted in him being thrown out of France or being put in prison, from which he escaped and fled to England. Louis Napoleon returned to France after the Second Republic was declared in 1848. He was elected president of the new Republic because many hoped that he would return France to the glory of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was elected with more than 75 percent of the vote. As president, Napoleon wanted to enact major economic and political changes in France. However, many in the government opposed his plans. Napoleon dealt with this problem by overthrowing the government and making himself a dictator in 1851. The next year he held an election in France in which the majority of people gave him the title of emperor. At this point, he took the name Napoleon III and France became the French Empire. As the emperor of France, Napoleon III was always careful to rule with the support of the people of France. He said that he would "take the initiative to do everything useful for the prosperity and the greatness of France.” He did this by building railroads, industrial factories and improving
farms. He also oversaw the rebuilding of the city of Paris into a modern city with parks and beautiful buildings. He also began to slowly give more rights and power to the French people, including freedom of the press and freedom to assemble. While many of these changes happened toward the end of his rule, they are important because they were used to organize the next democratic government in France, the Third Republic. Napoleon III lost power when he went to war against the country of Prussia (later Germany) in 1870. Napoleon III did not have the military talents that his uncle had. In the first major battle of the war, Napoleon was defeated and captured by the Prussians. Without Napoleon III’s leadership, the government of France continued the war, but was finally defeated the next year. Napoleon III lived the rest of his life in England.
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