at the end of the 18th century the most glorious Kingdom in Europe would face a mighty foe the power of its own people one man would rise to inspire the nation to cast aside a reluctant king and a hated queen and a new Republic would be born in blood the blood of the French Revolution 1794 the conciergerie prison in Paris an impenetrable fortress on the banks of the saan Dank rat infested it is known as death's antichamber inside what was once the voice of the nation is about to be silenced as his hair is Shor and his neck laid bare for the blade of the guillotine maximilan robespier is about to be fed to a monster of his own creation the French Revolution has reached its Pinnacle of violence French Revolution is this extraordinary moment when people began to believe that you could actually recreate almost everything in a society that you could not only change the politics the institutions but you could change human nature itself through political action the French Revolution really does constitute the crossroads of the modern world where everything begins to turn in a different direction the revolution saw a feudal land turn its back on aristocratic tradition and chart a violent new course towards the [Music] future it would shake the very foundations of Europe and its impact would be felt across the world the French Revolution is the most important event in Western history there are developments that can rival it like the Industrial Revolution like capitalism but if you mean an event I can't think of anything more important it was the revolution that upset things the most I mean again when you consider that it got rid of the Catholic Church it got rid of Christianity it got rid of the nobility it got rid of the king got rid of all these things the French Revolution would bring bread to the poor democracy to France and would establish a whole new order of society but progress would come at a price it was really a moment of extraordinary hope extraordinary ambition and then it turned into this most horrific tragedy now broken and defeated robes Pier not two days before had stood triumphant at the head of the greatest political revolution in Europe's history so true to its ideals he was called The Incorruptible so powerful his slightest utterance could cloak an entire city in [Applause] fear a master orator robes Pierre's words were his weapons now silenced by a bullet to the jaw he awaits the same Swift and brutal end that he has ordained for so many others the French Revolution is about to devour its Chief Architect [Music] no one could have foreseen the turbulent times ahead on one spring day in 1770 the shadow of versailes is packed to its gilded Rafters with the glittering crowds of the Royal Court completed in 1682 Versa was the vision of King Louis the 14th to put some distance between himself and his subjects Louis the 14th removed himself from Paris and established a new residence at this small town 12 M west of the capital here he ordered the construction of the most magnificent Palace in Europe for nearly 100 years it has been the seat of the nation's unwavering monarchy today it is host to a very important wedding King Louis the 15's grandson Prince Louie cppe next in line to the throne is about to take a bride just 15 years old on the eve of his wedding Louie Cape is bashful and hesitant with few of the characteristics expected of a future king Lou was this pudgy shy painfully inadequate 15-year-old with absolutely no social graces at all Louis the 15's mistress Madam duberry called him a fat ill-bred boy basically he was just a schlub it was very hard for Lou to come to decisions he dithered incessantly he was always ready to be persuaded by the last person he had talked to again those are usually not considered good leadership qualities Lou's marriage is a political union between Austria's royal family the hapsburgs and his own the Bourbons the wedding symbolizes the end of an ancient rivalry and the birth of new [Music] alliances the Young Brother Tri to be arrives in France a wide-eyed and pretty 14-year-old girl Marie antoanet Mari antoinet is an arch Duchess of Austria she's the youngest daughter of the Empress Maria Teresa and she comes to France as part of a marriage deal which represents a great reversal of alliances whereby For the First Time In Living memory France and Austria become allies rather than enemies Marie antoinet comes to France as a political gesture but as a teenager she has little interest in political Affairs well when M anet came to Versa she was very young she didn't know a great deal about the country she was coming to she didn't know about the Customs she didn't know about the court she was certainly a headstrong girl a very Lively girl um but she was still a girl when Mar Antoinette comes to Versailles she is just a teenager she is years old blonde with blue eyes she's pretty she likes being attractive to people and she comes with the intention of winning over her husband and her new [Music] family on the night of the wedding there is an ominous storm but inside the Grandeur of the ceremony lights up the palace as the Newly Weds make their way to the Royal [Music] bedroom in a ceremony that symbolically ensures the conception of an heir the king's courtiers are present as the awkward young couple is presented in the marriage bed for the first time the crowd is delighted and expectations are high but once the curtains are drawn it's clear that an air will not be so easily produced Louie was not only not interested in ruling Lou wasn't particularly interested in loving either and he paid her no attention on the first nights uh or even further into their marriage many years will pass before the marriage is finally consummated the lack of an air will soon spark gossip across the kingdom that will plague the couple for years to come the grand wedding Gara continues for days but outside versailes there is less cause for celebration years of neglect by a royal government have left the French people deprived and [Music] hungry 7 years earlier Louis the 15th had lost the S Years War in which Britain had relieved France of most of her North American colonies the ill fated contest nearly bankrupted the country France's coffers were nearly empty even though its population was growing bigger every day with diseases like the plague a distant memory fewer people were dying but more and more were [Music] hungry France Grew From 20 million to 26 million in the 18th century after having grown only 1 million in the preceding two centuries that put tremendous strain on what was there and so there was a lot of anxiety four years after the royal wedding Prince Louis's grandfather Louis the 15th loses his final battle with small pox the King dies defeated and unpopular and leaves behind a country on the brink of [Music] Chaos in a lavish ceremony Young Prince Louie ascends to the throne and is crowned King Louis the 16th despite the Grandeur of his coronation Louie is aware that he is wul unprepared for the job Louis the 16th the moment his grandfather died and it suddenly is clear that he's King he doesn't know what to do he feels as if the world is falling in upon him so although he's been educated in the full expectation of becoming King he doesn't feel ready for it for a kingdom in crisis Louis the 16th is not the ideal pilot the 20-year-old King prays protect us Lord for we Reign too young [Music] ensconced in their Royal Apartments in Versailles Louie and Mar Antoinette begin their new lives as young monarchs while only 12 mil away in Paris another new era is flourishing one that is on a collision course with the monarchy itself it is a dangerous new age of ideas the Age of Enlightenment [Music] [Music] as the Royal Carriage approaches the prestigious Louis Lon College in Paris the crowds gather for a glimpse of Pomp and celebrity the newly crowned King Louis the 16th and his young wife are being welcomed to [Music] Paris at the head of the welcome party is a promising young law student maximilan robespier when robespier was a school boy the king visited the college and robespier gave a Latin address to the king so he actually spoke to Louis the 16th when he was a teenager as robespier respectfully delivers his Latin Soliloquy the king hardly notices the boy but years later their Fates will again intertwine under very different [Music] circumstances it was one of these rituals that take place in every school and yet of course it was so charged with irony because here you had the young robis Pierre reading this discourse in honor of the man he would later kill for now the welcome is warm and the flattery effusive but although the Grandeur of the mon can still excite adulation and loyalty parts of French society are beginning to question its role since the Middle Ages French society had been divided into three classes or Estates dictated by birth there was a vast gap between the wealth of the first two Estates the nobility and the clergy and the rest of France during the 18th century new thinkers began to use reason and science to challenge all such Traditions a new intellect ual Spirit of the age brings everything under fresh scrutiny judging it according to criteria of rationalism and humanitarianism France is alive with new discoveries and debates it is the age of enlightenment the enlightenment is a movement which says don't trust Authority don't trust anything that you've been told by anybody else at all think it out for yourself test it for yourself in old regime Europe you were told got to think you were given information from above by your rulers by your priests and so the idea that you could map out all of human knowledge and then have access to it was revolutionary in exclusive salons across Paris Aristocrats gather to discuss Enlightenment authors and the burgeoning Age of Reason Vol rouso fresh voices who Champion Liberty control of One's Own Destiny and religious tolerance the passion for this new literature is evident amongst the aristocracy but as Enlightenment ideas trickle through all levels of society the drive for equality will begin to threaten the aristocratic way of [Music] life what makes it dangerous is it means you will eventually question why are aristocrats the ones with privilege can't we change the world to make it a better place isn't progress possible all of that will eventually undermine the idea that monarchy is natural aristocracy is natural and hierarchy is natural to see Enlightenment ideals in action one has only to look across the Atlantic where the Americans struggle for independence from France's Nemesis Great Britain King Louie Wants Revenge for his grandfather's defeats and sees an opportunity in the American war of independence French military intervention costs the country 1,500 million L money raised from borrowing and taxing poverty struck peasants the enormous Bill hastens an impending financial crisis America bankrupts France in effect because the debt which the French monarchy incurs in order to fight the American war of independence turns out to be absolutely crucial in the financial situation of the French mon monarchy because the French monarchy cannot pay those debts as Louis sends money and troops across the Atlantic Mar Antoinette is busy incurring debts of her own life at versailes is a NeverEnding cycle of archaic ritual and [Music] formality there are Ceremonies for the waking of the king and queen for dressing for dining for retiring to bed to keep herself amused amidst the drudgery of ritual Marie presides over a parade of increasingly outrageous fashion Marie was obsessed with fashion especially these towering hairdos that were several feet high that took hours and hours in the construction and fit all sorts of ornaments and fruits and to many people they seemed like an obscenity they came to represent what was all all that was wrong with her and with verai and that culture Marie occupies herself with court gossip gambling and the staging of plays as her expenses accumulate Marie earns herself a nickname Marie has given the name Madam deficit as the country is in economic chaos and she continues to spend as if nothing's happened on dresses and jewels and shoes and she was the Amela Marcos of her day in the popular mind there is perhaps one way in which Marie antoinet can repay the debt in the S years since their marriage Louie and Marie have yet to produce a child Marie was Finding herself in an increasingly precarious [Music] position the job of the queen is to produce a male air it's absolutely essential for there to be a son and during that time people criticize people are dissatisfied people say the king should never married this Austrian Arch Duchess and now she can't even produce an air to the throne Marie is desperate Louis's appetite for food is unquestioned but sex is clearly not on the [Music] menu Maria teres the mother of mar antoinet questioned if a girl as gorgeous as my daughter cannot get him going now what's going on Louis the 16th and his young wife were not able to conceive for S years this cast a PA on the beginning of his Reign and because his hobby as a locksmith was well known uh there were all sorts of salacious songs uh circulating to the effect that the locksmith was having a hard time finding the keyhole Lou's apparent lack of virility is seen as symptomatic of a weak king after years of frustration and mounting pressure Louie is diagnosed with a treatable condition called fimosis Louie had a deformity that made arousal extremely painful therefore there was no consummation until there was a surgical procedure that could correct this but he was scared to death to have it and it took years for him to agree to have it and when he finally did uh voila after a simple surgery the couple is able to have their first child Marita rise but there is no easy fix for the years of damage to Mar Antoinette's image since the early 1780s liel have circulated throughout the country pornographic satire of the king and queen obscene pamphlets mock Louis impotence and portray Marie as a promiscuous harlot in a debauched and decadent Court the people's views on the monach are turning sour as the situation in the countryside worsens there is a run of bad harvests and attempts at deregulation only make things worse as the cost of flour Rises there is a shortage of the very heart of the French diet bread but the hardships naturally stop at the gates of Versa as the court continue to live in extravagance grievances are committed to paper one charge is leveled directly at the Royal Court do you know why there are so many needy people it cried it is because your luxurious existence devours in one day the substance of a thousand men The Man Behind this charge is the same young man who only a few years earlier had eulogized the royal couple after their coronation maximilan robespier his voice is just one amongst a growing clamor for change for equality and for revolution [Music] Versa in the late 1700s is an oasis of extravagance surrounded by a land in Despair and with an uncertain King at the helm France is charting a course for disaster after 19 years of marriage Louie has SED four children yet as a king he remains impotent as the financial crisis escalates all the king can do is hire and fire a succession of ministers none of whom have the answers by ancient privilege the nobility and clergy are exempt from Taxation and so as taxes rise to cover the government's mounting debt repayments the burden Falls heavily upon the poorest to add to their misery freakish weather arrives to decimate the Harvest if ever God intervened to make a situation worse the summer of 1788 and and the spring of 1789 is a moment when that happens by the summer of 1788 you already have a burgeoning political crisis and it's developing against a background of very serious food shortage for the people of France in 1788 bread is the essence of life [Music] itself most ordinary people in France ate at least 2 pounds a day of bread bread was all important it's price was immediately felt by everyone if the price doubled you were in big trouble under the financial mismanagement of L's government the cost of bread skyrockets Food Supplies are hoarded by profiteers and the cost of a loaf of bread can soon equal a month's wages hunger turns to rage bread riots break out across France Baker is AR raided and shopkeepers suspected of hoarding brand are lynched on the spot with the economy in shambles Louie is forced to appoint Jack neker as his Finance Minister an enlightened thinker NECA is popular with the people in a way that Louie can only Envy Jack Neer was undoubtedly the most popular Minister throughout the spring of 89 because he's taken the line publicly in his writings that the government's duty is to make sure that there is enough bread and grain for everybody NECA urges Louie to call a meeting of the traditional representative body of the Kingdom the Estates General it will be the first time the Estates General has convened in 175 years France was politically organized in something called the Estates the first estate was the clergy the second estate was the nobility and the Third Estate was everyone else and by uh contemporary Reckoning the first two Estates occupied 3% of the population and the Third Estate 97% of the population a lot of people felt it was very unfair for this Third Estate which was most of the population to only have onethird of the deputies they felt it was very unfair that this should be a three-chamber parliament where two Chambers the nobility and the clergy could always outvote the commoners the 4th of May 1789 a skilled young lawyer and politician arrives at Versailles maximilan rpar comes to stand before the Estates General as a deputy to fight for a fair voice for the people he represents the Third Estate [Music] an orphan from the provinces robespier had risen to academic prominence on a prestigious scholarship becoming an eloquent speaker Prim in appearance with never a hair nor a phrase out of [Music] place returning home to the town of Aris the Enlightenment ideas he had absorbed as a student drove him to become a powerful advocate for the down troton by the time he went back and started to practice as a lawyer he was reading very widely in the Enlightenment and robier was someone who when he was practicing law and Aras tried to actually bring the ideas of the Enlightenment into the cases he was fighting in the Estates General Robespierre and his colleagues are determined to make the abbility and clergy pay taxes Louie feels threatened by the growing radicalism of the Third Estate after a 6 we standof the deputies ared to find that they have been locked out on June 20th when the deputies come to their meeting and find the doors locked they suspect a plot they move next door to what we call a tennis court which was really a handball court and gather together and swear they will not stop meeting until they have a new constitution the deputies have declared themselves to be the National Assembly the true representatives of the people of France the tennis court is one of these great symbolic moments in the history of the French Revolution you had these people assembled in this great open space of the tennis court raising their arms in this sort of Quasi Roman salute and for the National Assembly this was a moment when they realized something of their power and their dignity and saw that they really could defy Francis King in one revolutionary stand of Defiance the National Assembly is born it will be a parliamentary body enacting the people's will and addressing their grievances but grabbing power from the king would not be so easy as signing a simple Proclamation all of these early victories that take place at viai are largely paper victories and they have no teeth to back them up and the fear that happens that takes over the deputies at ver as we approach July mid July is that the king is gathering his forces to disperse them to overthrow them by July 30,000 Royal troops are taking position around Paris to defend themselves the people form a National Guard loned the military hospital is raided and 28,000 muskets distributed the only thing missing is gunpowder but the people know just where to get it near the center of Paris there looms a massive Stone keep an Infamous symbol of tyrannical government the bastile the prison houses the city's stores of gunpowder and is legendary as a place where enemies of the crown disappeared the basti had been the great symbol of Royal despotism the great symbol of the kings of France running beyond the just limits of their own power a symbol of horror for the people of France amidst the rioting news spreads that Louie has sacked his Finance Minister the people's beloved Jack neker the court holds him responsible for the Revolt of the Third Estate to the people of Paris it appears their enemies at court a striking back on the 14th of July crowds banned together identifying themselves with a rosette red and blue for the colors of Paris sep ated by white the color of the House of borbon the tricka is born from the feverish crowd a voice cries out to the bastile attacking the basti means that the people of Paris are saying you cannot get rid of the new National Assembly the people are acting they're arming themselves and they're basically saying we take the side of the Revolution the governor of the bastile the Marquee Delon tries to secure the prison when he learns of the approaching mob he mounts a hopeless defense with only 32 guards the Marauders storm The Fortress and tear into the soldiers with knives and Pikes finally Governor delone surrenders but the enraged mob engulfs him dragging him into the streets The jering Horde kicks and stabs at him until his pleas for death are answered before the end of the day the mayor of Paris will meet a similar fate a revolutionary tradition is born delon's severed head is paraded on a pike to the Delight of the crowd word of the bloody Revolt quickly reaches the deputies at the National Assembly the deputies in the National Assembly do not immediately condemn this act of violence in fact they accept it and it was this acceptance of uh popular violence that in some people's view uh created a pattern that was to have catastrophic consequences for uh the unfolding of the Revolution with the smoke still clearing over the bastile Louis the 16th returns from a hunting trip in his diary under the date 14th of July 1789 he writes nothing a reference to his unsuccessful hunt then an aid brings news of the fall of the bastile is it a Revolt asks the king no sire he has answered it is a revolution the victory at the bastile marks a crucial moment in French history the people had defied their King and won there would be no turning back as a symbol of the defeat of Oppression the people dig with their bare hands and tear apart the bastile Brick by Brick they are beginning to dism manle the past [Music] itself the French went about the process of tearing down the bastile as quickly as they could in the absence of powerful explosives this was done very painstakingly but with a tremendous amount of vigor and the bricks were given away sold as emblems of the demolition of despotism the energy of the streets invigorates the national assembly a revolutionary Manifesto is adopted called the Declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen it calls for an end to tyranny and for a representative government to protect the freedom and equality of all men the Declaration of the rights of men was a declaration promulgated by the National Assembly which said in its text that the sovereignty belongs to the people it belongs to the nation the king is nowhere mentioned in this document therefore by issuing this document the assembly was was effectively seizing power for itself with the new National Assembly as their voice the people of France set out to change the very fabric of their world they demand a constitutional monarchy equal rights for all men and justice under reasonable laws robespier demands increased freedom for the Press which had been muzzled under the old regime [Music] the resulting Free Press is spearheaded by lamida the people's friend a fiery newspaper full of vitriolic Rants and provocation it is the brainchild of a former doctor Jean Paul Mara a controversial author of tracks on science and philosophy Mara was rejected by Francis Academy deance it left an enduring bitterness against the French establishment later whilst on the run from royalist police Mar contracted a painful skin disease that left him confined for long periods to a medicinal bath Mara finds in the revolution the perfect outlet for his Venom je Paul Mara was just one of these professional Mal contents and unfortunately revolutions do offer opportunity to professional Mal contents Mara took all of that bile all of that resentment and funneled it into a newspaper that became extraordinarily successful L Mah was a man possessed of extraordinary anger you just have to read the pages of his newspaper the friend of the people to see this in every issue he displays a complete paranoid mentality he sees plots everywhere everybody is plotting against the Revolution and the answer is very simple for him the answer is blood the answer is heads Mara loads the Mon's extravagance amidst the poverty gripping France and needs only the slightest rumor to lambas the king and queen in his newspaper on the 2nd of October 1789 his anger boils over word reaches Paris that the King has thrown a party at Versa that the king's soldiers threw the new tricka flag symbol of the Revolution to the ground and trampled it [Music] underfoot Mara is enraged he reports the insult in his paper just as a new threat breaks the King has again ordered troops to move into position around [Music] Paris With Victory at the bastile still fresh in their minds Mora frantically urges the people of Paris to take action again it's time to open your eyes he tells them Shake yourselves out of your torper wake up once more wake up the 5th of October Dawn breaks to the Furious ringing of bells women gather to protest against the shortage of bread and now fear of the approaching troops mixes with Fury at the news of the king's offensive party soon thousands are Marching to versailes Pikes in hand the women are taking their grievances to the king the core of the crowd was made up of the famous pad The Fearsome fish ladies of the Central Markets who were known for their a brwy build and their fearlessness they were equipped with large knives for scaling fish they were hugely muscular because they carted boxes uh you didn't want to tangle with these ladies these are women of the poor quarters these are poor women which are affected by the increased price of bread by the scarcity of products who suddenly begin to realize that they must act it is quite extraordinary how these ordinary women probably most of them couldn't even write their name suddenly act as the protagonists of the historical process at the palace word of the approaching crowd of angry women reaches the Queen's Chambers Legend has it that it is at this moment that Marie antoinet utters the most famous line she never said Mar antoinet did not say let them eat eat cake that is a myth Mar antoanet unfortunately probably never even noticed the poor people of her country long enough to make such a statement as the mob of women gather outside the gates Louie understands the revolution can no longer be ignored it is being brought to his front door he agrees to sign the Declaration of the rights of man but the crowd continues to grow throughout the night by morning 20,000 people en camped outside the palace to close the centuries of distance between the king and his subjects the angry Mass demands that the king and queen move to Paris typically Louie prevaricates his hesitation would provoke a fury in the crowd and put the lives of the royal family in grave [Music] danger when they don't get instant compliance with what they want it really looks as if they're going to to uh Massacre the Queen the mob break into the palace screaming for the blood of the queen they Massacre guards decapitate them and stick their heads on Pikes they were like banshees screaming throughout the palace give me her entrails give me her head I want a leg I want an arm I think that they had grown so frenzy that if they had encountered her they probably would have torn her to pieces terrified for her life Mar antoinet escapes to Louis's apartments only moments before the women break into her Chambers and tear her bed to shreds the king and queen are now trapped by the mob and at its Mercy the only way the women can be pacified is for the royal family to agree to go to Paris because once they're there in Paris then they can ultimately be made to do what the people of Paris [Music] want they March 60,000 strong leaving their side with carts and wagons filled with flour from the Royal storehouses the king and the queen were forced to go to Paris with the heads of their guards who had been Massac in the [Music] shatow their heads have been cut off with knives this was a moment of completely unbridled violence these heads were made up with makeup and paraded in front of the carriage with the king and queen following the king and queen are instored in the tuler palace they will never see their side again once the royal family moves to Paris they are the prisoners of Paris they know it everybody else knows it there are great limits to what they can do or even dream of doing they are the prisoners of the capital city there's no doubt verai is abandoned and the assembly moves to Paris ultimate power now seems to rest with the Paris mob France will have a new democracy new laws and a new terrifying symbol of the Revolution will make its first appearance the [Music] guillotine May 1791 it is nearly 2 years since the royal family and the National Assembly have moved to Paris Robespierre speaks often at the assembly and at the jackban club a debating Society named after the former jacoban Monastery where they gather words take on a new power in the revolution and robespier speaks with an unfailing moral compass he is an impassioned advocate for the people of France he soon earns the nickname The Incorruptible France is now a constitutional Monch power with the revolutionaries in the assembly but it seems Louis Sher is growing smaller by the day as he is forced to sign law after law diminishing his own power and that of the other emblem of feudal France the Catholic Church Louie decides the time has come to leave France and mount a campaign to reclaim his kingdom Louie had decided by 1791 that he needed to regain control of his country and he knew he could only do that with the help of a foreign army so the idea was to make a break uh from the twery palace and to head for the nearest border the 21st of June 1791 the king and queen disguised themselves as servants and under cover of Darkness slip out from under the watchful eye of [Music] Paris it is past midnight when they arrive in the small town of Ven 100 Mil East of Paris they are close to the border of Austria safety just a few miles away but they are about to run out of [Music] luck rumors of the entourages movements have preceded them to ven a town official stops the carriage and asks for their passports [Music] [Music] the official suspicions are confirmed it is the signature of the king himself the townsman is overcome at the sight of his King but revolutionary guards nearby show no reverence for the fleeing Royals he keeps hoping that people will Rec recognize him and there will be a kind of rebellion in his favor and much to his horror and surprise they are not ecstatic to recognize him they see him as escaping and basically he's arrested and taken back to Paris the idea that the Monarch had tried to abandon his people was psychologically catastrophic that event really um broke the bond between Louie and his subjects now they had not only a king who was Superfluous they had a king who was obviously a traitor as well with the royal family proving themselves enemies of the Revolution the little control over events that Lou still held is gone at the heart of the Revolutionary government is robes Pierre he shines at the podium calling for changes of every kind he demands universal suffrage and an end to slavery in the French West Indies most passionately he rails against the death penalty in the New Age of Enlightenment robes Pier wants to discard all remnants of the medieval [Music] past France had inherited a maab repertoire of execution methods from its medieval past cruel torturous deaths by drawing and quartering hanging drowning and burning well under the old regime there was a whole panoply of very gruesome punishments and decapitation was punishment reserved for the nobility and one of the things that the revolution wanted from the start was to have everybody equal in death they wanted symbolically to have the same punishment available for anyone despite Robespierre's opposition a new killing machine takes center stage in Paris Dr Joseph g a physician proposes a new decapitation machine beheading he argues is a Humane method of execution a swift slice of Steel delivers a quick painless death Dr Guan describes his new device to the assembly the mechanism Falls like thunder the head flies off blood spurts the man is no more always a support of Bloodshed the journalist Mara prints an enthusiastic rant in his paper announcing the devic's new name giltine it will soon earn another nickname the national razor the French revolutionaries believe in Humane values they believe that unnecessary suffering should not be caused and what they like about the Guillotine is that it is quick it's efficient and as far as we can tell although no one has returned to tell the tale it's painless the guillotine will silence the revolution's internal enemies anyone suspected of plotting to return the king to the throne but it's the enemies surrounding France that most preoccupy the assembly there is a growing fear that Aristocrats and Royal princes who fled to Austria are preparing to launch an armed [Music] counterrevolution the assembly calls for a preemptive attack a declaration of war on Austria robes Pier argues against it robespier is one of the Lonely voices who is opposing War because he thinks the enemy will win robes spear is afraid that the country isn't ready hasn't got an army that would be able to defeat the the enemy the the enemy might therefore come in and destroy the revolution robes Pier loses the debate in April 1792 the assembly declares war on Austria against a country ruled by the family of mar [Music] antoinet a nationalist fervor grips the country robes Pierre and his supporters suspect that the king hopes France will be defeated which will end the revolution there is also word that Marie is corresponding with her relatives in Austria With the Enemy they suspect she is giving away French troop movements in a plot to undermine the war effort all the while the king and queen Fain adherence to the [Music] revolution Louie and Marie Anette are playing a double game they are seeming to go along with the revolution many times at at the same time as they are conspiring against it they are trying to survive if you want to be generous they're survivors but if you want to be um look at it from the Revolutionary point of view is they're Liars with the French army already suffering setbacks On the Border word reaches Paris that Austria's Ally Prussia has joined the invasion their troops are mobilized under the command of the Duke of Brunswick the atmosphere in the city is tense Paris is a Tinder [Music] box and then the Paris papers print a letter from the Duke of Brunswick in it he threatens to destroy Paris if any harm comes to their Royal majesties the king and queen the threat backfires massively the 10th of August 1792 thousands of armed citizens fueled by indignant rage at Brunswick's threats head to the tuler palace and descend upon the king's Elite Swiss guards in a Savage attack more than 800 from both sides are killed the king finds Sanctuary within the National Assembly debating chamber where a vote will later suspend the monarchy the French Republic is [Music] Born the blade of the guillotine is christened with the blood of Lou's remaining guards and robes Pierre once a staunch opponent of the death penalty has had a change of heart the birth of the new Republic can only begin with the death of a king August 1792 with the King deposed and imprisoned robes Pierre and his jacoban are locked in a battle with the moderates of the assembly theond for control of the national government but on the streets of Paris there is a new radicalism it is led by The Artisans and working men of Paris recognizable by their long trousers in contrast to the knee Brites or kulot worn by the aristocracy they call themselves the S kulot those without knee Bridges the S kilot considered themselves the true people of France they were not the poorest of the poor uh they tended to be fairly well-off Artisans shopkeepers people like that uh but they were people who at least claimed to work with their hands not wearing the breaches not wearing the kilot for the sonot was simply symbolism of being not an aristocrat being an ordinary man of people the S kulot seize control of paris's city government while the jacobah and xira steer the country from the assembly now reformed as the national convention they are struggling with the command of the bate French army which is swiftly losing ground to Austria and Prussia while fighting back enemies at the border the Revolutionary government cracks down on enemies within royalist traitors who might deliver Paris into the hands of the Invaders more than a thousand people are arrested and herded into prison priests journalists ordinary men and women robespier concentrates on the internal crisis but his ally the Minister of Justice George Danton motivates men young and old to join the war on the frontier he is gregarious and flamboyant everything that robes Pier is not soon danton's name is heard throughout Paris dant is a bigger than life character a man full of Life full of bombast trem tremendous Drinker and debaucher who though he's from the educated classes himself is a guy who unlike rer can physically identify with the working uh people in a way that Ros beer simply cannot as the prussians close in danton's fiery rhetoric mobilizes the people inspiring many to enlist at one of the moments of greatest Peril for the revolution the Austrian and Prussian armies are invading he gets up in front of the people of Paris and shouts boldness more boldness forever boldness and the Fatherland is saved is's really one of the people who manages to Rally the country Against The Invader it's an extraordinary moment with so many able-bodied men leaving for the front Paris is left defenseless its jails bursting with political prisoners a fear takes hold that the prisoners will be impossible to contain morat's paper will later be blamed for inciting the horrific events that [Music] follow the foreign armies were advancing on Paris had they linked up in Paris with these bitter enemies of the Revolutions in the prisons of course then the results would have been fairly horrific from the standpoint of the people in the first week of September disastrous news arrives from the front Prussia has taken ver the ancient fortress on the road to Paris the enemy is getting closer the fear gripping Paris explodes the sonul lot break into the prisons and unleash a furious assault on those found within no traitors are to be spared and the sod went to the prisons particularly the prisons where refractory priests were being held where nobles were being held where political prisoners were being held and they started carrying out their own impromptu trials that were very short and that very often simply ended with [Music] slaughter women are raped or mutilated priests disbound Aristocrats hacked to Pieces more than 1,600 people are slaughtered in just a few days when word of the September massacr spreads throughout Europe there is a widespread revulsion across the channel the London Times gives voice to the general horror the newspaper asks are these the rights of man is this the liberty of human nature the most Savage four-footed tyrants that range unexplored Africa rise Superior to these two-legged Parisian animals the revolution has turned a corner even robespier understands that things have gone too far that the people cannot manage the revolution on their own they need guidance The Incorruptible Rises to the forfront as the man who can lead the [Music] revolution there was a time when robespier had pushed for a constitutional monarchy he now believes the king is too potent a symbol to the enemies of the Revolution a momentous decision is made France will put its own Monarch on trial with the verdict of foregone conclusion the only debate left is punishment the moderates led by the jira call for sparing his life which isolates them in the [Music] convention the really crystallized as a faction in the convention over the debate over the king because they while they certainly wanted a republic they were less sure that the king should actually have to die but the debate is dominated by The jacoban Who call for blood why did the Jacobin want to kill the king I think they wanted to kill the king because as Robespierre brilliantly said um you have to King kill the king so the revolution can live if the king is if the king is right then the revolution is wrong in any system there had ever been there's only one penalty for treason and that is death so in this sense if the king is guilty of uh betraying the country in a time of War then the argument is that he must suffer the death of a traitor on the 20th of January 1793 Louis the 16th is declared guil the sentence is [Music] death that evening Louie is briefly reunited with his family calm in the face of their tears he promises to return the next morning to say a final goodbye he will not he cannot bear his family's anguish and must not weaken on the way to the guillotine in the morning a closed Carriage brings Louie to the scaffold and he calmly makes his way to the [Applause] [Music] blade he attempts to give a speech I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge I pardon those who have occasioned my death and I pray to God that the blood you are shedding may never be visited on France but the gods drown him out with a drum roll [Music] [Music] at 10:22 a.m. the king is no [Applause] more in the temple prison Marie Annette hears the Cannon's fire announcing the death of her husband she collapses in despair the king is is dead the jacoban Victorious but soon the enemies of the Revolution would claim a victory of their own their target is the most extreme of the jacoban spokesman Jean Paul [Music] Mara the death of King Louis V 16th marks a turning point a pivotal moment when the radical revolutionaries claim victory and the French Republic is born in [Music] Blood by the end of 1792 the radical jacoban faction believing the young Revolution to be threatened by traitors and foreign intervention are resorting to more and more violent means but the gironda representing a more moderate brand of republicanism want to curb the violence for fear it will lead to Civil [Music] War their most vocal opponent Jean Paul M Strikes Back at the Shonda with furious tirades in his newspaper naming those he believes are plotting against the revolution he had once called for the execution of 200 people now he wants 200,000 heads to roll when you look at Mara's journalism uh it's got one basic principle which is be more extreme than anybody else and call for people to be killed um if you look at Mara's uh uh journalism all the time he's saying if only we chopped off a few heads uh then things will be all right and when things aren't all right if only chop off a few more heads things will be all right suddenly people in Paris begin to Massacre people and Mara is the first to claim credit for that but this extremism hasn't taken hold everywhere in the provinces many are outraged at the brutality of the jaaba and call for an end to the bloodletting Charlotte cord a passionate and determined young woman is one such opponent Charlotte cord is an average person in the city of Kong she's appalled by The Killing that's going on there and she um perhaps rightly considers uh Mara one of the chief authors of that he's been instrumental on the radical side of the Revolution his amid is still calling for heads the 13th of July 1793 Charlotte cord arrives in Paris she knows that the friend of the people has an open door policy at his home where he can be found at nearly any hour soaking in his medicinal bath cord arrives claiming she has a list of traitors people who are collaborating with foreign armies to end the revolution Mara are asks cord for the list promising that the traitors will be guillotined the next day having given him that she then produces a paard a little stiletto and stabs him uh in the [Music] chest Mara is dead the self-proclaimed wroth of the people has been s silenced the revolution has its first [Music] martyr when the revolution turns bloodthirsty it's very easy to say it was his fault and that of course is what those who hated him or feared him did say and that's one of the reasons why Charlotte cord actually murders him in 1793 because he regards him as responsible for many of the bloody atrocities that have actually occurred cord makes no attempt to escape at her trial she is unrepentant and [Music] proud when the prosecutor demands to know what she had hoped to achieve she answers peace now that he is dead peace will return to my country cord is guillotined 4 days after Mara's death her dream of peace dies with her she has killed the man but created a legend Mara's death is most famously depicted by the painter David he became a martyr he became a kind of almost religious figure you had people offering up prayers that went Heart of Jesus heart of Mah you had these scenes at his funeral where the bathtub in which he was murdered was sort of put up on the altar almost as if it was a kind of crucifix if you look at David's painting of Mara's death Mara's body is draped in precisely the same way as the body of Christ is depicted in classic representations of the Peta The Descent from the cross so clearly there's an identification of Mara with Christ with Mara representing the new kind of God of uh the radical Republic public robes Pierre is envious of the Adoration lavished upon Mara but ever the pragmatist he turns his attention to pressing matters at hand although Mara is dead there are still others calling for blood Royal [Music] Blood the conciergerie death's antichamber 8 months after the execution of her husband and just days after the killing of Charlotte Cordes Mar Annette is jailed here in a small dark cell [Music] alone one of the worst things that happens to Marie after the execution of Louie is her children are ripped away from her her children were the most important thing to her and she knew that that her son was going to be subjected to terrible abuse to make him forget that he was ever Royal by these revolutionaries and it turns out she was right it only took a couple years after that uh her son died of terrible neglect and [Music] abuse the once vain Mar Antoinette is only 38 years old but events have aged her Beyond her years Mar Antoinette had been a very pretty woman elegant until the Revolution and from 1788 89 she got thinner her hair went white she abandoned all her pretty coquetry and her pretty things she got very very thin when she arrived for her trial she was unrecognizable on the 15th of October Marie Antoinette is put on trial accused of high treason most of the evidence offered is salacious and vengeful rumor a final charge is added to the list she is accused of incest with her son at this Marie STS to defend [Music] herself I appeal to the conscience and feelings of every mother present to declare if there be one amongst you who does not shudder at the idea of such Horrors and at that moment there was a change in the mood because all the women felt that they were implicated and they realized they had gone too far with these accusations [Music] in a moment of public sympathy Marie hopes she will be deported to Austria but her hopes are dashed when the sentence is handed down she is to meet the same fate as her husband Anette was in a sense doomed from the start she was the symbol of this Austrian Alliance that had proved disastrous for France she was along with her husband a laughing stock because of the apparent sexual failure of their marriage and she was a symbol of culture at a time when people were coming to see the court culture itself as something completely corrupt and terrible for the country so for all these reasons she was hated like no queen of France had ever been hated before she was loathed she was reviled from her cell she writes a final letter bidding farewell to her children and family promising to be brave her long gray hair is cut in preparation for the blade [Music] her hands are tightly bound as she is escorted out of the prison She is expecting a carriage instead there is just a tumbril an open [Music] wagon she hopes when she's taken off to execution that she's going to get the same treatment that the king got meaning she would be in enclosed Carriage so the crowd couldn't get her but they just put her in an open uh wagon where people could shout all sorts of things horrible things horrible threats at [Music] her a shadow of the Sovereign she once was Marie Annette maintains a queenly dignity as she sits in the open tumbril paraded through the streets of Paris [Music] her name and the charges against her are read out [Music] the last queen of France is Dead 2 weeks later after countless more executions a member of the National Convention notes the pointless waste of life as one colleague after another Falls victim to the guillotine the revolution is like Saturn devouring its own children he said Danton sniffs revolutions my friend cannot be made with rosew waterer the Bloodshed has only just [Music] begun September 1793 4 years into the Revolution France is being torn apart there is violent Insurrection in the provinces and huge losses in the faltering war against Europe in a humiliating defeat the British take the port city of tulong Europe is eating away at France's borders France the single largest country in western Europe it's the most populous country in western Europe it has been the great military power and of course when it entered into the revolution a lot of its traditional enemies and also a lot of its traditional allies thought aha this is our chance to not to carve a peace off off of the actual territory of France but certainly to enrich ourselves at its expense and to weaken it permanently France is isolated in the whole of Europe it's being blockaded by Britain it's being attacked and invaded by Austria and by Prussia the people of Paris are seized by a fear that the victory of the counterrevolution will lead to a bloodbath Danton and robespier the star orators of the National Convention realized that only drastic new measures can save the revolution they convince their colleagues to Institute a new form of Martial law it is time for all Frenchmen to enjoy sacred equality announces Danton to the convention it is time to impose this equality by signal acts of Justice upon traitors and conspirators make Terror the order of the day it is the founding moment of the revolution's most infamous episode The Terror will come to symbolize jaar extremism and the corruption of revolutionary ideals to meet the emergency the new Constitution and the rights at guarantees are suspended police spies scatter throughout the country anyone suspected of counterrevolutionary activity is rounded up quickly tried and executed the reign of terror was conceived as an emergency government what they understood by Terror was striking Terror into the hearts of the enemies of the Republic so that they would be either scared straight as it were or um arrested and disposed [Music] of the slightest suspicion can send anyone to the scaffold politicians who say a kind word of the extinguished monarchy anyone who uses the formal m or Madame instead of the new form of address ctoan citizen informers are everywhere neighbors denounce neighbors the incessant rolling of the tumbrils on route to the guillotine rattles through the streets of Paris execution is absolutely hanging over people's heads in the sense that we know in Paris there are police spies and there are quite a few police spies everywhere standing in bread lines listening to what the women are saying and turning them in if they don't like what they hear you could be turned in not just for complaining about the high price of bread but you could be turned in supposedly even for not being enthusiastic enough about where things were going and the successes of the Revolution so just about anything that would stand out for commentary could get you into trouble the convention sets up the Revolutionary tribunal streamlining the process by which traitors can be identified and sentenced power is centralized in a new 12-man Council called the Committee of Public Safety ultimately power had to be delegated to a smaller group and that group became the Committee for Public uh Committee of Public Safety ultimately became 12 people who really ruled France as a kind of collective [Music] dictatorship with his masterful words and revolutionary Vision robes Pierre soon emerges as The committee's Guiding voice and that voice is calling for more [Music] blood one of the paradoxes in R Spear's political life is that he very early on is a passionate opponent of the death penalty and of course this is thrown back in his face later when he becomes an equally passionate proponent of Terror and the guillotine he is he never particularly responds to that except to say well times have changed the revolution has hardened robes Pier once a fierce supporter of a free press he now reinstates censorship the Catholic church already muled by the revolution faces a new threat robes Pier endorses one of the most radical revolutionaries Jac Rene e as he proposes a program of De christianization when the crisis of the war and internal Rebellion is at its height people begin to say the root of all the problem is priests is religion and what we've got to do if we're ever going to be safe against the enemies of revolution is destroy the power of the Catholic Church Superstition fanaticism that's what religion is all about and therefore what we have to do is is stamp out this whole thing entirely streets carrying the word Saint are renamed religious icons are destroyed and replaced with tributes to the new Saint Mara [Music] the church came to seem simply the enemy to the radical revolutionaries churches in cathedrals are simply stripped of their altars stained glass is smashed statues are smashed the wealth of the churches simply carted off of course for European opinion this was something even more shocking than the death of the king not even the Christian calendar is spared years are no longer numbered from the birth of Christ but from September 1792 the proclamation of the Republic it is now year 1 months are renamed according to the seasons July becomes Thermidor April floral months are broken into 3 weeks of 10 days each the Revolutionary calendar was certainly designed as a kind of weapon against Christianity against Christian belief of course by having a 10-day week you'd no longer have Sundays so people wouldn't even know what day Sunday was anymore that's what they hoped the terror spreads across France insurrections are put down with swift unrelenting brutality in the city of Leon where counterrevolutionaries are gaining ground the national convention's representative sets a brutal example hundreds of rebels are tied up marched into fields and mowed down on Mass the V region in the west of France has also become a counterrevolutionary stronghold Rebels and Priests are tied up and drowned in the lair a national bath to accompany the national razor up to 100,000 people are killed in the vond alone in Paris the guillotine Falls at an Ever more frenetic pace [Music] now the French armies are beginning to win victories with the help of a brilliant young Commander named Napoleon bonapart rebellious tulong is recaptured and the Royal Navy forced to evacuate the revolution is fighting back robes Pierre is at the height of his power he had taken on the enemies of the Revolution and ensured its success through Terror for time the terror was very effective as a means of getting the country together getting the government together and fighting what was after all a war on several fronts on the Eastern front and on the Northern front against external enemies also a civil war in the Von uh which was the bloodiest of all also a civil war against the supporters of the jond and other revolutionaries who had turned against the government in Paris the terror has achieved its goals but it does not stop and it will not stop until it devours the very man who Unleashed it Max ailon robes [Music] Pier with the bloodletting of the terror robespier has saved the revolution an invigorated Army repels attacks at the border and internal descent has been all but quashed but robespier has now set his sights on a loftier goal to use more terror to create a new kind of society a republic of [Music] virtue by virtue he means civic virtue it's an active principle for RO spear for example you cannot be a virtuous citizen by simply obeying the laws and keeping your head down you must actively be involved in the work of the state and that includes for R spear destroying the enemies of the state on the 5th of February 1794 robes Pier gives a speech outlining his philosophy Terror without virtue is disastrous he declares but virtue without terror is powerless he Associates Terror with virtue Terror at that moment becomes in his thinking an instrument by which you create virtal but others disagree for Danto the revolution is heading down the wrong path he and his followers the Danton easts believe it is time to bring Terror to an end it has served its purpose and is in danger of feeding the revolutionaries into their own fire by the spring of 1794 things are beginning to go better the the food situation is no longer so bad and the war effort is going better and Danton is is basically saying we need to get a new footing for the government we need to move to a kind of normalization robes believes it's too soon Danton will start organizing a group to argue that we should end the terror robes Pier will see this as a direct threat to the government he will not see it as just a difference of opinion about the direction of policy he will see it as potential treason and in roeser's Republic of virtue there is only one response to treason the Danton ists are rounded up and quickly sentenced to death robespier has sent thousands to their deaths but is uneasy with the actual process he will not attend the beheadings of his former friends and allies as he steps up to the blade with typical bravado Danton tells the Executioner you will show my head to the people it is worth [Music] seeing with the Danton eist out of the way Ro speier launches France into an even bloodier more horrifying new phase the great [Music] Terror the great terror is the name given to the last phase of the terror in the spring of 1794 into the summer of 1794 it's the period at which the tempo of of executions really starts to increase at which the atmosphere of paranoia particularly in Paris but really across the country starts to increase exponentially you can track the number of executions until it's up to almost 800 per month in Paris towards the end more the scale of bloodletting is unprecedented but on the 6th of June 1794 the role of the tumbrils comes to a halt the guillotine hangs silent robes Pierre has declared a new religious holiday the Festival of the Supreme Being he wants to replace the old Catholic god with a new rational devotion one thing about robes Pierre is that he never supported these atheist policies he believed the people needed a Divinity to believe in and he helped sponsor this cult that was called The Cult of the Supreme Being with this extraordinary Tableau in Paris in I believe it was June of 1794 which had choirs of people dressed in white singing you had this kind of papier-mâché Mountain that was built in the center of Paris and then at the critical moment of the ceremony you had robes Pierre himself sort of emerging on the top of this mountain clad in a toga and marching down and I think at this moment a lot of people felt all right uh who does he really think he is does he think he's God here does he think he's the king with the great Terror spiraling out of control robes Pier's colleagues see the Festival as his departure from the realm of [Music] reality there are those who think that RP really has reached so extreme and and so unreasonable a position that he can't turn back that his fanaticism is somehow overtaken him and there are those who think he's just gone nuts once again robes speier's suspicions seem to focus on those closest to him on the 26th of July now the 8th of Thermidor he appears at the convention and gives a 4our speech insinuating that there are traitors in their midst roier makes a tactical error he comes in and announces that he has a new list of enemies of the Republic but he won't give the list therefore everyone is afraid they might be on the list and when he comes back the next day to give the list he is arrested before he can speak an unexpected chorus of voices shouts ropes beer down he is stunned into silence the convention orders the arrest of robespier and four of his supporters he will never have another opportunity to address the convention the following day robespier is freed by his supporters but immediately declared an outlaw and recaptured by the National Guard in the process one of roeser's allies throws himself out of a window another shoots himself on the spot and robespier is found semiconscious with a bullet wound to the face his jaw shattered from an apparent suicide attempt robes Pierre spends his last hours on a table in an anti-ro of the National [Music] Convention as he is ridiculed and insulted by his former colleagues robes Pierre is unable to respond the Grand Master of oratory has been silenced in the conciergerie where the last queen of France had preceded him Robespierre is prepared for the national [Music] razor the French Revolution with its origins in Noble hopes for Liberty and equality has become a monstrous exercise in political murder and Civil War at its head had been robespier convinced that only Terror and absolute ruthlessness could save the revolution from its many enemies but the atmosphere of Suspicion and paranoia that he has created will require him as its final victim turns out that there is a great deal of enthusiasm for ending the terror nobody can figure out how to do it and what turns out to be the case is that the only thing that will end the terror and apparently the only thing they can all agree upon is the fall of Roba [Applause] spear on the 27th of July 1795 four the guillotine comes down on The Incorruptible and the last Blood of the terror is shed the terror dies with robespier but the revolution does not the Rights of Man democracy the new Republic the impact of these revolutionary achievements would far outlive any of the revolutionaries themselves France would enter a period of uncertainty Frozen between fear of another Terror or a return to the oppressive monarchy that preceded it five stagnant years would pass before power once again Consolidated in the hands of a single man Napoleon bonapart whether Napoleon betrayed the revolution or Consolidated its achievements is still keenly debated his meteoric rise with certainly only possible because of the Revolution the Revolution was the first and enduring model of a people taking its Destiny in its own hands the idea that the subjects of the oldest the most established the most glorious monarchy in Europe could decide to completely rewrite their history was something that had extraordinary resonance the revolution tore apart the old feudal fabric of France and changed the course of Western Civilization the issues it raises still carry a powerful significance today the question raised by the French Revolution is how much violence is Justified in achieving a better Society do people have the right to overthrow what they see as an unjust system to replace it with what they are convinced in their hearts is a more just just system how much violence is Justified in doing that we still face this question today more than 200 years after the birth of the French Republic the ghost of robespier hangs over revolutions from Russia to Vietnam China to Latin [Music] America the French experiments with democracy have inspired models all over over the world wherever tyranny takes root The Cry For Justice can be heard for Liberty equality fraternity for revolution [Music] [Music] h