foreign at the height 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 of the French Revolution 1794 Francis conciergeiri prison an impenetrable fortress on the banks of the sane River dank rat infested it is known as death's anti-chamber inside the voice of a Young Nation is about to be silenced as his hair is shorn and his neck laid bare for the blade of the guillotine Maximilian Robespierre prepares to pay for the cataclysm left in his wake the explosion of events that became the French Revolution 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 for the future [Music] would shake the very Foundation of Europe and its impact would be felt across the seas 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 a moment of extraordinary hope extraordinary ambition and then it turned into this most horrific tragedy now broken and defeated Robespierre not two days before stood atop his world residing over the greatest and bloodiest Revolution Europe had ever known so true to its ideals he was called The Incorruptible so powerful his slightest utterance will cloak an entire city in fear a master orator Robespierre's words were his weapon now silenced by a bullet to the jaw he awaits the same Swift and brutal end he has brought down upon so many others the revolution is about to eat its own [Music] no one could have foreseen the turbulent times ahead on one spring day in 1770. The Chateau of Versailles fills to its gilded Rafters with the glittering crowds of the Royal Court [Music] completed in 1682 Versailles was the crowning Masterpiece of King Louis XIV to put some distance between himself and his subjects Louis XIV transplanted the capital of France to this small town 12 miles west of Paris where he had built the most magnificent Palace in all of Europe for nearly 100 years it has been the seat of the nation's unwavering monarchy and today it is host to a very important wedding King Louis XV grandson Prince Louis cape next in line for the throne is about to take a bride just 15 years old on the eve of his wedding Louis Cape is bashful and hesitant with few of the characteristics expected of a future king much less a husband Louis was this pudgy shy painfully inadequate 15 year old with absolutely no social graces at all Louis xv's mistress Madame Dewberry called him a fat ill-bred boy basically he was just a shlub it was very hard for them 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 Louie's marriage is a political union between Austria's royal family the habsburgs and his own the Bourbons the wedding symbolizes the end of an ancient rivalry at the beginning of new Regional ties [Music] the young bride-to-be arrives in France a wide-eyed and pretty 14 year old girl Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette is an archduchess of Austria she's the youngest daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa 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 comes to France as a political gesture but as a teenager she has little interest in political affairs well Mathieu Antoinette came to Versailles 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 but she was still a girl [Music] when Marie Antoinette comes to Versailles she is just a teenager she is blonde with blue eyes she is pretty and she likes being attractive to people and she comes with the intention of winning over her husband and her new 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 newlyweds make their way to the Royal bedroom [Music] in an age-old ceremony to encourage the conception of an heir the king's courtiers are present as the awkward young couple is revealed 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 heir will not be so easily produced Louis was not only not interested in ruling Louis wasn't particularly interested in loving either and he paid her no attention on the first nights or even further into their marriage many years will pass before the marriage is finally consummated the lack of an heir will soon spark gossip all across the kingdom that will continue to plague the couple for years to come Grand wedding Gala continues for days but outside the gates of Versailles there is hardly cause for celebration years of mismanagement by the monarchy have left the French people deprived and hungry nearly a decade earlier King Louis XV lost the Seven Years War battling Great Britain over territory in North America the ill-fated conflict all but bankrupted France of money and Prestige leaving the country's coffers drained even as its population is growing bigger every day with diseases like the plague a distant memory fewer people are dying but more and more of them are 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 Louie's grandfather loses his final battle with smallpox Louis XV dies a defeated and unpopular King and leaves behind a country on the brink of Chaos in a lavish ceremony Young Prince Louis inherits the throne and is crowned King Louis XVI despite his insistence on a grandiose coronation Louis is all too aware that he is woefully unprepared for the job Louis XVI the moment his grandfather dies and it suddenly is clear that he's King he doesn't know what to do he feels 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 foreign for a kingdom in crisis Louis XVI is the worst man to have on the watch the twenty-year-old king prays protect us Lord for we Reign too young [Music] and sconced in their Royal Apartments in Versailles Louis and Marie begin their promising new lives as young monarchs while only 12 miles away in the city of Paris another new era is Dawning one that is on a collision course with the monarchy itself it is a dangerous new age of ideas the Age of Enlightenment as the Royal Carriage approaches the esteemed Louis Legrand College crowds gather for a glimpse of grandeur it is a day to welcome the newly crowned King Louis XVI and his lovely Austrian wife to the City of Paris and at the head of the welcome party is a promising young lawsuit Maximilian robes Pierre when Robespierre was a Schoolboy the king visited the college and Robespierre gave a Latin address to the king so he actually spoke to Louis XVI when he was a teenager as Robespierre respectfully delivers his Latin Soliloquy the king hardly notices the boy but years later their Fates will again intertwine under very different much darker 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 have the young Robespierre reading this discourse in honor of the man he would later kill for now the welcome is warm and the flattery sincere the visit from the royals may have won the hearts of the people but their minds are leaning increasingly in an entirely different direction since the Middle Ages European Society had been broken into three distinct classes dictated by birth there was a Great Divide between the wealth of the nobility and the clergy and the poverty of the peasants then at the blossoming of the 18th century reason and science began to challenge this age-old tradition swept up on a current of innovation and new literature Paris now radiates as the philosophical center of the world the city pulses with a great flourishing of knowledge a shining Beacon of possibility 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 what 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 Elite salons across Paris Aristocrats gather to discuss Enlightenment authors and the burgeoning Age of Reason Voltaire Rousseau fresh voices of champion Liberty control of One's Own Destiny and above all equality a passion for this new literature is highest among the upper class but as Enlightenment ideas take root at all levels of society the drive for equality will begin to threaten the aristocratic way of 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 need only look across the Atlantic where the Americans are fighting for freedom from France's old Nemesis Great Britain young king Louis Wants Revenge for his grandfather's defeats and he sees an opportunity in the American war of independence Louis commits to the cause a total of 2 000 million leave room enough to feed and allows 7 million French citizens for a year his investment would Mark the beginning of financial collapse for France 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 monarchy because the French monarchy cannot pay those debts while Louis sends money and troops across the Atlantic Marie is busy incurring debts of her own life at Versailles is a never-ending routine of archaic ritual and 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 ritual drudgery Marie Antoinette presides over a parade of increasingly outrageous Fashions Murray 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 that was wrong with her and with Versailles and that culture Marie occupies herself with court gossip gambling and the staging of plays [Music] as her expenses accumulate Marie earns the nickname Madame deficit Marie is given the name Madam deficit as the country is an economic chaos and she continues to spend as if nothing's happened on dresses and jewels and shoes and she was the Imelda Marcos of her day [Music] of all the debts Marie incurs the greatest is what she owes her country and heir to the throne in the seven years since their marriage Louis and Marie have yet to produce a child [Music] Marie finds herself in an increasingly humiliating position job of the queen is to produce a male ass absolutely essential for there to be a son and during that time a people criticize people a dissatisfied people say the king should never married this Austrian archduchess and now she can't even produce an air to the throne Marie is desperate Louie's appetite for food is unquestioned but sex is clearly not on the menu Therese the mother of Marie Antoinette questioned if a girl is gorgeous as my daughter cannot get him going then what is going on Louis XVI and his young wife were not able to conceive for seven years this cast a Paul on the beginning of his Reign and because his hobby as a locksmith was well known there were all sorts of salacious songs circulating to the effect that the locksmith was having a hard time finding the keyhole Louie's disinterest in sex is seen as a lack of bravado as a king finally after years of frustration and pressure from the court Louis is diagnosed with a treatable condition called phymosis Louis 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 Marie Therese but there is no easy fix for the years of damage to Marie's image since the early 1780s Lee Bell have circulated throughout the country pornographic satire of the king and queen obscene pamphlets mock Louie's impotence and portray Marie as a promiscuous Harlot and a debauched and decadent Court the people's view of the monarchy sours as conditions in the countryside worsened after a succession of bad harvests deregulation has raised the cost of flour leading to a shortage of the very heart of the French diet bread but the hardships naturally stop at the gates of Versailles as the Royals continue to live in extravagance complaints are committed to paper one charge is leveled directly at the Royal Court do you know why there are so many needy people it is because your luxurious existence devours in one day the substance of a thousand men The Man Behind this charge same young man who just a few years earlier regaled the king and queen after their coronation Maximilian robs Pierre in Rose Pierre the people will soon gain a voice calling for Liberty quality for revolution Versailles in the late 1700s is an oasis of extravagance surrounded by a land in Despair and with an uncertain King of the helm France was charting a course for disaster after 19 years of marriage Louis hasired four children yet as a king he remains impotent in an attempt to demonstrate leadership Louis dabbles in financial reforms but his guided interfering burdens the poor with heavy taxes on the nobility pay hardly at all with the economy in Ruins and the people Restless it seems as if even the heavens are angry smiting France with the most bitterly cold winter in 90 years if ever God intervened to make a situation worse the summer of 1788 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 the background of very serious food shortage for the people of France in the 18th century flower is the essence of life itself bread the measure of existence most ordinary people in France ate at least two pounds a day of bread bread was all important its price was immediately felt by everyone if the price doubled you were in big trouble under Louie's Financial mismanagement the cost of flowers skyrockets sparse Food Supplies are hoarded the cost of a loaf of bread soon equals A month's earnings hunger turns to rage riots break out across France homes are robbed bakeries are rated and shopkeepers suspected of stockpiling bread are lynched on the spot [Music] with the economy in shambles the banks Force Louis to hire a finance minister Jacques Necker an enlightened thinker Necker is popular with the people in a way that Louis can only Envy Jack NECA 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 the nation in fiscal crisis Necker urges Louis to call a meeting of the traditional representative body of the Kingdom the Estates General it is the first time the representatives have been called together 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 a contemporary Reckoning the first two Estates occupied three percent of the population and the Third Estate 97 percent 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 one-third 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 out vote the commoners May 4th 1789 a skilled young lawyer and politician arrives at Versailles Maximilian robs Pierre 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 Robespierre had risen to academic prominence on a prestigious scholarship becoming an eloquent speaker Prim in appearance but never a hair nor a phrase out of place back home in the small town of Aras the Enlightenment ideas he had absorbed in the salons of Paris found a powerful voice as he became a HomeTown lawyer for the downtrend by the time he went back and started to practice as a lawyer he was reading very widely in the Enlightenment and robustier was someone who when he was practicing Lana Ross tried to actually bring the ideas of the Enlightenment into the cases he was fighting at the Estates General Rose Pierre and his colleagues are demanding that the nobility and clergy pay taxes but Louis feels increasingly threatened by the growing radicalism of the Third Estate then on June 20th after a six-week deadlock the deputies arrived to find that they are being silenced 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 gathered together and swear they will not stop meeting until they have a new constitution the deputies declare themselves a new National Assembly the true representatives of the people of France the Tennis Court Oath 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 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 communion of voices around the country a parliamentary body enacting the people's will but resting power from the king would not be so easy as signing a simple Proclamation all of these early victories that take place at Versailles are largely paper victories and they have no teeth to back them up and the fear that happens takes over the deputies at Versailles as we approach July mid-july is that the king is gathering his forces to disperse them to overthrow them by early July 30 000 of the king's troops are taking positions around Paris to defend themselves the people form a new National Guard rioters raid paris's armories and make a way with over 28 000 muskets is gunpowder people know just where to get it in the center of Paris there looms a massive Stone dungeon notorious as a symbol of feudal rule the Bastille the prison houses the city's stores of gunpowder and is legendary as a den of torture and unspeakable deaths 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 there is a stunning outrage Louis fires his Finance Minister the people's beloved jacquesnecker seen as too sympathetic to the masses hours after Necker is fired word reaches Paris that their man on the inside has been ousted there is nothing left but revolt on July 14th crowds band together identifying themselves with a small cockade red and blue for the colors of Paris separated by white the color of the House of bourbon the tree color is born the fever is crowd a voice cries out to the Bastille [Music] attacking the bestie 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 if the site of the approaching mob the governor of the bestie Bernard de Lonnie attempts to lock down the prison he mounts a hopeless defense and the Marauders stormed the Fortress and tear into the guards with knives and pikes finally delone surrenders but the enraged mob and Gulf scene dragging him through the streets The jeering Horde kicks and stabs at him until he shouts let me die the crowd eagerly obliges he is stabbed and shot and a revolutionary tradition is born foreign hit is paraded on a pike [Applause] 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 popular violence that in some people's view created a pattern that was to have catastrophic consequences for the unfolding of the revolution with the smoke still clearing over the Bastille Louis XVI returns from a hunting trip in his diary under the date July 14 1789 he writes nothing a reference to his unsuccessful hunt an aid interrupts and breaks the news of the riots and the fall of the Bastille Louis XVI asks is it a Revolt no sir he replies it is a revolution victory at the Bastille unleashes the irrepressible torrent of Revolution the people had defied their King and and won there would be no turning back as a symbol of the defeat of tyranny the people men women and children dig in with bare hands and tear the best D apart Brick by feudal brick they are beginning to dismantle the past itself the French went about the process of tearing down the Bastille 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 charter is panned within days called the Declaration of the rights of man under this daring new document archaic class distinctions are to be abolished and all men considered truly equal the Declaration of the rights of man was a declaration promulgated by the National Assembly which said in text that the sovereignty belongs to the people belongs to the nation the king is nowhere mentioned in this document therefore by issuing this document the assembly was effectively seizing power for itself with the new National Assembly as their voice the citizens 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 to provide a greater voice for the call of Revolution Robespierre demands increased freedom for the Press long muzzled under the old regime the resulting Free Press is spearheaded by La Mi de Poplar the people's friend a fiery newspaper full of vitriolic Rants and provocation it is the brainchild of a former doctor Jean-Paul Mara after a string of unsuccessful careers Mara found himself living in poverty for a time finding shelter in the sewers of Paris it was there he contracted a painful skin disease that now leaves him confined for long periods to a medicinal bath bitter and failed Mara fines in the revolution the perfect outlet for his Venom Sean Paul Mara was just one of these professional malcontents and unfortunately revolutions do offer opportunity to professional malcontents Nara took all of that bile all of that resentment and funneled it into a newspaper that became extraordinarily successful lamidu papla mahad 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 loathes the monarchy's Relentless extravagance even as poverty grips France and needs only the slightest rumor to lambast the king and queen in his newspaper on October 2nd 1789 his anger is over word reaches Paris that the King has thrown a party at Versailles that the decadent Royals through the new tricolor flag symbol of the Revolution to the ground and trampled it 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 positions around Paris [Music] with the coup at the bestie still smoldering in the minds of the people Mara frantically urges them to take action people of Paris it's time to open your eyes shake yourselves out of your topper wake up once more wake up October 5th Dawn breaks to the Furious ringing of bells women gather near City Hall to protest the shortage of bread and now fear of the approaching Royal troops mixes with anger as news of the king's offensive party circulates through the crowd soon thousands are Marching to Versailles Pikes and guns in hand the women are taking their complaints to the king the core of the crowd was made up of the famous poissada the Fearsome fish ladies of the Central Markets who were known for their brawny build and their fearlessness they were equipped with large knives for scaling fish they were hugely muscular because they carted boxes 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 inside the palace word of the approaching crowd of angry women breaches the Queen's Chambers Legend has it that it is at this moment that Marie Antoinette utters the most famous line she never said Mari Antoinette did not say let them eat cake that is a myth Marian Antoinette unfortunately probably never even noticed the poor people of her country long enough to make such a statement as the mob of women gathers outside the gates Louis understands that 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 yet the crowd continues to grow throughout the night by morning twenty thousand people are camped outside the Royal Palace to close the centuries of distance between the king and his subjects the angry Mass demands that the king and queen moved to Paris indecisive as ever Louis is weak to respond his hesitation would provoke a fury in the crowd and put the lives of the royal family in grave danger when they don't get instant compliance with what they want it really looks as if they're going to Massacre the queen wave of women break into the Royal Palace screaming for the blood of the queen they Massacre the guards decapitate and impale their heads on pikes they weren't like banshees screaming throughout the palace giving her entrails give me her head I want a leg I want an arm I think that if they had grown so frenzy that if they had encountered her they probably would have torn her to pieces terrified for her life Marie escapes to Louie's apartments only moments before the women break into her Chambers and tear her bed to shreds [Music] king and queen are now at the mercy of the mob and what the mob wants is a little attention from their King the only way the women can be classified 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 want they March sixty thousand strong leaving Versailles with carts and wagons overflowing with flower from the king's storehouses flanking the Royal Carriage all the way to Paris the king and queen were forced to go back to Paris with the heads of their guards who had been massacred in the Chateau [Music] their heads had been cut off this is really a completely unbridled violence addition the heads were then made up with makeup and paraded at the head of the Cortez with the king and queen following the king and queen must make their new home in the twilery palace they will never see Versailles 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 a capital city there's no doubt Versailles is abandoned and the assembly moves to Paris power is now with the people France will have democracy new laws and a remarkable and unforgiving form of Justice will make its debut on the Revolutionary stage the guilty [Music] May 1791 nearly two years have passed since the royal family and the National Assembly have moved to Paris Robespierre appears frequently at the assembly and at the Jacobin Club a debating Society named for the former Jacobin Monastery where they gather now words are the very core of the Revolution and Robespierre speaks with an unfailing moral compass his true north is always the people he soon earns the nickname The Incorruptible France is now a constitutional monarchy the king forced to share power with the revolutionaries in the assembly but it seems Louie's share is growing smaller by the day as he is forced to sign law after law diminishing his own authority and that of the other great feudal regime the Catholic Church Louis decides the time has come to escape the confines of the new Republic and mount a campaign to reclaim his kingdom Louis 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 from the twillery palace and to head for the nearest border June 21st 1791 the king and queen disguised themselves as servants and by cover of Darkness slip out from under the watchful eye of Paris they make an ill-planned rung for Freedom it is long past midnight when the royal family arrives in the small town of varen some 100 miles east of Paris they are close to the border of Austria safety just a few miles away but they their Dash to Freedom will go no further [Music] rumors of the Royals Journey have preceded them to Varan Town officials stops The Carriage demanding their passports [Music] the official suspicions are confirmed it is the signature of the king himself townsman is overcome at the sight of his King but revolutionary guards nearby show no reverence for the fleeing Royals 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 broke the bond between Louis 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 official turncoats to the revolution power shifts from Louis now a prisoner King to the revolutionaries at the assembly at the very heart of the young revolutionary government is Robespierre he shines at the podium calling for Liberty equality and fraternity he demands universal suffrage and an end to slavery in the French West Indies and most passionately he rails against the death penalty because in the New Age of Enlightenment Robespierre wants to discard all remnants of the medieval past Europe had inherited a Macabre repertoire of execution techniques from the Dark Ages unremittingly cruel deaths by drawing and quartering hanging drowning and burning at the stake who under the old regime there was a whole panoply of very gruesome punishments and decapitation was punishment reserved for the mobility and one of the things 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 Rob's fear's opposition a new killing machine takes center stage in Paris physician inventor Joseph ignas guiota devises a ruthless beheading machine turning old-fashioned decapitation into a humanitarian experience [Music] Dr dietan describes his new device to the assembly the mechanism Falls like thunder flies off blood spurts the man is no more [Music] always a supporter of Bloodshed the journalist Mara prints an enthusiastic rant in his paper announcing the device's new name guillotine it will soon earn a 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 Louis to the throne but it's the enemy's surrounding France that most preoccupied the assembly there is a fear that members of the extended royal family who fled to Austria will launch an armed counter-revolution the assembly calls for a preemptive attack a declaration of war on Austria but Robespierre argues against it Robespierre is one of the Lonely voices who is opposing War because he thinks the enemy will win a Robespierre is afraid that the country isn't ready hasn't got an army that would be able to defeat the enemy the enemy therefore come in and destroy the revolution Robespierre loses the debate in April 1792 the assembly declares war on Austria against a country ruled by Marie Antoinette's own family a nationalist fervor grows if Austria defeats the Revolutionary Army Louis will undoubtedly reclaim his throne and Marie is suspected of aiding the Enemy by corresponding with her relatives in Austria giving away French troop movements with the stroke of her pen [Music] all the while the king and queen feign adherence to the revolution Louis and Marie Antoinette are playing a double game they are seeming to go along with the revolution many times 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 look at it from the Revolutionary point of view is they're Liars the French army already suffering huge losses On the Border word reaches Paris that Austria's Ally Prussia has joined the invasion the enemy troops are mobilized under the command of the Duke of Brunswick a Prussian gentleman tension pervades the streets of Paris [Music] and then the newspapers print a letter from the Duke of Brunswick a Manifesto threatening the destruction of Paris if any harm comes to their Royal majesties the king and queen the misguided threat wildly backfires foreign 1792 27 000 armed citizens fueled by indignant rage head to the tweelery palace and fall upon the king's guards in a Savage attack by the end of the day over 800 from both sides are dead the king flees to Safety in the assembly but the monarchy is no more Louis is officially stripped of his title the French Republic is Born the blade of the guillotine is christened with the blood of Louie's remaining guards foreign 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 Dr guiotan's chilling new device hangs over Paris like a warning penalty for defying revolutionary Law and Order freshly christened with the blood of the king's guards it will soon put an end to the king himself by August 1792 with the King deposed and the royal family secluded in the temple prison Rob's Pierre and his Jacobins are locked in a battle with the moderates of the assembly the Giro dam for control of the national government and on the streets of Paris a new political movement takes hold as a symbol of their rejection of aristocratic tradition ordinary citizens refused to wear the knee britches or culotte of the aristocrats they call themselves The sankulat those without knee pads the sankulat considered themselves the true people of France they were not the poorest of the poor they tended to be fairly well-off Artisans shopkeepers people like that but there were people who at least claimed to work with their hands not wearing the breeches not wearing the culotte for the sankulat was simply a symbolism of being not an aristocrat being an ordinary man of people [Music] the San coulot seized control of paris's city government the Jacobins and girondance steer the rest of the country from the National Assembly now called the convention the convention struggles with the command of the beleaguered French army which is swiftly losing ground to Austria and Prussia while fighting back incursions 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 Robespierre concentrates on the internal crisis but his friend the Minister of Justice George Denton motivates men young and old to join the war on the frontier he is gregarious and Loud everything that robesphere is not soon danton's name is heard throughout Paris and tall is a bigger than life character a man full of Life full of bombast tremendous Drinker and debaucherer who though he's from the educated classes himself is a guy who unlike Rose fear can physically identify with the working people in a way that Rose fear simply cannot as the enemy closes in Dental's fiery rhetoric mobilizes the people inspiring many to take to the Battlefront at one of the moments of greatest Peril for the revolution the Austrian and Prussian armies are invade and he gets up in front of the people of Paris and shouts [Music] boldness more boldness forever boldness and Fatherland is saved he'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 it's jails bursting with political prisoners an unsettling fear floods the city the growing mass of prisoners may be impossible to contain Marat puts out a bloodthirsty call for revolutionary citizens to descend upon the prisons and Slaughter all inside the foreign armies were advancing on Paris had they linked up in Paris with these bitter enemies of the Revolutions in the presence of course then the results would have been fairly horrific from the standpoint of the people [Music] in the first week of September disastrous news arrives from the front Prussia has taken Verdun a town on the road to Paris the enemy is now just miles away fear-dripping Paris explodes the song culotte break into the prisons and unleash a furious assault on the city's inmates they will leave no traitor alive 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 slaughter raped Aristocrats hacked to pieces in a primeval Slaughter more than 1600 are left dead in a matter of days when word was September massacres spreads throughout Europe enemies of the Revolution are sickened across the English Channel the London Times gives voice to the revulsion 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 taken an inalterable turn even Robespierre understands that things have gone too far that the people cannot manage the revolution on their own they need guidance an iron hand and with the power of His words The Incorruptible Rises to the Forefront as the man who will guide the revolution Robespierre had once pushed for a constitution Al he believes there is no longer room for the king a momentous decision is made France will put its own King on trial with the verdict the foregone conclusion the only debate left is punishment the moderates the girondan called for sparing Louie's life which isolates them in the convention the Jehan really crystallizes 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 girodar are outnumbered by the Jacob and call for blood wine and the Jacobins want to kill the king I think they want to kill the king because as Robespierre brilliantly said you have to kill the king so the revolution can live if the king is if the king is right then the revolution's 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 January 20th 1793 Louis XVI is declared guilty the sentence is read the king must die that evening Louis 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 away to the guillotine the next morning a closed Carriage brings Louis to the scaffold [Applause] stoically makes his way to the blade he attempts to give a speech I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people but I grieve for France and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord the guards drowned him out with a drummer [Music] [Music] at 10 22 am the man who once was King is no more in the temple prison Marie hears the Cannon's fire heralding the death of her husband she collapses in despair King's blood is spilled the revolutionaries Victorious but the enemies of the Revolution will soon claim a victory of Their Own their target the man who is calling for so many heads to roll Jean-Paul Mara [Music] the execution of Louis XVI marks ultimate victory for the revolutionaries a pivotal moment when a young Nation the French Republic is literally born in Blood by the end of 1792 the radical Japanese believing the young Revolution is in danger of being sabotaged by traitors are steering the revolution with more and more violent means but the giron dam representing the people of the French Countryside want to slow the ascending violence for fear it will lead to Civil War their most vocal opponent Jean-Paul Marat Strikes Back at the gironda with furious tirades in his newspaper naming those he believes are plotting against the revolution Mara who once called for the execution of 200 now demands 200 000 heads fall when you look at Mara's journalism it's got one basic principle which has been more extreme than anybody else and call for people to be killed if you look at Mara's journalism all the time he say if only we chopped off a few heads then things will be all right and when things aren't all right if only chop up 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 the radical movement hasn't taken hold everywhere people outside of Paris are furious at the spiraling brutality of the Jacobins and call for an end to the bloodletting and the message reaches the lovely Charlotte corday an unassuming yet determined young woman from the provinces Charlotte is an average person in the city of Kong she's appalled by The Killing that's going on there and she perhaps rightly considers uh Mara one of the chief authors of that he's been instrumental on the radical side of the Revolution his Amy de papa is still calling for heads July 13 1793 Charlotte corday arrives in Paris [Music] 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 when his medicinal bath corday comes on the pretense that she carries a list of traitors those collaborating with foreign armies to put an end to the solution Mara asks for the list promising corday that the traitors will be guillotined the next day having given him that she then produces that one yard a little stiletto and stabs him in the chest thank you the so-called friend of the people dies instantly the angry voice of his newspaper silenced 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 corday actually murders him in 1793 because he regards him as responsible for many of the bloody atrocities that have actually occurred corday makes no attempt to escape at her trial she is unrepentant [Music] did you expect to achieve an assassinating mirror peace now that he's dead peace will return to my country Charlotte corday is swiftly executed and her dream of Peace dies along with her she has killed maraud the man but she has created Mara the legend his death most famously depicted by the Revolutionary painter Jacques Louis David became a martyr he became a kind of almost religious figure you had people offering a prayer that went Heart of Jesus heart of Maha who 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 maha's body is draped in precisely the same way as the body of Christ is depicted in classic representations of the pieta The Descent from the cross so clearly there's an identification of Maha with Christ with representing the new kind of God of the radical Republic [Music] Rob's Pierre is envious of the Adoration lavished upon Mara but ever the pragmatist he turns his attention to present matters at hand because though Mara is dead there are still others calling for blood Royal Blood because death's dark anti-chamber eight months after the execution of her husband and just days after the killing of Charlotte corday Marie Antoinette is jailed here in a hideous cell utterly alone one of the worst things that happens to Marie after the execution of Louis 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 her son died of terrible neglect and abuse [Music] the once vain Marie Antoinette is 38 years old but the revolution has aged her Beyond her years Marie Antoinette had been a very pretty woman elegant until the revolution from 1788-89 she got thinner her hair went white she abandoned all her Cocoa Tree and her pretty things she became emaciated when she arrived for her trial she was unrecognizable on October 15th Murray is put on trial accused of high treason and depleting the national treasury the little 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 stands to defend herself I appealed 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 yes and at that moment there was a change in the mood because all the women felt 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 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 laughingstock because of the apparent sexual failure of their marriage and she was a symbol of Court 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 would loathe she was reviled from her cell Marie 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 from the prison Gates she expects a carriage instead there awaits a common criminal's card he 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 an enclosed Carriage so the crowd couldn't get her but they just put her in an open wagon where people would shout all sorts of things horrible things horrible threats at her [Music] a shadow of the Sovereign she once was Marie Antoinette maintains a queenly dignity as she is paraded through the streets of Paris foreign [Music] and the charges against her are read out [Music] foreign the last queen of France is dead several days later following countless more executions a member of the National Convention notes the pointless waste of life as one after another of his colleagues are lost to the guillotine the revolution is like Saturn devouring its own children he says Dental sniffs revolutions my friend cannot be made with rose water Bloodshed has only just begun [Music] September 1793 four years into the Revolution and France is being torn apart there is violent Insurrection in the provinces and huge losses in the faltering war against Europe in one blistering defeat the British Navy takes the port city of too long foreign Europe is eating away at France's borders France's 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 like aha this is our chance to not to carve a piece 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 with the victory of the counter Revolution will lead to a bloodbath and Rob's Pierre the star origins of the king that can realize that they must boldly strike out to save the revolution they convinced their colleagues to Institute a menacing new form of Martial law it is time for all Frenchmen to enjoy sacred equality it is time to impose this equality by signal acts of Justice upon traitors and conspirators make Terror the order of the day thus begins a new chapter in the revolution a period of violent repression called The Terror in a remarkable reversal the revolutionaries suspend the new Constitution and all the rights it was to guarantee police spies scatter throughout the country anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary activity is rounded up quickly tried and sent to the National razor 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 of slightest suspicion can send anyone to the scaffold politicians who say a kind word of the defunct monarchy anyone who uses the formal Monsieur or Madame instead of the new form of address citizen The Heir is fraught with paranoia foreign neighbors denounce Neighbors the incessant rolling of the death carts 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 buys 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 a revolutionary tribunal Expediting trials and executions with ruthless efficiency to consolidate power they form a 12-man council and call it the Committee of Public Safety ultimately power had to be delegated to a smaller group and that group became the Committee for Public Committee of Public Safety ultimately became 12 people who really ruled France as a kind of collective dictatorship [Music] with his masterful words and revolutionary Vision robs Pierre soon emerges as the committee's fiercest guiding voice and that voice is calling for more blood one of the paradoxes in robespure'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 abrupt once an impassioned supporter of a free press he now reinstates censorship a Vestige of the old regime and with the church already under attack Robespierre stands idly by as one of the most radical revolutionaries Jacques Rene Ebel proposes a new agenda 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 animation 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 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 the church came to seem simply the enemy to the radical revolutionaries churches and Cathedrals are simply stripped of their altars stained glasses smashed statues are smashed the wealth of the churches is 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 numbered no longer from the birth of Christ but from September 1792 the overthrow of the monarchy it is now Year One months are renamed according to the seasons July becomes Thermador April Florio months are broken into three 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 a vicious unrelenting cruelty in the city of Lyon where counter-revolutionaries are gaining ground the Committee of Public Safety sets a brutal example hundreds of rebels are tied up marched into fields and mowed down on Mass a region called the Vande in the west of France has also become a counter-revolutionary stronghold Rebels and Priests are tied together and packed onto boats that are then mercilessly sunk [Music] up to a hundred thousand people are killed in the end of alone in Paris the blade Falls at an Ever more frantic pace but the French armies are finally seeing victories on the frontier under a brilliant young Commander named Napoleon Bonaparte the French army sends the British Navy into a demoralizing retreat at too long the revolution is on the rise road fiere is at the height of his power he has 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 Eastern front on the Northern front against external enemies also a civil war in the Von day which was the bloodiest of all also a civil war against the supporters of the jehund 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 Maximilian Robespierre with the blood of the terror Maximilian robs Pierre has rescued the revolution an invigorated Army is repelling attacks at the border and internal descent has been all but crushed at the height of his success Rob's beard dreams up a loftier goal yet to use more terror to mold a new kind of society a republic of virtue by virtue he means civic virtue it's an active principle for robespere 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 both spear destroying the enemies of the state on February 5th 1794 Pierre gives a speech outlining his philosophy Terror without virtue is disastrous 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 virtue but others disagree for Danton the revolution is heading down the wrong path he and his followers the dentonists believe it is time to bring the terror to a halt 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 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 Robespierre believes it's too soon Danton will start organizing a group to argue that we should end the terror Robespierre 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 Rob's Pierre's Republic of virtue there is only one response to treason the dentonists are rounded up and quickly sentenced to death Rob's Pierre has sent thousands to the scaffold but is uneasy with the blood of execution he will not attend the beheadings of his former friends and allies as he steps up to the blade Dental shouts I only regrets is that I'm going before that right Robespierre [Music] with the downtown east out of the way Robespierre launches France into an even bloodier more horrifying period great 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 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 even more paris's executioner is busier than ever but on June 6 1794 the role of the carts comes to a halt the guillotine hangs silent Robespierre has declared a new religious holiday the Festival of the Supreme Being he wants to replace the old Catholic god with a new the goddess of Reason one thing about robust Pier is that he never supported these atheist policies he believed that 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 and I believe it was June of 1794 which had choirs of people dressed in white singing you had this kind of paper mache Mountain that was built in the center of Paris and then at the critical moment of the ceremony you had robis Pierre himself sort of emerging on the top of this mountain clad and the 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 as the great Terror spirals on Robespierre's colleagues see the Festival of the Supreme Being as his departure from the realm of reality there are those who think the robesphere really has reached so extreme and and so unreasonable a position that they can't turn back that his fanaticism is somehow overtaken him and there are those who think he's just gone nuts once again Robespierre's suspicions turned to those closest at hand on June 27th now the 9th of Thermidor he appears before the convention and delivers a speech of threats it is the last speech he will ever give [Music] Russia 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 alive an unexpected chorus of voices shouts robespared down he is stunned into silence the deputies declare him an outlaw and immediately remove him from the convention Rob's Pierre and several of his associates are taken to City Hall where they remain under watch for the night shots ring out in the early morning guards race to the second floor they fling the doors open to a grisly scene one of robespier's allies has thrown himself from the window another has taken a pistol to his head and Robespierre is found semi-conscious with a bullet wound to the face his Jaws shattered from current suicide attempt Robespierre spends his last hours on the table of the Committee of Public Safety and the Very Room where he had piloted the terror to its hideously bloody Peak as he is ridiculed and insulted by his former colleagues Robespierre is unable to respond the Grand Master of oratory has been silenced thank you in the concierge where the last queen of France had preceded him Rob's Pierre is prepared for the national razor his cellmate the Revolutionary sanjust points to a painting of the rights of man and declares at least we did that [Music] robs Pierre had spearheaded a revolution and changed the face of France [Music] he had reordered society and engineered a bloody and tyrannical system to ensure its success but he was destined to be one of its final victims 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 It Was Fear [Applause] on July 27 1794 the guillotine comes down on The Incorruptible last Blood Of The Terror is shed the terror dies with Rob's Pierre but the revolution does not the Rights of Man democracy the new Republic the accomplishments of the Revolution would far outlive any of the revolutionaries themselves [Music] France would enter a period of uncertainty Frozen between fear of another Terror or worse yet 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 Bonaparte historians disagree over the end of the Revolution some believe it died with the rise of Napoleon others maintain that the revolution lived on into the 19th century and beyond the Revolution was the first and endure touring 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 Europe and forever changed the course of Western Civilization 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 system how much violence is Justified in doing that we still face this question today as Robespierre and his colleagues were driving their country into the future many of them must have wondered what the final outcome would be more than 200 years after the birth of the French Republic the ghost of Robespierre hangs over revolutions from Russia to Vietnam China to Latin America the French experiments with democracy have inspired models all over the world wherever tyranny takes room cried for justice is eternal for Liberty equality fraternity for revolution [Music] [Music] thank you