French Revolution
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- In May of 1789, Louis XVI called up representatives of the three estates to meet at Versailles. The representatives brought lists of grievances in hopes of encouraging political change, though very little was settled due to disagreements between the king and the three estates.
- June 1789, after the failure of the meeting of the first Estates-General, the Third estate had come back for a second meeting only to find themselves locked out of the meeting. Many representatives from the three Estates had joined together at a nearby tennis court. There, they swore an oath not to disband until France had a constitution. This was known as the Tennis Court Oath.
- On July 14th of 1789, rumours had gotten around that the king had assembled royal troops nearby, regarding the uprising of the National Assembly. These rumours of an attack spurred thousands to storm the royal prison, Bastille, releasing prisoners and collecting weapons and ammunition to use for defence.
- In October 1789, thousands of women marched to Versailles to protest the high price of grain and bread. The many women carried weapons of all calibres. From swords, spears, and muskets, to cannons. Upon arrival at Versailles Palace, the protesters discover that the royal family made plans to flee France. They forced the king and his family to return to Paris, giving them less of an opportunity to escape.
- The following year, 1790, the National Assembly wrote a new constitution for France changing the distribution of political power, but still keeping the country a monarchy. The constitution proclaimed France a sovereign nation. It eliminated the nobility class as a legally defined class, granted all citizens the same civil rights, and stripped the clergy of their property and special rights.
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