When The King Took Flight; a Historic Book Review By Ashley Landry Timothy Tackett provides us with a well-researched novel explaining how King Louis XVI sealed his own fate, in his story about the flight of the royal family during the hard times of the French revolution. When the King Took Flight is the story of the King and his family trying to escape the turmoil of Paris, and his Jacobin enemies. However, the family’s plan is foiled, are returned to Paris, and soon after put to death at the guillotine. Throughout his novel, Tackett is trying to prove to his readers that the flight of the royal family was unsuccessful due to the King’s indecision on the departure date, changes in the common people’s attitude during the revolution, the King’s failure to absorb the grand scale of the revolution. The author gives evidence of many times when Louis shows indecisiveness, and making decisions overshadowed by influence from members of court all throughout his life.
The Monarchy’s absolute rule and ancient regime were tested by the growing influence of the Enlightenment, which challenged traditional ways and ideas. Lavish spending and irrational mistakes made by the royal family worsened the nations ongoing economic debt, installing fear and famine in the lives of French citizens. In the face of a changing world, the old order succumbed to its own rigidity, falling to the ambitions of a rising bourgeoisie. These significant long-term causes created an atmosphere of discontent and confusion in France, allowing an angry and frustrated Third Estate to utilise the Estates-General meeting to their advantage. It was this event that lit the spark for the Revolution of France.
The factors that need considering when associating with the question include; the Disillusionment from the people towards Louis, the actions of the Political clubs, Champs de Mars massacre and the significance of War. In order to see why the republican movement emerged in France, the factors must show what aims of each of these factors led to and what impact they made. After viewing each one of these we evaluate what the most significant factor was in causing the republican movement. To a very significant extent it can be viewed that the Disillusionment from the people towards Louis can be seen as a key factor for the emergence of the republican movement. This is because Louis’ personal actions that he took betrayed people and led them to disillusionment against him as they wanted to press for a trial for the king.
It is very difficult to find a period in time when France was not involved in a war. Each and every war, however, played an important role on establishing authority in France. Some battles led to a powerful monarch, other infuriated the people leading to riots and rebellions. One key war that France took part in, The Thirty Years War, was the starting point that led to a series of power struggles like of which the world had never seen before. Cardinal Richelieu, minister of France, made his country a powerful presence in the Thirty Years War.
Imagine, it is 1793, and the people of France are in a state of terror. King Louis XVI has just been executed, and Robespierre and the Jacobins have taken over the power in France, creating a Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror was a period fifteen months after the onset of the French Revolution when struggles between rival factions led to mutual radicalization. The country was divided between two radical political groups; the Girondins and the Jacobins. The Girondins believed in a democratic government with some power going to the citizens.
One theme that we can see in The Prince is a sense of History. As a scholar himself, Machiavelli specifically writes “a prince should read history and reflect on the actions of great men.” He refers to this as an exercise for the mind. Machiavelli makes an argument that in order to be successful, one must study the leaders of it’s past. You must study the successes but mainly the failures of the leaders to know what not to do. A famous quote in the book is “the presence of sound military forces indicates the presence of sound laws.” With this a relationship is built between the development of states and war.
The Significance of Clarence’s Dream Structure- dream goes through the phases of dying,The keeper often picks out the key words from each section of the dream to emphasize the phases that Clarence goes through. • Escaping tower, Richard helped in his delivery (pun as death is an “escape from life” and Richard is the reason Clarence dies) “I had broken from the Tower” o On boat with Richard going to france- looking back, thinking about the bad things he’s done to his country, thinking of wars between house of Lancaster and York. “There we looked toward England and cited up a thousand times during the wars of York and Lancaster that had befall’n us.” • Richard stumbles and Clarence tries to save him, but Richard seemingly accidentally knocks him over board. “Gloucester stumbled, and in falling struck me, that thought o stay him, overboard” o Clarence dreams about drowning, dreams about pain, physical pain of drowning “me thought what a pain it was to drown” “what sights of ugly death within mine eyes” • Jewels, a thousand dead people- just before he dies, mocking the worthlessness of wealth“A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon, wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,” • Return of pain, Clarence wants to die but cannot- “methought I had, I often did strive to yield the ghost; but still the envious flood stopped in my soul and would not let it forth” • Goes into underworld- strange as people usually wake up when they die in their dream, “my dream was lengthened after life” Imagery • ,Jewels are the wealth of noble family, with wealth comes power ( wealth symbol of power), materialism • ,knowing he is going to die, senses brought in to emphasize the image of him dying, knowing he is grown to die, struggle • ,Jewel’s- image from many poems of jewels being in women’s eyes, lures men to the deep…referring to sin (religion) • ,Hell- “then came
When the republic was overthrown he was imprisoned and tortured. After being released from prison he decided to work on his writings. He is most known for his political works and writings. Machiavelli’s most famous work was the political philosophies in “The Prince”. The book was concerned with how one ruler governs and rules a mass of people.
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy(12/7/1791) created a crisis of conscience for religious Frenchmen, becoming the ‘first sign of popular resistance’(Rees) This, and and the attempted Flight to Varennes of Louis and his family(21/6/1791), catalysed the Champ De Mars massacre(17/7/1791), foreshadowing a new radical era, where growing resistance was met with radical responses. The second radical stage (1792-4) of the new society saw interlocking challenges and resistance, a force necessitating a violent and radical response to safeguard the revolution. War against Prussia and Austria, and the Brunswick Manifesto(25/7/1792), instilled fear into the people of Paris, a fear compounded by civil war in the
“How far do you agree with the view that the flight to Varennes fatally damaged the prospects of successfully implementing a Constitutional Monarchy by 1791-92?” The downfall of the constitutional monarchy in France between 1789 and 1792 was a result of a number of factors that each showed a varying degree of contribution, which can be seen through evidence within a range of sources. The most fundamental factor aiding the collapse of the constitutional monarchy can be seen to be the consequences of Louis personal failings, in particular through the Flight of Varennes, and is stressed heavily by both historians in sources 1 and 3. Other factors that can be seen to be important in damaging the successful implementation of a Constitutional Monarchy was the War with Austria in 1792, highlighted in source 2 especially, and the significance of the radical minority in France at the time in sources 1 and 3. There are several links that the sources make between one another in relation to the interpretations by the historians themselves, with source 1 also underlining the impact of radicals and the war as contributing factors to the Flight to Varennes, and sources 1 and 3 differing in the overall significance of the Flight to Varennes to the failure of the Constitutional Monarchy’s implantation. Source 1 highlights the main factor in this controversy, the Flight to Varennes, and underlines its significance as the ‘most immediate consequence’ in Louis reign as King.