1.
French Revolution
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Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
2.
National Assembly (French Revolution)
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The Estates-General had been called on Dec 4,1789 to deal with Frances financial crisis, but promptly fell to squabbling over its own structure. Its members had elected to represent the estates of the realm, the 1st Estate, the 2nd Estate. They refused this and proceeded to meet separately, on June 13, this group began to call itself the National Assembly. This newly created assembly immediately attached itself onto the capitalists — the sources of the credit needed to fund the national debt — and to the common people. They consolidated the public debt and declared all existing taxes to have been illegally imposed and this restored the confidence of the capitalists and gave them a strong interest in keeping the Assembly in session. As for the people, the Assembly established a committee of subsistence to deal with food shortages. Jacques Necker, finance minister to Louis XVI, had proposed that the king hold a Séance Royale in an attempt to reconcile the divided Estates. The king agreed, but none of the three orders were formally notified of the decision to hold a Royal Session, all debates were to be put on hold until the séance royale took place. Events soon overtook Neckers complex scheme of giving in to the Communes on some points while holding firm on others. On June 19, he ordered the Salle des États, the hall where the National Assembly met, closed, when, on June 23, in accord with his plan, the king finally addressed the representatives of all three estates, he encountered a stony silence. He concluded by ordering all to disperse, the nobles and clergy obeyed, the deputies of the common people remained seated in a silence finally broken by Mirabeau, whose short speech culminated, A military force surrounds the assembly. Where are the enemies of the nation, I demand, investing yourselves with your dignity, with your legislative power, you inclose yourselves within the religion of your oath. It does not permit you to separate till you have formed a constitution, Necker, conspicuous by his absence from the royal party on that day, found himself in disgrace with Louis, but back in the good graces of the National Assembly. The French military began to arrive in numbers around Paris. This move failed, soon part of the deputies of the nobles who still stood apart joined the National Assembly at the request of the king. Louis offered to move the assembly to Noyon or Soissons, that is to say, public outrage over this troop presence precipitated the Storming of the Bastille, beginning the Revolution. This article incorporates text from the public domain History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, by François Mignet and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. French Revolution. Http, //www. assemblee-nationale. fr/english/8am. asp History of the National Assembly http, //www. saylor. org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/National-Assembly-French-Revolution. pdf National Assembly
3.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man
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Not to be confused with Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793, a second declaration, written in 1793 but never formally adopted. The Declaration was directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson, working with General Lafayette, influenced also by the doctrine of natural right, the rights of man are held to be universal, valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself. It became the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by law and it is included in the preamble of the constitutions of both the Fourth French Republic and Fifth Republic and is still current. The content of the document emerged largely from the ideals of the American Revolution, in August 1789, Honoré Mirabeau played a central role in conceptualizing and drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The draft was modified during the debates. A second and lengthier declaration, known as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793, was written in 1793 but never formally adopted. As can be seen in the texts, the French declaration is heavily influenced by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, by Enlightenment principles of human rights. Declaration of Independence which preceded it, Thomas Jefferson—the primary author of the U. S. Declaration of Independence—was at the time in France as a U. S. diplomat, in the ratification by the states of the U. S. Constitution in 1788, critics had demanded a written Bill of Rights, in response, James Madisons proposal for a U. S. Bill of Rights was introduced in New York on 8 June 1789,11 weeks before the French declaration. Considering the 6 to 8 weeks it took news to cross the Atlantic, but, as Lafebvre notes, both texts emerged from the same shared intellectual heritage. The same people took part in shaping both documents, Lafayette admired Jefferson, and Jefferson in turn found Lafayette useful, writing in 1787 that Lafayette was a most valuable auxiliary to me and his zeal is unbounded, & his weight with those in power, great. The declaration is in the spirit of secular law, which does not base itself on religious doctrine or authority, in contrast with traditional natural law theory. The declaration defines a set of individual and collective rights for all men. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights are held to be universal, for example, Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good and they have certain natural rights to property, to liberty, and to life. According to this theory, the role of government is to recognize, furthermore, government should be carried on by elected representatives. At the time of writing, the contained in the declaration were only awarded to men
4.
Preamble
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A preamble is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the documents purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the subject of the statute. It is distinct from the title or enacting formula of a law. In parliamentary procedure using Roberts Rules of Order, a preamble consists of Whereas clauses that are placed before the resolving clauses in a resolution, however, preambles are not required to be placed in resolutions. According to Roberts Rules of Order, including such information may not be helpful in passing the resolution. While preambles may be regarded as unimportant introductory matter, their words may have effects that may not have been foreseen by their drafters. In Canada, the preamble to the Constitution Act,1867 was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Provincial Judges Reference, in India, the Supreme Court frequently rules unconstitutional amendments which violate the Basic Structure of the Constitution, especially its Preamble
5.
Storming of the Bastille
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The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming but was a symbol of abuses by the monarchy, in France, Le quatorze juillet is a public holiday, usually called Bastille Day in English. During the reign of Louis XVI, France faced an economic crisis, partially initiated by the cost of intervening in the American Revolution. The king initially opposed this development, but was forced to acknowledge the authority of the assembly, which subsequently renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July. The commoners had formed the National Guard, sporting tricolour cockades of blue, white and red, formed by combining the red and blue cockade of Paris and the white cockade of the king. These cockades, and soon simply their colour scheme, became the symbol of the revolution and, later, Paris, close to insurrection and, in François Mignets words, intoxicated with liberty and enthusiasm, showed wide support for the Assembly. The press published the Assemblys debates, political debate spread beyond the Assembly itself into the public squares, the Palais-Royal and its grounds became the site of an ongoing meeting. The Assembly recommended the imprisoned guardsmen to the clemency of the king, they returned to prison, the rank and file of the regiment, previously considered reliable, now leaned toward the popular cause. News of Neckers dismissal reached Paris in the afternoon of Sunday,12 July, the Parisians generally presumed that the dismissal marked the start of a coup by conservative elements. Crowds gathered throughout Paris, including more than ten thousand at the Palais-Royal and this very night all the Swiss and German battalions will leave the Champ de Mars to massacre us all, one resource is left, to take arms. By early July, approximately half of the 25,000 regular troops in Paris, the crowd clashed with the Royal German Cavalry Regiment between the Place Vendôme and the Tuileries Palace. From atop the Champs-Élysées, the Prince de Lambesc unleashed a cavalry charge that dispersed the protesters at Place Louis XV—now Place de la Concorde. The Royal commander, Baron de Besenval, fearing the results of a blood bath amongst the poorly armed crowds or defections among his own men, then withdrew the cavalry towards Sèvres. Meanwhile, unrest was growing among the people of Paris who expressed their hostility against state authorities by attacking customs posts blamed for causing increased food, the people of Paris started to plunder any place where food, guns and supplies could be hoarded. That night, rumors spread that supplies were being hoarded at Saint-Lazare, a property of the clergy. An angry mob broke in and plundered the property, seizing 52 wagons of wheat and that same day multitudes of people plundered many other places including weapon arsenals. The Royal troops did nothing to stop the spreading of chaos in Paris during those days
6.
Estates of the realm
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The estates of the realm were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom from the medieval period to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and evolved over time, the best known system is the French Ancien Régime, a three-estate system used until the French Revolution. Monarchy was for the king and the queen and this system was made up of clergy, nobles, furthermore, the non-landowning poor could be left outside the estates, leaving them without political rights. In England, a system evolved that combined nobility and bishops into one lordly estate with commons as the second estate. This system produced the two houses of parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, in southern Germany, a three-estate system of nobility, ritters, and burghers was used. Today the term Fourth Estate usually refers to forces outside the power structure. Historically, in Northern and Eastern Europe, the Fourth Estate meant rural commoners, during the Middle Ages individuals were born into their class and change in social position was difficult. The medieval Church was the institution where social mobility was most likely up to a certain level, typically, however, only nobility were appointed to the highest church positions, although low nobility could aspire to the highest church positions. Another possible way to rise in position was due to exceptional military or commercial success. Such families were rare and their rise to nobility required royal patronage at some point, medieval political speculation is imbued to the marrow with the idea of a structure of society based upon distinct orders, Johan Huizinga observes. There are, first of all, the estates of the realm, but there are also the trades, the state of matrimony and that of virginity, at court there are the four estates of the body and mouth, bread-masters, cup-bearers, carvers, and cooks. In the Church there are orders and monastic orders. Finally there are the different orders of chivalry and this static view of society was predicated on inherited positions. Commoners were universally considered the lowest order, a persons estate and position within it were usually inherited from the father and his occupation, similar to a caste within that system. In many regions and realms there also existed population groups born outside these specifically defined resident estates, legislative bodies or advisory bodies to a monarch were traditionally grouped along lines of these estates, with the monarch above all three estates. Meetings of the estates of the realm became early legislative and judicial parliaments, monarchs often sought to legitimize their power by requiring oaths of fealty from the estates. Today, in most countries, the estates have lost all their legal privileges, one of the earliest political pamphlets to address these ideas was called What Is the Third Estate. It was written by Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès in January 1789, the struggle over investiture and the reform movement also legitimized all secular authorities, partly on the grounds of their obligation to enforce discipline
7.
Archbishop of Bordeaux
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bordeaux is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The episcopal seat is located in Bordeaux, Aquitaine and it was established under the Concordat of 1802 by combining the ancient Diocese of Bordeaux with the greater part of the abolished Diocese of Bazas. The metropolitan diocese has a position to four suffragan dioceses in the archdiocese, Agen, Aire and Dax, Bayonne, Lescar, and Oloron. The metropolitan diocese itself comprises Gironde, Aquitaine, in 1850 were added the three Bishoprics of Fort-de-France, Guadeloupe and Basse-Terre, and Saint-Denis de la Réunion, later detached. Since 2002 the province of Bordeaux has been modified following the abolition of the province of Auch. The same legends represent St. Martial as having brought to the Soulac coast St, the first Bishop of Bordeaux known to history, Orientalis, is mentioned at the Council of Arles, in 314. This was during the episcopate of Delphinus of Bordeaux, who attended the Councils of Saragossa in 380 and maintained correspondence with St. Ambrose and with St. Paulinus of Nola. During this Merovingian period the church, founded in the fourth century, occupied the same site that it does today. This faubourg was thus like a city and the cemetery of St Seurin was full of tombs of the Merovingian period around which the popular imagination was to create legends. At the other extremity of the city, Benedictines drained and filled in the marshes of LEau-Bourde, during the whole 8th century and part of the 9th, no bishops are mentioned for Bordeaux among Vatican and local records. Frotharius was archbishop in 870, when he fled the city in the face of Viking raids, in 1027 the duke of Gascony, Sancho VI, and the duke of Aquitaine, William V, joined together to select Geoffrey II, an Aquitanian Frank, as archbishop. This represented a new ecumenical rôle for the archbishop spanning both regions, the reigns of William VIII and William IX, were noted for the splendid development of Romanesque architecture in Bordeaux. Parts of the churches of Sainte-Croix and Saint-Seurin belong to that time, in the Middle Ages, a struggle between the metropolitan sees of Bordeaux and Bourges was brought about by the claims of the latter to the primacy of Aquitaine. Aquitaine was lost to France by the annulment of the marriage between Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Bordeaux became the capital of the English possessions in France. Thereupon the struggle between the metropolitans of Bordeaux and Bourges assumed a character, the King of France necessarily upholding the claims of Bourges. Louis and Henry III, and defended Gascony against the tyranny of Simon de Montfort, during the episcopate of Gerard de Mallemort the old Romanesque church of Saint-André was transformed into a Gothic cathedral. Pope Clement V was unfavourable to the claims of Bourges and he was born in Villandraut near Bazas, where he had built a beautiful collegiate church, was Archbishop of Bordeaux from 1300 to 1305. When he became pope, in spite of sympathies to France proper, by the late fourteenth century, the archbishops, like Francesco Uguccione, were supporters of the English
8.
Bishop of Autun
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Autun is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in France. The diocese comprises the entire Department of Saone et Loire, in the Region of Bourgogne, the diocese was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Lyon under the Ancien Régime, and the Bishop of Autun held the post of Vicar of the Archbishop. For a short time, from 1802 to 1822, the diocese of Autun was suffragan to the Archbishop of Besançon. In 1822, however, Autun was again subject to the Archbishop of Lyon, the diocese of Autun is now, since 8 December 2002, suffragan to the Archbishop of Dijon. The current bishop of Autun is Benoit Rivière, christian teaching reached Autun at a very early period, as is known from the famous funeral inscription, in classical Greek, of a certain Pectorius which dates from the 3rd century. It was found in 1839 in the cemetery of St. Peter lEstrier at Autun, and makes reference to baptism, St. Benignus went on to Langres, while the others remained at Autun. According to this cycle, which dates from about the first half of the 6th century. Another tradition current at Autun, however, names St. Amator as its first bishop, the first bishop known to history, however, is Saint Reticius, an ecclesiastical writer, and contemporary of the Emperor Constantine I. Euphronius, who became Bishop of Autun, is credited with the foundation of the first monastic house at Autun in 421, in 1792 and 1793 the buildings were sold for the stone material and demolished. In 1993 the remains were classified as a monument by the French Government. In 452, Bishop Euphronius observed a comet, and sent a description of the event to Count Agrippinus, in 472 Bishop Sidonius invited Bishop Euphronius to Bourges for the election of Sidonius Metropolitan. Autun was to be a metropolis throughout its own locality, with second place in Gaul after Lugdunum, during the Merovingian era Autun was a politically important diocese. By the mid-tenth century, however, the abbey was no longer in operation, in 949 the Burgundian Counts Giselbert and Hugh imported monks from Cluny to reform the moribund monastery, and to elect their own abbot. When the abbey was destroyed in 1793, Brunhildas sarcophagus was removed, the first council was held in 663,670, or 677, under Bishop Leodegarius, for the purpose of regulating the discipline of the Benedictine monasteries. Monks were forbidden to have friends, or to have woman friends. The council ordered all ecclesiastics to learn by heart the Apostles Creed and this seems to be the earliest mention of the Athanasian Creed in France. The Rule of St. Benedict was also prescribed as the monastic code. In a Council of 1065, Saint Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, along with four bishops, accomplished the reconciliation of Robert, Duke of Burgundy, in 1077 Hugues, Bishop of Die held a council at Autun, by order of Pope Gregory VII
9.
Jean Joseph Mounier
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Jean Joseph Mounier was a French politician and judge. He studied law, and in 1783 obtained a judgeship at Grenoble and he took part in the struggle between the parlements and the court in 1788, and promoted the meeting of the estates of Dauphiné at Vizille, on the eve of the French Revolution. He was secretary of the assembly, and drafted the cahiers of grievances and remonstrances presented by it to King Louis XVI. Thus brought into prominence, Mounier was unanimously elected deputy of the estate to the states general of 1789. On 28 September 1789 he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly, being unable, however, to approve the proceedings which followed, Mounier withdrew to Dauphiné, resigned as deputy, and, becoming suspect, took refuge in Switzerland in 1790. He returned to France in 1801, was named by Napoleon Bonaparte prefect of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, which he reorganized, and in 1805 was appointed councillor of state. Full text online versions of written by Jean Joseph Mounier from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Mounier
10.
Gilbert du Motier
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A close friend of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, Lafayette was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. Born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France and he followed its martial tradition, and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American cause in its war was noble. There, he was made a general, however, the 19-year-old was initially not given troops to command. Wounded during the Battle of Brandywine, he managed to organize an orderly retreat. He served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island, in the middle of the war, he returned home to lobby for an increase in French support. He again sailed to America in 1780, and was given positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops in Virginia under his command blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American, Lafayette returned to France and, in 1787, was appointed to the Assembly of Notables, which was convened in response to the fiscal crisis. He was elected a member of the Estates-General of 1789, where representatives met from the three orders of French society—the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. He helped write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, after the storming of the Bastille, Lafayette was appointed commander-in-chief of the National Guard and tried to steer a middle course through the French Revolution. In August 1792, the radical factions ordered his arrest, fleeing through the Austrian Netherlands, he was captured by Austrian troops and spent more than five years in prison. Lafayette returned to France after Napoleon Bonaparte secured his release in 1797, after the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, he became a liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies, a position he held for most of the remainder of his life. During Frances July Revolution of 1830, Lafayette declined an offer to become the French dictator, instead, he supported Louis-Philippe as king, but turned against him when the monarch became autocratic. Lafayette died on 20 May 1834, and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States, he is sometimes known as The Hero of the Two Worlds. Lafayettes lineage was likely one of the oldest and most distinguished in Auvergne and, perhaps, males of the Lafayette family enjoyed a reputation for courage and chivalry and were noted for their contempt for danger. One of Lafayettes early ancestors, Gilbert de Lafayette III, a Marshal of France, had been a companion-at-arms of Joan of Arcs army during the Siege of Orléans in 1429, according to legend, another ancestor acquired the crown of thorns during the Sixth Crusade. Lafayettes father likewise died on the battlefield, on 1 August 1759, Michel de Lafayette was struck by a cannonball while fighting a British-led coalition at the Battle of Minden in Westphalia. Lafayette became marquis and Lord of Chavaniac, but the estate went to his mother, in 1768, when Lafayette was 11, he was summoned to Paris to live with his mother and great-grandfather at the comtes apartments in Luxembourg Palace
11.
Bicameralism
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A bicameral legislature is one in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. As of 2015, somewhat less than half of the national legislatures are bicameral. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods, which vary from country to country and this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members. However, in many Westminster system parliaments, the house to which the executive is responsible can overrule the other house, some legislatures lie in between these two positions, with one house only able to overrule the other under certain circumstances. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners as was the case in the Kingdom of England. Others, such as France under the Ancien Régime had a legislature known as the Estates General, which consisted of separate chambers for the clergymen, the nobility. The Founding Fathers of the United States also favoured a bicameral legislature, the idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. Benjamin Rush saw this though, and noted that, this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence, the Senate was created to be a stabilising force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the fickleness. He noted further that the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with system and with more wisdom. Madisons argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, the Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, as part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate would have states represented equally, and the House would have them represented by population. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British three-tier model, nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived. An example of controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France. The relationship between the two chambers varies, in cases, they have equal power, while in others. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments, the latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems. In the United States both houses of the U. S and this is due to their original location in the two-story building that was to house them. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister
12.
Parliament
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In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative, elected body of government. Generally a modern parliament has three functions, representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government, historically, parliaments included various kinds of deliberative, consultative, and judicial assemblies. The term is derived from Anglo-Norman parlement, from the verb parler talk, the meaning evolved over time, originally any discussion, conversation, or negotiation, through various kinds of deliberative or judicial groups, often summoned by the monarch. By 1400, it had come to mean in Britain specifically the British supreme legislature, various parliaments are claimed to be the oldest in the world, under varying definitions. The Sicilian Parliament, whose first assembly was convened in 1097, the Icelandic Althing, year 930, but only including the main chiefs. Since ancient times, when societies were tribal, there were councils or a headman whose decisions were assessed by village elders, some scholars suggest that in ancient Mesopotamia there was a primitive democratic government where the kings were assessed by council. The same has been said about ancient India, where some form of deliberative assemblies existed, however, these claims are not accepted by most scholars, who see these forms of government as oligarchies. Ancient Athens was the cradle of democracy, the Athenian assembly was the most important institution, and every citizen could take part in the discussions. However, Athenian democracy was not representative, but rather direct, the Roman Senate controlled money, administration, and the details of foreign policy. Some Muslim scholars argue that the Islamic shura is analogous to the parliament, however, others highlight what they consider fundamental differences between the shura system and the parliamentary system. England has long had a tradition of a body of men who would assist, under the Anglo-Saxon kings, there was an advisory council, the Witenagemot. The name derives from the Old English ƿitena ȝemōt, or witena gemōt, the first recorded act of a witenagemot was the law code issued by King Æthelberht of Kent ca. 600, the earliest document which survives in sustained Old English prose, however, the Witan, along with the folkmoots, is an important ancestor of the modern English parliament. As part of the Norman Conquest of England, the new king, William I, did away with the Witenagemot, membership of the Curia was largely restricted to the tenants in chief, the few nobles who rented great estates directly from the king, along with ecclesiastics. William brought to England the feudal system of his native Normandy and this is the original body from which the Parliament, the higher courts of law, and the Privy Council and Cabinet descend. Of these, the legislature is formally the High Court of Parliament, only the executive government is no longer conducted in a royal court. Most historians date the emergence of a parliament with some degree of power to which the throne had to defer no later than the rule of Edward I, like previous kings, Edward called leading nobles and church leaders to discuss government matters, especially finance. A meeting in 1295 became known as the Model Parliament because it set the pattern for later Parliaments, in 1307, Edward I agreed not to collect certain taxes without the consent of the realm
13.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
14.
King of France
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The monarchs of the Kingdom of France and its predecessors ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of the Franks in 486 till the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870. Sometimes included as kings of France are the kings of the Franks of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled from 486 until 751, and of the Carolingians, who ruled until 987. The Capetian dynasty, the descendants of Hugh Capet, included the first rulers to adopt the title of king of France for the first time with Philip II. The Capetians ruled continuously from 987 to 1792 and again from 1814 to 1848, the branches of the dynasty which ruled after 1328, however, are generally given the specific branch names of Valois and Bourbon. During the brief period when the French Constitution of 1791 was in effect and after the July Revolution in 1830 and it was a constitutional innovation known as popular monarchy which linked the monarchs title to the French people rather than to the possession of the territory of France. With the House of Bonaparte Emperors of the French ruled in 19th century France and it was used on coins up to the eighteenth century. During the brief period when the French Constitution of 1791 was in effect and after the July Revolution in 1830 and it was a constitutional innovation known as popular monarchy which linked the monarchs title to the French people rather than to the possession of the territory of France. They used the title Emperor of the French and this article lists all rulers to have held the title King of the Franks, King of France, King of the French or Emperor of the French. For other Frankish monarchs, see List of Frankish kings, in addition to the monarchs listed below, the Kings of England and Great Britain from 1340–60, 1369-1420, and 1422–1801 also claimed the title of King of France. For a short time, this had some basis in fact – under the terms of the 1420 Treaty of Troyes, Charles VI had recognized his son-in-law Henry V of England as regent and heir. Henry V predeceased Charles VI and so Henry Vs son, Henry VI, most of Northern France was under English control until 1435, but by 1453, the English had been expelled from all of France save Calais, and Calais itself fell in 1558. Nevertheless, English and then British monarchs continued to claim the title for themselves until the creation of the United Kingdom in 1801. The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that ruled the Franks for nearly 300 years in a known as Francia in Latin. Their territory largely corresponded to ancient Gaul as well as the Roman provinces of Raetia, Germania Superior, the Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. In 751, a Carolingian, Pepin the Younger, dethroned the Merovingians and with the consent of the Papacy, the Robertians were Frankish noblemen owing fealty to the Carolingians, and ancestors of the subsequent Capetian dynasty. Odo, Count of Paris, was chosen by the western Franks to be their king following the removal of emperor Charles the Fat, the Bosonids were a noble family descended from Boso the Elder, their member, Rudolph, was elected King of the Franks in 923. After the death of Louis V, the son of Hugh the Great and grandson of Robert I, the Capetian Dynasty, the male-line descendants of Hugh Capet, ruled France continuously from 987 to 1792 and again from 1814 to 1848. They were direct descendants of the Robertian kings, the cadet branches of the dynasty which ruled after 1328, however, are generally given the specific branch names of Valois and Bourbon
15.
Unicameral
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In government, unicameralism is the practice of having one legislative or parliamentary chamber. Thus, a parliament or unicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of one chamber or house. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multicameralism, many multicameral legislatures were created to give separate voices to different sectors of society. Multiple chambers allowed for guaranteed representation of different social classes, ethnic or regional interests, where these factors are unimportant, in unitary states with limited regional autonomy, unicameralism often prevails. Unicameral legislatures are also common in official Communist states such as the Peoples Republic of China, similarly, many formerly Communist states, such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia, have retained their unicameral legislatures, though others, such as Romania and Poland, adopted bicameral legislatures. Both the former Russian SFSR and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were bicameral, the two chambers were the Soviet of Nationalities and the Soviet of the Union. The Russian Federation retained bicameralism after the dissolution of the USSR, the principal advantage of a unicameral system is more efficient lawmaking, as the legislative process is much simpler and there is no possibility of deadlock. Proponents of unicameralism have also argued that it costs, even if the number of legislators stay the same, since there are fewer institutions to maintain. There is also the risk that important sectors of society may not be adequately represented, approximately half of the worlds sovereign states are currently unicameral, including both the most populous and the least populous. Many subnational entities have unicameral legislatures, and all of the Brazilian states. In the United Kingdom, the devolved Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales, Congress of Deputies of Second Spanish Republic was unicameral between 1931 and 1936. Dissolved at the end of Spanish Civil War, the actual Spanish Parliament is bicameral, Supreme Assembly of Uzbekistan was unicameral before being replaced in 2005 by the current, bicameral Supreme Assembly. National Assembly of Cameroon was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, chamber of Peoples Representative of Equatorial Guinea was unicameral before being replaced in 2013 by the current, bicameral Parliament of Equatorial Guinea. National Assembly of Kenya was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Kenya in 2013. National Assembly of Ivory Coast was the unicameral legislature before becoming the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Ivory Coast in 2016. Nebraskas state legislature is also unique in the sense that it is the state legislature that is entirely nonpartisan. In 1999, Governor Jesse Ventura proposed converting the Minnesota Legislature into a unicameral chamber. Although debated, the idea was never adopted, if those constitutional changes had been approved, Puerto Rico could have switched to a unicameral legislature as early as 2015
16.
Bicameral
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A bicameral legislature is one in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. As of 2015, somewhat less than half of the national legislatures are bicameral. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods, which vary from country to country and this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members. However, in many Westminster system parliaments, the house to which the executive is responsible can overrule the other house, some legislatures lie in between these two positions, with one house only able to overrule the other under certain circumstances. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners as was the case in the Kingdom of England. Others, such as France under the Ancien Régime had a legislature known as the Estates General, which consisted of separate chambers for the clergymen, the nobility. The Founding Fathers of the United States also favoured a bicameral legislature, the idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. Benjamin Rush saw this though, and noted that, this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence, the Senate was created to be a stabilising force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the fickleness. He noted further that the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with system and with more wisdom. Madisons argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, the Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, as part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate would have states represented equally, and the House would have them represented by population. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British three-tier model, nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived. An example of controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France. The relationship between the two chambers varies, in cases, they have equal power, while in others. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments, the latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems. In the United States both houses of the U. S and this is due to their original location in the two-story building that was to house them. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister
17.
Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target
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Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target was a French lawyer and politician. Born in Paris, Target was the son of a lawyer and he was counsel for Louis René Edouard, cardinal de Rohan in the affair of the diamond necklace. In 1785, he was elected to the Académie française and he contributed to the development of the Edict of Tolerance signed at Versailles by Louis XVI in 1787. In 1789, he was returned as one of the deputies of the Third Estate in Paris to the Estates-General, and he was instrumental in writing up the cahiers de doléances of Paris. He went on to support revolutionary measures such as the union of the orders, the veto, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He was one of many deputies named to the Constitutional Committee in September 1789 and he presided over the National Constituent Assembly 18 January -2 February 1790. His excessive obesity, which made him the butt of the Royalist jokes, when Louis XVI invited him to undertake his defence, he excused himself on this ground. In 1792, he published some constitutional observations in extenuation of the kings actions, Target took no part in public affairs during the Reign of Terror. Under the Directory he was made a member of the Institut de France in 1796 and he lived to collaborate in the earlier stages of the new criminal code. Among his writings may be mentioned a paper on the grain trade, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Target, Gui Jean Baptiste. The Britannica gives the following references, Victor du Bled, Les avocats et lAcadémie française, H. Moulin, Le Palais a lAcadémie, Target et son fauteuil. P. Boulloche, Un avocat au 18ième siècle
18.
Jacques Guillaume Thouret
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Jacques Guillaume Thouret was a French Girondin revolutionary, lawyer, president of the National Constituent Assembly and victim of the guillotine. Born at Pont-lÉvêque, Calvados to a father, Thouret became an avocat at the parlement of Rouen in 1773. His brother, Michel Augustin Thouret, a physician, was a key opponent of the ideas of Franz Mesmer, in 1788 he participated in the agitation that contributed to the recall of the Estates-General. Thouret was elected deputy to the Estates-General by the estate of Rouen. In the Constituent Assembly his eloquence gained him great influence, like so many lawyers of his time, he was violently opposed to the clergy, and strongly supported the secularization of church property. He was four times elected president of the Constituent Assembly, which is more times than anyone else, Thouret joined the Constitutional Committee late in September 1789. After the Assemblys dissolution, Thouret became a member, and then in 1793 president, a bust of Thouret created in 1879 by Jules-Constant Destreez can be seen in the gallery of the second floor of the Court of Cassation. A bust of Thouret and dedication plaque can also be seen in Rue Thouret, Rouen, besides his speeches and reports he wrote, Tableau chronologique de lHistoire ancienne et moderne Discours de M. Thouret, Jacques Guillaume. Faruk Bilici, Thouret, sa vie, ses idée, son procès, contribution au livre « Hommage à Jacques-Guillaume Thouret, 1746-1794 », Rouen,1990, p. 43-53. A. Chauleur, Les deux dernières lettres de Jacques-Guillaume Thouret, Revue de lAssociation Française pour l’Histoire de la Justice, N°4,1991
19.
Estates General (France)
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In France under the Old Regime, the Estates General or States-General was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had an assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king. The Estates-General met intermittently until 1614 and only afterwards, but was not definitively dissolved until after the French Revolution. The letters summoning the assembly of 1302 are published by M. Georges Picot in his collection of Documents inédits pour servir à lhistoire de France, during the same reign they were subsequently assembled several times to give him aid by granting subsidies. Over time subsidies came to be the most frequent motive for their convocation, in one sense, the composition and powers of the Estates-General always remained the same. They always included representatives of the First Estate, Second Estate, and Third Estate and their composition, however, as well as their effective powers, varied greatly at different times. In their primitive form in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the lay lords and the ecclesiastical lords who made up the Estates-General were not elected by their peers, but directly chosen and summoned by the king. In the order of the clergy, however, since certain ecclesiastical bodies and it was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election. Originally, moreover, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates and it was only the bonnes villes, the privileged towns, which were called upon. They were represented by elected procureurs, who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, the country districts, the plat pays, were not represented. Even within the bonnes villes, the franchise was quite narrow and it was during the last thirty years of the 15th century that the Estates-General became an entirely elective body and really representative of the whole nation as divided into three parts. This came about through various causes, the letters of summons to the Estates-General of 1484 invited the ecclesiastics, nobles, and Third Estate to meet at the chief town of their bailliage or sénéchaussé and elect deputies. An intermediate form had been employed in 1468 when the prelates and lords had still been summoned personally, at the estates of 1484 there seems to have been universal and direct suffrage for all the three orders. Thus a system of indirect election arose for the Third Estate which became confirmed, the effective powers of the Estates-General likewise varied over time. In the 14th century they were considerable, the king could not, in theory, levy general taxation. The privileged towns had generally the right of taxing themselves, to collect general taxes, the king required consent of the lay and ecclesiastical lords, and of the towns. This amounted to needing authorization from the Estates-General, which only granted these subsidies temporarily for fairly short periods, as a result, they were summoned frequently and their power over the Crown became considerable. In the second half of the 14th century, however, certain taxes, levied throughout the Crowns domain
20.
Citizenship
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Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a legal member of a sovereign state. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless. Nationality is often used as a synonym for citizenship in English – notably in international law – although the term is understood as denoting a persons membership of a nation. In some countries, e. g. the United States, each country has its own policies, regulations and criteria as to who is entitled to its citizenship. A person can be recognised or granted citizenship on a number of bases, usually citizenship based on the place of birth is automatic, in other cases an application may be required. If one or both of a persons parents are citizens of a state, then the person may have the right to be a citizen of that state as well. Formerly this might only have applied through the line. Citizenship is granted based on ancestry or ethnicity, and is related to the concept of a nation state common in China, where jus sanguinis holds, a person born outside a country, one or both of whose parents are citizens of the country, is also a citizen. States normally limit the right to citizenship by descent to a number of generations born outside the state. This form of citizenship is not common in civil law countries, Some people are automatically citizens of the state in which they are born. This form of citizenship originated in England where those who were born within the realm were subjects of the monarch, in many cases both jus solis and jus sanguinis hold, citizenship either by place or parentage. Many countries fast-track naturalization based on the marriage of a person to a citizen, States normally grant citizenship to people who have entered the country legally and been granted permit to stay, or been granted political asylum, and also lived there for a specified period. Some states allow dual citizenship and do not require naturalized citizens to renounce any other citizenship. In the past there have been exclusions on entitlement to citizenship on grounds such as color, ethnicity, sex. Most of these no longer apply in most places. The United States grants citizenship to those born as a result of reproductive technologies, Some exclusions still persist for internationally adopted children born before Feb 27,1983 even though their parents meet citizenship criteria. Polis meant both the assembly of the city-state as well as the entire society. Citizenship has generally been identified as a western phenomenon, there is a general view that citizenship in ancient times was a simpler relation than modern forms of citizenship, although this view has come under scrutiny
21.
October Days
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The Womens March on Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who, on the morning of 5 October 1789, were near rioting over the high price and their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries, who were seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The market women and their various allies grew into a mob of thousands, encouraged by revolutionary agitators, they ransacked the city armory for weapons and marched to the Palace of Versailles. The crowd besieged the palace, and in a dramatic and violent confrontation, the next day, the crowd compelled the king, his family, and most of the French Assembly to return with them to Paris. These events ended the independence and signified the change of power. The march symbolized a new balance of power that displaced the ancient privileged orders of the French nobility and favored the common people. Bringing together people representing sources of the Revolution in their largest numbers yet, the deregulation of the grain market implemented by Turgot, Louis XVIs Controller-General of Finances, in 1774, was the main cause of the famine which led to the Flour War in 1775. Mere rumors of food led to the Réveillon riots in April 1789. Rumors of a plot aiming to destroy crops in order to starve the population provoked the Great Fear in the summer of 1789. When the October journéesa took place, Frances revolutionary decade, 1789–1799, had barely begun, the revolutions capacity for violence was as yet not fully realized. The storming of the Bastille had occurred less than three months earlier, flush with newly discovered power, the common citizens of France – particularly in the teeming capital, Paris – felt a newly discovered desire to participate in politics and government. The poorest among them were almost exclusively concerned with the issue of food, in the post-Bastille period, price inflation and severe shortages in Paris became commonplace, as did local incidents of violence in the marketplaces. Now their attention was turned to the creation of a permanent constitution, monarchists and conservatives of all degrees had thus far been unable to resist the surging strength of the reformers, but by September their positions were beginning, however slightly, to improve. In constitutional negotiations they were able to secure a veto power for the king. Many of the reformers were left aghast by this, and further negotiations were hobbled by contentiousness, quiet Versailles, the seat of royal power, was a stifling environment for reformers. The bustling metropolis lay within walking distance, less than 21 kilometres to the northeast, worse, many feared that the king, emboldened by the growing presence of royal troops, might simply dissolve the Assembly, or at least renege on the August decrees. The king was indeed considering this, and when on 18 September he issued a statement giving his approval to only a portion of the decrees. Stoking their anger even further, the king even stated on 4 October that he had reservations about the Declaration of the Rights of Man, despite its post-revolutionary mythology, the march was not a spontaneous event
22.
Maximilien Robespierre
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Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution, as a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was an outspoken advocate for the poor and for democratic institutions. He campaigned for universal suffrage in France, price controls on basic food commodities. But although he was an ardent opponent of the penalty, he played an important role in arranging the execution of King Louis XVI. He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolutions Reign of Terror and he was named as a member of the powerful Committee of Public Safety launched by his political ally Georges Danton and exerted his influence to suppress the left-wing Hébertists. The Terror ended a few later with Robespierres arrest and execution in July. Robespierres personal responsibility for the excesses of the Terror remains the subject of debate among historians of the French Revolution. Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie and his steadfast adherence and defense of the views he expressed earned him the nickname lIncorruptible. Robespierres reputation has gone through cycles of re-appraisal. During the Soviet Era, Robespierre was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure and his reputation peaked in the 1920s with the influence of French historian Albert Mathiez. In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies, Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras in the old French province of Artois. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in Picardy and it has been suggested that he was of Irish descent, his surname possibly a corruption of Robert Speirs. His paternal grandfather, also named Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer and his father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, was a lawyer at the Conseil dArtois. He married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, Maximilien was the oldest of four children and was conceived out of wedlock. His siblings were Charlotte, Henriette, and Augustin, on 7 July 1764, Madame de Robespierre gave birth to a stillborn son, she died nine days later. Devastated by his wifes death, François de Robespierre subsequently left Arras, the children would visit each other on Sundays. Already literate at age 8, Maximilien started attending the collège of Arras, in October 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he received a scholarship at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, University of Paris in Paris. Robespierre studied there until age 23, receiving his training as a lawyer, upon his graduation, he received a special prize of 600-livre for twelve years of exemplary academic success and personal good conduct
23.
Antoine Barnave
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Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, one of the most influential orators of the early part of the French Revolution. He is most notable for correspondence with Marie Antoinette in an attempt to set up a constitutional monarchy, Antoine Barnave was born in Grenoble, in a Protestant family. His father was a barrister at the Parlement of Grenoble, and his mother, because they were Protestants, Antoine could not attend local schools, as those were run by the Catholic church, and his mother educated him herself. Dauphiné was one of the first of the provinces of France to be touched by revolutionary ideals, after being heavily influenced by the Day of the Tiles in Grenoble, Barnave became actively revolutionary. He explained his position in a pamphlet entitled Esprit des édits, Enregistrés militairement. He was immediately elected deputy, with his father, to the Estates General of Dauphiné, together these three would later be principal figures in the formation of the Feuillants, the breakaway party from the Jacobin Club dedicated to a moderate course supporting constitutional monarchy. Until 1791, he was one of the preeminent members of the club known later as the Jacobin Club, of which he drew up the manifesto, although a partisan of political freedom, Barnave hoped to preserve revolutionary liberties together while maintaining the ruling House of Bourbon. Subject to the more forces, Barnave took part in the attacks on the monarchy, on the clergy, on Roman Catholic Church property. On several occasions, he stood in opposition to Mirabeau, after the storming of the Bastille, he saw the power of the masses as possibly leading to political chaos, and wished to avoid this by saving the throne. He advocated the suspensory veto, and the establishment of trial by jury in civil causes and his conflict with Mirabeau on the question of assigning to the king the right to make peace or war was one of the main episodes of the Assemblys mandate. In August 1790, after a vehement debate, he fought a duel with Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès, about the close of October 1790, Barnave was called to the presidency of the Assembly. On the occasion of the death of Mirabeau, which occurred on 2 April 1791, Barnave paid a tribute to his worth and public services. He strongly supported that government influence remain limited to the people, Barnave also advocated in favor of freedom of speech and the protection of private property. He said individuals had to possess the liberty to express what they feel and believe in, the right to sole ownership of an acre of land or business would encourage financial, political, and societal progress. To Barnave, allocating the land of the Church among the French people would help abate the economic burden. Having land put up as collateral enables France to receive loans from foreign nations, the land would also become a source of food for the hungry through harvests. This encourages a system of production and sale to stimulate the economy, Barnave saw that the Church, being first estate, had great power and wealth. To him, the roles of the clergy, priests, and bishops resided on spreading the message of God and he stood with the Decree on Church Lands which provided each clergymen with no more than an annual income of 1200 livres while retaining ownership of his residency and lawn
24.
Adrien Duport
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Adrien Duport was a French politician, and lawyer. Adrien Jean Françoise Duport was born in Paris and he became an influential advocate in the parlement, and was prominent in opposition to the ministers Calonne and Loménie de Brienne. His early writings show a man who read Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire, but his ideals were closer to the theories of Montesquieu and he was influenced by Cesare Beccaria on the reform of justice. He became the center of the parliamentary strength against absolutism, moving toward positions close to those advocated by Antoine Barnave and he shared the enthusiasm of his contemporaries to the American Revolution, and became acquainted with Lafayette. From 1784, he was a follower of mesmerism, and saw this secret society a way to prepare for changes in society. He was friends with Nicolas Berger and Jacques Pierre Brissot and he was initiated at the lodge of the Friends meeting in Paris, and he participated in Freemasonry debates. He became one of the leaders of the parliamentary group. Elected in 1789, to the states-general by the Paris nobility, as a jurist, he contributed during the Constituent Assembly to the organization of the judiciary of France. In his report of March 29,1790, he advocated trial by jury, Duport formed with Barnave and Alexandre de Lameth a group known as the triumvirate, which was popular at first. Having separated himself from the Jacobins, he joined the Feuillant party, after the Constituent Assembly, he became president of the criminal tribunal of Paris, but was arrested by Danton during the insurrection of 10 August 1792. He escaped, thanks to evidence provided by Jean-Paul Marat, and fled to Switzerland. He returned to France after the 9th of Thermidor of the year II, left it in again after the republican coup détat of 18 Fructidor of the year V. F. A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Constituante
25.
Charles de Lameth
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Charles Malo François Lameth was a French politician and soldier. Charles Malo François Lameth was born on 5 October 1757 in Paris and his father was Louise Charles de Lameth and his mother, Marie Thérèse de Broglie. His mother was the sister of the Marshall de Broglie and a favourite of Marie Antoinette and he was in the retinue of the comte dArtois, and became an officer in a cuirassier regiment. He served in the American War of Independence, and was a hero of the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and he was a Knight of the Order of Malta and a Knight of the Order of Saint Louis. Although he married an heiress from Saint Domingue, he was a founding member of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks in 1788. He was deputy to the Estates-General of 1789, for the nobility, in November 1790 he fought a duel with the Duc de Castries. The duke wounded him and it was feared that he had tipped his sword with poison. Lameth was so popular that a mob stormed Castries house in revenge, since the French Revolution moved toward a Republic, he emigrated to Hamburg. He returned to France under the Consulate, was appointed Brigadier General in 1809 and fought in the Spanish War, in 1814, he rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. Like his brother Alexandre Lameth, Charles joined the Bourbon camp after the Restoration, in the final years of his life, he was nonetheless a noted supporter of the July Monarchy. They resided at the Château dHénencourt in Hénencourt, Somme and he died on 28 December 1832
26.
Champs de Mars Massacre
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The Champ de Mars Massacre took place on 17 July 1791 in Paris in the midst of the French Revolution. The event is named after the site of the massacre, the Champ de Mars, two days before, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that the king, Louis XVI, would remain king under a constitutional monarchy. This decision came after King Louis XVI and his family had tried to flee France in the Flight to Varennes the month before. Later that day, leaders of the republicans in France rallied against this decision, jacques Pierre Brissot, editor and main writer of Le Patriote français and president of the Comité des Recherches of Paris, drew up a petition demanding the removal of the king. A crowd of 50,000 people gathered at the Champ de Mars on July 17 to sign the petition, jean Sylvain Bailly, the mayor of Paris, used this incident to declare martial law. The Marquis de Lafayette and the National Guard, which was under his command, were able to disperse the crowd, later in the afternoon, the crowd, led by Danton and Camille Desmoulins, returned in even greater numbers. The larger crowd was more determined than the first. Lafayette again tried to disperse it, in retaliation, the crowd threw stones at the National Guard. After firing unsuccessful warning shots, the National Guard opened fire directly on the crowd, the exact numbers of dead and wounded are unknown, estimates range from a dozen to fifty dead. When Louis XVI and his family fled to Varennes, it set off political turmoil, earlier, information had been received by the assembly that there was potentially a plan for the king to flee. The idea that Louis planned on fleeing the Tuileries palace began in early 1791 and was one of the causes of the Day of Daggers on 28 February 1791. The escape event was not subtly planned, and enough suspicions were aroused in those working in the palace that the information trickled down to newspapers. The Marquis de Lafayette promised on his own life such a thing was not true. Lafayette and the Assembly created a lie that the king had been kidnapped, ultimately the king and his family were brought back and the assembly decided that he needed to be a part of the government if he agreed to consent to the constitution. At the time of the massacre, divisions within the Third Estate had already began to grow, many workers were already angered by the closing of various workshops, which took away jobs, leaving some unemployed. Higher skilled journeymen were also angered due to a lack of increase in wages since the beginning of the Revolution, the attempted flight of the King only increased the tensions between groups. The massacre was the result of various factions reacting to the decree by the Constituent Assembly in different ways. The Cordeliers Club, a populist group, chose to create a petition for a protest and this was originally backed by the Jacobins, though support was withdrawn at Robespierres suggestion
27.
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave
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Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, one of the most influential orators of the early part of the French Revolution. He is most notable for correspondence with Marie Antoinette in an attempt to set up a constitutional monarchy, Antoine Barnave was born in Grenoble, in a Protestant family. His father was a barrister at the Parlement of Grenoble, and his mother, because they were Protestants, Antoine could not attend local schools, as those were run by the Catholic church, and his mother educated him herself. Dauphiné was one of the first of the provinces of France to be touched by revolutionary ideals, after being heavily influenced by the Day of the Tiles in Grenoble, Barnave became actively revolutionary. He explained his position in a pamphlet entitled Esprit des édits, Enregistrés militairement. He was immediately elected deputy, with his father, to the Estates General of Dauphiné, together these three would later be principal figures in the formation of the Feuillants, the breakaway party from the Jacobin Club dedicated to a moderate course supporting constitutional monarchy. Until 1791, he was one of the preeminent members of the club known later as the Jacobin Club, of which he drew up the manifesto, although a partisan of political freedom, Barnave hoped to preserve revolutionary liberties together while maintaining the ruling House of Bourbon. Subject to the more forces, Barnave took part in the attacks on the monarchy, on the clergy, on Roman Catholic Church property. On several occasions, he stood in opposition to Mirabeau, after the storming of the Bastille, he saw the power of the masses as possibly leading to political chaos, and wished to avoid this by saving the throne. He advocated the suspensory veto, and the establishment of trial by jury in civil causes and his conflict with Mirabeau on the question of assigning to the king the right to make peace or war was one of the main episodes of the Assemblys mandate. In August 1790, after a vehement debate, he fought a duel with Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès, about the close of October 1790, Barnave was called to the presidency of the Assembly. On the occasion of the death of Mirabeau, which occurred on 2 April 1791, Barnave paid a tribute to his worth and public services. He strongly supported that government influence remain limited to the people, Barnave also advocated in favor of freedom of speech and the protection of private property. He said individuals had to possess the liberty to express what they feel and believe in, the right to sole ownership of an acre of land or business would encourage financial, political, and societal progress. To Barnave, allocating the land of the Church among the French people would help abate the economic burden. Having land put up as collateral enables France to receive loans from foreign nations, the land would also become a source of food for the hungry through harvests. This encourages a system of production and sale to stimulate the economy, Barnave saw that the Church, being first estate, had great power and wealth. To him, the roles of the clergy, priests, and bishops resided on spreading the message of God and he stood with the Decree on Church Lands which provided each clergymen with no more than an annual income of 1200 livres while retaining ownership of his residency and lawn
28.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
29.
Separation of powers
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The separation of powers, often imprecisely and metonymically used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The typical division of branches is into a legislature, an executive, and it can be contrasted with the fusion of powers in some parliamentary systems where the executive and legislature are unified. Separation of powers, therefore, refers to the division of responsibilities into distinct branches to any one branch from exercising the core functions of another. The intent is to prevent the concentration of power and provide for checks, aristotle first mentioned the idea of a mixed government or hybrid government in his work Politics where he drew upon many of the constitutional forms in the city-states of Ancient Greece. In the Roman Republic, the Roman Senate, Consuls and the Assemblies showed an example of a government according to Polybius. John Calvin favoured a system of government that divided political power between democracy and aristocracy, Calvin appreciated the advantages of democracy, stating, It is an invaluable gift if God allows a people to elect its own government and magistrates. In this way, Calvin and his followers resisted political absolutism, Calvin aimed to protect the rights and the well-being of ordinary people. In 1620, a group of English separatist Congregationalists and Anglicans founded Plymouth Colony in North America, enjoying self-rule, they established a bipartite democratic system of government. Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, books like William Bradfords History of Plymoth Plantation were widely read in England. So the form of government in the colonies was well known in the mother country, the term tripartite system is ascribed to French Enlightenment political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu. In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu described the separation of power among a legislature, an executive. Montesquieus approach was to present and defend a form of government which was not excessively centralized in all its powers to a monarch or similar ruler. He based this model on the Constitution of the Roman Republic, Montesquieu took the view that the Roman Republic had powers separated so that no one could usurp complete power. In the British constitutional system, Montesquieu discerned a separation of powers among the monarch, Parliament, Montesquieu did actually specify that the independence of the judiciary has to be real, and not apparent merely. The judiciary was generally seen as the most important of powers, independent and unchecked, typically this was accomplished through a system of checks and balances, the origin of which, like separation of powers itself, is specifically credited to Montesquieu. Constitutions with a degree of separation of powers are found worldwide. The UK system is distinguished by a particular entwining of powers, a number of Latin American countries have electoral branches of government. Countries with little separation of power include New Zealand and Canada, Canada makes limited use of separation of powers in practice, although in theory it distinguishes between branches of government
30.
Legislature
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A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
31.
Judiciary
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The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes, in some nations, under doctrines of separation of powers, the judiciary generally does not make law or enforce law, but rather interprets law and applies it to the facts of each case. In other nations, the judiciary can make law, known as Common Law, by setting precedent for other judges to follow, the Judiciary is often tasked with ensuring equal justice under law. In many jurisdictions the judicial branch has the power to change laws through the process of judicial review, Judges constitute a critical force for interpretation and implementation of a constitution, thus de facto in common law countries creating the body of constitutional law. Budget of the judiciary in many transitional and developing countries is almost completely controlled by the executive, the latter undermines the separation of powers, as it creates a critical financial dependence of the judiciary. The proper national wealth distribution including the government spending on the judiciary is subject of the constitutional economics and it is important to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary, the state, and the private. For instance, in France, the jurisprudence constante of the Court of Cassation or the Council of State is equivalent in practice with case law, in common law jurisdictions, courts interpret law, this includes constitutions, statutes, and regulations. They also make law based upon prior case law in areas where the legislature has not made law, for instance, the tort of negligence is not derived from statute law in most common law jurisdictions. The term common law refers to this kind of law, in civil law jurisdictions, courts interpret the law, but are prohibited from creating law, and thus do not issue rulings more general than the actual case to be judged. Jurisprudence plays a role to case law. State courts, which try 98% of litigation, may have different names and organization, trial courts may be called courts of common plea, appellate courts superior courts or commonwealth courts. The judicial system, whether state or federal, begins with a court of first instance, is appealed to an appellate court, and then ends at the court of last resort. In France, the authority on the interpretation of the law is the Council of State for administrative cases. In the Peoples Republic of China, the authority on the interpretation of the law is the National Peoples Congress. Other countries such as Argentina have mixed systems that include lower courts, appeals courts, a cassation court, in this system the Supreme Court is always the final authority, but criminal cases have four stages, one more than civil law does. On the court sits a total of nine justices and this number has been changed several times. Japans process for selecting judges is longer and more stringent than the process in the United States, assistant judges are appointed from those who have completed their training at the Legal Training and Research Institute located in Wako. Once appointed, assistant judges still may not qualify to sit alone until they have served for five years, Judges require ten years of experience in practical affairs, as a public prosecutor or practicing attorney
32.
Feudalism
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Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour, there is no commonly accepted modern definition of feudalism, at least among scholars. Since the publication of Elizabeth A. R, outside a European context, the concept of feudalism is often used only by analogy, most often in discussions of feudal Japan under the shoguns, and sometimes medieval and Gondarine Ethiopia. The term feudalism has also been applied—often inappropriately or pejoratively—to non-Western societies where institutions, the term féodal was used in 17th-century French legal treatises and translated into English legal treatises as an adjective, such as feodal government. In the 18th century, Adam Smith, seeking to describe systems, effectively coined the forms feudal government. In the 19th century the adjective feudal evolved into a noun, the term feudalism is recent, first appearing in French in 1823, Italian in 1827, English in 1839, and in German in the second half of the 19th century. The term feudal or feodal is derived from the medieval Latin word feodum, the etymology of feodum is complex with multiple theories, some suggesting a Germanic origin and others suggesting an Arabic origin. Initially in medieval Latin European documents, a grant in exchange for service was called a beneficium. Later, the term feudum, or feodum, began to replace beneficium in the documents, the first attested instance of this is from 984, although more primitive forms were seen up to one-hundred years earlier. The origin of the feudum and why it replaced beneficium has not been well established, the most widely held theory is put forth by Marc Bloch. Bloch said it is related to the Frankish term *fehu-ôd, in which means cattle and -ôd means goods. This was known as feos, a term that took on the meaning of paying for something in lieu of money. This meaning was then applied to itself, in which land was used to pay for fealty. Thus the old word feos meaning movable property changed little by little to feus meaning the exact opposite and this Germanic origin theory was also shared by William Stubbs in the 19th century. Another theory was put forward by Archibald R. Lewis, Lewis said the origin of fief is not feudum, but rather foderum, the earliest attested use being in Astronomuss Vita Hludovici. In that text is a passage about Louis the Pious that says annona militaris quas vulgo foderum vocant, another theory by Alauddin Samarrai suggests an Arabic origin, from fuyū. Samarrais theory is that early forms of fief include feo, feu, feuz, feuum and others, indeed, the first use of these terms is in Languedoc, one of the least Germanic areas of Europe and bordering Muslim Spain. Further, the earliest use of feuum can be dated to 899, mounted soldiers began to secure a system of hereditary rule over their allocated land and their power over the territory came to encompass the social, political, judicial, and economic spheres
33.
Administrative unit
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Administrative divisions are granted a certain degree of autonomy and are usually required to manage themselves through their own local governments. Countries are divided up into smaller units to make managing their land. For example, a country may be divided into provinces, which, in turn, are divided into counties, which, in turn, may be divided in whole or in part into municipalities, and so on. Administrative divisions are separate from dependent territories, with the former being an integral part of the state. However, the administrative division can include dependent territories as well as accepted administrative divisions. For clarity and convenience the standard reference for the largest administrative subdivision of a country is called the first-level administrative division or first administrative level. Next smaller is called second-level administrative division or second administrative level, there is no fixed rule, for all politics is local as is perhaps well demonstrated by their relative lack of systemic order. In the realm of self-government, any of these can and does occur along a stretch of road—which for the most part is passing through rural unsettled countryside. In British cultural legacy, most territorial entities begin with fairly expansive counties which encompass a large area. Within those entities are the large and small cities or towns, many sister cities share a water boundary which quite often serves as a border of both cities and counties. For example, Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts appear to the traveler as one large city, while locally they each are quite culturally different. Sovereign state, a national or supra-national division, country, a national or sub-national division. Administrative division codes of the Peoples Republic of China GADM, a database of country administrative areas. ISO 3166-2, specifically Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 2
34.
Department (country subdivision)
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Department is the name given to the administrative and political subdivisions of many countries. Departments are the subdivisions of eleven countries, nine in the Americas. An additional ten countries use departments as second-level subdivisions, eight in Africa, one in the Americas and this attempt to de-emphasize local political identity contrasts strongly with countries which are divided into states. The earliest known suggestion of it is from 1764 in the writings of dArgenson, today, departments may exist either with or without a representative assembly and executive head depending upon the countries constitutional and administrative structure. The United States used this designation for the Department of Alaska during the period of U. S. rule in Alaska
35.
French States-General
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In France under the Old Regime, the Estates General or States-General was a legislative and consultative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had an assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king. The Estates-General met intermittently until 1614 and only afterwards, but was not definitively dissolved until after the French Revolution. The letters summoning the assembly of 1302 are published by M. Georges Picot in his collection of Documents inédits pour servir à lhistoire de France, during the same reign they were subsequently assembled several times to give him aid by granting subsidies. Over time subsidies came to be the most frequent motive for their convocation, in one sense, the composition and powers of the Estates-General always remained the same. They always included representatives of the First Estate, Second Estate, and Third Estate and their composition, however, as well as their effective powers, varied greatly at different times. In their primitive form in the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the lay lords and the ecclesiastical lords who made up the Estates-General were not elected by their peers, but directly chosen and summoned by the king. In the order of the clergy, however, since certain ecclesiastical bodies and it was only the representation of the Third Estate which was furnished by election. Originally, moreover, the latter was not called upon as a whole to seek representation in the estates and it was only the bonnes villes, the privileged towns, which were called upon. They were represented by elected procureurs, who were frequently the municipal officials of the town, the country districts, the plat pays, were not represented. Even within the bonnes villes, the franchise was quite narrow and it was during the last thirty years of the 15th century that the Estates-General became an entirely elective body and really representative of the whole nation as divided into three parts. This came about through various causes, the letters of summons to the Estates-General of 1484 invited the ecclesiastics, nobles, and Third Estate to meet at the chief town of their bailliage or sénéchaussé and elect deputies. An intermediate form had been employed in 1468 when the prelates and lords had still been summoned personally, at the estates of 1484 there seems to have been universal and direct suffrage for all the three orders. Thus a system of indirect election arose for the Third Estate which became confirmed, the effective powers of the Estates-General likewise varied over time. In the 14th century they were considerable, the king could not, in theory, levy general taxation. The privileged towns had generally the right of taxing themselves, to collect general taxes, the king required consent of the lay and ecclesiastical lords, and of the towns. This amounted to needing authorization from the Estates-General, which only granted these subsidies temporarily for fairly short periods, as a result, they were summoned frequently and their power over the Crown became considerable. In the second half of the 14th century, however, certain taxes, levied throughout the Crowns domain
36.
Estates General of 1789
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The estates general, a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm, the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. It was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly and this signals the outbreak of the French Revolution. The suggestion to summon the Estates General came from the Assembly of Notables installed by the King on 22 February 1787 and it had not met since 1614. The usual business of registering the Kings edicts as law was performed by the Parlement of Paris, in this year it was refusing to cooperate with Charles Alexandre de Calonnes programme of badly needed financial reform, due to the special interests of its noble members. Calonne was the Controller-General of Finances, appointed by the King to address the state deficit, as a last measure, Calonne was hoping to bypass them by reviving an archaic institution. The initial roster of Notables included 137 nobles, among them many revolutionaries, such as the Comte de Mirabeau. Lafayette had served in George Washingtons army, much of the debt had been incurred on behalf of the Americans. The final defeat of Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown was due in part to the participation of the French army. If Calonne thought he would find more cooperation by changing the assembly and he proposed a land tax, Subvention Territoriale, to be imposed on all land-holders, rich or poor. Calonne was dismissed on 8 April 1787, and then was exiled and he commented on the French political scene from London. Calonnes replacement was Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, President of the Assembly of Notables and he was offered the post of Prime Minister, which was to include being Controller. They made a number of proposals but they would not grant the King money, Lafayette suggested that the problem required a national assembly. Brienne asked him if he meant the Estates General, on receiving an affirmative answer, Brienne recorded it as a proposal. Frustrated by his inability to obtain money, the King staged a day-long harangue and their proposals reverted to the Parlement. Turning again to the Parliament, the King found that they were inclined to continue the issues that had raised in the Assembly of Notables. Unless registered, the edicts were not lawful, on 6 July 1787, Loménie forwarded the Subvention Territoriale and another tax, the Edit du Timbre, or Stamp Act, based on the American model, for registration. Parlement refused, an act, demanding accounting statements, or States. It was the Kings turn to refuse, the members of the Parlement began to jest that they required either the accounting States or the Estates General
37.
Campaigns of 1792 in the French Revolutionary Wars
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The French Revolutionary Wars began in 1792. France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792, the army performed poorly in the first engagements. Near Lille, French soldiers fled at sight of the Austrian outposts and murdered their general Théobald Dillon, thus the disciplined soldiers of the Allies had apparently good reason to expect an easy campaign. In the Southern Netherlands, plans called for the Austrians to besiege Lille, after completing its preparations in the leisurely manner of the previous generation, his army crossed the French frontier on 19 August 1792. The Allies readily captured Longwy and slowly marched on to Verdun, the commandant there, Colonel Beaurepaire, shot himself in despair, and the place surrendered on 3 September 1792. Brunswick now began his march on Paris and approached the defiles of the Argonne, kellermann moved but slowly, and before he arrived the northern part of the line of defence had been forced. Brunswick meanwhile had passed the northern defiles and had then swung round to cut off Dumouriez from Châlons, the result was the Cannonade of Valmy. Kellermann’s infantry, nearly all regulars, stood steady, the French artillery justified its reputation as the best in Europe, and eventually, with no more than a half-hearted infantry attack, the duke broke off the action and retired. This seemingly minor engagement proved the point of the campaign. Ten days later, without firing another shot, the army began its retreat. Meanwhile, the French forces in the south had driven back the Piedmontese and had conquered Savoy, another French success was the daring expedition into Germany made by Custine from Alsace. Custine captured Mainz on 21 October 1792 and penetrated as far as Frankfurt, in the north, the Austrian siege of Lille had completely failed, and Dumouriez now resumed his interrupted scheme for the invasion of the Netherlands. Controlling enormously superior forces, he made his late in the season. Custines invasion of the German Palatinate forms the background for Goethes Hermann and Dorothea, original text from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
38.
Brunswick Manifesto (1792)
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The Brunswick Manifesto threatened that if the French royal family were harmed, then French civilians would be harmed. On 20 April 1792, Revolutionary France declared war on Austria, later, on 28 April, France invaded the Austrian Netherlands. Prussia joined the war against France, and on 30 July Austria and Prussia began an invasion of France, on 25 July, the Duke of Brunswick issued the Brunswick Manifesto. The manifesto promised that if the French Royal family was not harmed, however, if acts of violence or acts to humiliate the French Royal family were committed, the Allies threatened to burn Paris to the ground. The manifesto was written primarily by Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, the leader of a corps of French émigrés in Brunswicks army. On August 1 news of the manifesto began sweeping through Paris, many believed the Brunswick Manifesto was final proof that Louis XVI was collaborating with the Allies. Also on August 1, Prussian forces crossed the Rhine near Coblenz, consequently, in late August and early September, the French were defeated in skirmishes with the Allied army, but on 20 September the French triumphed in the Battle of Valmy. Following its defeat, the Prussian army withdrew from France, recent research, however, argues that the Brunswick Manifesto did not have nearly the impact upon the revolutionaries suggested in earlier source material. Lastly, the French refused to take the Brunswick Manifesto seriously in any respect and this determination stemmed from what they believed to be its illegality, disrespect for the law of war, and denial of national sovereignty. War of the First Coalition House of Bourbon The Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick,1792 Connelly, the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1792–1815. The Myth of the Foreign Enemy, the Brunswick Manifesto and the Radicalization of the French Revolution. The Oxford History of the French Revolution, the empire of the French, a chronology of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1792–1815
39.
Jacobins
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Initially founded by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the radical Mountain and the more moderate Girondins, in 1792–93, the Girondins dominated the Jacobin Club and led the country. Believing that revolutionary France would not be accepted by its neighbours, they called for a foreign policy. The Girondins were the dominant faction when the Jacobins overthrew the monarchy, when the Republic failed to deliver the unrealistic gains that had been expected, they lost popularity. The Girondins sought to curb fanatical revolutionary violence, and were accused by the Mountain of being royalist sympathisers. The National Guard eventually switched its support from the Girondins to the Mountain, in May 1793, led by Maximilien de Robespierre, the leaders of the Mountain faction succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by radically progressive legislation imposed with very high levels of political violence, in June 1793, they approved the Constitution of Year 1 which introduced universal male suffrage for the first time in history. In September 1793, twenty-one prominent Girondins were guillotined, beginning the Reign of Terror, in October, during the Terror, the new constitution was ratified in a referendum which most eligible voters avoided participating in. In 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction pushed the Mountain out of power, the Jacobin Club was closed and many of its leaders, including Robespierre, were executed. Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses and it was so named because of the Dominican convent where they met, which had recently been located in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The club originated as the Club Breton, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton representatives attending the Estates-General of 1789, when the Estates-General was convened in 1789, at Versailles, the club was initially composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany. However, they were joined by deputies from other regions throughout France. At this time, meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings were convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans, was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies and it occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery. Once in Paris, the club underwent rapid modifications, the first great change was its extension of membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter and even foreigners were welcomed, Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage, separation of church and state, and other reforms. At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, by the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence
40.
Republic
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It is a government where the head of state is not a monarch. Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their ideology, composition, in the classical and medieval period of Europe, many states were fashioned on the Roman Republic, which referred to the governance of the city of Rome, between it having kings and emperors. The Italian medieval and Renaissance political tradition, today referred to as humanism, is sometimes considered to derive directly from Roman republicans such as Sallust. Republics were not equated with classical democracies such as Athens, but had a democratic aspect, Republics became more common in the Western world starting in the late 18th century, eventually displacing absolute monarchy as the most common form of government in Europe. In modern republics, the executive is legitimized both by a constitution and by popular suffrage, for instance, Article IV of the United States Constitution guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. The term originates as the Latin translation of Greek word politeia, cicero, among other Latin writers, translated politeia as res publica and it was in turn translated by Renaissance scholars as republic. The term politeia can be translated as form of government, polity, or regime, and is therefore not always a word for a specific type of regime as the modern word republic is. And also amongst classical Latin, the term republic can be used in a way to refer to any regime. In medieval Northern Italy, a number of city states had commune or signoria based governments, in the late Middle Ages, writers, such as Giovanni Villani, began writing about the nature of these states and the differences from other types of regime. They used terms such as libertas populi, a free people, the terminology changed in the 15th century as the renewed interest in the writings of Ancient Rome caused writers to prefer using classical terminology. To describe non-monarchical states writers, most importantly Leonardo Bruni, adopted the Latin phrase res publica. While Bruni and Machiavelli used the term to describe the states of Northern Italy, which were not monarchies, the term can quite literally be translated as public matter. It was most often used by Roman writers to refer to the state and government, in subsequent centuries, the English word commonwealth came to be used as a translation of res publica, and its use in English was comparable to how the Romans used the term res publica. Notably, during The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell the word commonwealth was the most common term to call the new monarchless state, likewise, in Polish, the term was translated as rzeczpospolita, although the translation is now only used with respect to Poland. Presently, the term republic commonly means a system of government which derives its power from the rather than from another basis. After the classical period, during the Middle Ages, many cities developed again. The modern type of itself is different from any type of state found in the classical world. Nevertheless, there are a number of states of the era that are today still called republics
41.
Georges Danton
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Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution, in particular as the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. He was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality, Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern France to Jacques Danton and Mary Camus, a respectable, but not wealthy family. As a child, he was attacked by animals, resulting in the disfigurement and scarring of the skin on his face. After obtaining an education he became an Advocate in Paris. He married Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier on 14 June 1787 at the church of Saint-Germain-lAuxerrois in Paris, Danton was considered a very mischievous boy. Due to this, he went to different schools, also, he had a very high natural IQ. As a result, he was bored and disinterested in his classes. His first teacher was his grandfather and he was able to pass his classes with little effort, when he was 9, he was sent to a boys school. This is where Danton learned Latin and he was later sent to a school in Troyes for a year due to his mother thinking that he hasnt given up his mischievous ways as a child. Later, he attended a boarding house taught by Oratorians until he was 17, here, he learned more Latin and about the Bible, mainly the Acts of the Apostles and about Christian beliefs. He didnt really take to them, however, as early as age 12, he had already acquired the skills to become a leader. He led fellow classmates to either rebel or riot and this showed his leadership skills and how much his classmates already respected him at such a young age. He also consistently questioned authority, which will be seen later during the French revolution when he openly disrespected and called out Lafayette as a traitor during a meeting. At a young age, he had amazing writing and speech skills, as later during a competition, he took all the prizes for French discourse, Latin narration. Was highly influenced by thinkers of the time, such as Montesquieu. Studied at Reim University where he became a lawyer, later become bored of the career and became an orator. Was seen as a man of the people by then because he pleaded for the poor. Both his classmates, teachers and grandfather revered him as a prodigy and his amazing writing and speaking skills later made people give him the nickname “The Thunderer”
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Jean-Paul Marat
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Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist who became best known for his role as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. He was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution, Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition. In his death, Marat became an icon to the Jacobins as a martyr, as portrayed in Jacques-Louis Davids famous painting. For this assassination, Corday was executed four days later, on 17 July 1793, Jean-Paul Marat was born in Boudry in the Prussian Principality of Neuchâtel, now part of Switzerland, on 24 May 1743. He was the second of nine born to Jean Mara, a native of Cagliari, Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol. His father was a Mercedarian commendator and religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva, at the age of sixteen, Marat left home in search of new opportunities, aware of the limited opportunities for outsiders. His highly educated father had turned down for several college teaching posts. His first stop was with the wealthy Nairac family in Bordeaux, after two years there he moved on to Paris where he studied medicine without gaining any formal qualifications. Highly ambitious, but without patronage or qualifications, he set about inserting himself into the scene with works on philosophy. Around 1770, Marat moved to Newcastle upon Tyne and he gave it the subtitle, A work in which the clandestine and villainous attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful scenes of Despotism disclosed. It earned him membership of the patriotic societies of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society Library possesses a copy, and Tyne, a published essay on curing a friend of gleets probably helped to secure his medical referees for an MD from the University of St Andrews in June 1775. On his return to London, he published Enquiry into the Nature, Cause, in 1776, Marat moved to Paris following a brief stopover in Geneva to visit his family. The position paid 2,000 livres a year plus allowances, Marat was soon in great demand as a court doctor among the aristocracy and he used his new-found wealth to set up a laboratory in the marquise de lAubespines house. Soon he was publishing works on fire and heat, electricity and he published, first, a summary of his scientific views and discoveries in Découvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, lélectricité et la lumière in 1779. He then went on to publish three much more detailed and extensive works, expanding on each of his areas of research. His method was to describe in detail the meticulous series of experiments he had undertaken on a problem, seeking to explore and then all possible conclusions. This describes 166 experiments conducted to demonstrate that fire was not, as was widely held and he asked the Academy of Sciences to appraise his work, and it appointed a commission to do so, which reported in April 1779
