The Oath of the Third Estate
The Estate-General was made up of representatives from the three orders of French society. The 1st and 2nd Estate had about 300 delegates each. The 3rd Estate had almost 600 delegates, most were lawyers from French towns. Most of 3rd Estate wanted to set up a constitutional government that would abolish the tax exemption of the clergy and nobolity.
On May 5, 1789 the meeting of the Estate-General opened at Versailles. It was inconvenienced from the start because of a problem about voting. Usually, each estate onlly had one vote. That means the 1st and 2nd Estate could always outvote the 3rd estate. The 3rd Estate demanded that each deputy have one vote, with some help from clerics and nobles that would give them a majority. The king declared that he was in favor with each Estate only had one vote.
June 17, 1789, It called a National Assembly and decided to draft thier own Constitution. On june 20th the deputies arrived to thier usual meeting place to only find the doors locked. They then moved to the near by indoor tennis-court and swore that they wwould continue to meet until they had made a French constitution, This is known as the Tennis Court Oath.
On May 5, 1789 the meeting of the Estate-General opened at Versailles. It was inconvenienced from the start because of a problem about voting. Usually, each estate onlly had one vote. That means the 1st and 2nd Estate could always outvote the 3rd estate. The 3rd Estate demanded that each deputy have one vote, with some help from clerics and nobles that would give them a majority. The king declared that he was in favor with each Estate only had one vote.
June 17, 1789, It called a National Assembly and decided to draft thier own Constitution. On june 20th the deputies arrived to thier usual meeting place to only find the doors locked. They then moved to the near by indoor tennis-court and swore that they wwould continue to meet until they had made a French constitution, This is known as the Tennis Court Oath.
Storming of the Bastille
Louis XVI was ready to use force against the 3rd Estate. On July 14, a mob of Parisiands stormed the Bastille. It is an armory and prison in Paris. They destrpyed brick by brick. Paris was abandonded to the Rebels. On August 4, 1789 , the National Assembly voted to destory the rights of the landlords and the financial prvileges of nobles and Clergy. August 26, the National Assembly adopted the Decleration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
Olympe de Gouges- A women who wrote plays and pamphlets, and refused to accept this exclusion of women from many government rights. She wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the feamle citizen. Within in the Document, she insisted that women should have all the same rights as men.
She Wrote,
"Believing that ignorance, omission, or scorn for the rights of women are they only causes of public misfourtunes and the corruption of governments, the women have resloved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and scared rights of women in order that this decleration, constantly exposed before all the memebers of the society, will ceaselessly remind them of their rights and duties."
Olympe de Gouges- A women who wrote plays and pamphlets, and refused to accept this exclusion of women from many government rights. She wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the feamle citizen. Within in the Document, she insisted that women should have all the same rights as men.
She Wrote,
"Believing that ignorance, omission, or scorn for the rights of women are they only causes of public misfourtunes and the corruption of governments, the women have resloved to set forth in a solemn declaration the natural, inalienable, and scared rights of women in order that this decleration, constantly exposed before all the memebers of the society, will ceaselessly remind them of their rights and duties."