The Responsibility of the Monarchy for Their Own Downfall in 1793

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The Responsibility of the Monarchy for Their Own Downfall in 1793

The French monarchy were responsible for some of the events which

contributed to

their downfall, however it must be said that some factors, such as the

Enlightenment

and the harvests failing could not be blamed on them, and it was the

way in which

they reacted to these events which made them seem weak in the eyes of

the French

people.

From the beginning of his reign it was clear that Louis XVI was ill

suited for the role

of king, and therefore it was inevitable that if an uprising did occur

he did not have

the necessary leadership qualities to stand against it. Though an

intelligent man,

Louis did not have the decisiveness nor the presence of mind to

maintain France's

prosperity when the nation began to mount vast international debts and

financial

crisis occurred. A more forceful man might have tried harder to make

his views heard, and suggested ways of improving the situation, for

example, setting up a national bank to take care of the country's

money, but Louis was too weak-willed to stand against his advisors

when they insisted that nothing should be done. The king had no

confidence in his own abilities and was perfectly content to let

others make his decisions for him, and as an absolute monarch he had

no coordinated government to rely upon. As well as this the king

presented the impression that he wasn't interested in his subjects and

made little effort to travel around France and discover what life was

like for them. He knew very little about his country and how it worked

and the French people believed that he did ...

... middle of paper ...

... seperatley and the voting on issues was done by order, this meant that

there was a bias in favour of the clergy and nobles who could block

the third order, the commoners. The third estate also felt that it was

entitled to double representation because it was representing the

largest section of society and it had to pay taxes to the state.

[3] Deism is defined as: "[From Latin Deus, God. Deity] The doctrine

or creed of a Deist, one who believes in the existence of a God or

supreme being but denies revealed religion, basing his belief on the

light of nature and reason. This common sense approach to God and a

spiritual philosophy can not only bring a lasting profound sense of

peace and happiness to the individual, but it also has the potential

to go light years in eradicating religious fear, superstition and

violence.

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