History UsefulNotes / TheFrenchRevolution

* ''Film/BrotherhoodOfTheWolf'', at the beginning.

* ''Film/ThatNightInVarennes'', a film by Ettore Scola which tells the story of the Flight to Varennes and the early phase of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of the passengers of a stage coach that happens to follow on the tracks of the royal family's coach. The passengers mixes fictional characters such as a lady of Marie-Antoinette's court (Creator/HannaSchygulla) with real-life writers Rétif de la Bretonne (Jean-Louis Barrault), Thomas Paine (Creator/HarveyKeitel), and Creator/GiacomoCasanova (Creator/MarcelloMastroianni).

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Church property to fight a Turkish invasion. And this wasn't just farms and random jewelry; Alexios took actual icons--images of Christ and the saints--to extract and sell the gold, silver, and jewels with which the faithful had adorned these divine artworks. Please note: the destruction of icons had been solemnly condemned as heresy about 300 years earlier. But because Alexios was using the seized property to defend Chistendom against the Turks, and loudly announced that he had no problem with icons and was just taking them because he needed the money for the war effort, the Church could do no more than grumble. (Alexios also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of his belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

[[folder:Art and Architecture]]

* ''La Nuit de Varennes'' (''Film/ThatNightInVarennes''), a film by Ettore Scola which tells the story of the Flight to Varennes and the early phase of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of the passengers of a stage coach that happens to follow on the tracks of the royal family's coach. The passengers mixes fictional characters such as a lady of Marie-Antoinette's court (Creator/HannaSchygulla) with real-life writers Rétif de la Bretonne (Jean-Louis Barrault), Thomas Paine (Creator/HarveyKeitel), and Giacomo Casanova (Creator/MarcelloMastroianni).
* ''Film/TheMarriedCoupleOfTheYearTwo'' (1971), a comedy starring Creator/JeanPaulBelmondo as a man who returns to Nantes during the Terror to get a divorce from his estranged wife and gets between the fronts of various revolutionary and royalist factions. One of the few movies involving the Revolution that does not contain a single scene set in Paris.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignofTerror "TheReignOfTerror"]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': "The ReignOfTerror"

This, along with enforcing conscription there, seriously undermined popular support for revolutionary aims in the Vendée. The aristocratic counterrevolutionaries opposed the Revolution's changes on general principle (as well as outrage for losing ancient privileges they felt entitled to), but their numbers were few and their political attitude could be best described as "utterly demoralized." By contrast, the Civil Constitution alienated poor but devout peasants, who might have gone along with some of the Revolution's policies (after all, what kind of peasant doesn't want more land and lower taxes?), but turned permanently against the Revolution when it turned on their beloved Church -- especially after the Civil Constitution was condemned by the Pope. This led to a long-running counterrevolutionary revolt/insurgency in the Vendée (occasionally spreading to surrounding regions like Brittany). The insurgency became a constant, festering ulcer for the Revolution, often distracting from other policy priorities and threats (including foreign wars) at critical moments, and resulted in massacres by the Republic's Infernal Columns that killed up tp 25% of the population of Vendée.

This seriously undermined popular support for revolutionary aims in the Vendée. The aristocratic counterrevolutionaries opposed the Revolution's changes on general principle (as well as outrage for losing ancient privileges they felt entitled to), but their numbers were few and their political attitude could be best described as "utterly demoralized." By contrast, the Civil Constitution alienated poor but devout peasants, who might have gone along with some of the Revolution's policies (after all, what kind of peasant doesn't want more land and lower taxes?), but turned permanently against the Revolution when it turned on their beloved Church -- especially after the Civil Constitution was condemned by the Pope. This led to a long-running counterrevolutionary revolt/insurgency in the Vendée (occasionally spreading to surrounding regions like Brittany). The insurgency became a constant, festering ulcer for the Revolution, often distracting from other policy priorities and threats (including foreign wars) at critical moments.

* The King was imprisoned in the Temple Fortress after the insurrection, while the Queen was kept at La Force prison. He was executed in January 1793. The debates during the trial hardened the political polarization between Jacobins and Girondins, and the execution of the King broke off diplomatic relations between France and England, which had grown worse and worse until finally the Girondins declared war on England, which led to a NavalBlockade around France.

* ''La Nuit de Varennes'' (''That Night in Varennes''), a film by Ettore Scola which tells the story of the Flight to Varennes and the early phase of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of the passengers of a stage coach that happens to follow on the tracks of the royal family's coach. The passengers mixes fictional characters such as a lady of Marie-Antoinette's court (Creator/HannaSchygulla) with real-life writers Rétif de la Bretonne (Jean-Louis Barrault), Thomas Paine (Creator/HarveyKeitel), and Giacomo Casanova (Creator/MarcelloMastroianni).

A few voices even suggested doing away with the King and declaring a republic, but most were still skeptical that a republic could govern such a large nation since republicanism had hitherto mostly been observed in Italian city-states and the ancient world, and in both cases these republics covered smaller areas. The only republic of comparable size was the United States, and even the most sympathetic French rightly viewed it skeptically; the first government under its [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem new federal constitution]] had met that very spring, and even then it still didn't have full control of its claimed territory (North Carolina would not join until November; Rhode Island held out until May 1790).[[note]]Before you say, "what about the Roman Republic?", recall that while the Roman Republic ''controlled'' vast territories, the people of the provinces in the Republican era were not Roman citizens but subjects and tributaries of the Roman state. The business of government was controlled by Roman citizens who either physically lived in Rome or could make it to Rome in time for all the important votes. If you were out in the provinces, the local Roman governor had full policy discretion, limited only by directives from Rome and whatever treaties and deals governed the relationship between Rome and the local cities and tribes. The governor certainly wasn't at all responsible to the locals, as would happen in a modern republic; at best, the locals' deal would require the governor to consult with and inform their leaders about major decisions. A particular town/city might even be inhabited by Roman citizens (being Roman colonies or cities granted citizenship) and have its own republican constitution, but even then the local governor was still responsible only to the Senate, not to them, and needed only to respect certain legal rights of citizens (e.g. procedural rights in the courts). TL;DR: the Republican era Roman empire was an empire in the same way as, say, Persia's was, just with the monarch replaced with the Roman state, in which only Roman citizens in Rome could participate.[[/note]] The largest stable republic anyone had ever seen was the Netherlands, and even that was seen as [[HereditaryRepublic more or less a monarchy]] (since the Prince of Orange was almost inevitably the stadtholder of all or most of the constituent provinces). The only precedent they had for stable popular government in a country that size was Great Britain's constitutional monarchy.

A few voices even suggested doing away with the King and declaring a republic, but most were still skeptical that a republic could govern such a large nation since republicanism had hitherto mostly been observed in Italian city-states and the ancient world, and in both cases these republics covered smaller areas. The only republic of comparable size was the United States, and even the most sympathetic French rightly viewed it skeptically; the first government under its new federal constitution had met that very spring, and even then it still didn't have full control of its claimed territory (North Carolina would not join until November; Rhode Island held out until May 1790).[[note]]Before you say, "what about the Roman Republic?", recall that while the Roman Republic ''controlled'' vast territories, the people of the provinces in the Republican era were not Roman citizens but subjects and tributaries of the Roman state. The business of government was controlled by Roman citizens who either physically lived in Rome or could make it to Rome in time for all the important votes. If you were out in the provinces, the local Roman governor had full policy discretion, limited only by directives from Rome and whatever treaties and deals governed the relationship between Rome and the local cities and tribes. The governor certainly wasn't at all responsible to the locals, as would happen in a modern republic; at best, the locals' deal would require the governor to consult with and inform their leaders about major decisions. A particular town/city might even be inhabited by Roman citizens (being Roman colonies or cities granted citizenship) and have its own republican constitution, but even then the local governor was still responsible only to the Senate, not to them, and needed only to respect certain legal rights of citizens (e.g. procedural rights in the courts). TL;DR: the Republican era Roman empire was an empire in the same way as, say, Persia's was, just with the monarch replaced with the Roman state, in which only Roman citizens in Rome could participate.[[/note]] The largest stable republic anyone had ever seen was the Netherlands, and even that was seen as [[HereditaryRepublic more or less a monarchy]] (since the Prince of Orange was almost inevitably the stadtholder of all or most of the constituent provinces). The only precedent they had for stable popular government in a country that size was Great Britain's constitutional monarchy.

Start with a series of nations (Britanny, Gascony, Languedoc, Auvergne, Dauphiné, Provençe, Burgundy, Île-de-France, etc. etc.) that have little in common with each other but are bound together by King and Church. France was drained by [[UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession three]] [[UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar major]] [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution world]] wars in the last hundred years, and lots of smaller ones besides. There were these expensive-to-make-and-keep royal palaces, a new and very young king and queen who didn't have the experience or political will to make hard but necessary decisions, a nobility that did not want to pay exorbitant taxes even if they had money and didn't use it at all, with the emerging middle and lower-classes being asked to foot an exorbitant bill. All this in a nation with an obsolete form of government that had missed the reforms [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar that]] [[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars modernized England]] in the intervening hundred years. Over and above, a series of bad winters and crop failures led to a famine, making bread too expensive for the average person in the Parisian Basin to buy (or at least too expensive for them to buy and pay the rent).

Start with a series of nations (Britanny, Gascony, Languedoc, Auvergne, Dauphiné, Provençe, Burgundy, Île-de-France, etc. etc.) that have little in common with each other but are bound together by King and Church. France was drained by [[UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession three]] [[UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar major]] [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution world]] wars in the last hundred years, and lots of smaller ones besides. There were these expensive-to-make-and-keep royal palaces, a new and very young king and queen who didn't have the experience or political will to make hard but necessary decisions, a nobility that did not want to pay exorbitant taxes even if they had money and didn't use it at all, with the emerging middle and lower-classes being asked to foot an exorbitant bill. All this in a nation with an obsolete form of government that had missed the reforms [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar that]] [[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars modernized England]] in the intervening hundred years. Over and above, there was the escalating famine, where bread is too expensive for the average person in the Parisian Basin to buy.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Church property to fight a Turkish invasion. And this wasn't just farms and random jewelry; Alexios took actual icons--images of Christ and the saints--to extract and sell the gold, silver, and jewels with which the faithful had adorned these divine artworks. Please note: the destruction of icons had been solemnly condemned as heresy about 300 years earlier. But because Alexios was using the seized property to defend Chistendom against the Turks, and loudly announced that he had no problem with icons and was just taking them because he needed the money, the Church could do no more than grumble. (Alexios also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of his belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Church property to fight a Turkish invasion. And this wasn't just farms and random jewelry; Alexios took actual icons--images of Christ and the saints--to extract and sell the gold, silver, and jewels with which the faithful had adorned these divine artworks. But because he was using the seized property to defend Chistendom against the Turks, the Church could do no more than grumble. (Alexios also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of his belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Church property to fight a Turkish invasion. And this wasn't just farms and random jewelry; Alexios took actual icons--images of Christ and the saints--to take the gold, silver, and jewels with which the faithful had adorned these divine artworks. But because he was using the seized property to defend Chistendom against the Turks, the Church could do no more than grumble. (Alexios also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of his belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Church property to fight a Turkish invasion. And this wasn't just farms and random jewelry; Alexios took actual icons--images of Christ and the saints--to take the gold, silver, and jewels. But because he was using the seized property to defend Chistendom against the Turks, the Church could do no more than grumble. (Alexios also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of his belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, 700 years earlier, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Chuch property -- including actual icons (images of Christ and the saints) to take their gold, silver, and jewels -- but as he was using the proceeds to fight off a Turkish invasion, the Church could do no more than grumble. (He also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of Alexios's belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

There was less daylight between the parish priests and the hierarchy on the subject of Church property, but it wasn't as big a deal as it seemed. While they all hated the principle of seizing Church property and railed against it in their sermons, this wasn't anything they hadn't seen before. Governments across Europe had seized Church property from time to time since the Middle Ages, and while the Church always made a big fuss about it, the resistance was usually limited to scathing oratory so long as the situation was dire (which the French Church admitted it was) and the state took only what it needed.[[note]]By way of comparison, Louis's distant ancestor, the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Alexios I Komnenos, had seized Chuch property -- including actual icons (images of Christ and the saints) to take their gold, silver, and jewels -- but as he was using the proceeds to fight off a Turkish invasion, the Church could do no more than grumble. (He also accused a prominent philosopher of heresy to distract the churchmen, but that was more a reflection of Alexios's belt-and-suspenders caution than any kind of necessity.)[[/note]] Besides, the priests had long grumbled about the extraordinary splendor of the prelates, and probably didn't care all ''that'' much so long as what was seized was just farms and jewels and such that happened to be Church-owned rather than actual church buildings and holy items. Indeed, parish priests probably would have had not a little bit of ''schadenfreude'' at the prospect of seizing property from the abbeys and monasteries, which were often seen as "[[LockedAwayInAMonastery refuges]]" for indolent and troublesome nobles and unproductive parasites that consumed Church income without ministering to the people or doing any productive work themselves. Also while the business of standing for election as priest or bishop—by assemblies which were not limited to Catholics, by the way, so in theory you could have elections for priest turning on the votes of Protestants, atheists, or even Jews—was roundly denounced, it was sufficiently of the times as to just be written off as a weird thing they’d just have to go with.

* ''Film/{{Danton}}'', directed by Andrzej Wajda and starring Gérard Depardieu as Danton in the face-off with Robespierre. It is based on the play "The Danton Case" by Stanislawa Przybyszewska which Wajda had alread produced on stage in Warsaw in 1975. The film was originally commissioned by the Mitterand government, but Wajda presented a much too dark image of the year 1794 for their liking, likening Paris during the Terror with Poland during the repression of the Solidarity movement.

* ''Film/MarieAntoinette1938'', starring Creator/NormaShearer.

!!Works that are set in this time period are:

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]

[[AC:Art and Architecture]]
* Much of the work of Jacques-Louis David, an active participant in the revolution who produced official propaganda paintings and private portraits of many of the "celebrities" of his day. Particularly well-known are the iconic ''Marat assassiné'' and his quick sketch of Marie-Antoinette just before her execution. His massive ''Serment du jeu de paume'' (1791) to commemorate the Tennis Court Oath of 1789 was never finished, in part because many of the politicians on it fell into disgrace and were guillotined.

[[AC:Comic Books]]

[[AC:Fan Works]]

[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/LesVisiteurs''. The knight Godefroy of Montmirail and his squire Jacquouille have been sent to this era by mistake at the end of the second film, ''The Corridors of Time''. The third film, ''Bastille Day'', deals with their fate as they are stranded during this era.

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC:Podcasts]]

[[AC:Music]]

* [[Music/PinkFloyd Roger Waters']] opera, ''Ca Ira'', [[{{Anvilicious}} with some deliberate allegories to America in]] [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the mid-2000's]].

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]

[[AC:Theater]]

[[AC:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity''

[[AC:Web Comics]]

[[AC:Web Original]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Histeria}}'' episode, titled, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin well, "The French Revolution"]]

Start with a series of nations (Britanny, Gascogne, etc. etc.) that have little in common with each other but are bound together by King and Church. France was drained by [[UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession three]] [[UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar major]] [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution world]] wars in the last hundred years, and lots of smaller ones besides. There were these expensive-to-make-and-keep royal palaces, a new and very young king and queen who didn't have the experience or political will to make hard but necessary decisions, a nobility that did not want to pay exorbitant taxes even if they had money and didn't use it at all, with the emerging middle and lower-classes being asked to foot an exorbitant bill. All this in a nation with an obsolete form of government that had missed the reforms [[UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar that]] [[UsefulNotes/HanoverStuartWars modernized England]] in the intervening hundred years. Over and above, there was the escalating famine, where bread is too expensive for the average person in the Parisian Basin to buy.

* The third season of ''Podcast/{{Revolutions}}'' by Creator/MikeDuncan is a history of the French Revolution. It is engrossing and highly detailed for a non-academic history, and (thus far) by far the longest season of the podcast, clocking in at 54 approximately half-hour episodes, plus a few supplemental episodes, for what is about ''27 hours'' of material on the subject. (It is, however, likely to be surpassed by the tenth and final season on the [[UsefulNotes/RomanovsAndRevolutions Russian]] [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Revolutions]], although that's slightly cheating since that season is covering the 1905 Revolution and both 1917 Revolutions; that being said, it already had 35 episodes by the time Duncan reached the end of 1905, and Duncan has stated his intent to end the Russian Revolution with the ascent of Stalin.) The French Revolution is also discussed in Season 4 when Duncan deals with the Haitian Revolution (Haiti starting out as a French colony with the vast majority of its population slaves) and the early episodes of Season 5 (about UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar) naturally mention how events in Europe (mostly France and Spain) influenced Spanish America.

The era in UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench history known for UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette [[BeamMeUpScotty allegedly]] giving her subjects some dietary advice. The people responded by storming the Bastille, then Versailles, until they found her and her husband and guillotined them, and a few other nobles for good measure. It promised Liberty, Equality, Fraternity but [[MeetTheNewBoss led to the rise of]] UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte. He marched across Europe, stopped only by Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}} or the [[Literature/WarAndPeace Russian winter]], depending on your nationality.

[[caption-width-right:350: Storming of the Bastille, 14th of July 1789]]

Well, that's TheThemeParkVersion. The real history of the French Revolution was even more of [[GambitPileup a wild ride]].

The era in French history known for UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette [[BeamMeUpScotty allegedly]] giving her subjects some dietary advice. The people responded by storming the Bastille, then Versailles, until they found her and her husband and guillotined them, and a few other nobles for good measure. It promised Liberty, Equality, Fraternity but [[MeetTheNewBoss led to the rise of]] UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte. He marched across Europe, stopped only by Richard Literature/{{Sharpe}} or the [[Literature/WarAndPeace Russian winter]], depending on your nationality.

* "Bastille Day" by Music/{{Rush}}

* Music/{{Queen}}'s "Killer Queen" namechecks UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette and the "let them eat cake" misquote in its opening lyrics.