The <i>Bill of Rights</i>, 1689
In response to policies that threatened to restore Catholicism in England, Parliament deposed King James II and called William of Orange from the Dutch Republic and his wife Mary, who was James’s Protestant daughter, to replace him. William and Mary agreed to the <i>Bill of Rights</i> presented to them by Parliament, thereby acknowledging that their power came from the legislature rather than from any concept of the "divine right of kings." The <i>Bill of Rights</i> confirmed traditional English liberties, especially the power of Parliament to make laws and consent to taxation. It also confirmed and guaranteed freedom of speech and denied the legitimacy of cruel and unusual punishments. The <i>Bill of Rights</i> quickly took its place as a foundation of English constitutionalism and exercised great influence in the British North American colonies during their war for independence.
Guy Carleton Lee, <i>Source-Book of English History</i> (London: Henry Holt, 1901), 424–31.
1689
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/267/
267
Bill of Rights.
1689
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1043/
1043
John Locke, "Of Political or Civil Society."
1690
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1044/
1044
Robespierre, "On Political Morality"
In this speech to the Convention, delivered on 5 February 1794, Robespierre offered a justification of the Terror. By this date, the Federalist revolt and Vendée uprisings had been by and large pacified and the threat of invasion by the Austrians, British, and Prussians had receded, yet Robespierre emphasized that only a combination of virtue (a commitment to republican ideals) and terror (coercion against those who failed to demonstrate such a commitment) could ensure the long–term salvation of the Republic, since it would always be faced with a crisis of secret enemies subverting it from within, even when its overt enemies had been subdued.
From <i>THE NINTH OF THERMIDOR</i> by Richard Bienvenu. Copyright (c) 1970 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 32–49. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
February 5, 1704
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/413/
413
! Poverty Observed: Journal of a Country Priest
Village priests served as community leaders in a variety of respects, including keeping a register of births, marriages, and deaths. One such curate, the abbé Lefeuvre, also included in his register impressions of life during the severe winter of 1709, which give a sense of the difficult and fragile lives of the poor in rural towns in the eighteenth century.
Jeffry Kaplow, ed., <em>France on the Eve of Revolution: A Book of Readings</em> (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), 9–12. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
1709
Web version password protected
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/353/
353
Bossuet, "The Nature and Properties of Royal Authority"
Jacques–Benigne Bossuet (1627—1704), bishop of Meaux, was a well–known seventeenth–century peacher who believed that although France had a sizable minority of Protestants, France should have a single religion, Catholicism. At the same time, he was a Gallican, meaning he argued that the French clergy owed primary allegiance to the king rather than the Pope in Rome. His emphasis on religious unity and devotion to the French crown—rather than tolerance—appealed to Louis XIV, who appointed Bossuet tutor to heir, the "Dauphin" or crown prince. In this capacity, Bossuet wrote the following passage setting out the basic ideas of the French monarchy.
J.-B. Bossuet, <i>Politique tiree des propres paroles de l'ecriture sainte</i> (Paris: 1834) vol I, 133 - 149;180 - 188,
1709
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/234/
234
Promulgation of Papal Bull <i>Unigenitus</i> regarding Jansenism.
1713
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/911/
911
Death of Louis XIV and ascension of Louis XV.
1715
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/913/
913
A Bread Riot
Bread was the basic staple of most people’s diets, and variations in the price of bread were keenly felt by the poor, especially by women who most frequently bought bread in the marketplace. Women would sometimes protest against what they thought to be unjust price increases for bread in what were known as "bread riots." As this excerpt shows, these were not usually violent, nor did they involve looting, but instead were a collective action designed to force bakers to sell bread at a "just" or "moral" price rather than at whatever price the market would allow. This passage is taken from a well–known chronicle of the reign of Louis XV by Etienne–Joseph Barbier.
E. J. F. Barbier, <i>Chronique de la regence et du regne de Louis XV ou journal de Barbier, </i>vol. 1 <i></i>(Paris: G. Charpentier et Cie., 1857), 350–51, 399–403.
1718
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/359/
359
Montesquieu’s Attack on the Nobility
In his<i> Persian Letters, </i>published anonymously and abroad in 1721, Charles–Louis de Sécondat, Baron de Montesquieu, president of the<i> Parlement </i>of Bordeaux and a noble himself, made a scathing critique of nobility that set the tone for the philosophes’ attack on the inequality of eighteenth–century French society.
Charles-Louis de Sécondat, Baron de Montesquieu,<i> Persian Letters, </i>no translator listed, 3d ed. (London: J. Torson, 1736), no. 74, 157–58.
1721
https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/361/
361