Browse Items (161 total)
Son of Saint–Louis Going Up to Heaven . . . January 21, 1793
Many scholars would argue that Louis XVI’s finest moment came from his bravery at his execution. Even when he was forbidden from saying a last few words to those gathered to see him executed, he remained unflinching, retaining his composure. Here one…
Stanislas Maillard describes the Women’s March to Versailles (5 October 1789) October 5, 1789
Stanislas Maillard was a national guardsman known for having taken a leading role in the attack on the Bastille. In 1790 he testified before a commission established by the court in Paris to investigate the events of October 1789. He exaggerates his…
Te Deum for the Federation of July 14, 1790 at the Champ de Mars 1790-07-14
A hymn written by Joseph Gossec to celebrate national unity on the first anniversary of the taking of the Bastille. Combining old and new, Gossec set a traditional Latin text to music scored for wind instruments (rather than the common organ), the…
The Bill of Rights, 1689 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…
The Magna Carta June 15, 1215
King John of England granted the Magna Carta ("the great charter") on 15 June 1215. Leading nobles had demanded confirmation of their liberties and had threatened war if their demands were not met. The King agreed not to confiscate his subjects’…
The Petition of Right 1628
In 1628, the position of Charles I of England had gone from bad to worse. Rash enterprises, lavish and illegal expenditure, and broken promises of better government had almost ruptured relations between the monarch and his subjects. The King offered…
The Assembly Complains to the King about the Émigrés November 29, 1791
Having received news of the alliance of Prussia and Austria with émigré French nobles against the Revolution, the Legislative Assembly considered itself threatened by invasion. Fearing that the King, despite his public acceptance of the constitution,…
The Attack on the Tuileries (10 August 1792) August 10, 1792
In early August, the Legislative Assembly was deadlocked, unable to decide what to do about the King, the constitution, the ongoing war, and above all the political uprisings in Paris. On 4 August, the most radical Parisian section, "the section of…
The Blood of the Murdered Crying for Vengeance 1793
Yet another English image promising that the death of Louis will bring havoc on the Revolution. This engraving indicates that the very blood of the King requires vengeance.
The Confederation of the Rhine and the Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire (1 August 1806) August 1, 1806
To increase his control over the German states and definitively destroy the Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon set up the Confederation of the Rhine, grouping together a large number of formerly indepedent states, and forced the Emperor to abdicate his…