Munro Price has meticulously researched the mood, atmosphere and personalities behind the palace walls. At the heart of this research is a cache of letters that sheds new light on the lives of the royals, as the monarchy was gradually stripped of its power and revolutionary fervour called for their execution. The central character in this new evidence is the Baron de Breteuil, Louis's ambassador in exile, who orchestrated doomed escape plans and co-ordinated the international response to the revolution.This new book reassesses a perennially interesting period of history and will shed fresh insight into one of the real tuning points in European history

Of all the daughters of the formidable Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Archduchess Maria Antonia was the least prepared to become queen of France. Sweet and kind, she did not like school and showed no interest in politics. Nevertheless, at age fourteen she was sent to the opulent palace at Versailles, outside Paris, to marry the future King Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette's new husband, intelligent but shy and indecisive, was not a strong king. His days were filled with hunting, and hers with games and socializing. Neither seemed aware of the tension building in France because of high taxes, scarce food, and political injustice. The queen's spending habits and foreign birth caused the people of France to turn their anger on her. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Louis was unable to maintain control. He was arrested, imprisoned, then beheaded; Marie Antoinette followed him to the guillotine nine months later. Marie Antoinette and the Decline of French Monarchy brings to life the tragic story of the lovely but naive queen who paid with her life for the mistakes of the entire ruling class Book jacket.

An extensive and authoritative study that examines the economic, social and political crises of France during the revolution of 1848. Using analysis of original sources and recent research, Fortescue here offers new interpretations of events leading up to and after the second republic was declared. Looking at Louis Philippe's overthrow, the proclamation of manhood suffrage and the unexpected success of the right-wing in the subsequent elections, this book evaluates the political history of France in 1848 and the French political culture of the time. This should be read by all students of nineteenth century history, political scientists and all those with an interest in the historical development of French political culture.

This book examines the politics of the French Revolutionary tradition in the early nineteenth century. The author argues that political struggle was not confined to the elite, and that the Restoration Liberal Opposition developed a reform tradition which was far more effective than the revolutionary tradition of conspiracy and insurrection.

A thought-provoking, authoritative biography of one of history's most maligned rulers Louis XVI of France, who was guillotined in 1793 during the Revolution and Reign of Terror, is commonly portrayed in fiction and film either as a weak and stupid despot in thrall to his beautiful, shallow wife, Marie Antoinette, or as a cruel and treasonous tyrant. Historian John Hardman disputes both these versions in a fascinating new biography of the ill-fated monarch. Based in part on new scholarship that has emerged over the past two decades, Hardman's illuminating study describes a highly educated ruler who, though indecisive, possessed sharp political insight and a talent for foreign policy; who often saw the dangers ahead but could not or would not prevent them; and whose great misfortune was to be caught in the violent center of a major turning point in history. Hardman's dramatic reassessment of the reign of Louis XVI sheds a bold new light on the man, his actions, his world, and his policies, including the king's support for America's War of Independence, the intricate workings of his court, the disastrous Diamond Necklace Affair, and Louis's famous dash to Varennes.

This book brings together an international team of scholars from Britain, France and North America to examine the causes of the breakdown of the absolute monarchy in eighteenth-century France and offers a new interpretation of the origins of the Revolution of 1789.

Beginning with a discussion of familiar images of the French Revolution, this work looks at how the ancien régime became ancien as well as examining cases in which achievement failed to match ambition.