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Male Narrator: At the height of the 18th century
the most glorious kingdom in Europe would

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face a mighty foe – the power of its own
people.

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One man would rise to inspire the nation to
cast aside a reluctant King and a hated Queen.

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And a new Republic would be born in blood.

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The blood of the French Revolution.

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1794, Francis Conciergerie prison.

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An impenetrable fortress on the banks of the
Seine River.

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Dank, rat-infested.

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It is known as deaths antechamber.

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Inside the voice of a young nation is about
to be silenced.

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As his hair is shorn and his neck laid bare
for the blade of the guillotine, Maximilien

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Robespierre prepares to pay for the cataclysm
left in his wake.

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[explosion] The explosion of events that became
the French Revolution.

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Man: French Revolution is this extraordinary
moment when people began to believe that you

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could actually recreate almost everything
in a society that you could not only change

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the politics, the institutions, but you could
change human nature itself through political

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action.

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Man: The French Revolution really does constitute
the crossroads of the modern world where everything

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begins to turn in a different direction.

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Narrator: The Revolution saw a feudal land
turn its back on aristocratic tradition and

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chart a violent new course for the future.

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It would shake the very foundation of Europe
and its impact would be felt across the seas.

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Man: The French Revolution is the most important
event in Western history.

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There are developments that can rival it like
the Industrial Revolution, like capitalism,

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but if you mean an event, I can't think of
anything more important.

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Man: It was the Revolution that upset things
the most.

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I mean, again, when you consider that it got
rid of the Catholic Church.

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It got rid of Christianity.

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It got rid of the nobility.

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It got rid of the King.

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It got rid of all these things.

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Narrator: The French Revolution would bring
bread to the poor, democracy to France, and

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would establish a whole new order of society.

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But progress would come at a price.

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Man: It was really a moment of extraordinary
hope, extraordinary ambition, and then it

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turned into this most horrific tragedy.

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Narrator: Now broken and defeated, Robespierre,
not two days before, stood atop his world

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presiding over the greatest and bloodiest
revolution Europe had ever known.

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So true to its ideals, he was called the incorruptible.

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So powerful, his slightest utterance could
cloak an entire city in fear.

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A master orator, Robespierre's words were
his weapon.

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Now silenced by a bullet to the jaw he awaits
the same swift and brutal end he has brought

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down upon so many others.

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The Revolution is about to eat its own.

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♪ ♪ No one could have foreseen the turbulent
times ahead.

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On one spring day in 1770, the Chateau of
Versailles fills to its gilded rafters with

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the glittering crowds of the Royal Court.

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Completed in 1682, Versailles was the crowning
masterpiece of King Louis the 14th.

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To put some distance between himself and his
subjects, Louis the 14th transplanted the

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capital of France to this small town twelve
miles west of Paris where he had built the

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most magnificent palace in all of Europe.

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For nearly 100 years, it has been the seat
of the nation's unwavering monarchy.

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And today it is host to a very important wedding.

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King Louis the 15th's grandson, Prince Louis
Capet, next in line for the throne, is about

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to take a bride.

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Just 15-years-old on the eve of his wedding,
Louis Capat is bashful and hesitant with few

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of the characteristics expected of a future
king, much less a husband.

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Man: Louie was this pudgy, shy, painfully
inadequate 15-year-old with absolutely no

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social graces at all.

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Louie the 15th's mistress Madame du Barry
called him a fat, ill-bred boy.

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Basically he was just a schlub.

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Man: It was very hard for Louie to come to
decisions.

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He dithered incessantly.

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He was always ready to be persuaded by the
last person he had talked to.

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Again, those are usually not considered good
leadership qualities.

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Narrator: Louie's marriage is a political
union between Austria's royal family, the

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Habsburgs, and his own, the Bourbons.

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The wedding symbolizes the end of an ancient
rivalry and the beginning of new regional

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ties.

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The young bride-to-be arrives in France a
wide-eyed and pretty fourteen-year-old girl…

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….Marie Antoinette.

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Man: Marie Antoinette is an archduchess of
Austria.

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She's the youngest daughter of the empress
Maria Theresa and she comes to France as part

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of a marriage deal which represents a great
reversal of alliances whereby for the first

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time in living memory France and Austria become
allies rather than enemies.

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Narrator: Marie comes to France as a political
gesture, but as a teenager, she has little

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interest in political affairs.

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Man: Well, when Marie Antoinette came to Versailles
she was very young.

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She didn't know a great deal about the country
she was coming to.

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She didn't know about the customs.

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She didn't know about the court.

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She was certainly a headstrong girl; a very
lively girl, but she was still a girl.

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[female interpreter] When Marie Antoinette
comes to Versailles, she is just a teenager.

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She is blonde with blue eyes.

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She is pretty and she likes being attractive
to people.

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And she comes with the intention of winning
over her husband and her new family.

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[thunder crashes] Narrator: On the night of
the wedding, there is an ominous storm.

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But inside, the grandeur of the ceremony lights
up the palace as the newlyweds make their

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way to the Royal bedroom.

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♪ ♪ In an age-old ceremony, to encourage
the conception of an heir, the King's couriers

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are present as the awkward young couple is
revealed in the marriage bed for the first

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time.

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[crowd clapping] The crowd is delighted and
expectations are high, but once the curtains

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are drawn it's clear that an heir will not
be so easily produced.

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Man: Louis was not only not interested in
ruling, Louis wasn't particularly interested

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in loving either.

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And he paid her no attention on the first
nights or even further into their marriage.

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Narrator: Many years will pass before the
marriage is finally consummated.

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The lack of an heir will soon spark gossip
all across the kingdom that will continue

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to plague the couple for years to come.

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The grand wedding gala continues for days,
but outside the gates of Versailles, there

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is hardly cause for celebration.

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Years of mismanagement by the monarchy have
left the French people deprived and hungry.

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Nearly a decade earlier, King Louis the 15th
lost the Seven Years War battling Great Britain

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over territory in North America.

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The ill-fated conflict all but bankrupted
France of money and prestige leaving the country's

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coffers drain even as its population is growing
bigger everyday.

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With diseases like the plague a distant memory,
fewer people are dying, but more and more

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of them are hungry.

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Man: France grew from 20 million to 26 million
in the 18th century after having rung only

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1 million in the preceding two centuries.

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That put tremendous strain on what was there
and so there was a lot of anxiety.

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Narrator: Four years after the royal wedding,
Prince Louis's grandfather loses his final

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battle with smallpox.

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Louis the 15th dies a defeated and unpopular
king and leaves behind a country on the brink

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of chaos.

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In a lavish ceremony, young Prince Louis inherits
the throne and is crowned King Louis the 16th.

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Despite his insistence on a grandiose coronation,
Louis is all too aware that he is woefully

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unprepared for the job.

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Man: Louis the 16th, the moment his grandfather
dies and it suddenly is clear that he's king,

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he doesn't know what to do.

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He feels as if the world is falling in upon
him.

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So, although he's been educated in the full
expectation of becoming king, he doesn't feel

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ready for it.

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♪ ♪ Narrator: For a kingdom in crisis,
Louis the 16th is the worst man to have on

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the watch.

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The twenty-year-old king prays, 'protect us
Lord for we reign too young.'

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♪ ♪ Ensconced in their royal apartments
in Versailles, Louis and Marie begin their

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promising new lives as young monarchs while
only 12 miles away, in the city of Paris,

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another new era is dawning.

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One that is on a collision course with the
monarchy itself.

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It is a dangerous new age of ideas: The Age
of Enlightenment.

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[majestic music] As the royal carriage approaches
the esteemed Louis-le-Grand College, crowds

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gather for a glimpse of grandeur.

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It is a day to welcome the newly crowned king,
Louis the 16th, and his lovely Austrian wife

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to the city of Paris.

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And at the head of the welcome party, is a
promising young law student, Maximilien Robespierre.

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Man: When Robespierre was a school boy, the
king visited the college and Robespierre gave

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a Latin address to the king.

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So he actually spoke to Louis the 16th when
he was a teenager.

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Narrator: As Robespierre respectfully delivers
his Latin soliloquy, the King hardly notices

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the boy.

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But years later, their fates will again intertwine
under very different, much darker circumstances.

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Man: It was one of these rituals that take
place in every school and yet of course it

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was charged with irony because here you have
the young Robespierre reading this discourse

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in honor of the man he would later kill.

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Narrator: For now, the welcome is warm and
the flattery sincere.

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The visit from the Royals may have won the
hearts of the people, but their minds are

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leaning increasingly in an entirely different
direction.

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Since the Middle Ages, European society had
been broken into three distinct classes dictated

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by birth.

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There was a great divide between the wealth
of the nobility and the clergy and the poverty

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of the peasants.

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Then, at the blossoming of the 18th century,
reason and science began to challenge this

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age-old tradition.

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Swept up on a current of innovation and new
literature, Paris now radiates as the philosophical

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center of the world.

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The city pulses with a great flourishing of
knowledge.

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A shining beacon of possibility.

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It is the Age of Enlightenment.

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Man: The Enlightenment is a movement which
says don't trust authority.

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Don't trust anything that you've been told
by anybody else at all.

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Think it out for yourself.

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Test it for yourself.

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Woman: In old regime Europe, you were told
what to think.

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You were given information from above by your
rulers, by your priests.

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And so the idea that you could map out all
of human knowledge and then have access to

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it was revolutionary.

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Narrator: In elite salons across Paris, aristocrats
gathered to discuss Enlightenment authors

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in the burgeoning Age of Reason.

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Voltaire.

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Rousseau.

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Fresh voices who championed liberty, control
of one's own destiny and above all equality.

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The passion for this new literature is highest
among the upper-class, But as Enlightenment

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ideas take root at all levels of society,
the drive for equality will begin to threaten

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the aristocratic way of life.

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Woman: What makes it dangerous is it means
you will eventually question why are aristocrats

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the ones with privilege and can't we change
the world to make it a better place?

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Isn't progress possible?

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All of that will eventually undermine the
idea that monarchy is natural.

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Aristocracy is natural and hierarchy is natural.

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Narrator: To see enlightenment ideals in action,
one need only look across the Atlantic where

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the Americans are fighting for freedom from
France's old nemesis Great Britain.

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Young King Louis wants revenge for his grandfather's
defeats and he sees an opportunity in the

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American War of Independence.

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Louis commits to the cause a total of 2,000
million livre enough to feed and house 7 million

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French citizens for a year.

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His investment would mark the beginning of
financial collapse for France.

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Man: America bankrupts France in effect, because
the debt which the French monarchy incurs

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in order to fight the American War of Independence
turns out to be absolutely crucial in the

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financial situation of the French monarchy
because the French monarchy cannot pay those

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debts.

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♪ ♪ Narrator: While Louis sends money
and troops across the Atlantic, Marie is busy

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incurring debts of her own.

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Life at Versailles is a never-ending routine
of archaic ritual and formality.

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There are ceremonies for the waking of the
king and queen; for dressing; for dining;

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for retiring to bed.

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To keep herself amused amidst the ritual drudgery,
Marie Antoinette presides over a parade of

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increasingly outrageous fashions.

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Man: Marie was obsessed with fashion especially
these towering hairdos that were several feet

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high, that took hours and hours in the construction
and fit all sorts of ornaments and fruits.

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And to many people, they seemed like an obscenity.

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They came to represent all that was wrong
with her and with Versailles and that culture.

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Narrator: Marie occupies herself with court
gossip, gambling, and the staging of plays.

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As her expenses accumulate, Marie earns the
nickname Madame Deficit.

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Man: Marie is given the name Madame Deficit
as the country is in economic chaos.

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And she continues to spend as if nothing's
happened, on dresses and jewels and shoes

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and she was the Imelda Marcos of her day.

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♪ ♪ Narrator: Of all the debts Marie incurs,
the greatest is what she owes her country,

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an heir to the throne.

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In the seven years since their marriage, Louis
and Marie have yet to produce a child.

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Marie finds herself in an increasingly humiliating
position.

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Man: The job of the queen is to produce a
male heir.

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It's absolutely essential for there to be
a son.

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And during that time, the people criticize,
people are dissatisfied, people say, the king

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should have never married this Austrian archduchess
and now she can't even produce an heir to

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the throne.

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Narrator: Marie is desperate.

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Louis appetite for food is unquestioned, but
sex is clearly not on the menu. [female interpreter]

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00:17:15,290 --> 00:17:21,260
Maria Theresa, the mother to Marie Antoinette
questions, if a girl as gorgeous as my daughter

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cannot get him going, then what is going on?

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00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:31,180
Woman: Louis the 16th and his young wife were
not able to conceive for seven years.

223
00:17:31,180 --> 00:17:37,590
This cast a pall on the beginning of his reign
and because his hobby as a locksmith was well

224
00:17:37,590 --> 00:17:44,220
known, there were all sorts of salacious songs
circulating to the effect that the locksmith

225
00:17:44,220 --> 00:17:46,840
was having a hard time finding the keyhole.

226
00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:52,930
Narrator: Louis's disinterest in sex is seen
as a lack of bravado as a king.

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00:17:52,930 --> 00:17:59,100
Finally, after years of frustration and pressure
from the court, Louis is diagnosed with a

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00:17:59,100 --> 00:18:01,710
treatable condition called phimosis.

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00:18:01,710 --> 00:18:07,770
Man: Louis had a deformity that made arousal
extremely painful, therefore, there was no

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00:18:07,770 --> 00:18:12,860
consummation until there was a surgical procedure
that could correct this, but he was scared

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00:18:12,860 --> 00:18:13,860
to death to have it.

232
00:18:13,860 --> 00:18:16,340
And it took years for him to agree to have
it.

233
00:18:16,340 --> 00:18:18,410
And when he finally did….

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00:18:18,410 --> 00:18:25,400
voila! [baby crying] Narrator: After a simple
surgery, the couple is able to have their

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00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:28,600
first child – Marie Thérèse.

236
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:33,560
But there is no easy fix for the years of
damage to Marie's image.

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Since the early 1780's, libelle has circulated
throughout the country.

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Pornographic satire of the king and queen,
obscene pamphlets mock Louis's impotence and

239
00:18:44,870 --> 00:18:50,360
portray Marie as a promiscuous harlot and
a debauched and decadent court.

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The people's view of the monarchy sours as
conditions in the countryside worsen.

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♪ ♪ After a succession of bad harvests,
deregulation has raised the cost of flour

242
00:19:03,700 --> 00:19:10,310
leading to a shortage of the very heart of
the French diet, bread.

243
00:19:10,310 --> 00:19:16,810
But the hardships naturally stop at the gates
of Versailles.

244
00:19:16,810 --> 00:19:23,350
As the royals continue to live in extravagance,
complaints are committed to paper.

245
00:19:23,350 --> 00:19:26,310
One charge is leveled directly at the Royal
Court.

246
00:19:26,310 --> 00:19:30,950
Man: Do you know why there are so many needy
people?

247
00:19:30,950 --> 00:19:37,650
It is because your luxurious existence devours
in one day the substance of a thousand men.

248
00:19:37,650 --> 00:19:40,720
Narrator: The man behind this charge?

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00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:47,130
The same young man who just a few years earlier
regaled the king and queen after their coronation,

250
00:19:47,130 --> 00:19:50,080
Maximilien Robespierre.

251
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:59,850
In Robespierre, the people will soon gain
a voice calling for liberty, equality, for

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00:19:59,850 --> 00:20:01,260
revolution.

253
00:20:01,260 --> 00:20:10,070
Versailles in the late 1700's is an oasis
of extravagance surrounded by a land in despair.

254
00:20:10,070 --> 00:20:16,180
And with an uncertain King at the helm, France
is charting a course for disaster.

255
00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:22,750
After 19 years of marriage, Louis has sired
four children.

256
00:20:22,750 --> 00:20:27,220
Yet, as a king, he remains impotent.

257
00:20:27,220 --> 00:20:31,290
In an attempt to demonstrate leadership, Louis
dabbles in financial reforms.

258
00:20:31,290 --> 00:20:38,140
But his misguided interfering burdens the
poor with heavy taxes while the nobility pay

259
00:20:38,140 --> 00:20:40,250
hardly at all.

260
00:20:40,250 --> 00:20:47,250
With the economy in ruins and the people restless,
it seems as if even the heavens are angry

261
00:20:47,250 --> 00:20:51,290
smiting France with the most bitterly cold
winter in 90 years.

262
00:20:51,290 --> 00:20:59,330
Man: If ever God intervened to make a situation
worse, the summer of 1788 and the spring of

263
00:20:59,330 --> 00:21:01,780
1789 is a moment when that happens.

264
00:21:01,780 --> 00:21:08,450
By the summer of 1788, you already have a
burgeoning political crisis and it's developing

265
00:21:08,450 --> 00:21:12,580
against a background of very serious food
shortage.

266
00:21:12,580 --> 00:21:18,560
Narrator: For the people of France in the
18th century, flour is the essence of life

267
00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:19,560
itself.

268
00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:23,050
Bread, the measure of existence.

269
00:21:23,050 --> 00:21:27,080
Woman: Most ordinary people in France ate
at least two pounds a day of bread.

270
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:28,330
Bread was all-important.

271
00:21:28,330 --> 00:21:31,080
Its price was immediately felt by everyone.

272
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,650
If the price doubled, you were in big trouble.

273
00:21:34,650 --> 00:21:41,770
Narrator: Under Louis's financial mismanagement,
the cost of flour skyrockets.

274
00:21:41,770 --> 00:21:44,370
Sparse food supplies are hoarded.

275
00:21:44,370 --> 00:21:48,590
The cost of a loaf of bread soon equals a
month's earnings.

276
00:21:48,590 --> 00:21:56,550
[people shouting] Hunger turns to raids.

277
00:21:56,550 --> 00:21:58,590
Riots break out across France.

278
00:21:58,590 --> 00:22:02,250
Homes are robbed.

279
00:22:02,250 --> 00:22:06,270
[glass breaking] Bakeries are raided.

280
00:22:06,270 --> 00:22:16,400
And shopkeepers suspected of stockpiling bread
are lynched on the spot.

281
00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:22,120
With the economy in shambles, the bank's forced
Louis to hire a finance minister, Jacques

282
00:22:22,120 --> 00:22:23,120
Necker.

283
00:22:23,120 --> 00:22:28,210
An enlightened thinker, Necker is popular
with the people in a way that Louis can only

284
00:22:28,210 --> 00:22:29,210
envy.

285
00:22:29,210 --> 00:22:35,340
Man: Jacques Necker was undoubtedly the most
popular minister throughout the spring of

286
00:22:35,340 --> 00:22:43,060
(17)89 because he's taken the line publicly
in his writings that the government's duty

287
00:22:43,060 --> 00:22:48,620
is to make sure that there is enough bread
and grain for everybody.

288
00:22:48,620 --> 00:22:54,410
Narrator: The nation in fiscal crisis, Necker
urges Louis to call a meeting of the traditional

289
00:22:54,410 --> 00:22:59,550
representative body of the kingdom, the Estates
General.

290
00:22:59,550 --> 00:23:04,410
It is the first time the representatives have
been called together in a hundred seventy-five

291
00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:05,490
years.

292
00:23:05,490 --> 00:23:09,260
Man: France was politically organized in something
called the Estates.

293
00:23:09,260 --> 00:23:11,391
The First Estate was the clergy.

294
00:23:11,391 --> 00:23:13,210
The Second Estate was the nobility.

295
00:23:13,210 --> 00:23:15,440
And the Third Estate was everyone else.

296
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:22,640
And by contemporary reckoning, the first two
Estates occupied 3% of the population and

297
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,580
the third estate 97% of the population.

298
00:23:24,580 --> 00:23:28,360
Man: A lot of people felt it was very unfair
for this Third Estate which was most of the

299
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:31,020
population to only have one-third of the deputies.

300
00:23:31,020 --> 00:23:35,650
They felt it was very unfair that this should
be a three chamber Parliament where two chambers,

301
00:23:35,650 --> 00:23:38,940
the nobility and the clergy, could always
out vote the commoners.

302
00:23:38,940 --> 00:23:46,790
Narrator: May 4, 1789, a skilled young lawyer
and politician arrives at Versailles.

303
00:23:46,790 --> 00:23:52,900
Maximilien Robespierre comes to stand before
the Estates General as a deputy to fight for

304
00:23:52,900 --> 00:23:58,380
a fair voice for the people he represents,
the Third Estate.

305
00:23:58,380 --> 00:24:05,040
An orphan from the provinces, Robespierre
had risen to academic prominence on a prestigious

306
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,020
scholarship becoming an eloquent speaker.

307
00:24:08,020 --> 00:24:14,570
Prim appearance with never a hair nor a phrase
out of place.

308
00:24:14,570 --> 00:24:19,170
Back home in the small town of Arras, the
Enlightenment ideas he had absorbed in the

309
00:24:19,170 --> 00:24:26,380
salons of Paris found a powerful voice as
he became a hometown lawyer for the downtrodden.

310
00:24:26,380 --> 00:24:30,980
Man: By the time he went back and started
to practice as a lawyer he was reading very

311
00:24:30,980 --> 00:24:34,400
widely in the Enlightenment and Robespierre
was someone when he was practicing law in

312
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:39,130
Arras tried to actually bring the ideas of
the Enlightenment into the cases he was fighting.

313
00:24:39,130 --> 00:24:44,020
Narrator: At the Estates General, Robespierre
and his colleagues are demanding that the

314
00:24:44,020 --> 00:24:46,600
nobility and clergy pay taxes.

315
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:51,590
But Louis feels increasingly threatened by
the growing radicalism of the Third Estate.

316
00:24:51,590 --> 00:24:57,150
Then, on June 20th, after a six-week deadlock,
the deputies arrived to find that they are

317
00:24:57,150 --> 00:24:58,270
being silenced.

318
00:24:58,270 --> 00:25:03,040
Woman: On June 20th, when the deputies come
to their meeting and find the doors locked,

319
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:04,770
they suspect a plot.

320
00:25:04,770 --> 00:25:10,610
They move next door to what we call a tennis
court, which was really a handball court,

321
00:25:10,610 --> 00:25:17,080
and gather together and swear they will not
stop meeting until they have a new constitution.

322
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:23,940
Narrator: The deputies declare themselves
a new National Assembly, the true representatives

323
00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:26,700
of the people of France.

324
00:25:26,700 --> 00:25:31,840
Man: The Tennis Court Oath is one of these
great symbolic moments in the history of the

325
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:32,840
French Revolution.

326
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,780
You had these people assembled in this great
open space of the tennis court, raising their

327
00:25:36,780 --> 00:25:41,770
arms in this quasi Roman salute and for the
National Assembly this was a moment when they've

328
00:25:41,770 --> 00:25:47,510
realized something of their power and their
dignity and saw that they really could defy

329
00:25:47,510 --> 00:25:48,920
France's king.

330
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:54,490
Narrator: In one revolutionary stand of defiance,
the National Assembly is born.

331
00:25:54,490 --> 00:26:00,140
It will be a communion of voices from around
the country, a Parliamentary body and acting

332
00:26:00,140 --> 00:26:02,050
the people's will.

333
00:26:02,050 --> 00:26:07,850
But resting power from the king would not
be so easy as signing a simple proclamation.

334
00:26:07,850 --> 00:26:14,710
Man: All of these early victories that take
place at Versailles are largely paper victories

335
00:26:14,710 --> 00:26:17,160
and they have no teeth to back them up.

336
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:24,190
And the fear that happens takes over the deputies
at Versailles as we approach mid-July is that

337
00:26:24,190 --> 00:26:27,060
the king is gathering his forces to disperse
them.

338
00:26:27,060 --> 00:26:28,560
To overthrow them.

339
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:35,030
Narrator: By early July, 30,000 of the King's
troops are taking positions around Paris.

340
00:26:35,030 --> 00:26:41,190
To defend themselves, the people form a new
National Guard.

341
00:26:41,190 --> 00:26:49,840
Rioters raid Paris's armors and make away
with over 28,000 muzzles.

342
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:56,700
The only thing missing is gunpowder and the
people know just where to get it.

343
00:26:56,700 --> 00:27:04,490
In the center of Paris there looms a massive
stone dungeon notorious as a symbol of feudal

344
00:27:04,490 --> 00:27:07,370
rule, the Bastille.

345
00:27:07,370 --> 00:27:14,330
The prison houses the city's stores of gunpowder
and is legendary as a den of torture and unspeakable

346
00:27:14,330 --> 00:27:15,330
deaths.

347
00:27:15,330 --> 00:27:20,390
Man: The Bastille had been the great symbol
of royal despotism; the great symbol of the

348
00:27:20,390 --> 00:27:24,850
kings of France running beyond the just limits
of their own power; a symbol of horror for

349
00:27:24,850 --> 00:27:26,880
the people of France.

350
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:31,150
Narrator: Amidst the rioting, there is a stunning
outrage.

351
00:27:31,150 --> 00:27:37,070
Louis fires his finance minister, the people's
beloved Jacques Necker, seen as too sympathetic

352
00:27:37,070 --> 00:27:39,070
to the masses.

353
00:27:39,070 --> 00:27:44,210
Hours after Necker is fired, word reaches
Paris that their man on the inside has been

354
00:27:44,210 --> 00:27:45,210
ousted.

355
00:27:45,210 --> 00:27:48,340
There is nothing left but revolt.

356
00:27:48,340 --> 00:27:55,350
On July 14th crowds band together identify
themselves with a small cockade.

357
00:27:55,350 --> 00:28:01,710
Red and blue for the colors of Paris, separated
by white, the color of the House of Bourbon.

358
00:28:01,710 --> 00:28:04,010
The tricolore is born.

359
00:28:04,010 --> 00:28:09,370
From the feverish crowd a voice cries out
to the Bastille.

360
00:28:09,370 --> 00:28:15,840
Woman: Attacking the Bastille means that the
people of Paris are saying you cannot get

361
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:17,920
rid of the new National Assembly.

362
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:23,850
The people are acting, they're arming themselves
and they're basically saying we take the side

363
00:28:23,850 --> 00:28:25,860
of the Revolution.

364
00:28:25,860 --> 00:28:30,842
Narrator: At the sight of the approaching
mob, the governor of the Bastille, Bernard

365
00:28:30,842 --> 00:28:33,810
de Launay , attempts to lock down the prison.

366
00:28:33,810 --> 00:28:35,390
He mounts a hopeless defense.

367
00:28:35,390 --> 00:28:41,410
And the marauders storm the fortress and tear
into the guards with knives and pikes.

368
00:28:41,410 --> 00:28:47,300
Finally, de Launay surrenders, but the enraged
mob engulfs him, dragging him through the

369
00:28:47,300 --> 00:28:48,310
streets.

370
00:28:48,310 --> 00:28:52,980
The jeering horde kicks and stabs at him until
he shouts, "Let me die!"

371
00:28:52,980 --> 00:28:57,490
The crowd eagerly obliges.

372
00:28:57,490 --> 00:29:00,280
He is stabbed and shot.

373
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:03,880
And a Revolutionary tradition is born.

374
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:10,180
His severed head is paraded on a pike.

375
00:29:10,180 --> 00:29:17,590
Woman: The deputies in the National Assembly
do not immediately condemn this act of violence.

376
00:29:17,590 --> 00:29:19,840
In fact, they accept it.

377
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:28,090
And it was this acceptance of popular violence
that in some people's view created a pattern

378
00:29:28,090 --> 00:29:35,450
that was to have catastrophic consequences
for the unfolding of the revolution.

379
00:29:35,450 --> 00:29:40,750
Narrator: With the smoke still clearing over
the Bastille, Louis the 16th returns from

380
00:29:40,750 --> 00:29:42,700
a hunting trip.

381
00:29:42,700 --> 00:29:46,140
In his diary under the date July, 14, 1789,
he writes… ….nothing.

382
00:29:46,140 --> 00:29:52,320
A reference to his unsuccessful hunt.

383
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:59,380
An aide interrupts and breaks the news of
the riots and the fall of the Bastille.

384
00:29:59,380 --> 00:30:06,600
Louis the 16th asks, "Is it a revolt?"

385
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:13,550
"No, sire," he replies, "it is a Revolution."

386
00:30:13,550 --> 00:30:21,960
[men shouting] Victory at the Bastille unleashes
the irrepressible torrent of Revolution.

387
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:26,130
The people had defied their king and won.

388
00:30:26,130 --> 00:30:28,390
There would be no turning back.

389
00:30:28,390 --> 00:30:34,080
As a symbol of the defeat of tyranny, the
people, men, women and children dig in with

390
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:39,450
bare hands and tear the Bastille apart brick
by feudal brick.

391
00:30:39,450 --> 00:30:43,150
They are beginning to dismantle the past itself.

392
00:30:43,150 --> 00:30:48,450
Man: The French went about the process of
tearing down the Bastille as quickly as they

393
00:30:48,450 --> 00:30:49,450
could.

394
00:30:49,450 --> 00:30:55,270
In the absence of powerful explosives, this
was done very painstakingly but with a tremendous

395
00:30:55,270 --> 00:30:56,640
amount of vigor.

396
00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:02,180
And the bricks were given away, sold, as emblems
of the demolition, of despotism.

397
00:31:02,180 --> 00:31:07,750
Narrator: The energy of the streets invigorates
the National Assembly.

398
00:31:07,750 --> 00:31:14,270
A charter is panned within days called the
Declaration of the Rights of Man.

399
00:31:14,270 --> 00:31:20,510
Under this daring new document, archaic class
distinctions are to be abolished and all men

400
00:31:20,510 --> 00:31:21,770
considered truly equal.

401
00:31:21,770 --> 00:31:27,051
Man: The Declaration of the Rights of Man
was a declaration promulgated by the National

402
00:31:27,051 --> 00:31:31,380
Assembly which said, in its text, that the
sovereignty belongs to the people, belongs

403
00:31:31,380 --> 00:31:32,380
to the nation.

404
00:31:32,380 --> 00:31:36,530
The King is nowhere mentioned in this document,
therefore, by issuing this document, the Assembly

405
00:31:36,530 --> 00:31:39,330
was effectively seizing power for itself.

406
00:31:39,330 --> 00:31:44,500
Narrator: With the new National Assembly as
their voice, the citizens of France set out

407
00:31:44,500 --> 00:31:47,440
to change the very fabric of their world.

408
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,510
They demand a constitutional monarchy.

409
00:31:50,510 --> 00:31:55,550
Equal rights for all men and justice under
reasonable laws.

410
00:31:55,550 --> 00:32:01,520
To provide a greater voice for the call of
Revolution, Robespierre demands increased

411
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:07,400
freedom for the press long muzzled under the
old regime.

412
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:15,810
♪ ♪ The resulting Free Press is spearheaded
by L'Ami du peuple, The People's Friend.

413
00:32:15,810 --> 00:32:21,660
A fiery newspaper full of vitriolic rants
and provocation, it is the braindchild of

414
00:32:21,660 --> 00:32:26,490
a former doctor, Jean-Paul Marat.

415
00:32:26,490 --> 00:32:32,590
After a string of unsuccessful careers, Marat
found himself living in poverty, for a time,

416
00:32:32,590 --> 00:32:36,960
finding shelter in the sewers of Paris.

417
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:42,310
It was there he contracted a painful skin
disease that now leaves him confined for long

418
00:32:42,310 --> 00:32:44,950
periods to a medicinal bath.

419
00:32:44,950 --> 00:32:51,340
A bitter and failed Marat finds in the Revolution
the perfect outlet for his venom.

420
00:32:51,340 --> 00:32:55,650
Woman: Jean-Paul Marat was just one of these
professional malcontents.

421
00:32:55,650 --> 00:33:00,280
And unfortunately Revolutions do offer opportunity
to professional malcontents.

422
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:07,060
Marat took all of that bile, all of that resentment
and funneled it in to a newspaper that became

423
00:33:07,060 --> 00:33:08,870
extraordinarily successful.

424
00:33:08,870 --> 00:33:10,150
L'Ami du peuple.

425
00:33:10,150 --> 00:33:14,160
Man: Marat was a man possessed of extraordinary
anger.

426
00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:17,760
You just have to read the pages of his newspaper,
The Friend of the People, to see this.

427
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,510
In every issue he displays a complete paranoid
mentality.

428
00:33:21,510 --> 00:33:23,570
He sees plots everywhere.

429
00:33:23,570 --> 00:33:27,290
Everybody is plotting against the Revolution
and the answer is very simple for them.

430
00:33:27,290 --> 00:33:28,450
The answer is blood.

431
00:33:28,450 --> 00:33:30,090
The answer is heads.

432
00:33:30,090 --> 00:33:36,890
Narrator: Marat loathes the monarchies relentless
extravagance. even as poverty grips France.

433
00:33:36,890 --> 00:33:42,190
And needs only the slightest rumor to lambaste
the king and queen in his newspaper.

434
00:33:42,190 --> 00:33:51,050
On October 2, 1789, his anger boils over.

435
00:33:51,050 --> 00:33:54,220
Word reaches Paris that the king has thrown
a party at Versailles.

436
00:33:54,220 --> 00:34:00,770
That the decadent Royals threw the new tricolour
flag, symbol of the Revolution, to the ground

437
00:34:00,770 --> 00:34:03,740
and trampled it under foot.

438
00:34:03,740 --> 00:34:06,040
Marat is enraged.

439
00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,929
He reports the insult in his paper.

440
00:34:08,929 --> 00:34:13,949
Just as a new threat breaks, the king has
again ordered troops to move into positions

441
00:34:13,949 --> 00:34:15,840
around Paris.

442
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:22,590
[horse whinnies] With the coup at the Bastille's
still smoldering in the minds of the people,

443
00:34:22,590 --> 00:34:25,639
Marat frantically urges them to take action.

444
00:34:25,639 --> 00:34:29,469
[voice-over] People of Paris, it's time to
open your eyes.

445
00:34:29,469 --> 00:34:33,199
Shake yourselves out of your torpor.

446
00:34:33,199 --> 00:34:34,449
Wake up.

447
00:34:34,449 --> 00:34:36,938
Once more, wake up!

448
00:34:36,938 --> 00:34:42,070
Narrator: October 5th, dawn breaks to the
furious ringing of bells.

449
00:34:42,070 --> 00:34:48,041
[bells tolling] Women gather new City Hall
to protest the shortage of bread and now fear

450
00:34:48,041 --> 00:34:53,260
of the approaching royal troops mixes with
anger as news of the king's offensive party

451
00:34:53,260 --> 00:34:56,120
circulates through the crowd.

452
00:34:56,120 --> 00:35:02,010
Soon thousands are marching to Versailles
pikes and guns in hand.

453
00:35:02,010 --> 00:35:04,630
The women are taking their complaints to the
king.

454
00:35:04,630 --> 00:35:11,370
Woman: The core of the crowd was made up of
the famous poissarde, the fearsome fish ladies

455
00:35:11,370 --> 00:35:17,330
of the central markets who were known for
their brawny build and their fearlessness.

456
00:35:17,330 --> 00:35:20,320
They were equipped with large knives for scaling
fish.

457
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,990
They were hugely muscular because they carted
boxes.

458
00:35:23,990 --> 00:35:26,340
You didn't want to tangle with these ladies.

459
00:35:26,340 --> 00:35:29,430
Man: These are women of the poor quarters.

460
00:35:29,430 --> 00:35:33,290
These are poor women which are affected by
the increased price of bread, by the scarcity

461
00:35:33,290 --> 00:35:38,040
of products, who suddenly begin to realize
that they must act.

462
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,430
It is quite extraordinary how these ordinary
women, probably most of them couldn't even

463
00:35:42,430 --> 00:35:49,480
write their name, suddenly act as the protagonists
of this historical process.

464
00:35:49,480 --> 00:35:54,660
Narrator: Inside the palace, word of the approaching
crowd and angry women reaches the queen's

465
00:35:54,660 --> 00:35:56,270
chambers.

466
00:35:56,270 --> 00:36:01,760
Legend has it that it is at this moment that
Marie Antoinette utters the most famous line

467
00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:03,130
she never said.

468
00:36:03,130 --> 00:36:07,320
Woman: Marie Antoinette did not say "let them
eat cake."

469
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,450
That is a myth.

470
00:36:09,450 --> 00:36:14,770
Marie Antoinette, unfortunately, probably
never even noticed the poor people of her

471
00:36:14,770 --> 00:36:18,260
country long enough to make such a statement.

472
00:36:18,260 --> 00:36:23,720
Narrator: As the mob of women gathers outside
the gates, Louis understands that the revolution

473
00:36:23,720 --> 00:36:25,910
can no longer be ignored.

474
00:36:25,910 --> 00:36:28,170
It is being brought to his front door.

475
00:36:28,170 --> 00:36:33,740
He agrees to sign the Declaration of the Rights
of Man yet the crowd continues to grow throughout

476
00:36:33,740 --> 00:36:35,510
the night.

477
00:36:35,510 --> 00:36:39,580
By morning, 20,000 people are camped outside
the Royal palace.

478
00:36:39,580 --> 00:36:45,500
To close the centuries of distance between
the king and his subjects, the angry mass

479
00:36:45,500 --> 00:36:50,620
demands that the king and queen move to Paris.

480
00:36:50,620 --> 00:36:54,270
Indecisive as ever, Louis is weak to respond.

481
00:36:54,270 --> 00:36:59,700
His hesitation would provoke a fury in the
crowd and put the lives of the royal family

482
00:36:59,700 --> 00:37:05,100
in grave danger Man: When they don't get instant
compliance with what they want, it really

483
00:37:05,100 --> 00:37:09,050
looks as if they're going to massacre the
queen.

484
00:37:09,050 --> 00:37:16,650
Narrator: A wave of women break into the Royal
palace screaming for the blood of the queen.

485
00:37:16,650 --> 00:37:22,740
They massacre the guards, decapitate and impale
their heads on pikes.

486
00:37:22,740 --> 00:37:28,400
Man: They were like banshees screaming throughout
the palace, "Give me her entrails.

487
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:29,400
Give me her head.

488
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:30,400
I want a leg.

489
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:31,400
I want an arm."

490
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:34,053
I think that if they had grown so frenzied
that if they had encountered her, they probably

491
00:37:34,053 --> 00:37:39,340
would have torn her to pieces.

492
00:37:39,340 --> 00:37:46,780
Narrator: Terrified for her life, Marie escapes
to Louis's apartments only moments before

493
00:37:46,780 --> 00:37:50,260
the women break into her chambers and tear
her bed to shreds.

494
00:37:50,260 --> 00:37:58,240
The
king and queen are now at the mercy of the

495
00:37:58,240 --> 00:37:59,240
mob.

496
00:37:59,240 --> 00:38:02,560
What the mob wants is a little attention from
their king.

497
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:07,560
Man: The only way the women can be pacified
is for the Royal family to agree to go to

498
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:13,280
Paris because once they're there in Paris,
then they can ultimately be made to do what

499
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:15,260
the people of Paris wanted.

500
00:38:15,260 --> 00:38:21,890
Narrator: They march 60,000 strong leaving
Versailles with carts and wagons, overflowing

501
00:38:21,890 --> 00:38:28,680
with flour from the king's storehouses, flanking
the Royal carriage all the way to Paris.

502
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:35,340
[female interpreter] The king and queen were
forced to go back to Paris with the heads

503
00:38:35,340 --> 00:38:42,130
of their guards who had been massacred in
the Chateau.

504
00:38:42,130 --> 00:38:44,680
Their heads had been cut off.

505
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:50,800
This is really a completely, unbridled violence.

506
00:38:50,800 --> 00:38:55,690
The heads were then made up with makeup and
paraded at the head of the cortege with the

507
00:38:55,690 --> 00:38:58,460
king and queen following.

508
00:38:58,460 --> 00:39:05,140
Narrator: The king and queen must make their
new home in the Tuileries Palace.

509
00:39:05,140 --> 00:39:07,310
They will never see Versailles again.

510
00:39:07,310 --> 00:39:12,480
Man: Once the Royal family moves to Paris,
they are the prisoners of Paris.

511
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:13,700
They know it.

512
00:39:13,700 --> 00:39:14,700
Everybody else knows it.

513
00:39:14,700 --> 00:39:18,230
There are great limits to what they can do
or even dream of doing.

514
00:39:18,230 --> 00:39:20,070
They are the prisoners of the capital city.

515
00:39:20,070 --> 00:39:21,360
There's no doubt.

516
00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:27,110
Narrator: Versailles is abandoned and the
Assembly moves to Paris.

517
00:39:27,110 --> 00:39:31,760
Power is now with the people.

518
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:38,371
France will have democracy, new laws and a
remarkable and unforgiving form of justice

519
00:39:38,371 --> 00:39:49,330
will make its debut on the revolutionary stage…
…the guillotine.

520
00:39:49,330 --> 00:39:57,930
♪ ♪ May 1791, nearly two years have passed
since the Royal family and the National Assembly

521
00:39:57,930 --> 00:40:00,730
have moved to Paris.

522
00:40:00,730 --> 00:40:06,230
Robespierre appears frequently at the Assembly
and at the Jacobin Club, a debating society

523
00:40:06,230 --> 00:40:10,570
named for the former Jacobin monastery where
they gather.

524
00:40:10,570 --> 00:40:17,290
Now, words are the very core of the Revolution
and Robespierre speaks with an unfailing moral

525
00:40:17,290 --> 00:40:18,550
compass.

526
00:40:18,550 --> 00:40:22,060
His true north is always the people.

527
00:40:22,060 --> 00:40:27,480
He soon earns the nickname 'The Incorruptible.'

528
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,120
France is now a constitutional monarchy.

529
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:35,870
The king forced to share power with the revolutionaries
in the assembly, but it seems Louis's share

530
00:40:35,870 --> 00:40:41,800
is growing smaller by the day as he is forced
to sign law after law diminishing his own

531
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:47,690
authority and that of the other great feudal
regime the Catholic Church.

532
00:40:47,690 --> 00:40:52,410
Louis decides the time has come to escape
the confines of the New Republic and mount

533
00:40:52,410 --> 00:40:54,840
a campaign to reclaim his kingdom.

534
00:40:54,840 --> 00:41:01,310
Woman: Louis had decided by 1791 that he needed
to regain control of his country.

535
00:41:01,310 --> 00:41:05,840
And he knew he could only do that with the
help of a foreign army.

536
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:14,030
So the idea was to make a break from the Tuileries
Palace and to head for the nearest border.

537
00:41:14,030 --> 00:41:22,190
Narrator: June 21, 1791, the king and queen
disguise themselves as servants and by cover

538
00:41:22,190 --> 00:41:26,600
of darkness, slip out from under the watchful
eye of Paris.

539
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:30,020
They make an ill-planned run for freedom.

540
00:41:30,020 --> 00:41:36,740
It is long past midnight when the royal family
arrives in the small town of Varenne, some

541
00:41:36,740 --> 00:41:39,480
100 miles east of Paris.

542
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,890
They are close to the border of Austria.

543
00:41:41,890 --> 00:41:44,070
Safety just a few miles away.

544
00:41:44,070 --> 00:41:51,600
But their dash to freedom will go no further.

545
00:41:51,600 --> 00:42:02,180
[bell dings] [footsteps] Rumors of the Royal's
journey have preceded them to Varenne.

546
00:42:02,180 --> 00:42:18,150
A town official stops the carriage demanding
their passports.

547
00:42:18,150 --> 00:42:20,890
The official suspicions are confirmed.

548
00:42:20,890 --> 00:42:23,820
It is the signature of the king himself.

549
00:42:23,820 --> 00:42:29,620
The townsmen is overcome at the sight of his
king.

550
00:42:29,620 --> 00:42:34,170
But revolutionary guards nearby show no reverence
for the fleeing Royal's.

551
00:42:34,170 --> 00:42:39,930
Woman: He keeps hoping that people will recognize
him and there will be a kind of rebellion

552
00:42:39,930 --> 00:42:41,010
in his favor.

553
00:42:41,010 --> 00:42:46,140
And much to his horror and surprise they are
not ecstatic to recognize him.

554
00:42:46,140 --> 00:42:50,800
They see him as escaping and basically he's
arrested and taken back to Paris.

555
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:58,040
Woman: The idea that the monarch had tried
to abandon his people was psychologically

556
00:42:58,040 --> 00:42:59,670
catastrophic.

557
00:42:59,670 --> 00:43:05,370
That event really broke the bond between Louis
and his subjects.

558
00:43:05,370 --> 00:43:11,060
Now they had not only a king who was superfluous,
they had a king who was obviously a traitor

559
00:43:11,060 --> 00:43:13,150
as well.

560
00:43:13,150 --> 00:43:19,840
Narrator: With the Royal family official turncoats
to the Revolution, power shifts from Louis,

561
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:24,800
now a prisoner king, to the revolutionaries
at the Assembly.

562
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:28,400
At the very heart of the young revolutionary
government is Robespierre.

563
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:34,410
He shines at the podium calling for liberty,
equality and fraternity.

564
00:43:34,410 --> 00:43:40,380
He demands universal suffrage and an end to
slavery in the French West Indies.

565
00:43:40,380 --> 00:43:48,070
And most passionately he rails against the
death penalty because in the New Age of Enlightenment,

566
00:43:48,070 --> 00:43:54,820
Robespierre wants to discard all remnants
of the medieval past.

567
00:43:54,820 --> 00:44:01,570
Europe had inherited a maqam repertoire of
execution techniques from the Dark Ages.

568
00:44:01,570 --> 00:44:07,400
Unremittingly cruel deaths by drawing and
quartering, hanging, drowning and burning

569
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:09,050
at the stake.

570
00:44:09,050 --> 00:44:14,680
Man: Well, under the old regime, there was
a whole panoply of very gruesome punishments

571
00:44:14,680 --> 00:44:19,500
and decapitation was punishment reserved for
the nobility and one of the things that the

572
00:44:19,500 --> 00:44:22,200
revolution wanted from the start was to have
everybody equal in death.

573
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:27,390
They wanted symbolically to have the same
punishment available for anyone.

574
00:44:27,390 --> 00:44:33,570
Narrator: Despite Robespierre's opposition,
a new killing machine takes center stage in

575
00:44:33,570 --> 00:44:36,810
Paris.

576
00:44:36,810 --> 00:44:45,180
Physician inventor, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin,
devises a ruthless beheading machine.

577
00:44:45,180 --> 00:44:50,330
Turning old-fashioned decapitation into a
humanitarian experience.

578
00:44:50,330 --> 00:44:55,090
Dr. Guillotin describes his new device to
the Assembly.

579
00:44:55,090 --> 00:44:57,750
Man: The mechanism falls like thunder.

580
00:44:57,750 --> 00:45:00,540
The head flies off.

581
00:45:00,540 --> 00:45:02,050
Blood spurts.

582
00:45:02,050 --> 00:45:05,720
The man is no more.

583
00:45:05,720 --> 00:45:11,830
Narrator: Always a supporter of bloodshed,
the journalist Marat prints an enthusiastic

584
00:45:11,830 --> 00:45:19,980
rant in his paper announcing the device's
new name… ….guillotine.

585
00:45:19,980 --> 00:45:23,330
It will soon earn a nickname, The National
Razor.

586
00:45:23,330 --> 00:45:29,220
Man: The French revolutionaries believe in
humane values.

587
00:45:29,220 --> 00:45:35,680
They believe that unnecessary suffering should
not be caused.

588
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:43,870
And what they like about the guillotine is
that it is quick, it's efficient and as far

589
00:45:43,870 --> 00:45:49,350
as we can tell, although no one has returned
to tell the tale, it's painless.

590
00:45:49,350 --> 00:45:54,590
Narrator: The guillotine will silence the
Revolution's internal enemies, anyone suspected

591
00:45:54,590 --> 00:45:59,990
of plotting to return Louis to the throne.

592
00:45:59,990 --> 00:46:04,700
But it's the enemies surrounding France that
most preoccupy the Assembly.

593
00:46:04,700 --> 00:46:09,510
There is a fear that members of the extended
Royal family, who fled to Austria, will launch

594
00:46:09,510 --> 00:46:13,800
an armed counter-revolution.

595
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,900
The Assembly calls for a preemptive attack.

596
00:46:16,900 --> 00:46:20,870
A Declaration of War on Austria.

597
00:46:20,870 --> 00:46:23,660
But Robespierre argues against it.

598
00:46:23,660 --> 00:46:30,560
Man: Robespierre is one of the lonely voices
who is opposing war because he thinks the

599
00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:32,540
enemy will win.

600
00:46:32,540 --> 00:46:36,660
Robespierre is afraid that the country isn't
ready, hasn't got an army that would be able

601
00:46:36,660 --> 00:46:38,470
to defeat the enemy.

602
00:46:38,470 --> 00:46:42,430
The enemy might therefore come in and destroy
the Revolution.

603
00:46:42,430 --> 00:46:47,440
Narrator: Robespierre loses the debate.

604
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:54,240
In April 1792, the Assembly declares war on
Austria against a country ruled by Marie Antoinette's

605
00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:55,880
own family.

606
00:46:55,880 --> 00:47:00,420
A nationalist fervor grows.

607
00:47:00,420 --> 00:47:10,420
If Austria defeats the Revolutionary army,
Louis will undoubtedly reclaim his throne.

608
00:47:10,420 --> 00:47:16,560
And Marie is suspected of aiding the enemy
by corresponding with her relatives in Austria

609
00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:24,640
giving away French troop movements with a
stroke of her pen.

610
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:29,110
All the while, the king and queen feign adherence
to the Revolution.

611
00:47:29,110 --> 00:47:33,990
Man: Louis and Marie Antoinette are playing
a double game.

612
00:47:33,990 --> 00:47:39,270
They are seeming to go along with the Revolution
many times at the same time as they are conspiring

613
00:47:39,270 --> 00:47:40,270
against it.

614
00:47:40,270 --> 00:47:41,310
They are trying to survive.

615
00:47:41,310 --> 00:47:46,551
If you want to be generous, they're survivors,
but if you want to be looking at it from the

616
00:47:46,551 --> 00:47:49,110
revolutionary point of view is they're liars.

617
00:47:49,110 --> 00:47:56,810
[explosion] Narrator: With the French army
already suffering huge losses on the border,

618
00:47:56,810 --> 00:48:03,390
word reaches Paris that Austria's ally, Prussia,
has joined the invasion.

619
00:48:03,390 --> 00:48:09,530
The enemy troops are mobilized under the command
of the Duke of Brunswick, a Prussian general.

620
00:48:09,530 --> 00:48:12,220
Tension pervades the streets of Paris.

621
00:48:12,220 --> 00:48:19,770
And then the newspapers print a letter from
the Duke of Brunswick, a manifesto threatening

622
00:48:19,770 --> 00:48:25,700
the destruction of Paris if any harm comes
to their Royal majesties, the king and queen.

623
00:48:25,700 --> 00:48:30,250
The misguided threat wildly backfires.

624
00:48:30,250 --> 00:48:42,040
August 10, 1792 27,000 armed citizens fueled
by indignant rage head to the Tuileries Palace

625
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:47,740
and fall upon the king's guards in a savage
attack.

626
00:48:47,740 --> 00:48:53,360
By the end of the day, over 800 from both
sides are dead.

627
00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:59,810
The king flees to safety in the Assembly,
but the monarchy is no more.

628
00:48:59,810 --> 00:49:01,669
Louis is officially stripped of his title.

629
00:49:01,669 --> 00:49:05,020
The French Republic is born.

630
00:49:05,020 --> 00:49:11,200
[people cheering] The blade of the guillotine
is christened with the blood of Louie's remaining

631
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:24,140
guards and Robespierre, once a staunch opponent
of the death penalty, has had a change of

632
00:49:24,140 --> 00:49:26,070
heart.

633
00:49:26,070 --> 00:49:33,020
The birth of the New Republic can only begin
with the death of a king.

634
00:49:33,020 --> 00:49:41,860
Dr. Guillotine's chilling new device hangs
over Paris like a warning, the penalty for

635
00:49:41,860 --> 00:49:45,760
defying Revolutionary law and order.

636
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:51,160
Freshly christened with the blood of the king's
guards, it will soon put an end to the king

637
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:52,460
himself.

638
00:49:52,460 --> 00:50:01,240
By August 1792, with the king deposed and
the Royal family secluded in the temple prison,

639
00:50:01,240 --> 00:50:06,060
Robespierre and his Jacobin's are locked in
a battle with the moderates of the Assembly,

640
00:50:06,060 --> 00:50:09,560
the Girondin, for control of the national
government.

641
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:13,919
And on the streets of Paris, a new political
movement takes hold.

642
00:50:13,919 --> 00:50:18,910
As a symbol of their rejection of aristocratic
tradition, ordinary citizens refuse to wear

643
00:50:18,910 --> 00:50:22,120
the knee breeches or culotte of the aristocrats.

644
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:26,340
They call themselves the Sansculotte, those
without knee pants.

645
00:50:26,340 --> 00:50:30,430
Man: The Sansculotte considered themselves
the true people of France.

646
00:50:30,430 --> 00:50:32,760
They were not the poorest of the poor.

647
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:37,490
They tended to be fairly well-off, artisans,
shopkeepers, people like that.

648
00:50:37,490 --> 00:50:41,450
But they were people who at least claim to
work with their hands.

649
00:50:41,650 --> 00:50:45,220
Not wearing the breeches, not wearing the
culotte for the Sansculotte was simply symbolism

650
00:50:45,220 --> 00:50:47,530
of being not an aristocrat.

651
00:50:47,530 --> 00:50:50,230
Being an ordinary man of people.

652
00:50:50,230 --> 00:50:55,220
Narrator: The Sansculotte seize control of
Paris's city government.

653
00:50:55,220 --> 00:51:00,370
While the Jacobin's and Girondin's steer the
rest of the country from the National Assembly

654
00:51:00,370 --> 00:51:04,070
now called The Convention.

655
00:51:04,070 --> 00:51:08,360
The Convention struggles with the command
of the beleaguered French Army which is swiftly

656
00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:11,500
losing ground to Austria and Prussia.

657
00:51:11,500 --> 00:51:16,880
[multiple gunshots] While fighting back incursions
at the border, the Revolutionary Government

658
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:19,730
cracks down on enemies withing.

659
00:51:19,730 --> 00:51:24,690
Royalists traitors who might deliver Paris
into the hands of the invaders.

660
00:51:24,690 --> 00:51:28,830
More than a thousand people are arrested and
herded into prison.

661
00:51:28,830 --> 00:51:34,390
Priests, journalists, ordinary men and women.

662
00:51:34,390 --> 00:51:40,050
Robespierre concentrates on the internal crisis,
but his friend, the Minister of Justice , George

663
00:51:40,050 --> 00:51:45,340
Danton, motivates men young and old to join
the war on the frontier.

664
00:51:45,340 --> 00:51:47,700
He is gregarious and loud.

665
00:51:47,700 --> 00:51:49,740
Everything that Robespierre is not.

666
00:51:49,740 --> 00:51:53,180
Soon, Danton's name is heard throughout Paris.

667
00:51:53,180 --> 00:51:56,600
Man: Danton is a bigger than life character.

668
00:51:56,600 --> 00:52:03,430
A man full of life; full of bombast; tremendous
drinker; and the barter who though he's from

669
00:52:03,430 --> 00:52:08,660
the educated classes himself, is a guy who,
unlike Robespierre can physically identify

670
00:52:08,660 --> 00:52:13,480
with the working people in a way that Robespierre
simply cannot.

671
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:20,920
Narrator: As the enemy closes in, Danton's
fiery rhetoric mobilizes the people, inspiring

672
00:52:20,920 --> 00:52:22,460
many to take to the battlefront.

673
00:52:22,460 --> 00:52:26,860
Man: At one of the moments of greatest peril
for the Revolution, the Austrian and Prussian

674
00:52:26,860 --> 00:52:31,130
armies are invading, he gets up in front of
the people of Paris and shouts, "il nous l'audace,

675
00:52:31,130 --> 00:52:34,520
encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace
et la Patrie sera sauvée!"

676
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:37,590
"Boldness, more boldness, forever boldness
and the father land is saved."

677
00:52:37,590 --> 00:52:41,650
He's really one of the people who manages
to rally the country against the invader.

678
00:52:41,650 --> 00:52:42,810
It's an extraordinary moment.

679
00:52:42,810 --> 00:52:49,050
Narrator: With so many able-bodied men leaving
for the front, Paris is left defenseless.

680
00:52:49,050 --> 00:52:52,320
Its jails bursting with political prisoners.

681
00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:54,790
An unsettling fear floods the city.

682
00:52:54,790 --> 00:52:59,520
The growing mass of prisoners may be impossible
to contain.

683
00:52:59,520 --> 00:53:06,210
Marat puts out a bloodthirsty call for revolutionary
citizens to descend upon the prisons and slaughter

684
00:53:06,210 --> 00:53:07,220
all inside.

685
00:53:07,220 --> 00:53:10,540
Man: The foreign armies were advancing on
Paris.

686
00:53:10,540 --> 00:53:16,370
Had they linked up in Paris, with these bitter
enemies of the Revolutions in the prisoners,

687
00:53:16,370 --> 00:53:21,070
of course, then the results would have been
fairly horrific from the standpoint of the

688
00:53:21,070 --> 00:53:23,310
people.

689
00:53:23,310 --> 00:53:30,000
Narrator: In the first week of September,
disastrous news arrives from the front.

690
00:53:30,000 --> 00:53:34,240
Prussia has taken Verdun, a town on the road
to Paris.

691
00:53:34,240 --> 00:53:36,730
The enemy is now just miles away.

692
00:53:36,730 --> 00:53:39,470
The feared, gripping Paris explodes.

693
00:53:39,470 --> 00:53:48,040
[glass shattering] The Sansculotte break into
the prisons and unleash a furious assault

694
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:49,700
on the city's inmates.

695
00:53:49,700 --> 00:53:51,490
They will leave no traitor alive.

696
00:53:51,490 --> 00:53:56,460
Man: And the Sansculotte went to the prisons,
particularly the prisons where refractory

697
00:53:56,460 --> 00:54:01,020
priests were being held; where nobles were
being held; where political prisoners were

698
00:54:01,020 --> 00:54:06,410
being held; and they started carrying out
their own impromptu trials that were very

699
00:54:06,410 --> 00:54:11,370
short and that very often simply ended with
slaughter.

700
00:54:11,370 --> 00:54:16,620
Narrator: Women are raped and brutalized.

701
00:54:16,620 --> 00:54:19,050
Priests disemboweled.

702
00:54:19,050 --> 00:54:20,990
Aristocrats hacked to pieces.

703
00:54:20,990 --> 00:54:28,150
In a primeval slaughter, more than 1600 are
left dead in a matter of days.

704
00:54:28,150 --> 00:54:34,950
When word of the September massacre spreads
throughout Europe, enemies of the Revolution

705
00:54:34,950 --> 00:54:41,720
are sickened.

706
00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:45,669
Across the English Channel, the London Times
gives voice to the revulsion.

707
00:54:45,669 --> 00:54:49,380
[voice-over] Are these "the Rights of Man?"

708
00:54:49,380 --> 00:54:52,290
Is this the liberty of human nature?

709
00:54:52,290 --> 00:54:59,409
The most savage four footed tyrants that range
unexplored Africa rise superior to these two-legged

710
00:54:59,409 --> 00:55:01,800
Parisian animals.

711
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:06,920
Narrator: The Revolution has taken an inalterable
turn.

712
00:55:06,920 --> 00:55:10,230
Even Robespierre understands that things have
gone to far.

713
00:55:10,230 --> 00:55:13,420
That the people cannot manage the Revolution
on their own.

714
00:55:13,420 --> 00:55:16,560
They need guidance, an iron hand.

715
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:23,320
And with the power of his words, the incorruptible
rises to the forefront as the man who will

716
00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:26,420
guide the Revolution.

717
00:55:26,420 --> 00:55:31,480
Robespierre had once pushed for a Constitutional
Monarchy.

718
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:35,660
Now he believes there is no longer room for
the king.

719
00:55:35,660 --> 00:55:38,830
A momentous decision is made.

720
00:55:38,830 --> 00:55:46,610
France will put its own king on trial.

721
00:55:46,610 --> 00:55:53,130
With the verdict a forgone conclusion, the
only debate left is punishment.

722
00:55:53,130 --> 00:55:59,350
The Moderates, the Girondin, call for sparing
Louis's life which isolates them in the convention.

723
00:55:59,350 --> 00:56:03,330
Man: The Girondin really crystallized as a
faction in the Convention over the debate

724
00:56:03,330 --> 00:56:08,280
over the king because while they certainly
wanted a republic, they were less sure that

725
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:09,800
the king should actually have to die.

726
00:56:09,800 --> 00:56:15,010
Narrator: But the Girondin are outnumbered
by the Jacobin call for blood.

727
00:56:15,010 --> 00:56:18,080
Man: Why did the Jacobin's want to kill the
king?

728
00:56:18,080 --> 00:56:23,830
I think they wanted to kill the king because
as Robespierre brilliantly said, you have

729
00:56:23,830 --> 00:56:25,990
to kill the king so the Revolution can live.

730
00:56:25,990 --> 00:56:29,600
If the king is right, then the Revolution
is wrong.

731
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:37,070
Man: In any system there had ever been, there's
only on penalty for treason and that is death.

732
00:56:37,070 --> 00:56:47,020
So, in this sense, if the king is guilty of
betraying the country in a time of war then

733
00:56:47,020 --> 00:56:51,320
the argument is that he must suffer the death
of a traitor.

734
00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:59,770
[gavel bangs] Narrator: On January 20, 1793,
Louis the 16th is declared guilty.

735
00:56:59,770 --> 00:57:01,960
The sentence is read.

736
00:57:01,960 --> 00:57:08,590
The king must die.

737
00:57:08,590 --> 00:57:11,720
That evening Louis is briefly reunited with
his family.

738
00:57:11,720 --> 00:57:18,060
Calm in the face of their tears, he promises
to return the next morning to say a final

739
00:57:18,060 --> 00:57:19,060
goodbye.

740
00:57:19,060 --> 00:57:20,900
He will not.

741
00:57:20,900 --> 00:57:27,490
He cannot bear his family's anguish and must
not weaken on the way to the guillotine.

742
00:57:27,490 --> 00:57:36,180
[crowd shouting] The next morning a closed
carriage brings Louis to the scaffold.

743
00:57:36,180 --> 00:57:49,500
And he stoically makes his way to the blade.

744
00:57:49,500 --> 00:57:59,120
♪ ♪ He attempts to give a speech.

745
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:05,590
[voice-over] I trust that my death will be
for the happiness of my people, but I grieve

746
00:58:05,590 --> 00:58:10,501
for France and I fear that she may suffer
the anger of the Lord.

747
00:58:10,501 --> 00:58:32,490
Narrator: But the guards drown him out with
the drum roll.

748
00:58:32,490 --> 00:58:45,250
At 10:22am, the man who once was king is no
more.

749
00:58:45,250 --> 00:58:50,710
[crowd cheering] In the temple prison Marie
hears the cannons fire heralding the death

750
00:58:50,710 --> 00:58:52,570
of her husband.

751
00:58:52,570 --> 00:58:55,150
She collapses in despair.

752
00:58:55,150 --> 00:59:01,300
[people laughing] The king's blood is spilt.

753
00:59:01,300 --> 00:59:03,720
The revolutionaries victorious.

754
00:59:03,720 --> 00:59:08,750
But the enemies of the Revolution will soon
claim a victory of their own.

755
00:59:08,750 --> 00:59:10,470
Their target?

756
00:59:10,470 --> 00:59:20,829
The man who was calling for so many heads
to roll, Jean-Paul Marat.

757
00:59:20,829 --> 00:59:25,690
♪ ♪ The execution of Louis the 16th marks
ultimate victory for the revolutionaries.

758
00:59:25,690 --> 00:59:34,150
A pivotal moment when a young nation, French
Republic, is literally born in blood.

759
00:59:34,150 --> 00:59:40,060
By the end of 1792, the radical Jacobin's,
believing the young Revolution is in danger

760
00:59:40,060 --> 00:59:45,270
of being sabotaged by traitors, are steering
the Revolution with more and more violent

761
00:59:45,270 --> 00:59:46,270
means.

762
00:59:46,270 --> 00:59:53,140
But the Girodin, representing the people of
the French countryside, want to slow the ascending

763
00:59:53,140 --> 00:59:57,340
violence for fear it will lead to Civil War.

764
00:59:57,340 --> 01:00:03,590
Their most vocal opponent, Jean-Paul Marat,
strikes back at the Girodin with furious tirades

765
01:00:03,590 --> 01:00:10,130
in his newspaper naming those he believes
are plotting against the Revolution.

766
01:00:10,130 --> 01:00:16,940
Marat who once called for the execution of
200 now demands 200,000 heads fall.

767
01:00:16,940 --> 01:00:23,971
Man: When you look at Marat's journalism it's
got one basic principle which has been more

768
01:00:23,971 --> 01:00:28,580
extreme than anybody else and called for people
to be killed.

769
01:00:28,580 --> 01:00:34,190
If you look at Marat's journalism all the
time, he'd say, if only we chopped off a few

770
01:00:34,190 --> 01:00:36,600
heads then things will be all right.

771
01:00:36,600 --> 01:00:41,630
And when things aren't all right if only chop
up a few more heads things will be all right.

772
01:00:41,630 --> 01:00:46,080
Suddenly people in Paris being to massacre
people and Marat is the first to claim credit

773
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:47,450
for that.

774
01:00:47,450 --> 01:00:52,580
Narrator: But the radical movement hasn't
taken hold everywhere.

775
01:00:52,580 --> 01:00:57,790
People outside of Paris are furious at the
spiraling brutality of the Jacobin's and call

776
01:00:57,790 --> 01:01:02,070
for an end to the bloodline.

777
01:01:02,070 --> 01:01:07,140
And the message reaches the lovely Charlotte
Corday, an unassuming yet determined young

778
01:01:07,140 --> 01:01:09,060
woman from the provinces.

779
01:01:09,060 --> 01:01:13,660
Man: Charlotte Corday is an average person
in the city of Caen.

780
01:01:13,660 --> 01:01:19,820
She's appalled by the killing that's going
on there and she perhaps rightly considers

781
01:01:19,820 --> 01:01:22,610
Marat one of the chief authors of that.

782
01:01:22,610 --> 01:01:25,930
He's been instrumental on the radical side
of the Revolution.

783
01:01:25,930 --> 01:01:30,550
His [speaking French] is still calling for
heads.

784
01:01:30,550 --> 01:01:39,540
Narrator: July 13, 1793, Charlotte Corday
arrives in Paris.

785
01:01:39,540 --> 01:01:44,810
She knows that the friend of the people has
an open-door policy at his home where he can

786
01:01:44,810 --> 01:01:50,100
be found at nearly any hour soaking in his
medicinal bath.

787
01:01:50,100 --> 01:01:54,980
Corday comes on the pretense that she carries
a list of traitors, those collaborating with

788
01:01:54,980 --> 01:01:59,820
foreign armies to put an end to the Revolution.

789
01:01:59,820 --> 01:02:04,090
Marat asks for the list promising Corday that
the traitors will be guillotined the next

790
01:02:04,090 --> 01:02:05,090
day.

791
01:02:05,090 --> 01:02:17,690
Man: Having given him that, she then produces
a poignard, a little stiletto and stabs him

792
01:02:17,690 --> 01:02:24,181
in the chest.

793
01:02:24,181 --> 01:02:26,490
[suspensful music] Narrator: The so called
'friend of the people' dies instantly.

794
01:02:26,490 --> 01:02:35,300
The angry voice of his newspaper silenced.

795
01:02:35,300 --> 01:02:43,159
Man: When the Revolution turns bloodthirsty,
it's very easy to say it was his fault.

796
01:02:43,159 --> 01:02:49,280
And that, of course, is what those who hated
him or feared him did say.

797
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:54,941
And that's one of the reasons why Charlotte
Corday actually murders him in 1793 because

798
01:02:54,941 --> 01:03:03,419
she regards him as responsible for many of
the bloody atrocities that have actually occurred.

799
01:03:03,419 --> 01:03:06,040
Narrator: Corday makes no attempt to escape.

800
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:10,110
At her trial, she is unrepentant.

801
01:03:10,110 --> 01:03:17,620
[male voice-over] What did you expect to achieve
in assassinating Marat?

802
01:03:17,620 --> 01:03:19,800
[Charlotte voice-over] Peace.

803
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:23,530
Now that he's dead, peace will return to my
country.

804
01:03:23,530 --> 01:03:32,480
Narrator: Charlotte Corday is swiftly executed
and her dream of peace dies along with her.

805
01:03:32,480 --> 01:03:37,230
She has killed Marat, the man, but she has
created Marat the legend.

806
01:03:37,230 --> 01:03:42,990
His death most famously depicted by the Revolutionary
painter Jacques-Louis David.

807
01:03:42,990 --> 01:03:46,120
Man: He became a martyr.

808
01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:49,600
He became a kind of almost religious figure.

809
01:03:49,600 --> 01:03:53,390
You had people offering a prayer that went
heart of Jesus; heart of Marat.

810
01:03:53,390 --> 01:03:58,010
You had these scenes at his funeral where
the bathtub in which he was murdered was sort

811
01:03:58,010 --> 01:04:00,800
of put up on the altar almost as if it was
a kind of crucifix.

812
01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:08,670
Woman: If you look at David's painting of
Marat's death, Marat's body is draped in precisely

813
01:04:08,670 --> 01:04:17,090
the same way as the body of Christ is depicted
in classic representations of the Pietá,

814
01:04:17,090 --> 01:04:19,090
the descent from the cross.

815
01:04:19,090 --> 01:04:25,900
So clearly there's an identification of Marat
with Christ, with Marat representing the new

816
01:04:25,900 --> 01:04:30,600
kind of god of the Radical Republic.

817
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:37,300
Narrator: Robespierre is envious of the adoration
lavished upon Marat, but ever the pragmatist

818
01:04:37,300 --> 01:04:42,740
he turns his attention to pressing matters
at hand.

819
01:04:42,740 --> 01:04:47,820
Because though Marat is dead, there are still
others calling for blood….

820
01:04:47,820 --> 01:04:49,110
royal blood.

821
01:04:49,110 --> 01:04:56,970
The Conciergerie, deaths dark antechamber,
eight months after the execution of her husband

822
01:04:56,970 --> 01:05:03,200
and just days after the killing of Charlotte
Corday, Marie Antoinette is jailed here in

823
01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:08,080
a hideous cell utterly alone.

824
01:05:08,080 --> 01:05:13,570
Man: One of the worst things that happens
to Marie after the execution of Louis is her

825
01:05:13,570 --> 01:05:15,670
children are ripped away from her.

826
01:05:15,670 --> 01:05:20,600
Her children were the most important thing
to her and she knew that her son was going

827
01:05:20,600 --> 01:05:26,350
to be subjected to terrible abuse to make
him forget that he was ever royal by these

828
01:05:26,350 --> 01:05:27,800
revolutionaries.

829
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:29,080
And it turns out she was right.

830
01:05:29,080 --> 01:05:36,720
It only took a couple years after that her
son died of terrible neglect and abuse.

831
01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:43,780
Narrator: The once vain Marie Antoinette is
38-years-old, but the Revolution has aged

832
01:05:43,780 --> 01:05:46,630
her beyond her years.

833
01:05:46,630 --> 01:05:52,680
[speaking French] [interpreter] Marie Antoinette
had been a very pretty woman, elegant until

834
01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:53,680
the Revolution.

835
01:05:53,680 --> 01:05:55,980
From 1788-89 she got thinner.

836
01:05:55,980 --> 01:05:57,880
Her hair went white.

837
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:01,180
She abandoned all her coquetry and her pretty
things.

838
01:06:01,180 --> 01:06:03,500
She became emaciated.

839
01:06:03,500 --> 01:06:08,560
When she arrived for her trial, she was unrecognizable.

840
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:14,409
Narrator: On October 15, Marie is put on trial.

841
01:06:14,409 --> 01:06:18,290
accused of high treason and depleting the
national treasure.

842
01:06:18,290 --> 01:06:25,399
[overlapping voices] The little evidence offered
is salacious and vengeful rumor.

843
01:06:25,399 --> 01:06:28,149
A final charge is added to the list.

844
01:06:28,149 --> 01:06:31,700
She is accused of incest with her son.

845
01:06:31,700 --> 01:06:34,419
At this, Marie stands to defend herself.

846
01:06:34,419 --> 01:06:39,980
[Marie voice-over] I appeal to the conscience
and feelings of every mother present to declare

847
01:06:39,980 --> 01:06:44,950
if there be one amongst you who does not shudder
at the idea of such horrors.

848
01:06:44,950 --> 01:06:50,181
[speaking French] [interpreter] And at that
moment there was a change in the mood because

849
01:06:50,181 --> 01:06:55,080
all the women felt they were implicated and
they realized they had gone too far with these

850
01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:56,150
accusations.

851
01:06:56,150 --> 01:07:04,980
Narrator: In a moment of public sympathy,
Marie hopes she will be deported to Austria.

852
01:07:04,980 --> 01:07:10,510
But her hopes are dashed when the sentence
is handed down.

853
01:07:10,510 --> 01:07:13,030
She is to meet the same fate as her husband.

854
01:07:13,030 --> 01:07:17,030
Man: Marie Antoinette was, in a sense, doomed
from the start.

855
01:07:17,030 --> 01:07:21,880
She was the symbol of this Austrian alliance
that had proved disastrous for France.

856
01:07:21,880 --> 01:07:25,800
She was, along with her husband, a laughing
stock because of the apparent sexual failure

857
01:07:25,800 --> 01:07:31,020
of their marriage and she was a symbol of
court culture at a time when people were coming

858
01:07:31,020 --> 01:07:35,950
to see the Court culture itself as something
completely corrupt and terrible for the country.

859
01:07:35,950 --> 01:07:39,860
So for all these reasons she was hated like
no queen of France had ever been hated before.

860
01:07:39,860 --> 01:07:40,860
She was loathed.

861
01:07:40,860 --> 01:07:41,860
She was reviled.

862
01:07:41,860 --> 01:07:49,730
Narrator: From her cell, Marie writes a final
letter bidding farewell to her children and

863
01:07:49,730 --> 01:07:53,200
family, promising to be brave.

864
01:07:53,200 --> 01:08:05,360
Her long gray hair is cut in preparation for
the blade.

865
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:15,110
Her hands are tightly bound.

866
01:08:15,110 --> 01:08:19,859
As she is escorted from the prison gates,
she expects a carriage.

867
01:08:19,859 --> 01:08:23,908
Instead, there awaits a common criminals cart.

868
01:08:23,908 --> 01:08:30,200
Man: She hopes when she's taken off to execution
that she's going to get the same treatment

869
01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:31,279
that the king got.

870
01:08:31,279 --> 01:08:35,510
Meaning she would be in an enclosed carriage
so that the crowd couldn't get her.

871
01:08:35,510 --> 01:08:40,399
But they just put her in an open wagon where
people would shout all sorts of things, horrible

872
01:08:40,399 --> 01:08:41,399
things.

873
01:08:41,399 --> 01:08:42,810
Horrible threats at her.

874
01:08:42,810 --> 01:08:50,139
[vocalizing] Narrator: The shadow of the sovereign
she once was, Marie Antoinette maintains a

875
01:08:50,139 --> 01:08:56,038
queenly dignity as she is paraded through
the streets of Paris.

876
01:08:56,038 --> 01:09:22,031
[bell tolling] [vocalizing] [bell tolling
continues] [vocalizing continues] Her name

877
01:09:22,031 --> 01:09:26,680
and the charges against her are read out.

878
01:09:26,680 --> 01:09:41,950
[bell tolling continues] [vocalizing continues]
The last Queen of France is dead.

879
01:09:41,950 --> 01:09:46,990
Several days later, following countless more
executions, a member of the National Convention

880
01:09:46,990 --> 01:09:52,279
notes the pointless waste of life as one after
another of his colleagues are lost to the

881
01:09:52,279 --> 01:09:53,658
guillotine.

882
01:09:53,658 --> 01:10:02,300
The Revolution is like Saturn devouring its
own children who says, [Danton sniffs] "Revolutions,

883
01:10:02,300 --> 01:10:04,990
my friend, cannot be made with rosewater."

884
01:10:04,990 --> 01:10:15,700
The bloodshed has only just begun.

885
01:10:15,700 --> 01:10:23,500
♪ ♪ September 1793, four years into the
Revolution and France is being torn apart.

886
01:10:23,500 --> 01:10:30,990
There is violent insurrection in the provinces
and huge losses in the faltering war against

887
01:10:30,990 --> 01:10:33,200
Europe.

888
01:10:33,200 --> 01:10:39,760
In one blistering defeat, the British Navy
takes the port city of Toulon.

889
01:10:39,760 --> 01:10:42,269
Europe is eating away at France's borders.

890
01:10:42,269 --> 01:10:45,190
Man: France, the single largest country in
Western Europe.

891
01:10:45,190 --> 01:10:47,320
It's the most populous country in Western
Europe.

892
01:10:47,320 --> 01:10:49,221
It has been the great military power.

893
01:10:49,221 --> 01:10:54,610
And, of course, when it entered into the Revolution
a lot of its traditional enemies and also

894
01:10:54,610 --> 01:10:58,720
a lot of its traditional allies, like a-ha,
this is our chance to not to carve a piece

895
01:10:58,720 --> 01:11:02,590
off of the actual territory of France, but
certainly to enrich ourselves at its expense

896
01:11:02,590 --> 01:11:03,890
and to weaken it permanently.

897
01:11:03,890 --> 01:11:07,030
Man: France is isolated in the whole of Europe.

898
01:11:07,030 --> 01:11:09,740
It's being blockaded by Britain.

899
01:11:09,740 --> 01:11:13,320
It's being attacked and invaded by Austria
and by Prussia.

900
01:11:13,320 --> 01:11:18,120
The people of Paris are seized by a fear that
the victory, the counter-revolution, will

901
01:11:18,120 --> 01:11:20,000
lead to a bloodbath.

902
01:11:20,000 --> 01:11:27,180
Narrator: Danton and Robespierre, the star
orators of the Convention, realize that they

903
01:11:27,180 --> 01:11:30,670
must boldly strike out to save the Revolution.

904
01:11:30,670 --> 01:11:36,060
They convinced their colleagues to institute
a menacing new form of martial law.

905
01:11:36,060 --> 01:11:40,750
[voice-over] It is time for all Frenchman
to enjoy sacred equality.

906
01:11:40,750 --> 01:11:47,890
It is time to impose this equality by signal
acts of justice upon traitors and conspirators.

907
01:11:47,890 --> 01:11:50,900
Make terror the order of the day.

908
01:11:50,900 --> 01:11:56,050
Narrator: Thus beings a new chapter in the
Revolution.

909
01:11:56,050 --> 01:12:01,740
A period of violent repression called the
terror.

910
01:12:01,740 --> 01:12:07,090
In a remarkable reversal, the Revolutionaries
suspend the new constitution. and all the

911
01:12:07,090 --> 01:12:09,820
rights it was to guarantee.

912
01:12:09,820 --> 01:12:12,820
Police spies scatter throughout the country.

913
01:12:12,820 --> 01:12:18,470
Anyone suspected of counter revolutionary
activity is rounded up, quickly tried and

914
01:12:18,470 --> 01:12:20,810
sent to the national razor.

915
01:12:20,810 --> 01:12:27,590
Woman: The reign of terror was conceived as
an emergency government.

916
01:12:27,590 --> 01:12:33,200
What they understood by terror was striking
terror into the hearts of the enemies of the

917
01:12:33,200 --> 01:12:41,530
Republic so that they would be either scared
straight as it were or arrested and disposed

918
01:12:41,530 --> 01:12:42,880
of.

919
01:12:42,880 --> 01:12:50,242
Narrator: The slightest suspicion can send
anyone to the scaffold.

920
01:12:50,242 --> 01:12:53,430
Politicians who say a kind word of the defunct
monarchy.

921
01:12:53,430 --> 01:12:56,050
Anyone who uses the formal monsieur or madam.

922
01:12:56,050 --> 01:13:01,020
instead of the new form of address: citizen.

923
01:13:01,020 --> 01:13:05,320
The air is fraught with paranoia.

924
01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:08,000
Neighbors denounce neighbors.

925
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:15,630
The incessant rolling of the death carts rattles
through the streets of Paris.

926
01:13:15,630 --> 01:13:21,710
Woman: Execution is absolutely hanging over
people's heads in the sense that we know in

927
01:13:21,710 --> 01:13:25,890
Paris there are police spies And there are
quite a few police spies everywhere standing

928
01:13:25,890 --> 01:13:31,120
in bread lines, listening to what the women
are saying, and turning them in if they don't

929
01:13:31,120 --> 01:13:32,300
like what they hear.

930
01:13:32,300 --> 01:13:36,430
You could be turned in not just for complaining
about the high price of bread, but you could

931
01:13:36,430 --> 01:13:42,030
be turned in supposedly even for not being
enthusiastic enough about where things were

932
01:13:42,030 --> 01:13:44,110
going and the successes of the Revolution.

933
01:13:44,110 --> 01:13:50,120
So, just about anything that would stand out
for commentary could get you into trouble.

934
01:13:50,120 --> 01:13:56,660
Narrator: The Convention sets up a Revolutionary
tribunal expediting trials and executions

935
01:13:56,660 --> 01:13:58,550
with ruthless efficiency.

936
01:13:58,550 --> 01:14:05,070
To consolidate power, they form a twelve man
council and call it the Committee of Public

937
01:14:05,070 --> 01:14:06,070
Safety.

938
01:14:06,070 --> 01:14:10,320
Man: Ultimately power had to be delegated
to a smaller group and that group became the

939
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:12,360
Committee of Public Safety.

940
01:14:12,360 --> 01:14:18,390
Ultimately it became twelve people who really
ruled France as a kind of collective dictatorship.

941
01:14:18,390 --> 01:14:25,260
Narrator: With his masterful words and revolutionary
vision, Robespierre soon emerges as the committee's

942
01:14:25,260 --> 01:14:28,560
fiercest guiding voice.

943
01:14:28,560 --> 01:14:34,039
And that voice is calling for more blood.

944
01:14:34,039 --> 01:14:39,760
Man: One of the paradoxes in Robespierre's
political life is that he very early on is

945
01:14:39,760 --> 01:14:41,890
a passionate proponent of the death penalty.

946
01:14:41,890 --> 01:14:45,910
And, of course, this is thrown back in his
face later when he becomes an equally passionate

947
01:14:45,910 --> 01:14:49,870
proponent of terror and the guillotine.

948
01:14:49,870 --> 01:14:56,200
He never particularly responds to that except
to say, 'Well, times have changed.'

949
01:14:56,200 --> 01:15:02,410
Narrator: The Revolution has hardened Robespierre.

950
01:15:02,410 --> 01:15:08,010
Once an impassioned supporter of a free press,
he now reinstates censorship, a vestige of

951
01:15:08,010 --> 01:15:09,730
the old regime.

952
01:15:09,730 --> 01:15:15,230
And with the church already under attack,
Robespierre stands idly by as one of the most

953
01:15:15,230 --> 01:15:21,880
radical revolutionaries, Jacques-René Hébert
proposes a new agenda, dechristianization.

954
01:15:21,880 --> 01:15:28,660
Man: When the crisis of the war, an internal
rebellion is at its height, people begin to

955
01:15:28,660 --> 01:15:32,170
say the root of all the problem is priests,
is religion.

956
01:15:32,170 --> 01:15:37,970
And what we've got to do if we're ever going
to be safe against the enemies of Revolution

957
01:15:37,970 --> 01:15:41,450
is destroy the power of the Catholic Church.

958
01:15:41,450 --> 01:15:45,740
Superstition, fanaticism, that's what religion
is all about and therefore what we have to

959
01:15:45,740 --> 01:15:48,960
do is stamp out this whole thing entirely.

960
01:15:48,960 --> 01:15:55,120
Narrator: Streets carrying the word 'Saint'
are renamed.

961
01:15:55,120 --> 01:16:00,260
Religious icons are destroyed and replaced
with tributes to the new Saint, Marat.

962
01:16:00,260 --> 01:16:06,160
Man: If the church came to seem simply the
enemy to the radical revolutionaries, churches

963
01:16:06,160 --> 01:16:08,440
and cathedrals are simply stripped of their
altars.

964
01:16:08,440 --> 01:16:10,550
The stained glass is smashed.

965
01:16:10,550 --> 01:16:11,910
Statues are smashed.

966
01:16:11,910 --> 01:16:14,500
The wealth of the church is to simply cart
it off.

967
01:16:14,500 --> 01:16:18,750
Of course, for European opinion, this was
something even more shocking than the death

968
01:16:18,750 --> 01:16:19,750
of the King.

969
01:16:19,750 --> 01:16:23,050
Narrator: Not even then Christian calendar
is spared.

970
01:16:23,050 --> 01:16:29,330
Years are numbered no longer from the birth
of Christ, but from September 1792, the overthrow

971
01:16:29,330 --> 01:16:31,260
of the monarchy.

972
01:16:31,260 --> 01:16:34,410
It is now year one.

973
01:16:34,410 --> 01:16:36,800
Months are renamed according to the seasons.

974
01:16:36,800 --> 01:16:39,200
July becomes Thermidor.

975
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:41,720
April: Floréal.

976
01:16:41,720 --> 01:16:44,920
Months are broken into three weeks of ten
days each.

977
01:16:44,920 --> 01:16:49,590
Man: The Revolutionary calendar was certainly
designed as a kind of weapon against Christianity,

978
01:16:49,590 --> 01:16:50,660
against Christian belief.

979
01:16:50,660 --> 01:16:54,410
Of course by having a 10-day week, you'd no
longer have Sundays so people wouldn't even

980
01:16:54,410 --> 01:16:56,110
know what day Sunday was anymore.

981
01:16:56,110 --> 01:16:57,110
That's what they hoped.

982
01:16:57,110 --> 01:17:02,550
Narrator: The Terror spreads across France.

983
01:17:02,550 --> 01:17:07,160
Insurrections are put down with a vicious,
unrelenting cruelty.

984
01:17:07,160 --> 01:17:14,050
In the city of Lyon, where counter-revolutionaries
are gaining ground, the Committee of Public

985
01:17:14,050 --> 01:17:16,780
Safety sets a brutal example.

986
01:17:16,780 --> 01:17:24,090
[overlapping voices] Hundreds of rebels are
tied up, marched into fields and mowed down

987
01:17:24,090 --> 01:17:26,010
all mass.

988
01:17:26,010 --> 01:17:33,730
[cannon fires] [bodies fall] A region called
the Vendée, in the west of France, has also

989
01:17:33,730 --> 01:17:38,820
become a counter revolutionary stronghold.

990
01:17:38,820 --> 01:17:46,100
Rebels and priests are tied together and packed
onto boats that are then mercilessly sunk.

991
01:17:46,100 --> 01:17:54,002
Up to a hundred thousand people are killed
in the Vendée alone.

992
01:17:54,002 --> 01:17:59,810
In Paris, the blade falls at an ever more
frantic pace.

993
01:17:59,810 --> 01:18:08,120
But the French armies are finally seeing victories
on the frontier.

994
01:18:08,120 --> 01:18:13,050
Under a brilliant young commander named Napoleon
Bonaparte, the French Army sends the British

995
01:18:13,050 --> 01:18:17,250
Navy into a demoralizing retreat at Toulon.

996
01:18:17,250 --> 01:18:21,120
The Revolution is on the rise.

997
01:18:21,120 --> 01:18:23,150
Robespierre is at the height of his power.

998
01:18:23,150 --> 01:18:29,550
He has taken on the enemies of the Revolution,
ensured its success through Terror.

999
01:18:29,550 --> 01:18:36,120
Man: For time, the Terror was very effective
as a means of getting the country together,

1000
01:18:36,120 --> 01:18:39,860
getting the government together and fighting
what was after all a war on several fronts.

1001
01:18:39,860 --> 01:18:41,590
On the Eastern front.

1002
01:18:41,590 --> 01:18:42,790
On the Northern front.

1003
01:18:42,790 --> 01:18:43,790
Against external enemies.

1004
01:18:43,790 --> 01:18:47,080
Also, a Civil War in the Vendée which is
the bloodiest of all.

1005
01:18:47,080 --> 01:18:51,150
Also, a Civil War against the supporters of
the Girondins and other Revolutionaries who

1006
01:18:51,150 --> 01:18:53,660
had turned against the government in Paris.

1007
01:18:53,660 --> 01:18:58,990
Narrator: The Terror has achieved its goals,
but it does not stop.

1008
01:18:58,990 --> 01:19:12,420
And it will not stop until it devours the
very man who unleashed it: Maximilien Robespierre.

1009
01:19:12,420 --> 01:19:17,810
With the blood of the Terror, Maximilien Robespierre
has rescued the Revolution.

1010
01:19:17,810 --> 01:19:23,390
An invigorated army is repelling attacks at
the border and internal dissent has been all

1011
01:19:23,390 --> 01:19:26,250
but crushed.

1012
01:19:26,250 --> 01:19:32,820
At the height of his success, Robespierre
dreams up a loftier goal yet, to use more

1013
01:19:32,820 --> 01:19:38,600
Terror to mold a new kind of society, a Republic
of Virtue.

1014
01:19:38,600 --> 01:19:42,820
Man: By virtue he means civic virtue.

1015
01:19:42,820 --> 01:19:44,550
It's an active principle for Robespierre.

1016
01:19:44,550 --> 01:19:48,670
For example, you cannot be a virtuous citizen
by simply obeying the laws and keeping your

1017
01:19:48,670 --> 01:19:49,670
head down.

1018
01:19:49,670 --> 01:19:54,720
You must actively be involved in the work
of the state and that includes, for Robespierre,

1019
01:19:54,720 --> 01:19:57,680
destroying the enemies of the state.

1020
01:19:57,680 --> 01:20:05,250
Narrator: On February 5, 1794, Robespierre
gives a speech outlining his philosophy.

1021
01:20:05,250 --> 01:20:10,490
[voice-over] Terror without virtue is disastrous.

1022
01:20:10,490 --> 01:20:13,610
But virtue without terror is powerless.

1023
01:20:13,610 --> 01:20:19,450
Man: He associates terror with virtue.

1024
01:20:19,450 --> 01:20:23,420
Terror at that moment becomes, in his thinking,
an instrument by which you create.

1025
01:20:23,420 --> 01:20:24,420
Virtue.

1026
01:20:24,420 --> 01:20:27,600
Narrator: But others disagree.

1027
01:20:27,600 --> 01:20:31,530
For Danton the Revolution is heading down
the wrong path.

1028
01:20:31,530 --> 01:20:36,950
He and his followers, the Dantonists, believe
it is time to bring the Terror to a halt.

1029
01:20:36,950 --> 01:20:41,710
It has served its purpose and is in danger
of feeding the revolutionaries into their

1030
01:20:41,710 --> 01:20:42,710
own fire.

1031
01:20:42,710 --> 01:20:47,500
Woman: By the spring of 1794, things are beginning
to go better.

1032
01:20:47,500 --> 01:20:52,700
The food situation is no longer so bad and
the war effort is going better and Danton

1033
01:20:52,700 --> 01:20:56,120
is basically saying we need to get a new footing
for the government.

1034
01:20:56,120 --> 01:20:59,289
We need to move to a kind of normalization.

1035
01:20:59,289 --> 01:21:01,870
Robespierre believes it's too soon.

1036
01:21:01,870 --> 01:21:07,280
Danton will start organizing a group to argue
that we should end the Terror.

1037
01:21:07,280 --> 01:21:09,680
Robespierre will see this as a direct threat
to the government.

1038
01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:13,910
He will not see it as just a difference of
opinion about the direction of policy.

1039
01:21:13,910 --> 01:21:16,120
He will see it as potential treason.

1040
01:21:16,120 --> 01:21:21,940
Narrator: And in Robespierre's Republic of
Virtue there is only one response to treason.

1041
01:21:21,940 --> 01:21:29,269
The Datonists are rounded up and quickly sentenced
to death.

1042
01:21:29,269 --> 01:21:34,850
Robespierre has sent thousands to the scaffold,
but is uneasy with the blood of execution.

1043
01:21:34,850 --> 01:21:40,490
He will not attend the beheadings of his former
friends and allies.

1044
01:21:40,490 --> 01:21:47,110
As he steps up to the blade, Danton shouts,
[voice-over] 'My only regret is that I'm going

1045
01:21:47,110 --> 01:21:52,930
before that rat, Robespierre!'

1046
01:21:52,930 --> 01:22:02,710
Narrator: With the Dantonists out of the way,
Robespierre launches France into an even bloodier

1047
01:22:02,710 --> 01:22:06,690
more horrifying period, The Great Terror.

1048
01:22:06,690 --> 01:22:11,960
Man: The Great Terror is the name given to
the last phase of the Terror in the spring

1049
01:22:11,960 --> 01:22:14,520
of 1794 into the summer of 1794.

1050
01:22:14,520 --> 01:22:19,530
It's the period at which the tempo of executions
really starts to increase in which the atmosphere

1051
01:22:19,530 --> 01:22:23,910
of paranoia particularly in Paris, but really
across the country starts to increase exponentially.

1052
01:22:23,910 --> 01:22:28,190
You can track the number of executions until
it's up to almost 800 per month in Paris.

1053
01:22:28,190 --> 01:22:34,700
Towards the end even more.

1054
01:22:34,700 --> 01:22:38,060
Paris's executioner is busier than ever.

1055
01:22:38,060 --> 01:22:45,510
But on June 6, 1794, the role of the carts
comes to a halt.

1056
01:22:45,510 --> 01:22:48,900
The guillotine hangs silent.

1057
01:22:48,900 --> 01:22:55,140
Robespierre has declared a new religious holiday,
The Festival of the Supreme Being.

1058
01:22:55,140 --> 01:23:02,610
He wants to replace the old Catholic God with
a new one, The Goddess of Reason.

1059
01:23:02,610 --> 01:23:06,500
Man: One thing about Robespierre is that he
never supported these atheist policies.

1060
01:23:06,500 --> 01:23:11,380
He believed that people needed a divinity
to believe in and he helped sponsor this cult

1061
01:23:11,380 --> 01:23:15,470
that was called the Cult of the Supreme Being
with this extraordinary tableau in Paris.

1062
01:23:15,470 --> 01:23:20,430
And I believe it was June of 1794, which had
choirs of people dressed in white singing.

1063
01:23:20,430 --> 01:23:24,510
You had this kind of paper mache mountain
that was built in the center of Paris and

1064
01:23:24,510 --> 01:23:27,910
then at the critical moment of the ceremony
you had Robespierre himself sort of emerging

1065
01:23:27,910 --> 01:23:31,050
on the top of this mountain, clad in a toga
and marching down.

1066
01:23:31,050 --> 01:23:33,680
And I think at this moment, a lot of people
felt, 'All right.

1067
01:23:33,680 --> 01:23:35,600
Who does he really think he is?

1068
01:23:35,600 --> 01:23:36,600
Does he think he's God here?

1069
01:23:36,600 --> 01:23:38,050
Does he think he's the King?'

1070
01:23:38,050 --> 01:23:43,320
Narrator: As the Great Terror spirals on,
Robespierre's colleagues see the Festival

1071
01:23:43,320 --> 01:23:48,120
of the Supreme Being as his departure from
the realm of reality.

1072
01:23:48,120 --> 01:23:54,990
Man: There are those who think that Robespierre
really has reached so extreme and so unreasonable

1073
01:23:54,990 --> 01:23:57,430
a position that they can't turn back.

1074
01:23:57,430 --> 01:24:02,180
That his fanaticism has somehow overtaken
him and there are those who think he's just

1075
01:24:02,180 --> 01:24:03,430
gone nuts.

1076
01:24:03,430 --> 01:24:09,030
Narrator: Once again Robespierre's suspicions
turned to those closest at hand.

1077
01:24:09,030 --> 01:24:14,720
On June 27, now the ninth of Thermidor, he
appears before the Convention and delivers

1078
01:24:14,720 --> 01:24:16,730
a speech of threats.

1079
01:24:16,730 --> 01:24:22,100
It is the last speech he will ever give.

1080
01:24:22,100 --> 01:24:25,070
Woman: Robespierre makes a tactical error.

1081
01:24:25,070 --> 01:24:29,430
He comes in and announces that he has a new
list of enemies of the Republic, but he won't

1082
01:24:29,430 --> 01:24:30,550
give the list.

1083
01:24:30,550 --> 01:24:33,850
Therefore, everyone is afraid they might be
on the list and when he comes back the next

1084
01:24:33,850 --> 01:24:38,370
day to give the list, he is arrested before
he can speak.

1085
01:24:38,370 --> 01:24:43,380
Narrator: An unexpected chorus of voices shouts
Robespierre down.

1086
01:24:43,380 --> 01:24:46,940
He is stunned into silence.

1087
01:24:46,940 --> 01:24:54,510
The deputies declare him an outlaw and immediately
remove him from the convention.

1088
01:24:54,510 --> 01:24:58,780
Robespierre and several of his associates
are taken to City Hall where they remain under

1089
01:24:58,780 --> 01:25:02,140
watch for the night.

1090
01:25:02,140 --> 01:25:04,890
Shots ring out in the early morning.

1091
01:25:04,890 --> 01:25:07,710
Guard's race to the second floor.

1092
01:25:07,710 --> 01:25:11,990
They fling the doors open to a grisly scene.

1093
01:25:11,990 --> 01:25:16,370
One of Robespierre's allies has thrown himself
from the window.

1094
01:25:16,370 --> 01:25:19,550
Another has taken a pistol to his head.

1095
01:25:19,550 --> 01:25:24,320
And Robespierre is found semi-conscious with
a bullet wound to the face.

1096
01:25:24,320 --> 01:25:32,190
His jaw shattered on an apparent suicide attempt.

1097
01:25:32,190 --> 01:25:37,090
Robespierre spends his last hours on the table
of the Committee of Public Safety in the very

1098
01:25:37,090 --> 01:25:44,620
room where he had piloted the Terror to its
hideously, bloody peak.

1099
01:25:44,620 --> 01:25:50,740
As he is ridiculed and insulted by his former
colleagues, Robespierre is unable to respond.

1100
01:25:50,740 --> 01:25:58,430
The Grand Master of Oratory has been silenced.

1101
01:25:58,430 --> 01:26:03,680
In the Conciergerie, where the last Queen
of France had preceded him, Robespierre is

1102
01:26:03,680 --> 01:26:06,300
prepared for the national razor.

1103
01:26:06,300 --> 01:26:12,140
His cellmate, the Revolutionary Saint-Just
points to a painting of the Rights of Man

1104
01:26:12,140 --> 01:26:19,780
and declares, ' At least we did that.'

1105
01:26:19,780 --> 01:26:25,550
Robespierre had spearheaded a Revolution and
changed the face of France.

1106
01:26:25,550 --> 01:26:30,570
He had reordered society and engineered a
bloody and tyrannical system to ensure its

1107
01:26:30,570 --> 01:26:33,890
success.

1108
01:26:33,890 --> 01:26:38,010
But he was destined to be one of its final
victims.

1109
01:26:38,010 --> 01:26:44,470
Man: It turns out that there is a great deal
of enthusiasm for ending the Terror.

1110
01:26:44,470 --> 01:26:46,050
Nobody can figure out how to do it.

1111
01:26:46,050 --> 01:26:49,410
And what turns out to be the case is that
the only thing that will end the Terror and

1112
01:26:49,410 --> 01:26:53,460
apparently the only thing they can all agree
upon is the fall of Robespierre.

1113
01:26:53,460 --> 01:27:02,249
[people cheering] Narrator: On July 27, 1794,
the guillotine comes down on the incorruptible

1114
01:27:02,249 --> 01:27:09,320
and the last blood of the Terror is shed.

1115
01:27:09,320 --> 01:27:15,160
The Terror dies with Robespierre, but the
Revolution does not.

1116
01:27:15,160 --> 01:27:21,720
The Rights of Man, democracy, the New Republic,
the accomplishments of the Revolution would

1117
01:27:21,720 --> 01:27:28,590
far outlive any of the revolutionaries themselves.

1118
01:27:28,590 --> 01:27:34,519
France would enter a period of uncertainty
frozen between fear of another Terror, or

1119
01:27:34,519 --> 01:27:41,130
worse yet, a return to the oppressive monarchy
that preceded it.

1120
01:27:41,130 --> 01:27:47,780
Five stagnant years would pass before power
once again consolidated in the hands of a

1121
01:27:47,780 --> 01:27:51,830
single man, Napoleon Bonaparte.

1122
01:27:51,830 --> 01:27:55,740
Historians disagree over the end of the Revolution.

1123
01:27:55,740 --> 01:27:59,100
Some believe it died with the rise of Napoleon.

1124
01:27:59,100 --> 01:28:04,130
Others maintain that the Revolution lived
on into the 19th century and beyond.

1125
01:28:04,130 --> 01:28:11,910
Woman: The Revolution was the first and enduring
model of a people taking its destiny in its

1126
01:28:11,910 --> 01:28:13,880
own hands.

1127
01:28:13,880 --> 01:28:21,330
The idea that the subjects of the oldest,
the most established, the most glorious monarchy

1128
01:28:21,330 --> 01:28:29,710
in Europe could decide to completely rewrite
their history was something that had extraordinary

1129
01:28:29,710 --> 01:28:31,150
resonance.

1130
01:28:31,150 --> 01:28:38,160
Narrator: The Revolution tore apart the old
feudal fabric of Europe and forever changed

1131
01:28:38,160 --> 01:28:41,070
the course of Western civilization.

1132
01:28:41,070 --> 01:28:46,830
Woman: The question raised by the French Revolution
is how much violence is justified in achieving

1133
01:28:46,830 --> 01:28:48,260
a better society?

1134
01:28:48,260 --> 01:28:55,080
Do people have the right to overthrow what
they see as an unjust system to replace it

1135
01:28:55,080 --> 01:29:00,220
with what they are convinced in their hearts
is a more just system?

1136
01:29:00,220 --> 01:29:03,260
How much violence is justified in doing that?

1137
01:29:03,260 --> 01:29:05,480
We still face this question today.

1138
01:29:05,480 --> 01:29:11,499
Narrator: As Robespierre and his colleagues
were driving their county into the future,

1139
01:29:11,499 --> 01:29:16,050
many of them must have wondered what the final
outcome would be.

1140
01:29:16,050 --> 01:29:21,240
More than 200 years after the birth of the
French Republic, the ghost of Robespierre

1141
01:29:21,240 --> 01:29:25,420
hangs over Revolutions from Russia to Vietnam;
China to Latin America.

1142
01:29:25,420 --> 01:29:34,630
The French experiments with democracy have
inspired models all over the world wherever

1143
01:29:34,630 --> 01:29:38,970
tyranny takes root the cry for justice is
eternal.

1144
01:29:38,970 --> 01:29:41,820
For liberty, equality, fraternity.

1145
01:29:41,820 --> 01:29:43,250
For Revoltuion. ♪ ♪.