Here's a few facts about the French Revolution:
Before the Revolution
- Before the Revolution started in 1789, a loaf of bread cost a week’s salary for the peasant class.
- In 1789, the peasantry paid taxes to nobles, the king, and the church, while the aristocrats barely payed taxes.
- The country was bankrupt.
- The cost of France helping with the American Revolution was a contributing factor to its bankruptcy.
During the Revolution
- Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France before the Revolution, never said “Let them eat cake.”
- Marie Antoinette was Austrian born.
- When the Bastille was stormed, only seven prisoners were being held there.
- Most of the France’s aristocrats were ensconced in Versailles and ignoring the famine and economic troubles until a mob of peasant women stormed the castle and demanded bread in August of 1789.
- The ideals behind the French Revolution were so looked down on by other European monarchies that France ended up fighting Prussia, Britain, Spain and Austria all while having their internal revolution.
- The French Revolutionary Government adopted its own calendar based on tens. Each week had ten days, each day had ten hours, each hour had 100 minutes, and each minute had 100 seconds. This meant the peasants who got one day a week off now had to work nine days before their break.
I've written a novel set during the The French Revolution. Actually, I've written three of them, but the second is releasing in a little over a week. The first question people usually ask me after they find out where my novels are set is "Why the French Revolution?"
Oddly enough, I don't find that question hard to answer, and now you know why.
Do any of the facts mentioned above surprise you? If so, share which ones in the comments below. I'll be giving away one copy of my novel The Soldier's Secrets, to one commenter below.
Everything Jean Paul did was in the name of liberty. Even so, he can never forgive himself for his actions during France's revolution. Now a proud auburn-haired woman has come to his home seeking work and has found her way into his reclusive heart. But when she uncovers the truth, his past could drive them apart….