How did abolishing the monarchy change France?
From the execution of Louis XVI to the defeat of Napoleon III, the falls of the monarchy in France changed the face of the nation.
Image: Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix (1830) | Public Domain
The French Revolution of 1789 is perhaps the most famous part of French history – both for the high hopes that inspired it and the Reign of Terror that followed it.
Indeed, this dramatic toppling of the monarchy is still remembered each year on Bastille Day. That’s because the storming of the Bastille, a royal prison, represented the people’s victory over kingly oppression and the old way of French life.
However, that revolution was not the end of royal rule in France. After Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, the French state swayed from republicanism to monarchy or empire several more times until the Third Republic was established in 1870.
France’s first abolition of the monarchy, marked by the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, had significant impacts on life in France. So did the deposition of Napoleon III, its very last monarch.
Principles of the old monarchy
In order to understand how France changed when it became a republic, we have to understand life in France under the ‘ancien régime’ – the nation’s social system during the monarchy of Louis XVI and his forebears.
One important idea was the hierarchy of the three estates, into which all people were divided. The first estate was composed of the clergy – members of the Catholic church. The second estate was the nobility, and the third estate was the commoners.
Another core principle of the old royal society was the idea of divine right, meaning that the king was chosen by God and his will could not be contradicted. In practice, though, the first and second estates also had power and influence. The third estate had very little.
Effects of the first abolition of the monarchy
Naturally, the ending of the ‘ancien régime’ meant dramatic changes in the estates system.
Much of the power and privilege in the hands of the first two estates was removed. Rather than adhering to the philosophy that one man’s will was divinely ordained, the revolution held the motto of ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’.
Moreover, the state religion, Catholicism, was replaced first by the Cult of Reason and then by the Cult of the Supreme Being. As the Catholic religion and the ‘ancien régime’ were so intertwined, laws prohibiting the old religion also represented a severing of ties to the monarchy.
Another significant development from the sea of changes in society was a reduction in the archaic inefficiency of government. A bureaucracy was established, and this was an improvement that would more or less stick.
The role of Napoleon Bonaparte
Some of the Revolution’s social changes were partly undone soon after they were implemented. When Napoleon came to power, founding the First Empire of France, he endorsed the return of Catholicism through the Concordat of 1801 – although he did not restore the First Estate to its previous power.
Napoleon also bestowed aristocratic titles as rewards, but he did not revive the Second Estate as it once was. Importantly, the Revolution had taken and sold land belonging to the First and Second Estates, thus changing the physical landscape of France.
Moreover, Napoleon continued to improve the effectiveness of his government’s administration as he developed its civil service.
In a way, Napoleon’s own rule, too, was produced by the fall of the monarchy. If a strong king still ruled France, there would have been less opportunity for a successful general to seize power.
Effects of the final abolition of the monarchy
In 1870, the defeat of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, led to the establishment of the Third Republic. This was the true ending of monarchy in France.
It could have led to a strong rejection of traditional society, similar to the changes implemented after the French Revolution. Indeed, in 1871, an insurrection called the Commune of Paris took control of the city for two months, attempting to implement measures including laws against child labour and the use of the old Revolutionary calendar.
However, the Commune of Paris failed. The arrests, executions and deportations of its members meant that more radical voices had less influence in the development of the new government.
The Third Republic did see some reforms that echoed those implemented after the monarchy’s very first fall. The second estate, the nobility, was abolished forever. In 1905, the separation of church and estate became law in France. The estates system and the divine right of kings were gone for good.
Last strains of monarchism
While the first fall of the monarchy in 1789 was a vehement rejection of royalty, the close of the French Empire in 1870 was much quieter. Napoleon III was not executed as Marie Antoinette was. He died of natural causes in 1873 while exiled in England.
Early in the Third Republic, France even considered asking either the grandson of King Charles X or the grandson of King Louis Philippe I to take the throne. However, since monarchists were divided in their support for the two candidates, the nation ended up choosing neither of them. It seemed the demise of monarchy in France had not entirely turned its people against the idea of kings.
