Meanwhile, the Third Estate’s name change to ‘National Assembly’ appeared as a threat of their anticipation of greater power, thus an anticipation of depleting power of their despotic leader. The emergence of this seemingly greater force with daily increasing numbers of people led to further allegiances with the National Assembly rather than the King. However, they had so far done nothing to physically challenge the King and it was instead what the King did that appeared as opposition to the National Assembly. When the King alerted to the opposition the National Assembly represented, he tried to take the lead by calling for a royal session with the three estates in an attempt to break the deadlock. Even if the session had tried to be effective, it appeared as too late to the rest of the country and a definite appearance of loss of control. However, in doing this, the room chosen to house the royal session was that used by the National Assembly. The National Assembly invariably saw this as the King trying to get rid of them and led to the taking of the Tennis Court Oath by the third estate, a vow not to separate and to create a constitution for France. Although not yet created, a constitution would mean the end of absolutism, absolutely. Therefore, this big step and cause of the collapse was provoked by the head of absolutism within France himself.
However the session did take place. The king appeared, for the last time with all his Royal Trappings. He was under pressure and therefore angry. The pressure was relating to the reforms he was to put forward and received from Necker and his wife and brothers who had opposing views. However, the overall feeling of the Royal Session was too little too late. The reforms put forward may have at one time won over members of the Third Estate but now they didn't want to know, especially as other key issues were not changed such as the third estate’s recent name change and the decision to retain many privileges for some. Following this was a movement of members of other estates to join the now illegally named National Assembly. It appeared that the king had failed. Demonstrations in Paris supported the new assembly and plots were begun to destroy the apparently threatening National Assembly. It was even rumoured that Paris was to be starved of grain to prevent them assisting the National Assembly. All of this confusion and deserters reflected a lack of control of the king and also a lack of trust that his citizens had for him which was another step to the complete break down of the absolute monarchy as within an ideal absolute monarchy, there would be no questioning the king’s power, especially not mass numbers deserting him. He would have no need to starve citizens of his capital city in order that they cooperated.
The next event causing absolutism collapse was that of the dismissal of Necker. Necker was associated with revolution and his dismissal seemed to represent to the citizens that Louis was cracking down on change. There was a panic that he was going to dissolve the assembly so the poorer citizens of Paris began to arm themselves and the troops that Louis had called did nothing but watch the mounting disorder. This loss of power over his army definitely indicated the end for Louis, especially when the National Guard was formed in opposition to control Paris. At this point showing that the absolutist’s military power had ended but the constitutionals had begun and was more powerful, especially with Lafayette as the first commander.
During this wave of Parisian violence came the fall of the Bastille where the mob gained arms from this prison raid. Much violence was incurred and several political prisoners freed. The governor however was captured decapitated and his head paraded on a pole, and this was a significant event. The significance was as before the King’s lack of control that he could do nothing at all especially as he had lost his troops. This led to an official recognition from the king that he had fallen from absolute power as he made an appearance in Paris wearing the revolutionary cockade in his hat and reinstated Necker as he was requested to and accepted the new Paris government, the National Guard and National Assembly, all opposition to absolute power now made official and dissolving absolutism. The crowd was hostile and this aversion to the king in Paris spread to other towns and cities were vestiges of support for the authority of the king fast disappeared. Then came the August Decrees where in one night, without the king present, all the privileges and taxes and unfairness of the ancien regime were dissolved. Feudal rights and system was abolished, as were tithes, the privileges and purchase of. Equality was promised and the old structure was destroyed and the way made clear for a new, national system of administration. This new system did not need an absolute king so therefore the absolutism had died along with all the other reforms. The declaration of the rights of man that followed laid down a constitution which featured a constitutional monarch with such little powers in comparison to the former position but the King remained silent to all new rules set forth, perhaps in fear.
The last altering event in the time period was the October Days that occurred in Paris. The storming of Versailles by 7000 women and the National Guard who were angry and violent was significant of stamping down on people who supported the Bourbons and old system and showing the power of the working class if even women could cause such outcry. The result of this was Louis succumbing to all the decrees and the declaration of the rights of man. He also agreed to move with his family to Paris to be watched carefully. He was at the mercy of the Parisians. There followed a spread of the Assembly and creation of a more National national guard in defence of a revolution.
Another large factor that did not specifically occur during this five month period was that of the economic crisis of 1789. The crown was 112 million livres in debt due to the crown’s dependence on credit to finance wars and the costs of running the administration and court and maintaining royal patronage. 16th August, 1788 was the date that the royal government declared bankruptcy and therefore gave into the demand to call an estates general, a declaration of lost power, therefore linking the economic crisis evident to the citizens to the breakdown of absolute power.
However, although these reasons all add up, there were other factors that had built up before this 5 month period that may have contributed to the collapse of the absolute monarchy. The time period, so-called the ‘enlightenment’ was a time dominated by the French as the main nationality for the thinkers at this time. It was in the salons of Paris that much of the questioning and arguing took place. The influence of the enlightenment then started to extend to the educated bourgeoisie. Even the artisans and workers, particularly in Paris were encouraged to question authority by the many pamphlets and cartoons satirising in particular the monarchy, contributing to a lack of respect. Due to this it became fashionable to be sceptical and questioning of government and the Enlightenment undermined the divine right on which his system of government was based therefore fundamentally increasing the number of people who would support a collapse of absolutism if offered due to the theoretical reasoning.
1789 had been an eventful year. At the beginning of it, in January, Abbe Seiye wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘what is the third estate’. In it he detailed how important the third estate were and how little they counted for. He concluded with saying that the third estate needed to obtain a constitution, an end to the inequality of the ancien regime and should take control of affairs itself. They had now done that and the only way they could have done that or reached a position where it was felt they had power was by reducing the absolute power that the King had had. This had been done; the king was powerless, vetoes and slight privileges aside. So in short, the absolute monarchy in France crumbled before being completely dead between May and October 1789 because the third estate had followed the Abbe Seiye’s advice and claimed power for themselves and had done this by uniting and slowly claiming the power the king was losing.
