The terminology routinely used in discussing theFrench Revolution can be confusing. The same political faction may be referred to by different historians (or by the same historian in different contexts) by different names. During much of the revolutionary period, the French used anewly invented calendar that fell into complete disuse after the revolutionary era. Different legislative bodies had rather similar names, not always translated uniformly intoEnglish.
First Estate (Premièr État,le clergé ) – The clergy, both high (generally siding with the nobility, and it often was recruited amongst its younger sons) and low.
Second Estate (Second État,la noblesse) – The nobility. Technically, but not usually of much relevance, the Second Estate also included the Royal Family.
Third Estate (Tiers État) – Everyone not included in the First or Second Estate. At times this term refers specifically to thebourgeoisie, the middle class, but the Third Estate also included thesans-culottes, the labouring class. Also included in the Third Estate were lawyers, merchants, and government officials.
Fourth Estate is a term with two relevant meanings: on the one hand, the generally unrepresented poor, nominally part of the Third Estate; on the other, the press, as a fourth powerful entity in addition to the three estates of the realm.
Nobility (noblesse) – Those with explicit noble title. These are traditionally divided into
noblesse d'épée ("nobility of the sword"), the hereditary gentry and nobility who originally had to perform military service in exchange for their titles.
noblesse de robe ("nobility of the gown"), the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government, often referring to those who earned a title of nobility through generations of long periods of public service (bureaucrats and civil servants) or bought it (rich merchants).
noblesse de cloche ("nobility of the bell"), mayors and aldermen of certain cities under royal charter were considered gentry. Some mayors and aldermen held a noble title for life after a long period of service in office.
Noblesse de race, ("Nobility through breeding"), The "old" nobility, who inherited their titles from time immemorial.
Noblesse d’extraction, Nobility ofseize-quartiers ("sixteen Quarterings"); having pure noble or gentle ancestry for four generations.
Noblesse de lettres ("Nobility through letters patent"), The "new" nobility, from after circa 1400 AD.
Ci-devant nobility (literally "from before"): nobility of theancien régime (the Bourbon kingdom) after it had lost its titles and privileges.
Bourgeoisie (literally "Suburbanites") – Roughly, the non-noble wealthy and the middle classes: typically merchants, investors, and professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The dwellers in the smallbourgs ("walled towns and communities") outside the city.
TheConstitution of 1793, Constitution of 24 June 1793 (Acte constitutionnel du 24 juin 1793, orMontagnard Constitution (Constitution montagnarde) – Ratified, but never applied, due to the suspension of all ordinary legality 10 October 1793.
TheConstitution of the Year III, Constitution of 22 August 1795, Constitution of the Year III, or Constitution of 5 Fructidor – Establishes theDirectory.
Theancien régime – The absolute monarchy under the Bourbon kings, generally considered to end some time between the meeting of theEstates-General on 5 May 1789, and the liberal monarchical constitution of 6 October 1789.
Parlements – Royal Law courts in Paris and most provinces under theancien régime.
TheEstates-General, also known asStates-General (Etats-Généraux) – The traditional tricameral legislature of theancien régime, which had fallen into disuse since 1614. The convention of theEstates-General of 1789 is one of the events that led to the French Revolution. The Estates General, as such, met 5–6 May 1789, but reached an impasse because theThird Estate refused to continue to participate in this structure. The other two estates continued to meet in this form for several more weeks.
TheCommunes – The body formed 11 May 1789, by the Third Estate after seceding from the Estates General. On 12 June 1789, theCommunes invited the other orders to join them: some clergy did so the following day.
TheNational Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) – Declared 17 June 1789, by theCommunes. The clergy joined them June 19. This was soon reconstituted as...
TheNational Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante); also loosely referred to as the National Assembly – From 9 July 1789 to 30 September 1791, this was both the governing and the constitution–drafting body ofFrance. It dissolved itself in favour of:
TheLegislative Assembly (Assemblée Legislative) – From 1 October 1791, to September 1792, the Legislative Assembly, elected by voters with property qualifications, governed France under aconstitutional monarchy, but with the removal of the king's veto power on 11 July 1792, was a republic in all but name, and became even more so after the subsequent arrest of the Royal Family.
TheParis Commune – During the waning days of the Legislative Assembly and the fall of the Monarchy, the municipal government of Paris functioned, at times, in the capacity of a national government, as a rival, a goad, or a bully to the Legislative Assembly.
Further, theSections were directly democratic mass assemblies in Paris during the first four years of the Revolution.
The Provisional Executive Committee – Headed byGeorges Danton, this also functioned in August–September 1792 as a rival claimant to national power.
TheNational Convention, or simply The convention – First met 20 September 1792; two days later, declared a republic. The National Convention after the fall of theMontagnards (27 July 1794) is sometimes referred to as the "Thermidorian Convention". Three committees of the National Convention are particularly worthy of note:
TheCommittee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) – During theReign of Terror, this committee was effectively the government of France. After the fall of the Montagnards, the committee continued, but with reduced powers.
TheRevolutionary Tribunal (Tribunal révolutionaire) instituted in March–October 1793 to prosecute all threats to therevolutionary republic, was the effective agent of theComité de Salut Public's reign of terror in Paris until its dissolution on 31 May 1795.
TheDirectory (Directoire) – From 22 August 1795, the convention was replaced by the Directory, a bicameral legislature that more or less institutionalized the dominance of the bourgeoisie while also enacting a majorland reform that was henceforward to place the peasants firmly on the politicalright. The rightward move was so strong thatmonarchists actually won the election of 1797 but were stopped from taking power by thecoup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797), the first time Napoleon played a direct role in government. The Directory continued (politically quite far to theleft of its earlier self) until Napoleon took power in his own right, 9 November 1799 (or18 Brumaire), the date that is generally counted as the end of the French Revolution. The Directory itself was the highest executive organ, comprising five Directors, chosen by the Ancients out of a list elected by the Five Hundred; its legislative was bicameral, consisting of:
TheCouncil of Ancients (Conseil des Anciens), or simply the Ancients or the Senate.
TheConsulate (Consulat) – The period of the consulate (December 1799 – December 1804) is only ambiguously part of the revolutionary era. The government was led by three individuals known as Consuls. From the start, Napoleon Bonaparte served as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the Republic. In May 1802, aplebiscite made Bonaparte First Consul for Life. In May 1804 theEmpire was declared, bringing the Revolutionary era to a yet more definitive end.
Thetribunat was one of the legislative chambers instituted by the Constitution of year VIII, composed of 100 members nominated by the Senate to discuss the legislative initiatives defended by the government'sOrateurs in the presence of theCorps législatif; abolished in 1807
Jacobins – strictly, a member of theJacobin club, but more broadly any revolutionary, particularly the more radical bourgeois elements.
Feuillants – Members of theClub des Feuillants, result of a split within the Jacobins, who favoured a constitutional monarchy over arepublic.
Republicans – Advocates of a system without a monarch.
TheGironde – Technically, a group of twelve republican deputies more moderate in their tactics than the Montagnards, though arguably many were no less radical in their beliefs; the term is often applied more broadly to others of similar politics. Members and adherents of the Gironde are variously referred to as "Girondists" ("Girondins") or "Brissotins"
The Mountain (Montagne) – The radical republican grouping in power during theReign of Terror; its adherents are typically referred to as "Montagnards".
Thermidorians or Thermidoreans – The more moderate (some would say reactionary) grouping that came to power after the fall of the Mountain.
Society of the Panthéon, also known asConspiracy of the Equals, and as the Secret Directory – faction centered aroundFrançois-Noël Babeuf, who continued to hold up a radical Jacobin viewpoint during the period of the Thermidorian reaction.
Émigrés – This term usually refers to those conservatives and members of theelite who left France in the period of increasingly radical revolutionary ascendancy, usually under implied or explicit threat from the Terror. (Generically, it can refer to those who left at other times or for other reasons.) Besides theémigrés having their property taken by the State, relatives ofémigrés were also persecuted.
Corvée – A royal or seigneurial tax, taken in the form of forced labour. It came in many forms, includingcompulsory military service and compulsory tillage of fields. Most commonly, the term refers to a royalcorvée requiring peasants to maintain the king's roads.
Cockades (cocardes) were rosettes or ribbons worn as a badge, typically on a hat.
Tricolour cockade – The symbol of the Revolution (from shortly after the Bastille fell) and later of therepublic. Originally formed as a combination of blue and red—the colours of Paris—with the royal white.
Green cockade – As the "colour of hope", the symbol of the Revolution in its early days, before the adoption of the tricolour.
White cockade – Bourbon monarchy and French army.
Black cockade – Primarily, the cockade of the anti–revolutionary aristocracy. Also, earlier, the cockade of theAmerican Revolution.
Other countries and armies at this time typically had their own cockades.
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Constitution civile du clergé) – 1790, confiscated Church lands and turned the Catholic clergy into state employees; those who refused out of loyalty to Rome and tradition were persecuted; those who obeyed were excommunicated; partially reversed by Napoleon'sConcordat of 1801.
Cult of Reason,La Culte de la raison – Official religion at the height of radical Jacobinism in 1793–4.
"Juror" ("jureur"), Constitutional priest ("constitutionnel") – a priest or other member of the clergy who took the oath required under the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
"Non–juror", "refractory priest" ("réfractaire"),"insermenté" – a priest or other member of the clergy who refused to take the oath.
Assignats – notes, bills, and bonds issued as currency 1790–1796, based on the noble lands appropriated by the state.
Cahier – petition, especiallyCahiers de doléances, petition of grievances (literally "of sorrow").
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen – 1789; in summary, defined these rights as "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression."
Flight to Varennes – The Royal Family's attempt to flee France June 20–21, 1791.
The "Great Fear" – Refers to the period of July and August 1789, when peasants sacked the castles of the nobles and burned the documents that recorded their feudal obligations.
guillotine – name, originating during this period, of an execution-by-decapitation machine.
Lettre de cachet – Under theancien régime, a private, sealed royal document that could imprison or exile an individual without recourse to courts of law.
"Left" andright" – These political terms originated in this era and derived from the seating arrangements in the legislative bodies. The use of the terms is loose and inconsistent, but in this period "right" tends to mean support for monarchical and aristocratic interests and the Roman Catholic religion, or (at the height of revolutionary fervor) for the interests of the bourgeoisie against the masses, while "left" tends to imply opposition to the same, proto-laissez faire free marketeers and proto-communists.
Terror – in this period, "terror" usually (but not always) refers to State violence, especially the so–calledReign of Terror.
Reactionary – coined during the revolutionary era to refer to those who opposed the revolution and its principles and sought aRestoration of the monarchy.
September Massacres – the September 1792 massacres of prisoners perceived to be counter–revolutionary, a disorderly precursor of the Reign of Terror.
Tricoteuse ("Knitter") - The term for the old ladies who would knit while watching the guillotine executions of enemies of the state. They were spies for thesans-culottes and often whipped up the crowds into a fervor.
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Furet, Francois; et al., eds. (1989).A Critical Dictionary of the French Revolution. Harvard University Press.ISBN0674177282.
Hanson, Paul R. (2004).Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution.
Ross, Steven T. (1998).Historical Dictionary of the Wars of the French Revolution.
