Download LIBERAL NOBILITY

ACTIVITY SHEET
LF1 / 01
LIBERAL NOBILITY
COMPARING HISTORICAL INTERPRETATIONS
For some historians the liberal nobility were the primary catalysts of France’s revolution.
They were the group who first challenged the autocracy of the king and foisted the nation
into further rebellion. Contrast and compare the following views (supplemented by any
you have found yourself), then answer the questions on the following page.
Simon Schama
‘...the Notables were the first revolutionaries’. Citizens, 245
‘While the cahiers of the liberal nobility offered an alluring picture of a briskly
modernizing France that would consummate the great alterations by shaking
off restrictions like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, those of the Third
Estate wanted, very often, to return to the cocoon.’ Citizens, 322
George Rudé
‘…the real point of revolutionary outbreak was only reached when the separate and scattered actions of the peasants, urban craftsmen and bourgeois
journalists, lawyers and deputies merged in common struggle in July 1789.
Therefore the revolt nobilaire [aristocratic revolution] is presented as a
prelude or curtain-raiser, rather than as the opening act of the revolutionary
drama’. The Crowd in the French Revolution, 28.
William Doyle
‘For a group which constituted such a tiny proportion of the nation, in fact, the
nobility played a disproportionately large role in its cultural and intellectual
life; and in so doing they helped to elaborate many of the ideas which were
to inspire the revolutionaries of 1789 and the ensuing decade. In 1788, this
‘liberal’ minority, many of whom had their minds opened by what they had
seen while serving against the British in America, viewed the collapse of the
old government as an opportunity to introduce reforms and innovations that
they had been talking and dreaming about for years.’ Origins of the French
Revolution, 127.
© History Teachers’ Association of Victoria 2016. This activity sheet is available only to customers who have purchased the textbook Liberating
France 2nd edition (ISBN 9781875585182 — print; or 9780980831573— ebook) and have accessed the additional resources via www. historyed.
com.au. To purchase the textbook please visit www.htav.asn.au/shop
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ACTIVITY SHEET
LF1 / 01
1. Outline what each of these statements are saying about the role of the liberal nobility
in causing the revolution.
2. Identify any unflattering comments about the role of nobility as compared to the role
of the bourgeoisie, and vice versa.
3. Determine your view. Outline what role you believe the liberal nobility played in
causing the revolution.
© History Teachers’ Association of Victoria 2016. This activity sheet is available only to customers who have purchased the textbook Liberating
France 2nd edition (ISBN 9781875585182 — print; or 9780980831573— ebook) and have accessed the additional resources via www. historyed.
com.au. To purchase the textbook please visit www.htav.asn.au/shop
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