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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 1 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 2