478. The French Revolution: Showdown in Versailles (Part 4)

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 18.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 1788, a monstrous storm swept across France, wiping out the crucial wheat harvest. With the nation already in the throes of political and financial calamity, this meteorological disaster - followed by an apocalyptic drought, and latterly the cruellest winter France had ever known - exacerbated the growing sense of catastrophe. With bankruptcy declared that August and unemployment record high, all eyes turned to Jacques Necker, the newly appointed finance minister. However, the amalgamation of political and financial crisis, the cultural atmosphere of virtue and passion, and the rising social unrest had already contrived to destabilise the situation permanently. By March there was food rioting, law and order had broken down in the countryside, and in April the bloodiest day of the revolution so far erupted in Paris. At last, in June, the Estates General met for the first time since 1614-15, and the mounting pressure to replace the traditional Three Estates with a single assembly resolved itself into the formation of the National Assembly; a body determined to take the fate of the nation into its own hands. With the elements gathering against them, what will Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette do? Join Dominic and Tom as they recount the dramatic series of calamities that unravelled the nation and spiralled into the infamous Tennis Court Oath of June 1789, and the Revolution itself. From natural disasters and bread riots, and financial ruin, to political instability, Dr Guillotin, and disreputable republican firebrands…. _______ *The Rest Is History LIVE in the U.S.A.* If you live in the States, we've got some great news: Tom and Dominic will be performing throughout America in November, with shows in San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston and New York. *The Rest Is History LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall* Tom and Dominic, accompanied by a live orchestra, take a deep dive into the lives and times of two of history’s greatest composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Tickets on sale now at TheRestIsHistory.com _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for listening to the rest is history.
0:02.2	For weekly bonus episodes, add free listening, early access to series and membership
0:07.3	of our much-love chat community, go to the rest is history.com and join the club. That is, the rest is History. is History.com.
0:15.0	This episode is brought to you by EDF.
0:21.0	Now throughout history, there have been those who decided to make changes, some big
0:26.2	and some small that affected the future of our planet. For example, the way that EDF, Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon
0:36.7	electricity, helped to keep future energy costs down for everyone to help save cash and carbon.
0:44.0	To join the company generating more British zero carbon electricity than anybody else,
0:50.0	visit EDF Energy.com and Switch Today.
0:53.7	UK Fuel Mix Disclosure Information published by the government department D-E-S-N-Z
0:59.2	recognizes electricity from wind, solar and nuclear fuel produces zero carbon. They hit at 7 o'clock in the morning of the 13th of July, hit hard,
1:19.2	Hailstone's big as eggs.
1:21.1	According to some reports, they were as big as bottles, chunks of ice as hard as diamonds,
1:26.4	weighing a pound and a half. A hailstone that was weighed in one village outside Paris came
1:31.5	to eight pounds. One weighed in another village, came to ten.
1:36.0	The stones broke windows, smashed tiles on roofs, raised fields, destroyed vineyards,
1:41.8	strip bare fruit trees, struck horses dead, and even killed some
1:46.0	peasants who were preparing to harvest what had promised to be an excellent crop of
1:50.7	wheat. That is Robert Danton in his wonderful book, The Revolutionary
1:54.8	Temper, and he is describing the storm that hit France in the summer of 1788.
2:01.8	And Dominic, we do love a storm a gathering storm on the rest
2:05.8	is history but I mean you could argue that this is possibly the most significant
	...

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