With France's government sinking more deeply into debt, I became the king in 1774. Previous king had spend tons of money. Although the bankers refused to lend the government money to get out of the debt. I became a very weak leader due to the fact that I was indecisive, and paid little attention to my government advisers. I rather enjoyed to go hunting. I married my wife, Marie Antoinette, when I was only a teenager. She was from a royal family Austria. Since we had had a problem with Austria for a very long time, Marie was very unpopular. She spend a lot of money on masquerade balls and gambling theaters.
One big problem I had done was I put off dealing with emergencies until the French faced bankruptcy. After that, I tried to tax the aristocrats, and the second Estate forced me to call a meeting of the Estates General (assembly of representatives from all 3 Estates). I need approval for the tax reform. Then in 1788, I finally agreed to convene with the Estates General. This caused a massive amount of excitement, but it also raised questions about power, class, and privilege. The problem was that by agreeing, the aristocracy noticed that they could control me.The 3rd Estate (mostly Bourgeoisie) wanted to make changes to the government based on Enlightenment ideas. They wanted to make it so that each person got one vote instead of each class.
After that, I ordered them to stand by the original rules and not to disobey. They became more and more angry at that demand. They renamed themselves the National Assembly and passes laws and reforms in the name of the French people. They voted to establish the Nation Assembly, in effect proclaiming the end of the absolute monarchy and the beginning of a representative government (June 17, 1798) and this created the first part of the revolution. 3 days later, the 3rd estate was locked out of their meeting rooms at Versailles, so they decided to break into an indoor tennis court. They pledged to stay until they had drawn up a new constitution and their pledge was called the Tennis Court Oath. I decided to try to make peace with the 3rd Estate by yielding to the National Assembly's demand. So then, I ordered the nobles and clergy to join the National Assembly, and also stationed my mercenary army to Swiss guards in Paris (I did not trust the loyalty of soldiers).
Rumors spread saying that foreign troop were coming the defeat the French citizens. People gathered weapons to defend Paris. Then on July 14, a mob tried to get gun powered from the Bastille, a Paris prison. The mob overwhelmed the my soldiers and the Bastille fell to under the control of the citizens. The fall of the Bastille became a great symbolic act of revolution and it was celebrated yearly. After 6,000 Parisian women rioted over the cost of raising bread, their anger turned to the monarchy, they march on Versailles and killed two guards. they demanded that the monarch return to Paris, so Marie and I never saw Versailles again. For the next two years the Assembly argued over the constitution. The Assembly created a limited constitutional monarchy, and gave power to the Legislative Assembly, so I reluctantly approved in the year 1791. Me, Marie and my children were imprisoned in a stone tower. I became a common citizen and prisoner. The Jacobins Club convinced the National Convention to try me for treason and found me guilty, sentenced to death. I died on January 21, 1793 by the guillotine.
