France History

My first two weeks of class enlightened me a lot. The French royals that existed in the old order before the revolution which resulted in democracy had a strong rapport with the catholic church which was then a very strong institution in France; one of the largest owners of land and were exempted from paying money to the government.

Above is a photo of the Cambrai cathedral in the 11th century. The church was recognized and the government were recognized as one, during the revolution one of the acts that stood out was the protestant movement. You know the way paying tithes to the church is voluntary though a good christian would regularly do so? The church got tithes regularly even from the peasants who were starving at the time and it was clear that it wasn't a the voluntary form of paying tithes but oppression.

Till to date as I have come to learn the French are completely religion no pun intended. They are a proud secular country. Below is a  picture of  what was happening during the revolution.

Another interesting bit is that the revolution included the french national anthem Le Marseillaise. The anthem came about as the angry citizens of France who had had enough of the aristocrats, matched from Marseilles to Paris which is quite a distance chanting the song which ends on the note that the impure bloods ( the royals) should end up flowing through the trenches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g

On reaching the city they attacked the palace and proceeded to capture the royals who had not managed to escape yet and prepared to hang them oh I forgot to mention one of the rebel leaders had come up with the idea of hanging the royals in a guillotine. Maria Antoinette the one famously rumored to have been obsessed with cake, was hanged by the guillotine.