70 free French Revolution trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
French Revolution trivia for history buffs, students cramming for an exam, and anyone who has ever wondered what actually happened between the storming of the Bastille and Napoleon's coup. The quiz opens in 1789 with the Estates-General, the Tennis Court Oath and the seven prisoners the Bastille was really holding, then follows the National Assembly through the August Decrees, the women's march on Versailles and the confiscation of church land. From there it tracks the fall of the monarchy: the flight to Varennes, the Champ de Mars massacre, the attack on the Tuileries and the trial and execution of Louis Capet. The middle rounds cover the Reign of Terror in detail: the Law of Suspects, the drownings at Nantes, the Cult of the Supreme Being, and the day Robespierre's voice failed him. Later questions take in the Directory, the Conspiracy of the Equals, the coup of 18 Brumaire, plus the symbols the Revolution left behind: the tricolour cockade, the Phrygian cap, La Marseillaise, the republican calendar and the guillotine, whose last use in France came as late as 1977. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our Napoleon Bonaparte and France quizzes.
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Q 01When the Estates-General convened in May 1789, it was the body's first meeting since which year?
1614
The 175-year gap meant nobody alive had seen the three estates sit, so even the voting rules had to be relitigated.
Q 02Whom did Louis XVI dismiss as chief minister on 11 July 1789, helping trigger the Bastille unrest?
Necker
The popular Swiss banker was sacked on the advice of Marie Antoinette and the king's brother; Paris read it as the prelude to a crackdown.
Q 03Whose 1786 reforms, including a universal land tax, did the Assembly of Notables reject?
Calonne
The notables insisted only an Estates-General could approve new taxes, which is how the fateful assembly ended up being summoned.
Q 04Abbé Sieyès's influential 1789 pamphlet posed which question in its title?
What Is the Third Estate?
His answer was 'everything', and the pamphlet argued the commons should sit alone as a National Assembly.
Q 05On 17 June 1789 the deputies of the commons declared themselves to be what body?
the National Assembly
They also declared all existing taxes illegal, a direct challenge to royal authority.
Q 06Locked out of their hall on 20 June 1789, the deputies swore their famous oath in what kind of venue?
an indoor tennis court
They vowed not to disperse until France had a constitution; the hall had been closed to prepare for a royal session nobody had told them about.
Q 07Only one deputy present refused to sign the Tennis Court Oath. Who was he?
Joseph Martin-Dauch
Martin-Dauch would only carry out decisions made by the king, and Jacques-Louis David's famous painting shows him hunched in the corner.
Q 08Rumoured to be full of prisoners, how many was the Bastille actually holding on 14 July 1789?
7
Four forgers, a lunatic, a failed assassin and a deviant nobleman; the fortress mattered as a symbol and an arsenal, not a prison.
Q 09Who was the governor of the Bastille, killed and paraded on a pike after surrendering the fortress?
Bernard-René de Launay
The fighting killed 83 attackers; de Launay was dragged to the Hôtel de Ville and murdered by the crowd.
Q 10After the fall of the Bastille, whom did Louis XVI appoint to command the new National Guard?
Marquis de Lafayette
The hero of the American war took the post; Jean-Sylvain Bailly simultaneously became head of the new Paris Commune.
Q 11What is the wave of rural panic and agrarian revolt across France in summer 1789 called?
the Great Fear
Peasants formed militias against imagined brigands and burned châteaux, prompting the Assembly to abolish feudalism within weeks.
Q 12The August Decrees of 1789 are best remembered for abolishing what?
feudalism
Over a quarter of French farmland had owed feudal dues, and church tithes went at the same time.
Q 13The women who marched on Versailles on 5 October 1789 were primarily protesting what?
high food prices
Some 7,000 women marched, followed by 15,000 National Guardsmen, and returned with the royal family in tow.
Q 21The Le Chapelier Law of June 1791 suppressed what?
guilds and workers' organisations
It formed part of a winter of measures aimed at disarming popular radicalism, alongside limits on petitions and posters.
Q 22On which country did France declare war in April 1792, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars?
Austria
The first campaign in the Austrian Netherlands went badly, and defeats fed the panic that toppled the monarchy that August.
Q 23Which royal residence did National Guardsmen and fédérés storm on 10 August 1792, effectively ending the monarchy?
the Tuileries
Many of the Swiss Guards defending it were killed; the deputies voted to 'temporarily relieve the king' shortly after 11 am.
Q 14From October 1789 Louis XVI's title changed to what, signalling he ruled a people rather than a territory?
King of the French
The change signalled that he now ruled by the will of the people rather than over a territory by divine right.
Q 15What was the name of the paper currency backed by confiscated church property?
assignats
Printed in ever greater quantities to cover the deficit, they had lost 92% of their face value by 1795.
Q 16Roughly what share of clergy swore loyalty to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in November 1790?
24%
The refusal of the majority split the church and turned devout regions like the Vendée and Brittany against the Revolution.
Q 17The royal family's disguised flight from Paris in June 1791 ended in which town?
Varennes
They were heading for General Bouillé's 10,000 loyal troops at Montmédy; the arrest destroyed what trust in the monarchy remained.
Q 18The crowd fired upon at the Champ de Mars on 17 July 1791 had gathered to sign a petition demanding what?
the king's deposition
The National Guard killed between 13 and 50 people, wrecking its commander's reputation and driving radicals like Marat into hiding.
Q 19The 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz was issued by Emperor Leopold II and which country's king?
Prussia
The two rulers had actually met to discuss partitioning Poland; the threat was meant to placate the émigrés but rallied France behind the regime.
Q 20In the Legislative Assembly of 1791, the Feuillants were best described as what?
constitutional monarchists
Barnave's 264 Feuillants thought the Revolution had gone far enough; 136 Brissotin Jacobins wanted a republic and 345 centrists swung between them.
Q 24Which battle of 20 September 1792 was the first major victory for the army of revolutionary France?
Valmy
The Republic was proclaimed two days later; the Prussian retreat that followed emboldened the Convention.
Q 25Robespierre, Danton and Marat headed which radical faction in the National Convention?
the Montagnards
About 200 of the 749 deputies were Montagnards and 160 Girondins; the centrist Plaine held the balance.
Q 26At his trial before the Convention, the deposed Louis XVI was referred to as Citizen Louis what?
Capet
The surname reached back to Hugh Capet, founder of the dynasty in 987, and stripped him of royal style.
Q 27How many deputies voted unconditionally for the death of Louis XVI on 17 January 1793?
361
288 voted against and another 72 for death subject to delaying conditions, so the unconditional majority was slim.
Q 28Louis XVI was guillotined in the Paris square later renamed Place de la what?
Concorde
The same square later saw Marie Antoinette, Danton and Robespierre die under the blade.
Q 29Refusing to be bound with rope on the scaffold, Louis XVI let his hands be tied with what instead?
his own handkerchief
His confessor Edgeworth talked him into accepting the restraint; the executioner was Charles-Henri Sanson, who had served him as royal executioner.
Q 30In February 1793 the Convention declared war on Britain and which other state?
the Dutch Republic
Spain, Portugal, Naples and Tuscany soon joined Austria and Prussia to form the First Coalition.