French Revolution Trivia
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118 free French Revolution trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 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.
30 of 118 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01When the Estates-General convened in May 1789, it was the body's first meeting since which year?
1614
1614 was the last time the Estates-General had met; after a 175-year gap nobody alive had seen the three estates sit, so even the voting rules had to be settled afresh.
Q 02Whom did Louis XVI dismiss as chief minister on 11 July 1789, helping trigger the Bastille unrest?
Necker
Necker, the popular Swiss banker, was dismissed on 11 July 1789 under pressure from the court party around the queen and the Comte d'Artois; Paris read his sacking as the prelude to a crackdown.
Q 03Whose 1786 reforms, including a universal land tax, did the Assembly of Notables reject?
Calonne
Calonne's 1786 plan, with a land tax payable by all orders, was rejected by the Assembly of Notables in 1787; the notables insisted only an Estates-General could approve new taxes.
Q 04Abbé Sieyès's influential 1789 pamphlet posed which question in its title?
What Is the Third Estate?
'What Is the Third Estate?' was Sieyès's January 1789 pamphlet; his answer was 'everything', and he argued the commons alone could speak for the nation.
Q 05On 17 June 1789 the deputies of the commons declared themselves to be what body?
the National Assembly
The National Assembly was the name the commons adopted on 17 June 1789; the deputies also declared 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
An indoor tennis court, the Jeu de Paume at Versailles, hosted the oath of 20 June 1789; the deputies vowed not to disperse until France had a constitution.
Q 07Rumoured to be full of prisoners, how many was the Bastille actually holding on 14 July 1789?
7
Just 7 prisoners were inside: four forgers, two men held as insane and one nobleman locked up at his family's request; the fortress mattered as a symbol and an arsenal, not a prison.
Q 08Who was the governor of the Bastille, killed and paraded on a pike after surrendering the fortress?
Bernard-René de Launay
Bernard-René de Launay surrendered the Bastille on 14 July 1789, was dragged towards the Hôtel de Ville and killed by the crowd, who paraded his head on a pike.
Q 09Who was chosen to command the new Paris National Guard after the fall of the Bastille?
Marquis de Lafayette
The Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American war, was elected commander of the Paris National Guard by the city's electors on 15 July 1789.
Q 10What is the wave of rural panic and agrarian revolt across France in summer 1789 called?
the Great Fear
The Great Fear swept the countryside in late July 1789: peasants armed against imagined brigands and burned châteaux and manorial records, pushing the Assembly into its sweeping night of 4 August.
Q 11The August Decrees of 1789 are best remembered for abolishing what?
feudalism
Feudalism was abolished on the night of 4 August 1789: seigneurial dues, the church tithe and venal offices were swept away, though peasants were at first told to buy out many of the dues.
Q 12The women who marched on Versailles on 5 October 1789 were primarily protesting what?
high food prices
High food prices, above all the cost and scarcity of bread, drove some 7,000 Parisian women to march on Versailles; they returned with the royal family in tow on 6 October.
Q 13What title did Louis XVI receive by decree in October 1789?
King of the French
Q 21On which country did France declare war in April 1792, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars?
Austria
Austria was the enemy: on 20 April 1792 France declared war on Francis II as King of Hungary and Bohemia; the opening campaign in the Austrian Netherlands went badly, feeding the panic that toppled the monarchy in August.
Q 22Which royal residence did National Guardsmen and fédérés storm on 10 August 1792, effectively ending the monarchy?
the Tuileries
The Tuileries Palace was stormed on 10 August 1792; most of the Swiss Guards defending it were killed, and the Legislative Assembly suspended the king the same day.
Q 23Which battle of 20 September 1792 was the first major victory for the army of revolutionary France?
Valmy
'King of the French' replaced 'King of France and Navarre' by a decree of 10 October 1789, signalling that Louis XVI reigned by the will of the people rather than over a territory by divine right.
Q 14What was the name of the paper currency backed by confiscated church property?
assignats
Assignats were issued from December 1789 against the value of confiscated church lands; printed in ever greater quantities to cover the deficit, they had fallen to a few percent of face value by 1795.
Q 15Which pope condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1791?
Pius VI
Pius VI condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in the brief Charitas of 13 April 1791, forbidding clergy to take the oath and deepening the split between juring and refractory priests.
Q 16The royal family's disguised flight from Paris in June 1791 ended in which town?
Varennes
Varennes was where the royal party was recognised and stopped on the night of 21–22 June 1791; they had been heading for General Bouillé's loyal troops at Montmédy, and the arrest destroyed what trust in the monarchy remained.
Q 17The 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 18The 1791 Declaration of Pillnitz was issued by Emperor Leopold II and which country's king?
Prussia
Prussia's Frederick William II signed the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II on 27 August 1791; meant to placate the émigrés, its conditional threat instead rallied France behind the Revolution.
Q 19In the Legislative Assembly of 1791, the Feuillants were best described as what?
constitutional monarchists
The Feuillants were constitutional monarchists who thought the Revolution had gone far enough; they held about 264 seats against 136 Jacobins, with some 345 unaffiliated deputies swinging between them.
Q 20The Le Chapelier Law of June 1791 suppressed what?
guilds and workers' organisations
The Le Chapelier Law of 14 June 1791, named for the Breton deputy who proposed it, banned guilds and workers' organisations, outlawing trade associations and strikes in the name of individual liberty.
Valmy, a cannonade on 20 September 1792 that turned back the Duke of Brunswick's invading army, was the revolutionary army's first success; the monarchy was abolished the next day and the invaders retreated.
Q 24Robespierre, 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 25At 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 26How many deputies voted unconditionally for the death of Louis XVI on 17 January 1793?
361
361 deputies voted for death without conditions, a majority of one; 288 voted for detention or banishment and another 72 for death subject to delaying conditions.
Q 27Louis XVI was guillotined in the Paris square later renamed Place de la what?
Concorde
Place de la Concorde, then Place de la Révolution, held the guillotine on 21 January 1793; it later saw Marie Antoinette, Danton and Robespierre die under the blade.
Q 28Refusing to be bound with rope on the scaffold, Louis XVI let his hands be tied with what instead?
his own handkerchief
His own handkerchief served as the binding after his confessor Edgeworth talked him into accepting the restraint; the executioner was Charles-Henri Sanson, who had served him as royal executioner.
Q 29In February 1793 the Convention declared war on Britain and which other state?
the Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic and Britain were both declared war on by the Convention on 1 February 1793; Spain, Portugal, Naples and Tuscany soon joined to form the First Coalition.
Q 30Which traditionally royalist and Catholic region of western France rose in revolt in March 1793?
the Vendée
The Vendée rose in March 1793 when conscription came on top of the church reforms; the insurgency dragged on until 1796 and cost well over 100,000 lives.