Q 01/05

When the Estates-General convened in May 1789, it was the body's first meeting since which year?

A) 1614

B) 1560

C) 1648

D) 1701

Answer · why

A) 1614

The 175-year gap meant nobody alive had seen the three estates sit, so even the voting rules had to be relitigated.

Q 02/05

Whom did Louis XVI dismiss as chief minister on 11 July 1789, helping trigger the Bastille unrest?

A) Calonne

B) Necker

C) Brienne

D) Turgot

Answer · why

B) 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 03/05

Whose 1786 reforms, including a universal land tax, did the Assembly of Notables reject?

A) Turgot

B) Necker

C) Calonne

D) Brienne

Answer · why

C) Calonne

The notables insisted only an Estates-General could approve new taxes, which is how the fateful assembly ended up being summoned.

Q 04/05

Abbé Sieyès's influential 1789 pamphlet posed which question in its title?

A) What Is the Nation?

B) Who Are the People?

C) What Is Liberty?

D) What Is the Third Estate?

Answer · why

D) What Is the Third Estate?

His answer was 'everything', and the pamphlet argued the commons should sit alone as a National Assembly.

Q 05/05

On 17 June 1789 the deputies of the commons declared themselves to be what body?

A) the National Assembly

B) the Legislative Assembly

C) the National Convention

D) the Committee of Thirty

Answer · why

A) the National Assembly

They also declared all existing taxes illegal, a direct challenge to royal authority.