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The Rest Is History: Revolutions

HISTORY
  • COMPLETE SERIES

    • What drove the outbreak of the French Revolution - one of the most dramatic, violent, and significant events in all world history? Was this a heroic fight for liberty, or a rampaging bloodbath? And, how did events escalate from the invention of the guillotine, an execution of a king, and the rebirth of a nation? Join Tom and Dominic as they tell the stories behind the revolutions that transformed the world as we know it, and the forces - whether military, political, religious, or social - that drove them.

    1. EPISODE 4 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

      The French Revolution: Showdown in Versailles (Part 4)

      In the summer of 1788, a monstrous storm swept across France, wiping out the crucial wheat harvest. With the nation already in the throes of political and financial calamity, this meteorological disaster - followed by an apocalyptic drought, and latterly the cruellest winter France had ever known - exacerbated the growing sense of catastrophe. With bankruptcy declared that August and unemployment record high, all eyes turned to Jacques Necker, the newly appointed finance minister. However, the amalgamation of political and financial crisis, the cultural atmosphere of virtue and passion, and the rising social unrest had already contrived to destabilise the situation permanently. By March there was food rioting, law and order had broken down in the countryside, and in April the bloodiest day of the revolution so far erupted in Paris. At last, in June, the Estates General met for the first time since 1614-15, and the mounting pressure to replace the traditional Three Estates with a single assembly resolved itself into the formation of the National Assembly; a body determined to take the fate of the nation into its own hands. With the elements gathering against them, what will Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette do? Join Dominic and Tom as they recount the dramatic series of calamities that unravelled the nation and spiralled into the infamous Tennis Court Oath of June 1789, and the Revolution itself. From natural disasters and bread riots, and financial ruin, to political instability, Dr Guillotin, and disreputable republican firebrands….

      1h 5m

    2. EPISODE 8 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

      The French Revolution: The Royal Family Escapes (Part 8)

      Twelve months after the dramatic Women’s March on Versailles, the Revolution proper was well into its stride, and while Paris overflowed with a sense of unbridled political freedom, the King and Queen were little more than prisoners in their echoing palace. For the past year Louis XVI had feigned cooperation with the National Assembly, all the while torn by his profound Catholicism and frozen by indecision about how to overcome his predicament. Then at last, following a traumatic experience over the easter of 1791, something changed and the contingency plan formulated several months earlier, was put into action. With the help of a disguised Axen Von Fersen, the royal couple and their children would flee to Belgium in an enormously ostentatious carriage. The date for their escape was set for the 20th of June, but before leaving Louis poured his hatred of the revolution into a letter, which if found would surely spell his political doom…that night the royal family, replete with accomplices, deceptions and disguises, set their audacious plan into action. What ensued was a heart-racing cat-and-mouse thriller of near misses, foolhardy naivety and extraordinary encounters, with appalling consequences… Join Dominic and Tom for the thrilling conclusion to their astounding series on the early years of the French Revolution. With the King and Queen of France on the run from the nightmare their lives have become, will they make it across the border to freedom? Or, will they get caught and devoured by the ravenous hoards of the Revolution?

      1h 2m
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    What drove the outbreak of the French Revolution - one of the most dramatic, violent, and significant events in all world history? Was this a heroic fight for liberty, or a rampaging bloodbath? And, how did events escalate from the invention of the guillotine, an execution of a king, and the rebirth of a nation? Join Tom and Dominic as they tell the stories behind the revolutions that transformed the world as we know it, and the forces - whether military, political, religious, or social - that drove them.

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