A contemporary illustration of the Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789 – an event that helped create the idea of 'revolution' as we know it today. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

French revolution

General Andrew Jackson (on horseback) led US forces to victory over the British at the battle of New Orleans on 8 January 1815 (Photo by Pierce Archive LLC/Buyenlarge via Getty Images)

Regency Britain: An age of war and revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Employees operate power looms at a cotton mill in Lancashire (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Reading between the lines: the real-life events that inspired Jane Austen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video podcastThe dangerous road to the Bastille. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The dangerous road to the Bastille. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of Napoleon.

The many faces of Napoleon. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

What should we make of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon?

Napoleon Bonaparte depicted as emperor of France in c1804. By now he had his sights set on establishing a dynasty (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

How Napoleon (almost) destroyed the French Revolution. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of Marie Antoinette in 1775

How Marie Antoinette waged a battle for survival. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The life and death of Marie Antoinette: everything you need to know about the last queen of France

Women carrying flags and scythes or beating drums - one has a child on her shoulders - march on the Palace of Versailles to protest to the king

General Early Modern

Women in the French Revolution: fighting for equality

Robespierre’s brutal downfall. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

French Revolution Quiz – test your knowledge with our history quiz

QuizHow much do you know about the French Revolution?

Are revolutions doomed to failure?

Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier’s painting portrays the Declaration of the Rights of Man

How progressive was the French Revolution?

Robespierre is guillotined on 28 July 1794. Had he died two years earlier, his name would now be associated with liberty and equality, argues Marisa Linton. (Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Robespierre: man of terror

French Revolution podcast episodes

A late 18th-century painting depicting the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The smile revolution against the Reign of Terror

The execution of Louis XVI in the Place de la Revolution

What is a revolution?

An illustration of the head of Louis XVI

Guillotined in the French Revolution: the bloody story through 7 severed heads

Camille and Lucile Desmoulins

How the architects of the 'Terror' after the French Revolution ended up among its victims

The vanquishers of the Bastille before the Hôtel de Ville, 14 July 1789. Found in the Collection of Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What triggered the French Revolution?

The decapitation machine now known as the guillotine was not a French invention and wasn't invented by Joseph Guillotin. (Image by Getty Images)

Q&ADid the French invent the guillotine?

A contemporary illustration of the Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789 – an event that helped create the idea of 'revolution' as we know it today. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Fighting for freedom: the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution

French cuirassiers charging a British infantry square at the battle of Waterloo, 1815 (1906). From Cassell's Illustrated History of England, Vol. V. (Cassell and Company Limited, London, Paris, New York, Melbourne). Artist P Jazet. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)

How the French won the battle of Waterloo (or think they did)

The storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789, as depicted by artist Charles Thévenin

Napoleon’s chance: why the French Revolution was Bonaparte's big break

A portrait of Marie Antoinette

Q&ADid Marie Antoinette really say “let them eat cake”?

Madame Tussaud's exhibition at Baker Street, London. But who was her first waxwork? (Photo by Bettmann, via Getty Images)

Q&AWho was Madame Tussaud’s first waxwork?

Lucy Worsley in Regency period costume

Lucy Worsley on royal history's biggest fibs

The French Revolution: Everything you need to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A contemporary painting shows Parisians seizing weapons from the Hôtel des Invalides on 14 July 1789, ahead of the storming of the Bastille later that day. Before revolution swept through Paris, peasants across the country were abolishing a whole social order from below.

The French Revolution: a tale of two revolutions