most people executed during the French Revolution – and particularly in its perceived bloodiest era, the nine-month “Reign of Terror” between autumn 1793 and summer 1794 – were commoners.

That morning, the French king made his last ... that had literally taken the lives of common criminals proved to be an important symbol for the revolution. “The death of the king thus invested ...

When angry commoners stormed the Bastille in Paris ... holiday), the anniversary of one of the defining moments of the French Revolution. The imposing, eight-towered Bastille was built in 1357 ...

whose family kept it for generations On This Day in History Supporters of the French Revolution killed Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, with the same apparatus used to execute common ...

More carters than princes were executed, more day labourers than dukes and marquises, three or four times as many servants than parliamentarians. The Terror swept ...