POLITICAL

Many people disliked the royal government because they thought that the king had too much power. The use of sealed letters, for example, was widely hated. Sealed letters could send anybody to prison without a trial or second glance.

The king could usually do whatever he liked, whenever he liked.  His wife, Marie Antoinette, angered many people. She had a village in the grounds of the palace in Versailles. It was painted and made to look like a real, old and run-down village. Many people believed her village was very silly, even people usually very loyal to her. They believed that her perfectionism towards making the village look run down and falling apart was almost like making a game out of the poverty in France. She spent vast sums of money on improving the authenticity of the village, and many people thought that this was irresponsible and unacceptable. The king abused his power, and was corrupt, giving the helpless peasants more or less no choice in how their country was run. This unhappiness led to the storming of the Bastille on the 14^th of July.  The king lived a very luxurious life, spending over 42 million livres a year, when the peasants were living on less than 435 livres a year.