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In 1774, Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of kings ascended the
throne of France. He was 20 years old and married to the Austrian
princess Marie Antoinette. Upon his accession the new king found
an empty treasury. Long years of war had drained the financial
resources of France. Added to this was the cost of maintaining an
extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles. Under Louis
XVI, France helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their
independence from the common enemy, Britain. ‘The war added more
than a billion livres to a debt that had already risen to more than 2
billion dimes. Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to charge
10 per cent interest on loans. So the French government was obliged
to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payments
alone. To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining
an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the
state was forced to increase taxes. Yet even this measure would not
have sufficed. French society in the eighteenth century was divided
into three estates, and only members of the third estate paid taxes.

‘The society of estates was part of the feudal system that dated back to
the middle ages. The term Old Regime is usually used to describe the
society and institutions of France before 1789: