Royal History’s Biggest Fibs: The French Revolution

Unlike the Roman Empire series, there’s less to dissect about this documentary-it’s not a docudrama where I can critique the characters representing real historical figures, it’s just a solid watch for anyone, especially if you’re looking for a supercurricular activity (ie something to put on your personal statement if you’re applying for history at uni, knowing my limited viewership, this’ll benefit.....some percentage of you.):)

Hosted by Lucy Worsley, there are three episodes on iPlayer debunking historical myths in a format that’s pretty easy to understand; she establishes the commonly held belief about the subject, then debunks it by fact-checking through interviewing experts and reading primary sources on the subject. It’s a pretty whimsical but educational style, the visual recreations of historical events are thrown together rather than given any real production value, and it’s evidently given little effort to feel charmingly humorous rather than lazy.

As for things I enjoyed, I really did find it enlightening in highlighting certain parts of the French Revolution. Not all the facts are particularly shocking-I did already know Marie Antoinette didn’t say “Let them eat cake” in real life, but I wasn’t prepared for my whole perception of her to be flipped- the phrase “let them eat cake” was meant to be a symbol of how out of touch Marie Antoinette was, but evidently her lavish spending was only a tiny part of why the French economy was in ruin, and she may have even tried to cut back on this kind of lifestyle.

Just so you know, I did fact-check some of the more shocking details; without wanting to spoil too much, yep, Robespierre did initially find the death penalty barbaric. So yeah, give it a watch, put in on your personal statement as something you took an interest in, or just watch it to learn more about the French Revolution. Or you may not want to watch it at all. Eh, who knows.