| ROBESPIERRE | Maximilien _, pivotal figure of the French Revolution (11) |
| ALAMO | 1836 Battle of the ___, pivotal event in the Texas Revolution (5) |
| BOLEYN | Pivotal figure in the English Reformation |
| MANET | French painter, a pivotal figure in the transition from 9 Across to Impressionism (5) |
| SHOCKINGPINK | Upset that pivotal figure's kept in the shade |
| LINCHPINS | Pivotal figures; axle inserts (9) |
| DIDEROT | Encyclopedist and leading figure of the French Enlightenment |
| FRANCOISEHARDY | "Tous les Garcons et les Filles" singer who was a major figure of the French ye-ye scene |
| REIGN | ... of Terror, period of the French Revolution when supreme power was in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety and the Jacobins (5) |
| TERROR | The Reign of ___, a period of violence occurring after the onset of the French Revolution (6) |
| STORMING | - of the Bastille; an event that marked the beginning of the French Revolution (8) |
| TERREUR | La ..., a period of the French Revolution following the creation of the First Republic when massacres and executions took place (7) |
| EGALITE | One of the three tenets of the French Revolution (7) |
| ARRAS | Medieval French tapestry town, birthplace of Maximilien Robespierre (5) |
| NORMAN | US soprano who sang the Marseillaise in Paris for the bicentennial of the French Revolution, Jessye |
| BASTILLE | Paris prison stormed at the start of the French Revolution (8) |
| FRAUD | Rip-off, for the most part, German woman of the French Revolution (5) |
| MARSEILLAISE | The strain of the French Revolution (12) |
| MARIEANTOINETTE | Queen at the start of the French Revolution (5,10) |
| TALEOFTWOCITIES | A ---, 1859 novel set around the time of the French Revolution |
