25. The Fall of the Bastille
July 14th
Details of what transpired on the afternoon of July 14th are complex and confused. Fearing a full scale attack, the governor ordered his soldiers to fire on the invaders. It was a fatal miscalculation that would cost De Launay his life. Hearing the garrison had opened fire on the people, crowds around the fortress swelled and for three hours the Bastille came under siege. Two detachments of the French Guard defected and joined the people. De Launay surrendered the fortress at around five o'clock, was murdered and his head was placed atop a pike The First Revolutionary Journee
What was it
On July 14th 1789 a crowd of several thousand people laid siege to the Bastille, overwhelmed its guards and murdered its governor De Launay The fortress was claimed by the people and later demolished on the order of the new Paris Commune. The capture of the Bastille was chiefly a symbolic victory; the French Revolution would have days of greater political significance. But the events of July 14th have become one of the defining moments in European history. The storming of the Bastille has shaped our perceptions of the French Revolution, giving us powerful images of an outraged people, who took up arms against a symbol of oppression.
To get Gunpowder
On the morning of July 14th a crowd of several thousand people marched on the Hôtel des Invalides in western Paris. Though used chiefly as a military infirmary, the Invalides had a large store of rifles and several small artillery pieces in its basement. The mob entered the building and looted these weapons, while officers of nearby military regiments refused to intervene. The invaders made off with around 30,000 rifles but found little gunpowder or shot with which to load them. The solution came from deserting guardsmen, who reported that 250 barrels of gunpowder had recently been stowed at the Bastille.
Leadup to the Event
The attack on the Bastille followed a tumultuous six months. At Versailles, representatives of the Third Estate had defied the king to demand a constitution and form a national assembly. France looked to be transitioning toward constitutional monarchy, however many doubted that the royal government would yield its power so easily. In Paris, the working classes had endured months of bread shortages and high prices. Bread had peaked at 14.5 sous per loaf in February; it eased slightly during the spring but had returned to those levels by mid July. Most Parisians were now spending at least three quarters of their daily income to buy bread. Louis XVI then made the first of two fateful decisions. Sometime around July 4th the king, probably on the advice of conservative ministers, ordered the assembly of royal troops at several critical locations: at Versailles, at Sèvres, at the Champ de Mars in south-west Paris and at Saint-Denis in the city's north. Even those not given to suspicion could not miss the significance of this order: it appeared the king was planning to impose martial law to regain his power. If there was any doubt it was removed on July 11th, when Louis dismissed his popular finance minister, Jacques Necker, and replaced him with the arch-conservative Joseph-François Foullon. Necker's dismissal triggered several days of insurrection in Paris.
Symbol of Tyranny/Use of Lettres de Cachet
use of lettres de cachet against two magistrates of the Paris parlement (August 1787) and the Duke of Orleans (November 1787) triggered a wave of outrage. The parlement itself issued a strongly worded remonstrance, criticsing the king's use of arbitrary power. The Paris press seethed about Louis' actions, while writers like Mirabeau and Sieyès condemned the lettres de cachet as an instrument of absolutist oppression. Sending rogues, fornicators and philanderers to the Bastille was one thing - but detaining magistrates for upholding the law and the general will was an act of tyranny. In the eyes of the people, the Bastille fortress was a physical manifestation of this tyranny, even if its symbolism far outweighed its actual importance.