Storming of the Bastille

Storming of the Bastille

The Violence Starts
Official Start of the Revolution
 Bastille Significance
• It was originally built in the 14th century to guard one of main
entrances to Paris, but by the 18th century the Bastille served only
as a prison - mainly for political, aristocratic prisoners who could
not be thrust into the crowded gaols (jails) with common criminals -
and occasionally as a store for arms.
• The fortress also accommodated printers, booksellers and authors
who produced works that the authorities considered seditious.
• Voltaire was imprisoned there twice: first in 1717 when he was
suspected of writing verses accusing the Régent of incest, and then
again in 1726.
• Throughout the 18th century there were never more than 40
inmates, most of them serving short sentences.
• On July 14, 1789, when the Bastille was stormed, there were only
half a dozen prisoners, two of whom were insane.
 Causes of the Storming
• During the summer of 1789, food riots broke out in Paris due to a bread shortage.
• The working class was hungry and angry over their decreasing wages and
increasing prices.
• In early July, King Louis XVI stationed 17 regiments of Swiss Guards and German
mercenaries in Paris and around Versailles supposedly to restore order.
• People whispered that the King was going to use the soldiers against the people
and to force the National Assembly to disperse.
• Louis then fired the liberal finance minister, Jacques Necker, who had wanted to
tax everyone and was a hero to the Third Estate.
• Louis turned to new advisors who were totally against change.
• Angry crowds attacked the custom posts where the high taxes on flour were
collected.
• They looted and burned shops.
• They rushed to arm themselves.
• Order was restored on July 13, but then broke out again on July 14.
• The people in Paris were convinced the troops would attack them.
• And the Bastille was a symbol of the unfair arrest and jailing of innocents.
• At the Bastille, there were hundred barrels of gunpowder.
 Events Prior to the Storming
• The time was half past three, on the famous date of July 14, 1789.
• A huge, bloodthirsty mob marched to the Bastille, searching for gun powder and
prisoners that had been taken by the unpopular and detested King Louis XVI.
• Even elements of the newly formed National Guard were present at the assault.
• The flying rumors of attacks from the government and the biting truth of
starvation were just too much for the angry crowds.
• The Bastille had been prepared for over a week, anticipating about a hundred
angry subjects and along the thick rock walls of the gargantuan fortress and
between the towers were twelve more guns that were capable of launching 24-
ounce case shots at any who dared to attack.
• However, the enraged Paris Commune was too defiant and too livid to submit to
the starvation and seeming injustice of their government.
• But nothing could have prepared the defenders for what they met that now
famous day.
• The Bastille was governed by a man named Marquis de Launay. On July 7th, thirty-two Swiss
soldiers led by Lieutenant Deflue, came to aid de Launay, helping him to prepare
for a small mob.
• Rumors were flying everywhere. The Marquis was expecting a mob attack, but
certainly not a siege!
• The entire workforce of the Bastille had stealthily and furiously been repairing
the Bastille and reinforcing it, all to prepare for a minor attack from a hundred or
so angry citizens.
• At three o'clock that afternoon, however, a huge group of French guards and
angry citizens tried to break into the fortress.
• There were over three hundred people ready to give their lives to put an end to
their overtaxing and overbearing government.
• However the Bastille was threatened by more than the numerous crowds: three
hundred guards had left their posts earlier that day, out of fear and from the
rumors.
• The besiegers easily broke into the arsenal and into the first courtyard, cut the
drawbridge down, and then quickly got through the wooden door behind it.
• They boldly demanded that the bridges be lowered, but they were refused. The
Marquis de Launay said he would surrender if his troops were allowed to leave
peacefully, but he was simply rebuked.
• They wanted de Launay on a noose or with his head in a basket.
 The Actual Attack on the Bastille
• A hastily formed militia and a mob of about 900 people
went to the Invalides, a military hospital, to get
weapons.
• Then they turned their attention to the Bastille. There
was gun powder stored at the Bastille.
• In the streets, they chanted “A la Bastille.”
• They demanded that the Governor Marquis de Launay
surrender the prison and the 250 barrels of gunpowder
stored in the cellar.
• DeLaunay refused to surrender. Tension grew.
• Then a gunshot was fired, but no one knew by who.
• A man fell dead into the prison moat.
• The mob stormed the courtyard.
Taking The Bastille
 Primary Sources
• “First, the people tried to enter this fortress by the Rue St.-Antoine, this fortress,
which no one has ever penetrated against the wishes of this frightful
despotism and where the monster still resided. The treacherous
governor had put out a flag of peace. So a confident advance was
made; a detachment of French Guards, with perhaps five to six
thousand armed bourgeois, penetrated the Bastille's outer
courtyards, but as soon as some six hundred persons had passed over
the first drawbridge, the bridge was raised and artillery fire mowed
down several French Guards and some soldiers; the cannon fired on
the town, and the people took fright; a large number of individuals
were killed or wounded; but then they rallied and took shelter from
the fire; ... meanwhile, they tried to locate some cannon; they
attacked from the water's edge through the gardens of the arsenal,
and from there made an orderly siege; they advanced from various
directions, beneath a ceaseless round of fire. It was a terrible
scene....”
 Primary Sources
• “The fighting grew steadily more intense; the citizens had become
hardened to the fire, from all directions they clambered onto the
roofs or broke into the rooms; as soon as an enemy appeared among
the turrets on the tower, he was fixed in the sights of a hundred guns
and mown down in an instant; meanwhile cannon fire was hurriedly
directed against the second drawbridge, which it pierced, breaking
the chains; in vain did the cannon on the tower reply, for most people
were sheltered from it; the fury was at its height; people bravely
faced death and every danger; women, in their eagerness, helped us
to the utmost; even the children, after the discharge of fire from the
fortress, ran here and there picking up the bullets and shot; [and so
the Bastille fell and the governor, De Launey, was captured].... Serene
and blessed liberty, for the first time, has at last been introduced into
this abode of horrors, this frightful refuge of monstrous despotism
and its crimes.”