On July 14, 1789 an important historical event occurred in Paris. The Paris mob stormed the King’s prison known as the Bastille, the very symbol of absolute monarchy in France. This action occurred after a National Assembly declared a new government about a month earlier at Versailles. Now its time to dispel some myths and/or generalizations about the Bastille’s storming and destruction. The event did not start the French Revolution; in fact, it started with the nobility, or Second Estate, in 1787. The issue was taxes, and the nobility (the Second Estate) forced King Louis XVI to call the Estates General, a representative body that had not been summoned in over 150 years. Louis XVI had been advised by finance minister Jacques Necker to levy taxes on the Second Estate in order save the country’s dire financial situation. The nobility objected and cited its right to representation before being taxed. Historians claim that it was this action by the nobility that began the French Revolution. Why? Louis XVI, faced with a stubborn Second Estate and a frustated Third Estate, had no choice but to call the representative body, the Estates General. Once the body convened at Versailles in May, 1789 the Third Estate, which represented the majority of France, declared itself to be the new government of France. This was done with liberal defectors from both the Second Estate and the First Estate which represented the clergy. The new governing body was called the National Assembly, and it began the task of writing a constitution for France. It remained at Versailles with the King and Queen in these early weeks of the Revolution.
So what about the Bastille event? It had nothing to do with the National Assembly. The Bourbon monarchy had long abandoned the realities of Paris for the idyllic neverland known as Versailles. Bad harvests in 1788 meant food shortages and high prices in Paris for whatever was available. News of the National Assembly and its efforts to convince the monarchs to adapt to a representative government with a limited monarchy were closely watched by various political clubs in Paris. The most radical clubs fanned the flames of discontent in Paris, and this was not difficult to do given the dire economic circumstances. To the radicals, the King’s actions would signal his willingness to reform, and rumor reached Paris that Louis XVI intended to dismiss his reform minded advisor, Necker, who had become a hero of the Third Estate. Radical elements in Paris planned to incite a mob reaction if the rumors about Necker proved to be true. And indeed they were true—on July 11, 1789 King Louis XVI fired Jacques Necker. Three days later and from atop the Montmarte in Paris, the radicals signaled for violence to begin. The target? The Bastille, the symbol of absolutism.
So what did this mean for the French Revolution and France’s monarchy? In the immediate sense, the storming of the Bastille did not bring about a transition to the radical phase usually associated with the French Revolution. The monarchy remained until 1792, and the guillotines would not start to drop in earnest until 1793. Meanwhile, the Revolution remained in the hands of moderates who still were hopeful that the King and Queen would be reconciled to the causes of the Revolution. However, the Bastille event did bring a dose of reality to both the Assembly and the monarchs—to assume any credibiilty, the new government and its sovereigns would have to leave the bastion of noble indifference, Versailles, and return to the real world, Paris. This eventually happened in October, 1789 but only after another mob reaction, this one organized by the women of Paris, marched from the city to Versailles. Armed with knives and any other weapon they could find, their target was the Queen, Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette barely escaped this episode!
So the storming of the Bastille was a significant event in the early stages of the French Revolution, but it was largely symbolic. It represented the end of tyrannical government in France, and the French revere the day in much the same way that we honor July 4, 1776. So enjoy a croissant with a cafe au lait today or sip a nice Bordeaux with dinner this evening!
Oh—Queen Marie Antoinette did not say, “Let them eat cake!”