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Although the Bastille held only
7 prisoners that fateful July day, their release, together with
the defeat of the King's troops, symbolized a victory over the
monarchy.
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Many believed that once the King had given in to the
demands of the Third Estate the revolution would be over. They were
sorely mistaken. The troops that were sent to Paris on a peace-keeping
mission would soon be entrenched in the famous siege upon the Bastille,
one of the bloodiest events of the French Revolution.
At 3:30pm on July 14, 1789, an angry mob marched on
the Bastille, an old fortress used as a state prison that symbolized the
Ancien regime in France.
In search of gun powder and hoping to rescue wrongly
imprisoned victims of Louis XVI, the marchers stormed the immense
fortress and were met by heavy rifle fire.
Fueled by their anger over the injustices they'd
suffered and the starvation that had spread around the country, the
angry mob marched on. Thirty-two Swiss soldiers protected the Bastille,
governed by a man named De Launay. The group in the prison was prepared
for a mob; however, what awaited them was a siege.
Over 300 people had volunteered to give their lives
to the cause of the revolution. All wanted an end to the overtaxing,
overbearing government that had remained in power for so long. Most of
the guards at the prison had left their posts earlier in the day as a
result of the rumors that had spread.
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The people of Paris took matters
into their own hands on July 14, 1789, when they stormed the
Bastille
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The attackers had easily broken into the arsenal and
into the first courtyard. They succeeded in cutting down the drawbridge
and the wooden door behind it. Their goal was to find the governor and
hang him or take away his head in a basket.
De Launay was forced to give in to the demands of
the besiegers. His men were captured and brutally beaten and dragged
through the streets of Paris. Their captors flaunted their
accomplishments, chopping off heads at whim. The National Guard was sent
in to stop the looting that was going on in the city, but chaos had
broken out all over.
On their way to the Hotel de Ville they pillaged and
continued their blood bath. Piles of bodies lay on the streets of Paris.
There were even reports that children had been seen playing with severed
heads.
What was Louis XVI's response to the events? He
asked his attendant, "Is this a revolt?" His attendant
answered, "No, sire, it is a revolution!" Little did Louis XVI
know that he was the angry mob's next target. Later that year on the
morning of October 5th a militant group of well-armed women planned an
attack on Versailles.
Another example of the violence that occurred
during the French Revolution, these "ladies" armed with
pitchforks, muskets, swords, pikes, bludgeons, crowbars, and scythes set
out to Versailles to obtain bread for their families and force prices of
bread down to where they had been. Versailles, seen as a royal paradise,
was home to many important aristocrats as well as the king and his
family.
Upon their march to the Hotel de Ville their
numbers had reached 6,000. Along the way, bands of housewives and women
from neighboring towns joined their march. When they reached the palace,
they stormed the gates and demanded bread. The king, realizing his
diminished power in the state, gave into their demands and promised to
have all the bread in Versailles ordered out to them.
During the siege, a group of marchers attempted to
kill the Queen, Marie Antoinette, who managed to escape. As a result of
this experience, the King moved his court to Paris. He realized he was
no longer safe from the violence of the revolution. However, his new
home at the Palace of Tuileries soon became his prison, one that would
also soon be under attack.
