MessageToEagle.com – On 14 July 1789, the Paris fortress-prison Bastille was attacked by Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops.
The Bastille, a royal fortress that symbolized the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs was dismantled.
This historical event symbolically marked the beginning of the French Revolution, dramatic period in the history of France when thousands of people including the king and his wide Marie Antoinette were executed.
A quite small prison, the Bastille was initially used as a state prison in the 17th century, for political troublemakers, spies and certain upper-class individuals. Most prisoners were imprisoned without a trial under direct orders of the king.
The Bastille was built in 1370 as a fortification to protect the walled city of Paris from English attack. It was an impressive, 100 feet tall structure surrounded by a moat, approximately 80 feet wide.
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Situation in France caused by the country’s political crisis, began to be extremely unstable. During the reign of Louis XVI, France also faced a major economic crisis, partially initiated by the cost of intervening in the American Revolutionand taxation problems. Louis XVI and his entourage, although obliged to admit their defeat , didn’t approve the new Assembly.
On July 12th, 1789 the King dismissed his very popular Minister of Finances, Jacques Necker and on July 13th, 1789 a rumor spread in the streets of the city of a coming counter attack by the King’s army to ‘destabilize’ the newly proclaimed parliamentarians.
On the morning of July 14th, 1789, a group formed of craftsmen and salesmen decided to fight back and ran to the Invalides to steal some weapons. The mobmanaged to steal 28,000 riffles but no powder was to be found there. The Parisians knew that a pile of powder was stocked in the Bastille, a prison that was a symbol of the King’s absolute and arbitrary power. So they decided to attack it.
At the time of the storming, the Bastille was only guarded by 80 “invalides”, veteran soldiers wounded in the field and about 30 grenadiers from the Swiss mercenary regiments. Marquis Bernard-Rene de Launay was at the time governor of the “Invalides”. The Marquis de Launay, fearing a growing anger among the revolutionaries, accepted nevertheless to meet some of their representatives inside the prison. He was expecting a rescue team to arrive shortly and to help him secure his castle.
But the negotiations ended when a group of revolutionaries entered the Bastille. The guards were ordered to fire, killing hundreds of people.
The path of the revolt completely changed when the rescue team showed up and decided not to fight against but with the mob. With their canons and their professional soldier skills, they brought victory to the people of France against Louis XVI’s guards in a few hours.
Marquis de Launay surrendered and let the people enter the Bastille. The guards were violently killed and the Marquis de Launay was beheaded, with his head then put on a stake and carried all over the city as a sign of victory.
There were only 7 people in the Bastille and they were freed; during that night 800 men began to destroy the Bastille.
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