Page 24 - All About History - Issue 34-16

Protest

The Bastille
The fortress was built in the 14th
century to defend the city from
English forces in the Hundred
Years’ War. It was declared a
state prison in 1417, after which it
became a den of torture and death
and a symbol of feudal rule.
STORMINGOF

THEBASTILLE Revolutionaries

There were 954 ‘vainqueurs de la
Bastille’ in total, who gathered outside
the Bastille on the morning of 14 July
1789. They demanded that the prison be
THE REVOLT THAT KICK-STARTED A surrendered, the guns removed, and the
arms and gunpowder released.
REVOLUTION, FRANCE, 14 JULY 1789

It was a warm summer’s day in the city,
but the people of Paris were not happy.
Inequality reigned supreme, and while the Guillotine
royal family were enjoying eight-course It was on this day that the first beheading of the
revolution took place. The victim was Marquis de
meals, the poor struggled to afford a loaf of
Launay, the governor of the Bastille, who was stabbed
bread. To make matters worse, King Louis and shot before having his head sawn off and paraded
XVI had recently introduced a new taxation on a pike. Later that year, physician Joseph-Ignace
system that threatened to leave them Guillotin proposed that beheading become the official
penniless. A new National Assembly had method of execution in France, with a device called a
‘guillotine’ used to ensure a humane death.
been formed to represent the commoners
in the debate over tax, but on 12 July, they
received news that the king had dismissed
their beloved finance minister, Jacques
Necker, for being too sympathetic to their
cause. For the Parisians, this sent a clear
message: that he would soon dismantle
the assembly and destroy their chances of
creating a more equal society.
Waves of angry citizens spilled out onto
the streets. The Royal Army struggled to
control the raging crowds, and many of the
city’s armouries were plundered. From here
on, they decided, the battle for equality
would have to be fought with weapons. But
the rioters lacked an important resource:
gunpowder. The city’s supply was kept in
the Bastille, a fortress that for hundreds of
years had been used as a place of torture,
imprisonment and execution without trial. It
was a symbol of everything that was wrong
with the monarchy, and that made it the
perfect target for a siege.

24