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N0KFQ > TODAY 14.07.15 16:01l 103 Lines 5020 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 14
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Sent: 150714/1353Z 61418@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1789
French revolutionaries storm Bastille
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle
the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the
tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled
the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political
turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and
tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife
Marie Antoinette, were executed.
The Bastille was originally constructed in 1370 as a bastide, or
"fortification," to protect the walled city of Paris from English
attack. It was later made into an independent stronghold, and its
name-bastide-was corrupted to Bastille. The Bastille was first
used as a state prison in the 17th century, and its cells were
reserved for upper-class felons, political troublemakers, and
spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under
direct orders of the king. Standing 100 feet tall and surrounded
by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille was an imposing
structure in the Parisian landscape.
By the summer of 1789, France was moving quickly toward
revolution. There were severe food shortages in France that year,
and popular resentment against the rule of King Louis XVI was
turning to fury. In June, the Third Estate, which represented
commoners and the lower clergy, declared itself the National
Assembly and called for the drafting of a constitution. Initially
seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly but then
surrounded Paris with troops and dismissed Jacques Necker, a
popular minister of state who had supported reforms. In response,
mobs began rioting in Paris at the instigation of revolutionary
leaders.
Bernard-Jordan de Launay, the military governor of the Bastille,
feared that his fortress would be a target for the
revolutionaries and so requested reinforcements. A company of
Swiss mercenary soldiers arrived on July 7 to bolster his
garrison of 82 soldiers. The Marquis de Sade, one of the few
prisoners in the Bastille at the time, was transferred to an
insane asylum after he attempted to incite a crowd outside his
window by yelling: "They are massacring the prisoners; you must
come and free them." On July 12, royal authorities transferred
250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille from the Paris Arsenal,
which was more vulnerable to attack. Launay brought his men into
the Bastille and raised its two drawbridges.
On July 13, revolutionaries with muskets began firing at soldiers
standing guard on the Bastille's towers and then took cover in
the Bastille's courtyard when Launay's men fired back. That
evening, mobs stormed the Paris Arsenal and another armory and
acquired thousands of muskets. At dawn on July 14, a great crowd
armed with muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons began
to gather around the Bastille.
Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders but refused
to surrender the fortress and its munitions as they requested. He
later received a second delegation and promised he would not open
fire on the crowd. To convince the revolutionaries, he showed
them that his cannons were not loaded. Instead of calming the
agitated crowd, news of the unloaded cannons emboldened a group
of men to climb over the outer wall of the courtyard and lower a
drawbridge. Three hundred revolutionaries rushed in, and Launay's
men took up a defensive position. When the mob outside began
trying to lower the second drawbridge, Launay ordered his men to
open fire. One hundred rioters were killed or wounded.
Launay's men were able to hold the mob back, but more and more
Parisians were converging on the Bastille. Around 3 p.m., a
company of deserters from the French army arrived. The soldiers,
hidden by smoke from fires set by the mob, dragged five cannons
into the courtyard and aimed them at the Bastille. Launay raised
a white flag of surrender over the fortress. Launay and his men
were taken into custody, the gunpowder and cannons were seized,
and the seven prisoners of the Bastille were freed. Upon arriving
at the Hotel de Ville, where Launay was to be arrested by a
revolutionary council, the governor was pulled away from his
escort by a mob and murdered.
The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancien
regime and provided the French revolutionary cause with an
irresistible momentum. Joined by four-fifths of the French army,
the revolutionaries seized control of Paris and then the French
countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional
government. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished and Louis and his
wife Marie-Antoinette were sent to the guillotine for treason in
1793.
By order of the new revolutionary government, the Bastille was
torn down. On February 6, 1790, the last stone of the hated
prison-fortress was presented to the National Assembly. Today,
July 14-Bastille Day-is celebrated as a national holiday in
France.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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