French Revolutionaries Storm ....

.... The Bastille

"On this date (July 14) in 1789, Parisian revolutionaries & mutinous French troops stormed & dismantled 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 & terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown & tens of thousands of people, including the king & 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, & its name--bastide--was corrupted to Bastille. The Bastille was 1st used as a state prison in the 17th century, & its cells were reserved for upper-class felons, political troublemakers, & spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under direct orders of the king. Standing 100 feet tall & 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, & popular resentment against the rule of King Louis XVI was turning to fury. In June, the 3d Estate, which represented commoners & the lower clergy, declared itself the National Assembly & called for the drafting of a constitution. Initially seeming to yield, Louis legalized the National Assembly, but then surrounded Paris with troops & 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 & so requested reinforcements. A company of Swiss mercenary soldiers arrived on July 7, 1789, 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 & free them.'

"On July 12, 1789, 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 & raised its 2 drawbridges.

"On July 13, revolutionaries with muskets began firing at soldiers standing guard on the Bastille's towers & then took cover in the Bastille's courtyard when Launay's men fired back. That evening, mobs stormed the Paris Arsenal & another armory & acquired thousands of muskets. At dawn on July 14, a great crowd armed with muskets, swords, & various makeshift weapons began to gather around the Bastille.

"Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders, but refused to surrender the fortress & its munitions as they requested. He later received a 2d delegation & promised he wouldn't open fire on the crowd. To convince the revolutionaries, he showed them that his cannons weren't loaded.

"Instead of calming the agitated crowd, news of the unloaded cannon emboldened a group of men to climb over the outer wall of the courtyard & lower a drawbridge. Three hundred revolutionaries rushed in, & Launay's men took up a defensive position. When the mob outside began trying to lower the 2d 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 & more Parisians were converging on the Bastille. Around 3 pm., a company of deserters from the French army arrived. The soldiers, hidden by smoke from fires set by the mob, dragged 5 cannons into the courtyard & aimed them at the Bastille. Launay raised a white flag of surrender over the fortress. Launay & his men were taken into custody, the gunpowder & cannons were seized, & the 7 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 & murdered.

"The capture of the Bastille symbolized the end of the ancien regime & provided the French revoluntionary cause with an irresistible momentum. Joined by 4/5ths of the French army, the revolutionaries seized control of Paris & then the French countryside, forcing King Louis XVI to accept a constitutional government. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished & Louis & 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 Feb. 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."

SOURCE: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-revolutionaries-storm-bastille