“RAGING MOB” OR “SOLDIERS OF LIBERTY”?

How should we describe the Parisians who stormed

the Bastille on July 14, 1789?

Hippolyte Taine (1880): “Like a tame elephant suddenly become wild again, the mob throws off its ordinary driver, and the new guides whom it tolerates perched on its neck are there simply for show…. The dregs of society at once come to the surface…. Ruffians, armed with pikes and sticks, pillage the houses of those who are regarded as enemies to the public welfare.”

George Rudé (1959): “The Revolution was only able to advance—and, indeed, to break out—because the sans-culottes… were able to assimilate and to identify themselves with the new political ideas promoted by the liberal aristocracy and bourgeoisie.”

CAUSES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Military defeats in 1748 and 1763 undermined the prestige of the French monarchy.After 1760 the French population grew somewhat faster than did the economy.King Louis XVI was less talented than his predecessors, and Queen Marie Antoinette became very unpopular.The French nobility raised new barriers to hinder the rise of talented commoners in the civil service, military, and Church.Support for the American Revolution bankrupted the French government. Bad weather caused a miserable wheat harvest in 1788, and the price of bread soared.

Louis XVI in his coronation robes

(1776)

Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,

“Marie Antoinette with her Children”

(1788)

A.R.J. Turgot (1727-1781),

Intendant of the Limousin, and

Finance Minister, 1775-

76.His failure

prompted the king to abandon the idea of free-

market economic reforms.

Jacques Necker, Finance

Minister in 1776-81, who

sought to balance the budget by

abolishing tax exemptions

for the nobility and “venality

of office.”

“Libertas Crowns

Franklin,” French

engraving from 1778

Charles Wilson Peale,

“Washington, Lafayette, and

Tilghman at Yorktwon”

(1784)

“Louis XVI, Liberator of America,”

shown with Franklin & “Wadingto

n”(1786)

Popular engraving to celebrate the

recall of Necker, August

1788.He persuaded the King to call for the election

of the first Estates General

since 1614.

Pamphleteers demanded two reforms of the old election procedures in autumn 1788:

1. “The doubling of the Third,” i.e., authorization for the Third Estate to elect as many delegates as the First and Second combined.

2. “Vote by head and not by order,” i.e., abandonment of the old rule that the delegates of the estates deliberate and vote as three separate bodies.

Louis XVI soon granted the first demand but stubbornly opposed the second, without which the first was essentially meaningless.

Anonymous, “Let’s hope it’s all over soon”

(print from 1788/89)

An old-fashioned bread riot:Plundering

the Réveillon mansion, April 27,

1789

“Troops in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine,” April 28, 1789

(300 Parisians were killed, and 1,000 wounded)

Opening session of the Estates General, May 5, 1789:Louis XVI had accepted the “doubling of the Third” but

opposed calls for “votes by head and not by Order.”

THE DELEGATES OF THE THREE ESTATES

The Priest:

“What am I?”

The Nobleman:

“I am a Citizen”

The Commoner:

“I am a Deputy of the Third

[Estate]”

“The Oath of the Tennis Court, June 20, 1789” (the delegates of the 3rd Estate declare themselves

the “National Assembly” and vow to write a constitution)

J.-L. Prieur, “Camille Desmoulins Making a Motion at the Palais-Royal, July 12, 1789”

Jean-François Janinet,

“The Charge of the Prince of Lambesc,”

July 12, 1789

J.-L. Prieur, “The French Guards Repulsing a Detachment of the Royal-Allemands,” 12 July 1789

Prieur, “Pillaging the Monastery of St. Lazare,” July 13, 1789

Prieur, “Paris Guarded by the People,” July 12/13, 1789, on the enrollment of a “National

Guard”

Map of Paris in 1789

Rigaud, "View of the Bastille" (print from ca. 1788)

Plan of the Bastille

Jean-Francois Janinet, “The Storming of the Bastille” (1789):

The garrison “treacherously” opens fire on the crowd

J.-B. Lallemand, “The Capture of the Bastille” (1789/90)

J.-F. Janinet, “The Governor of the Bastille Surrenders”

Claude Cholat [?], “The Storming of the Bastille”from the first shots fired to the capture of the Marquis de

Launay

J.-F. Janinet, “The

Assassination of Flesselles, the

Provost of Merchants”

(1789)

“The Memorable Journée of Tuesday, July 14, 1789:”The heads of de Launay and Flesselles in the Place de

Grève

“July 17, 1789: A Memorable Day”:Lafayette & the National Guard welcome Louis XVI to City

Hall

“Louis XVI, King of a Free

People” (print, 1789)

J.-L. Prieur, “The Hanging of Foulon at the Place de Grève,” 22 July 1789

Prieur, “The Intendant Bertier de Sauvigny, Led to the Hotel de Ville, Recognizes the Head of Foulon,” 22 July

1789

“The Declaration of the Rights of

Man”(painting, 1789/90)

“The Taking of the Bastille” (color woodcut published in Orléans, August

1789)

“Destruction of the Bastille after the Victory over the Enemies of Liberty” (1789): Flesselles & de Launay

“both perished for the crime of Lez Nation” [compare lèse-majesté]

“The Liberation of the Count of Lorges by the Nation,”

July 14“The Skeleton in the Iron

Mask,” July 22, 1789

“The Aristocratic Hydra” (1789)

“Freedom of the Press” (1797)