Bastille Day in France today, a potted history and some books!

You might be wondering what French people actually do on July 14th. In my experience, they don’t actually attend the traditional military parade on the Champs Elysées (this always reminds me of countries which actually need to prove their military power - notably dictatorships… which feels a bit strange, somehow). If they are jullietistes they are probably either relaxing on a beach somewhere or hiking in the Alps or the Pyrenees, so the fact that it’s a public holiday doesn’t make a lot of difference, although they might go and see the fireworks where they are.

But what if they are aoûtiens and not yet on holidays? Most French people here have their own traditions, or non-traditions. Some might go and see family and have a multi-generational, five hour lunch, with heated political discussions while the children run around with their cousins. Some Parisians might meet friends on the Champs de Mars in the evening for a rosé and cheese picnic to watch the fireworks. Our family doesn’t have a tradition, but somehow we always inadvertently see some of the fighter jet flyovers in the morning and some fireworks in the evening, and this reminds us of the origins of Bastille Day.

Image by Corentin Pralong

You know, of course, that July 14th 1789 was a pivotal moment in the French Revolution. But do you know why?

The revolution officially started just two months earlier on May 5th, with the opening of the Estates-General. King Louis XVI was obliged to reinstate the Estates-General as France was facing a major economic crisis, due to the cost of intervening in the American Revolution, reduced income from taxes and poor harvests in the late 1780s. The King needed money, and called the Estates-General to help pass tax reforms. The Estates-General were composed of the clergy - the First Estate, the nobility or Second Estate and the Third Estate, made up of local dignitaries elected to represent the bourgeoisie and in theory the people of France. 

The Third Estate, having understood that they would have no real say in the prospective reforms (which would particularly concern them), began to meet on their own and from June 17th 1789 started calling themselves the National Assembly. During this time, Paris was highly politicised; the press published résumés of the Assembly’s debates and Parisians engaged in political discussions all over Paris and notably at the Palais Royal. 

On July 11th, the King dismissed and banished his finance minister, Jacques Necker. Necker had managed to obtain agreement from the King that the deputies of the Third Estate would be doubled, so that there were the same number as the other two Estates. The people, especially the Parisians, had proclaimed him a ‘Ministre Patriot’. Thus the news of Necker’s dismissal was received in Paris with much disapproval. There was also the fear that a concentration of Royal troops outside Paris would try to shut down the National Assembly. Camille Desmoulins, a key figure of the Revolution (see book recommendations below), successfully rallied supporters at the Palais Royal, by "mounting a table, pistol in hand, exclaiming: 'Citizens, there is no time to lose; the dismissal of Necker is the knell of a Saint Bartholomew for patriots! This very night all the Swiss and German battalions will leave the Champ de Mars to massacre us all; one resource is left; to take arms!” (Mignet, François-Auguste (1824). History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814, Chapter 1, Source: Wikipedia)

There was also popular dissent due to the price of food, notably bread (although the expression ‘Let them eat cake’ is often falsely attributed to Marie-Antoinette - and, incidentally, the expression wasn’t really about ‘cake’, as such, but about brioche).

So, the political, military and social backdrop to the actual storming of the Bastille was already fraught. On the morning of July 14th 1789, one crowd had already stormed the Hôtel des Invalides, without much resistance, to take whatever firearms they could find there in order to arm Parisians, ostensibly for their own protection. The ammunition (gunpowder and shot) had already been transferred to the Bastille for safer storage. The Bastille was also seen as representing Royal authority in Paris as it was a prison for people held on royal indictments that could not be appealed (although at the time, there were actually only seven prisoners).

Mid-morning on July 14th, a crowd gathered outside the Bastille, demanding that a threatening cannon be pulled back from the ramparts, and also demanding that the store of ammunition be handed over to the crowd, which now included soldiers of what would become the National Guard. Discussions became violent and the crowd became an angry mob of about 1,000 people. Eventually the commander of the Bastille, Governor de Launay capitulated and opened the gates to the fortress.

During the fighting, ninety-eight attackers and one defender died - the defenders being protected by the fortress walls. In the immediate aftermath, de Launay was beaten and decapitated, as was Monsieur Flesselles, who was the equivalent of Mayor of Paris at the time. Their heads were paraded on pikes by the mob. Several soldiers were also killed - three from the Bastille garrison and two Swiss guards.

So all in all, the storming of the Bastille was a catalyst for the French Revolution and the event which temporarily allied the Parisian Sans-Culottes to the National Assembly. This was achieved with relatively, and surprisingly, little bloodshed. Shortly afterwards, on August 4th, feudalism was abolished by the Assemblée constituante. This was followed on August 26th by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

News of the storming of the Bastille spread throughout France and inspired social unrest, rioting and ultimately a wider resistance and revolution to municipal authority. Citizen committees seized power of many cities, including Rennes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Nantes and Marseille. Militia defending these cities, nominally loyal to the monarch, gave up their weapons without resistance. Thus the Revolution, which had up to now been centred in Paris, spread to the rest of France. This is why Bastille Day is still celebrated today.

If you’d like to dig into this fascinating period of history, I can recommend two books. 

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. This reads like a novel, but is research based. It’s the intertwined story of three important actors of the French Revolution: Jean-Jacques Danton, Camille Desmoulins (cited above) and Maximilien Robespiere. 

Tallyrand by Duff Cooper. Again, a hugely researched historical biography which reads like an (almost gossipy) novel. Tallyrand was an aristocratic diplomat who managed to survive, and indeed strongly influence, the Revolution, Napoleon’s reign and beyond. A fascinating historical figure during an intriguing period!