Bastille Day
Storming of the Bastille, by
Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel
Storming
of the Bastille[edit]
On 19 May 1789, Louis
XVI invited Estates-General (les
États-généraux) to air their grievances. The deputies
of the Third Estate (le Tiers
État), representing the common people – the two
others were the Catholic clergy (clergé,
Roman Catholicism being the state religion at that time) and
the nobility (noblesse)
– decided to break away and form a National Assembly. The Third
Estate took the Tennis
Court Oath (le serment du
Jeu de paume, 20 June 1789), swearing not to separate
until a constitution had been established. They were gradually
joined by (liberal) delegates of the other estates; Louis
XVI started to recognize the validity of their concerns [clarification
needed] on 27 June.
The assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée
nationale constituante) on 9 July.
Jacques Necker, the
finance minister, who was sympathetic to the Third Estate, was
dismissed on 11 July. The people of Paris then stormed the Bastille,
fearful that they and their representatives would be attacked by
the royal army or by foreign regiments of mercenaries in the
king's service, and seeking to gain ammunition and gunpowder for
the general populace. The Bastille was a fortress-prison in
Paris which had often held people jailed on the basis of lettres
de cachet (literally "signet letters"), arbitrary royal
indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the
reason for the imprisonment. The Bastille held a large cache of
ammunition and gunpowder, and was also known for holding
political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal
government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of
the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July
1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political
significance.[7]
The crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous Gardes
Françaises ("French Guards"), whose usual role was to
protect public buildings. They proved a fair match for the
fort's defenders, and Governor
de Launay, the commander of the Bastille, capitulated and
opened the gates to avoid a mutual massacre. However, possibly
because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed. According to
the official documents, about 200 attackers and just one
defender died in the initial fighting, but in the aftermath, de
Launay and seven other defenders were killed, as was Jacques
de Flesselles, the prévôt des marchands ("provost of
the merchants"), the elected head of the city's guilds, who
under the feudal monarchy also had the competences of a
present-day mayor .[8]
Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, late
in the evening of 4 August, after a very stormy session of the Assemblée
Constituante, feudalism was
abolished. On 26 August, the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des
Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen) was proclaimed (Homme with
an uppercase h meaning “human”, while homme with a
lowercase h means “man”).[9]
Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival
of 30 June 1878
Fête de la Fédération[edit]
The Fête de la
Fédération on 14 July 1790 was a celebration of the
unity of the French nation during the French
Revolution. The aim of this celebration, one year after the Storming
of the Bastille, was to symbolise peace. The event took
place on the Champ
de Mars, which was at the time far outside Paris. The place
had been transformed on a voluntary[citation
needed] basis
by the population of Paris, in what was recalled as the Journée
des brouettes ("Wheelbarrow Day").
A mass was
celebrated by Talleyrand, bishop
of Autun. The popular General
Lafayette, as captain of the National Guard of Paris and a
confidant of the king, took his oath to the constitution,
followed by King Louis
XVI. After the end of the official celebration, the day
ended in a huge four-day popular feast and people celebrated
with fireworks, as well as fine wine and running nude through
the streets in order to display their great freedom.
Origin of the present celebration[edit]
On 30 June 1878, a feast was officially arranged
in Paris to honour the French Republic (the event was
commemorated in a painting by Claude
Monet).[10] On
14 July 1879, there was another feast, with a semi-official
aspect. The day's events included a reception in the Chamber of
Deputies, organised and presided over by Léon
Gambetta,[11] a
military review at Longchamp, and a Republican Feast in the Pré
Catelan.[12] All
through France, Le
Figaro wrote, "people feasted much to honour the
storming of the Bastille".[13]
On 21 May 1880, Benjamin
Raspail proposed a law to have "the Republic choose the 14
July as a yearly national holiday". The Assembly voted in favour
of the proposal on 21 May and 8 June.[14] The
Senate approved it on 27 and 29 June, favouring 14 July against
4 August (which would have commemorated the end
of the feudal system on 4 August 1789). The law was made
official on 6 July 1880, and the Ministry of the Interior
recommended to Prefects that the day should be "celebrated with
all the brilliance that the local resources allow".[this
quote needs a citation] Indeed,
the celebrations of the new holiday in 1880 were particularly
magnificent.
In the debate leading up to the adoption of the
holiday, Henri
Martin, chairman of the French Senate, addressed that
chamber on 29 June 1880:
Do not forget
that behind this 14 July, where victory of the new era over
the ancien
régime was bought by fighting, do not forget that
after the day of 14 July 1789, there was the day of 14 July
1790 ... This [latter] day cannot be blamed for having shed
a drop of blood, for having divided the country. It was the
consecration of the unity of France ... If some of you might
have scruples against the first 14 July, they certainly hold
none against the second. Whatever difference which might
part us, something hovers over them, it is the great images
of national unity, which we all desire, for which we would
all stand, willing to die if necessary.
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