The document summarizes the events leading up to the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 during the French Revolution. Tensions escalated as King Louis XVI dismissed minister Necker and brought more troops into Paris. Angry mobs raided stores for weapons and destroyed customs posts. The newly formed Commune and National Guard of Paris took control of the city's defense against threats from both the poor and the King. On July 14th, an armed crowd stormed the Bastille prison, capturing the governor and removing the hated symbol of royal despotism in Paris.

1. SUMMER 1789
France Erupts

2. Before the Estates General
 Each Estate met separately
 One vote per Estate
 Thus 3rd could always be outvoted
 Disliked by bourgeoisie and some liberal nobles
 Argued for voting by head – double vote for 3rd Estate
 Issue dominated Paris Parlement 1788
 Essentially
upper class body
 Supported traditional voting method
 3rd Estate outraged

3. Voting By Estate
 Each Estate had one vote
 1st Estate = 300 clergy and 1 vote
 Represented approx 115,000 people*
 2nd Estate = 300 nobles and 1 vote
 Represented approx 350,000 people*
 3rd Estate = 600 commoners and 1 vote
 Represented approx 24,500,000*
 * Source: Rees, Dylan France In Revolution

4. Voting By Head
 3rd Estate had 600 representatives
 1st and 2nd had 300 each
 Thus the 600 from 3rd Estate + a few clergy (or nobles)
could out-vote everyone else

5. Estates General: Build-Up 1
 3rd Estate: now against Paris Parlement
 Pamphlets attacking Paris parlement
 Debate no longer focused on King and ministers:
 Now broader question of traditional society and leadership
 What is the Third Estate?
 Pamphlet by Abbé de Sieyès, January 1789
 Answer to question posed: everything
 Worked and paid taxes for France
 Yet counted for nothing It is not royal
despotism that needs
 A CONSTITUTION was necessary
to be destroyed: it is
the first two estates

6. What did Louis XVI do?
 Necker encouraged him support
demands of 3rd Estate
 Revive popularity of monarchy
 Show king understood his people, wanted
exercise his powers in their interests
 King agreed double 3rd Estates’
representatives
 No change to voting procedure – so
meaningless gesture The Estates General will give their
advice on everything we shall ask
 Not all gloomy though... them to discuss, and also tell us
of their grievances ... Every kind
of abuse will be reformed

7. The Women’s Petition
We ask to be able to give our children a
reasonable education so as to make
them subjects worthy of serving you. We
will transmit to them the love we have for
your majesty. We defy French men to
love you better than we. When we, sire,
see you at Versailles, with pounding
hearts, and are able to gaze for an
instant upon your august person, tears
flow from our eyes. We see in you only a
tender father, for whom we would
One of the Cahiers de Doléances
sacrifice our lives a thousand times.
Petition from the women of Paris, addressed directly to the king

8. Overview of Cahiers
1st & 2nd Estate All Estates 3rd Estate
•Surprisingly liberal •No taxation without •Most major demands
•Condemned Ancien consent for reform from 3rd
Regime for despotism and •Against absolute royal Estate
inefficiency
power – wanted it limited •Voting per head on all
•89% nobles accepted end by elected assembly issues
of some privileges
•Elected assembly to •Abolition of feudal rights
•39% supported voting per
head on matters of general
have right to vote taxes •Abolish inequality in
interest and pass laws taxation
•Accepted importance of •Regular meetings of
merit rather than birth for Estates General
some posts •Freedom for the press
•Overall about 90 nobles in
•Abolition of lettres de
favour of change
cachet
•Overall about 200 clergy in
favour of change

9. Estates General: Build Up 2
 Bread riots in France 1789
 Lay-offs in textile industries:
production cut 50%
 Réveillon riots – 1 week before
Estates General
 Réveillon – respected wallpaper
manufacturer
 Commented high wages = problem
 1st great popular riot of revolution
 Lasted several days
 Troops fired – many killed
 Shouts of “Vive le roi” and “Vive
Monsieur Necker” from crowd
 Cahiers led peasants to think king
would help them

10. The Estates General
 Convened 4th May 1789
 1st + 2nd Estates = 561 deputies
 3rd Estate = 578 deputies
 400 lawyers; 100 + haute bourgeoisie; some intellectuals including clergy,
nobles
 Abbé de Sieyès; Mirabeau
 Expectations high when met
 But first 7 weeks spent arguing
 Key disputes:
 meeting arrangements
 voting procedure
 King aloof, distracted
 Eldest son had just died
 King’s ministers discussed ideas for reform but did nothing

11. The National Assembly
 After 7 weeks, patience of 3rd Estate ran out...
 17th June 1789 Declared itself the National
Assembly
 There can only be one single body of
representatives; and no deputy, from whatever
order or class, has any right to work apart from
the Assembly.
 The National Assembly would:
 Assume control of its own affairs
 Decide taxation
 19th June clergy voted to join them
 The National Assembly now posed direct
challenge to the King

12. Video Clips
 As you watch these clips, identify all the factors
that led to the 3rd Estate to finally rebel
 From Estates General  National Assembly
 From 03.58  end
 Next clip  Tennis Court Oath

13. The Tennis Court Oath
 Necker advised King:
 Hold royal session of all 3 Estates, offer reforms
 But events moved too fast
 20th June: 3rd Estate’s meeting hall locked,
guarded
 Preparations for royal session
 3rd Estate alarmed by troops present
 Was king going to use force against them?
 Angry, 3rd Estate met in a tennis court
 Took oath never to abandon the National
Assembly until a constitution had been established
 Became known as The Tennis Court Oath

14. The Royal Session
 23rd June 1789: attitudes hardening
 Louis XVI saw 3rd Estate’s action as personal attack on
his authority
 Accepted some reforms:
 No taxation without consent
 Abolition of lettres de cachet
 Freedom of the press
 Abolition of gabelle, corvée, internal customs barriers
 But also stood firm
 Any resolutions by 3rd Estate acting on its own = void
 Estates General continue meet separately
 Then ordered their dispersal
 1st and 2nd Estate left
 3rd remained; refused to leave hall

15. Louis XVI Backs Down
 3rd Estate gained support
 24th June: 151 clergy join 3rd Estate
 25th June: 47 nobles join 3rd Estate
 Including Duc d’Orléans – king’s cousin
 Popular demonstrations: Paris and beyond
 Rumours spread
 Grain to be withheld; National Assembly to be destroyed;
Paris to be starved into submission
 27th June 1789: King backed down
 1st + 2nd Estate to join 3rd
 Voting to be by head
 But was it too late...?

16. Tension Escalates 1
 Since June troops in, around Paris
 More and more troops including foreign
 By 4th July: c.30,000 troops
 Crowds ready to take to streets; militant;
wanting justice
 Rumours: National Assembly to be dispersed
by force
 Increasingly distrusted king
 Whipped up by popular orators (Desmoulins)
 Palais Royale = hotbed of rebellion
 11th July Necker dismissed

17. Tension Escalates 2
 12th – 13th July poor of Paris raided stores
 Including gun sellers, sword smiths, food stores
 Attack on Parisian customs posts
 40/54 destroyed
 Gardes-français (French troops): loyalty no longer
guaranteed
 St Lazare monastery taken over
 Wealthier citizens of Paris alarmed
 Emergency meeting at Hôtel de Ville
 Established committee – The Commune – to run city
 Set up own National Guard (citizens’ militia)
 To protect property from attacks by poor
 Protecting city from attack by the King
 Lafayette = first commander

18. Storming the Bastille
 14th July 1789: 8,000  Hôtel des Invalides
 Weapon store – seized 28,000 muskets, 20 cannon
 No gun powder, cartridges
 Rumour Bastille stored them
 Crowds and some National Guard  Bastille
 2 members Commune met governor
 Crowds waited – frustration grew  full scale assault
 Governor captured, decapitated, head on a pole
 Bastille storming = very significant
 Hated symbol of Ancien regime
 Royal troops had done nothing
 Some joined crowds
 Royal troops withdrawn from Paris
 Parisians had saved the National Assembly
 Now known as Constituent Assembly