Lets not forget that on this date in 1998, French President Chirac used the occasion to convince President Clinton to set in motion what eventually became the non-UN-approved war against Serbia in 1999.
Posted on 07/14/2004 12:13:29 PM PDT by ijcr
During the second half of the 17th century, the Cardinal Richelieu converted the royal fortress into a state prison for the upper class - mainly people who committed high treason or some other kind of offense against the king or the state (who were considered to be essentially the same).
The very often arbitrary warrant of arrest (lettre de cachet, i. e. letter with the royal seal) made the Bastille fortress one of the darkest symbols of royal despotism, although the conditions of the imprisonment were in general quite comfortable.
The prisoners could welcome visitors, bring their servants, their furniture, clothes, and books, and the daily ration paid by the state provided them a luxury cuisine. During the reign of Louis XV, the Bastille accommodated more and more ordinary criminals; but as the protectors of the catholic religion the king's authorities imprisoned also Protestants and freethinkers, and Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) was arrested twice during his youth.
The cells of the prisoners were not as harsh as those of other prisons of the time. At one point under Louis XVI, the cells were furnished with thick green curtains and comfortable furniture. Games were introduced later, along with lengthy visits from friends and the "criminals" were even allowed to have pets to keep themselves amused.
In the last decades after 1750 many inmates were committed by their own families as insane or because of some shameful carnal deviation. Authors and writers, either of politically offensive treatises or of pornographic obscene trash, were in any way heroized in the public opinion as the chained martyrs of the free genius.
Among the more prominent convicts of the late 1780s were Latude, a notorious and querulous swindler; the quack and magnetizer Caligostro; the diplomat and general Dumouriez, later to be the hero of the French victory 1792 at Valmy, but finally in 1793 deserting to the Austrian army; the wallpaper manufacturer Reveillion, who was arrested for his own protection after the riots in the Faubourg St. Antoine in April 1789, when the rumour that he intended to cut his workers' salaries claimed more than 300 lives; and the Marquis de Sade, who however was transferred to the lunatic institution at Charenton on July 4, 1789, after he screeched out from the window of his cell to the neighbourhood that "the prisoners were massacred and one should come to help".
The government already planned to close down and demolish the expensive medieval fortress.
On July 14, only seven prisoners were the last inmates of the bastille: four falsifiers of bills arrested in 1787; the Comte de Solages since 1784, committed by his family for his dissolute lifestyle; and two insanes, the Comte Whyte de Malleville, and the accused conspirator Tavernier. But in the enlightened mind of the civilized world the Bastille was the symbol of despotism.
The events of July 14, 1789
After a demonstration of 5000 people had been dispersed by force, the prisons of the Concierge and La Force were stormed by an outraged crowd to liberate the prisoners. The customs booths surrounding the city installed by the tax collector and chemist Lavoisier were burned down on July 13. People began to search for arms, and in the morning of July 14 they could capture 40000 rifles and some cannons from the Invalides barracks, but without ammunition. The gunpowder had been transferred to the Bastille.
The people moved to the fortress, and already at 10 am the peaceful surrender was demanded, but rejected by the governor, de Launay. At 11.30 another delegation led by Thuriot, five years later to be the president of the National Convention and to overthrow Robespierre, inspected the Bastille and its still unloaded cannons, but while they returned to the the City Hall (Hotel de Ville), more and more citizens gathered around the fortress and finally entered the court of the surrounding barracks; at 1.30 pm de Launay gave his veterans and Swiss guards the command to fire at the people.
At 2 pm a mass of citizens armed mainly with pikes, axes, knives and some rifles, moved to the fortress, but the siege was an unequal combat, until soldiers of the later National Guard began to join the crowd. The surrounding barracks were set on fire, but the Swiss guards at the battlement of the fortress shot again and again into the people, killing 97 of the assailants and injuring some 70.
Only after 3 pm, when cannons were brought by the National Guards joining the attackers, the soldiers of the Bastille realized that a real siege was going on, and two sergeants had to prevent de Launay from blowing up the fortress - and its surroundings - with the stored gunpowder; at 5 pm the Bastille surrendered and opened its doors.
The enraged conquerors were astonished to liberate only seven prisoners, they attacked some of the veterans, but first spared the Swiss guards; the governor de Launay had to be protected by two guards from the furor of the people and was escorted to the City Hall, but there he was lynched and stabbed to death.
Three other officers and three soldiers were lynched as well, and the president of the city committee at the City Hall, Flesselles, who had sent a letter to de Launay to endure, was shot with a pistol. Their heads were cut off, spitted on pikes, and carried around in triumph.
Primary source François Victor Alphonse Aulard "Etudes et leçons sur la Révolution française."
Crudités
Stand around and watch Whoopie Goldberg grab her crotch and speak French.
Escargots a la Jacques Chirac
Place six raw snails on a lettuce leaf...enjoy the slime.
Ratatouille
Classic French dish-the name says it all.
Gratin DeVillepin
Speech and poetry by Dominque.
Recommended Beverages
"The French Army Flag"
Fill glass with milk,watch the wonderful colors swirl.
As Fouche states in the Movie "The Black Book" "Where would you find anyone in Paris as disloyal, unscrupulous, scheming, treacherous and deceitful as myself?"
But they're marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Free the dungeons of the innocent
The king will kneel, and let his kingdom rise
Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
Naked fear on every face
See them bow their heads to die
As we would bow as they rode by
And we're marching to Bastille Day
La guillotine will claim her bloody prize
Sing, o choirs of cacophony
The king has kneeled, to let his kingdom rise
Lessons taught but never learned
All around us anger burns
Guide the future by the past
Long ago the mould was cast
For they marched up to Bastille Day
La guillotine -- claimed her bloody prize
Hear the echoes of the centuries
Power isn't all that money buys
Words and Music by Lee, Lifeson, Peart
"The enraged conquerors were astonished to liberate only seven prisoners, they attacked some of the veterans, but first spared the Swiss guards; the governor de Launay had to be protected by two guards from the furor of the people and was escorted to the City Hall, but there he was lynched and stabbed to death."
Sums up the joke of the "French Revolution" pretty well. Idiots making out something to be what it's not, but still continuing on their treacherous murderous paths.
I give a rat's !$@# about Bastille Day.
It seems to me the French Revolution was all about anarchy, bloodshed, and rabid anticlericalism. In the end, what did it accomplish in terms of true republican, representative government?
All this frou-frou & folderol for only 7 prisoners?!!! And continuing to be commemorated for 214 years?!!! Ridiculous!
I get it now! No wonder there's such a shared feeling between the French and the Muslims. They've both got a thing for cutting off people's heads. Remember the guillotine. Off with their heads!
Being raised to revere the American Revolution (and getting into it rather big-time by myself), it didn't take much to despise the French.
It's a joke at best, and a horror at worst. Bunch of assholes showing their low class, and their descendents haven't recovered from the instability and brutality. Not at all worth celebrating.
Of course, the latest thing is to blame the French Revolution on the American.
Adams was right on; Jefferson was flaky about the issue. This is one of the reasons Adams is my favorite founding father.
Lets not forget that on this date in 1998, French President Chirac used the occasion to convince President Clinton to set in motion what eventually became the non-UN-approved war against Serbia in 1999.
LOL, now don't get me started!
Jefferson is the most overrated Founder; Adams probably the most underrated.
Truth is Jefferson hardly did anything that great; he wrote some pretty words and was immortalized for it. OK, years later he managed to broker a deal for a huge land grab from (ta da) the French. Other than that, not much. Not much of a governor, including running off w/the threat of British invasion.
And didn't Jefferson try to rip large sections of the New Testament? I think he was a very strange man.
Amen! Or as Edmund Burke wrote, "I would rather be trod upon by satin slippers than hobnailed boots."
As to Jefferson, the more I learn about him the more I feel he most definitely had feet of clay. In fact,to me the man's reaction to the XYZ Affair was the finial clod on the coffin of his reputation of being a-god-come-down-from-heaven that the (liberal) historians have been drawing him all these years.
(Nice quote from Burke.)
You have hit the nail on the head. The French have re-written their constitution 8 times since the Revolution.
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