Bastille Day Celebrates French Independence Over Tyranny

www.countypressonline.com ^ | 7/14/04 | By Ron Pritsch

[Tribune7]

As Americans begin to unwind from our nation's July 4th celebrations, our French friends across the ocean are celebrating this week a national holiday connected with their revolution.

July 14, more commonly known as Bastille Day, commemorates the attack and successful overthrow in 1789 of a Parisian fortress that marked the advent of the French Revolution and paved the way for the establishment of the French Republic.

For those not familiar with French history, the Bastille was a hated symbol of monarchical tyranny. The word "bastille," not capitalized, means any armory or fortified building, generally at the entrance to a city. It especially became identified with any stone building with towers or bastions for defense.

The first stone for this fortress was laid on April 22, 1370, on the orders of King Charles V of France, who had it built as an additional protective barrier to safeguard his palace in Paris against possible English attack during the Hundred Years' War. It was Charles VI who transformed the structure into an independent stronghold.

With its eight towers, 100 feet high, connected with walls of equal height and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille came to dominate Paris and stood by the road entering the city from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

Until the middle of the 17th century, the Bastille was utilized for military purposes. One person of note who used it in that capacity also happened to be a woman. In 1652, during the Fronde, the Duchess de Montpensier, also known as La Grande Mademoiselle, used the Bastille's cannon to cover the retreat of the Prince de Conde from Paris.

From the time of Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), the Bastille became a name of dread and terror throughout France. Nobles. statesmen, scholars, authors or generals, if for any reason aroused royal disfavor, were liable to be arrested by secret "lettres-de-cachet," or royal orders for arbitrary imprisonment without benefit of trial or even proper accusation. "The Man in the Iron Mask," the Marquis de Sade, and Cardinal Louis de Rohan were among the Bastille's famous tenants.

[Tribune7]

For all of the many Francophiles on FR :-)

Actually, there are some interesting things in this article.

[Tribune7]

I just know you love reading about the French.

[Tribune7]

ping

[swilhelm73]

LOL. Bastille Day Celebrates French Independence Over Tyranny? No. It celebrates the French replacing an incompetent despot with a bloody minded, and incompetent, directorate.

Oh, and while the American Revolution would provide the groundwork for conservativism and human rights, the French revolution was equally important. However, it provided the groundwork for Communism, Fascism, state Atheism, the modern Left both Euro and American, and the acceptability of mass murder in the cause of "progress".

[JediForce]

They must be selling a ton of red,white, and blue BURKAS.

[Tribune7]

Oh, and while the American Revolution would provide the groundwork for conservativism and human rights, the French revolution was equally important. However, it provided the groundwork for Communism, Fascism, state Atheism, the modern Left both Euro and American, and the acceptability of mass murder in the cause of "progress"

Exactly.

[Viet-Boat-Rider]

My father was (died in 1993) a WWII fighter pilot ace in France (18.5 kills). In 1990 he and my mother were invited to go to France for a reunion of fighter pilots. Touring France they were at a cemitary for Americans why died in France and a French passer-by said to them, pointing at the cemetary "Take you trash home with you". I am SO gelad that Kerry would be friends whith the French, it warms my hart (barf).

[SunnySide]

"Bastille Day Celebrates French Independence Over Tyranny"

Yet they had no problem with Saddams sadistic tyranny or the growing rampant muslim misogyny tyranny right in their own country. Those French brains are pickled in their own wine juice.

[Billthedrill]

Well, there were only seven prisoners in the place at the time. It was a largely symbolic gesture.

Now, the Terror - that was no symbolic gesture. The streets literally ran red. Burke saw it coming and nobody listened.

[SierraWasp]

Yah, them French guys beheaded far more than the Insurgents and Al Quida have so far, with that there danged guillotine contraption they came up with in their revolooooooshun!!!

That's where the expression "heads are gonna roll" came from, right? Personally, I prefer "Let's Roll," myself!!! (or as Petah Jennings said:"Let US Roll!")

[Calvin Locke]

You forgot "The Terror"/"Reign of Terror".

The article mentions that there were only seven prisoners, but I seem to recall that all or most were literally idiots, or "madmen".

[ModelBreaker]

LOL. Bastille Day Celebrates French Independence Over Tyranny? No. It celebrates the French replacing an incompetent despot with a bloody minded, and incompetent, directorate.

True. But Bastille day was independence day for the Marquis de Sade--he and five other prisoners were freed that day from the Bastille. That's it. That the French celebrate the freeing of the Marquis as their most important national holiday seem somehow appropriate.

[BenLurkin]

The headline's premise is laughable.

Bastille Day Celebrates French Independence Over Tyranny? No. It celebrates the French replacing an incompetent despot with a bloody minded, and incompetent, directorate.

Exactly! Not to mention twenty or so years of the dictator Bonaparte.

[B-Chan]

The filthy, atheistic criminals behind the Revolution murdered their sovereign King, his innocent and kind-hearted wife the Queen, and thousands of others in the name of their precious Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité. They also murdered the nation of France, “the eldest daughter of Christendom”, and set the precedent for two centuries of riot, rapine, and robbery, all in the name of “the rights of man”.

14th July 1789 should be a day of shame and weeping for all free men and Christians everywhere, not a day for féte and fireworks. By killing their king, the authors of the Revolution destroyed the sovereignty of their nation and ushered in two centuries of misery for the French. By denying God, the Source and Author of all law, human rights, and morality, they doomed the West to a slow death under the blade of godlessness and communism. It is no wonder that la Marseillaise is the best-beloved hymn of Red revolutionists everywhere!

If the children of the West were to be taught the truth about the French Revolution, they might have a chance of staving off the comimg collapse in their own societies. Until that happens, the iron grip of goddess Reason will continue to hold the future of Western civilization in its icy, unfeeling grasp.

Vive le Roi! Vive la France!

[RichardW]

The truth is that what replaced the monarchy was about 10 times worse. There was blood literally running in the streets. It was truly the "Reign of Terror." They should celebrate the day they sent all of those monsters to the guillotine rather than the day they executed the king and queen. The king was so fat that the executioner had to jump up and down on the blade to get through his neck. The first time it went awry. What a bloody mess.

[royalcello]

Amen! I have little to add to your splendid post.

"Independence over tyranny," indeed! More like the "arrival of real tyranny," since the French Revolution not only unleashed a horrific wave of unprecendented state terror, but paved the way ideologically for the modern totalitarianisms of Communism and Nazism.

[BlueLancer]

"As Americans begin to unwind from our nation's July 4th celebrations, our French friends across the ocean are celebrating this week a national holiday connected with their revolution."

Sorry, but finding one blatant falsehood in the first sentence is enough to convince me to not read the rest of the article.

"French friends" indeed ...

[royalcello]

You are entirely correct in your view of the evil French Revolution, but sadly mistaken in your harsh, unfair, and inaccurate assessment of King Louis XVI as an "incompetent despot," showing that the propaganda of the Revolution has done its work even to the minds of those who claim to oppose it.

First of all, the French monarchy was hardly "despotic" compared to the modern state, which exerts a degree of control over its citizens' lives the monarchs of old never would have dreamed of. And Louis XVI actually lessened the government's power in some ways, lowering taxes and eliminating discriminatory restrictions on the Jews, for example. While he undoubtedly made mistakes as king and was in some ways ill-suited to the task entrusted to him, he was an intelligent man who does not deserve most of the slurs heaped on him over the past two centuries. Arguably his greatest mistake, from a French monarchist point of view, was reluctantly agreeing to aid the American revolution, which bankrupted the French treasury and therefore can be said to have precipitated their own Revolution. Somehow I doubt you would wish he had decided differently.

Vive le Roi!

[otness_e]

Well, that, and failing to consecrate the heart of Christ.

[dfwgator]

The “Cure” was worse than the “Disease”.