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History of the
Bastille
All of the planning had been done, all of the arrangements made, and all
of the contingencies carefully thought out; everything was ready. As the
morning of July 14th 1789 dawned, the mob gathered, heading for the thick,
foreboding walls of the hated Bastille. Guarded by eighty-two aging
veterans and reinforced by only thirty-two Swiss mercenaries, the
besiegers, numbering near a thousand, felt that they could easily
overwhelm the political prison. The defenders of the Bastille, not fearing
the onslaught proposed by the attackers, spent the previous week repairing
a long since damaged drawbridge, boarding windows, and reinforcing walls.
They were not worried, expecting only a mob attack. However, three hundred
French soldiers deserted their ranks to join in the attack. Had it not
been for these soldiers, the Bastille would not have been taken. As it
was, the besiegers quickly broke through the gates, and, despite the
threat of 20,000 pounds of gun power igniting, destroying everything in
the violent explosion, won the fortified prison.
The storming, and subsequent take over of the Bastille, ushered in the
beginning of the French Revolution. No longer were the angry peasants
defying local lords, but they were now striking at the symbolic heart of
the monarchy. The Bastille, a hated emblem of control and domination,
became the war cry for hundreds of thousands of scorned and maltreated
revolutionaries. However, the Bastille did not always ring with such
discord as it did in the late seventeen hundreds.
Taken from the French word ‘bastide’, meaning fortress, the Bastille was
constructed to defend the eastern wall of Paris from hostile forces in
1382. With walls over eighty feet high and well stocked and supplied
arsenal, the Bastille quickly gathered the reputation of one of France’s
most secure military strongpoints. However, after being besieged seven
times and surrendering six of those times, the importance of the fortress
diminished. By the early seventeen hundreds it had become a prison.
Cardinal Richelieu, acting under King Louis XIII, imprisoned any
displeasing character for any reason. Prisoners were arrested by a secret
warrant issued by the King called a lettres-de-cachet. Not allowed a
trail, told what their offense was, or even what their punishment was to
be, these enemies of the King were quickly taken away and imprisoned in
one of the many high towers of the Bastille. Famous prisoners include
Voltaire, the famous political writer, and Marquis de Sade, a well-known
French writer. The most famous and mysterious prisoner of the Bastille, is
the legendary man in the iron mask. This character has had such a
following that a book, written by Alexander Dumas, and a popular movie
have been made depicting his life in the Bastille. However, neither one of
these is an accurate retelling of the mysterious man’s life.
When prisoners were released from the walls of the Bastille, they were
allowed to go only if they agreed never to tell what they had seen or what
had happened inside the feared prison. This lack of knowledge about the
Bastille helped to create a mystique of horror and terror that the King
could use to coerce certain things out of people. However, the reality of
the Bastille was much different than the mystique created by the King. All
of the rooms until the year 1701 were left unfurnished. Wealthy political
prisoners were allowed to bring in their own furniture, many even brought
their own servants with them. Meals were of generous proportions, and more
luxurious meals could be bought if the prisoner was wealthy enough. Most
prisoners were docile. They were allowed to walk freely around the
fortress, talk with officers and other prisoners and play games. Many had
their own personal hobbies, and a few were even allowed to visit the city
of Paris on parole. The Bastille was much more comfortable, even homelike,
than the horrific rumors that circled around France proclaimed.
In 1789 when the angry mob broke through the walls and stormed the
Bastille they found only seven prisoners inside: four forgers, two
lunatics, and a young noble. However, it was not to free the prisoners
inside that the battle was fought. Instead, it was to bring down the
single most important symbol of the King’s power. The Governor of the
Bastille, De Launay, had his head cut off and paraded around the streets
of Paris on a pike. In the end eighty-three attackers were dead, and
seventy-three injured. The guards only suffered one death and three
wounded.
Since 1880 July 14th, Bastille Day, has been celebrated to commemorate the
storming of the Bastille and the end of the French monarchy. As with the
American Independence Day, the holiday is celebrated with firecrackers,
parades, and festivals. In 1889, the Exposition, covering over 237 acres
of land and consisted of over sixty thousand official exhibits, celebrated
the official holiday. Featuring a reconstructed Bastille large enough for
visitors to go inside for banquets and dramatic plays and a roller
coaster, the festival was the largest of any in the world. Although
Bastille Day is not celebrated to this extent anymore, it is still an
important national holiday in France where the fallen are remembered, the
courageous honored, and the heroic deified.
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