4 Days to App Release! Chapter 13 - Attempted Escape!

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Chapter Thirteen...

The royal family attempts escape.

One June night in 1791, after more than a year-and-a-half under virtual house arrest in the Tuileries Palace, King Louis XVI and his family dressed up as servants and stole away, one by one, under cover of night. Together in a large green and black carriage, fitted with a white velvet interior, food enough, a retractable table and other conveniences of home, they headed north-east to France’s border with the Austrian Empire. Waiting to help them just outside France were troops assembled by the queen’s brother, King Leopold II of Austria, as well as the King of Prussia. 

But things went terribly wrong.  They were delayed en route and so missed the escorts that were arranged to accompany them to the border. When the sun rose over the Tuilieries Palace, the royal family was discovered missing. Word quickly reached us in the provinces that the king and his family were on the run.  National Guardsmen were dispatched in all directions to find them.

I prayed for their safe escape. But a small town postmaster near the border of the Austrian Empire recognized the king when he briefly put his head out of the carriage. Despite his disguise, the king was easily recognizable for his profile was printed on all French coins.

The postmaster rode on ahead to the next town, Varenne. When the king and his family arrived there, the National Guard was waiting to arrest them. The Guard escorted the king and his family back to Paris and placed them under strict house arrest once again.  So frightened was the queen that hair had turned completely white upon their return.

Chapter Fourteen...

The Revolutionaries break apart.

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Images:

Unknown. Louis XVI Stopt [sic] in his Flight at Varennes, 18th c. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1984-22.

Chevais, Jennifer. Drawing of French Coin from 1792. Created for Time Traveler Tours © 2010.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 12 - Oct March of Women

Chapter Twelve...

The women march.

October 5: A mob of angry Parisian women assembled at the Palais Royal. From here, they began a full day’s march to Versailles, on foot.  I read that Louis-Philippe Joseph II, Duc d’Orleans, the king’s cousin, marched among them, dressed as a woman!

They went to Versailles to demand that King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette come to Paris to witness their hunger and poverty. They pleaded with Marie Antoinette to give them bread to help them feed their children. A rumor spread that when the queen was told the women had no bread, she replied, “Then, let them eat cake!” This made the women very angry. 

The women stood waiting well into the night. In the pre-dawn hours, they broke into the palace.  They made for the queen’s bedchamber.  But she escaped through the servants’ passageways within the palace walls.  They sacked Marie Antoinette’s rooms, breaking or stealing its precious contents. 

The National Guard joined the women, beheading anyone who blocked the furies’ path. The women refused to leave Versailles unless the Royal family left with them. By morning, they were victorious.

On October 6, the king and queen, their two living children, and the king’s sister, Madame Elizabeth, were prisoners of the mob, en route in a crowded carriage to Paris.  Their 12 hour parade to the Tuileries Palace left a trail of blood as the women held the heads of the king’s troops on pikes. They waved green tree branches as a symbol of the revolution. The royal family would never see Versailles again.

Chapter Thirteen...

The royal family attempts escape.

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Image:

Unknown. Triumph of the Parisian Army and the People, 18th c. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1990-46-128.

From the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

Though agreed to by the National Assembly on 26 August 1789, the Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen was not ratified by King Louis XVI until 5 October 1789 and only then under then under pressure of the National Assembly and the people (see next story installment: Chapter 12 - The October March of Women).

The Déclaration served as the preamble to the first constitution of the French Republic, adopted in 1791. It consists of 17 articles among which assert the following  rights of the individual and the nation:

All men are created equal.

No man shall hold Absolute or Divine rule over others.

Henceforth the inalienable (absolute) rights of the individual will include: The rights to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression; the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

It is upon a sovereign (that is, self-governing) people on whom, henceforth: The law of the nation should rest, to whom officials should be responsible, and by whom finances should be controlled.

Does is remind you of another important 18th century document?

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Image:

Unknown. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Printing; Watercolor painting, 1793. Centre historique des Archives nationale, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 11 - King Louis XVI Consents

Chapter Eleven...

In which the king responds to the peoples' storming of the Bastille fortress... 

On July 17, King Louis XVI rushed to Paris.  He stood on the balcony of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) before his subjects. He recognized the power of the National Assembly.  In addition to wearing his customary white – the color of the French Monarchy - he also wore red and blue – the colors of Paris.  These three colors quickly became the colors of France’s first republican flag: le tricolore.

With the king’s blessing, the National Assembly got right to work to declare the new rights of all French citizens under the new French Republic.  In August, the Assembly gave France what many of us believe to be the most important document of the 18^th century:

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

For those of us with food in our cupboards, the publication of the Declaration fueled our optimism for the future of France. But those with no bread on the table and winter on its way wondered what good their new rights were in this new constitutional monarchy.

Chapter Twelve...

The women march.

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Image:

Unknown. French Constitution, Rights of Man and Citizen, 18th c. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1991-53.

14 juillet, not “Bastille Day”

In 1880, the day of July 14^th was declared France’s official date of national celebration, La Fête Nationale.

Mais Attention ! 

Though the celebration is held on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, the French never refer to it as “Bastille Day”.  They prefer the moniker, Le Quatorze Juillet, the 14^th of July, with its less violent connotation.

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Image: Sarah Towle, 2010.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 10 - Storm the Bastille!

Chapter Ten...

In which Charlotte explains what really happened to drive the angry mob to the Bastille on 14 juillet 1789.

On July 13, the morning after Citizen Desmoulins’ speech, 60,000 people met at Les Invalides, the home for veterans of French wars. They got away with over 10 cannon and 28,000 muskets belonging to the king’s army without any resistance from the troops on guard there. But, they found no gunpowder.

Oh, how I wished I had been there. My father forbade me to travel to Paris that summer.  He said it was too dangerous.  He was probably right. For the next day, July 14, a mob even larger than the day before met at the Bastille, a 14^th century fortress, turned prison. The Bastille was enormous: eight stone towers linked 80 foot walls. The gunpowder needed to fuel the army’s munitions was hiding there. The Bastille had long been associated with the worst abuses of the monarchy’s power - torture, deprivation, unfair trial - and we French people hated it.

Armed with cannon and guns stolen from Les Invalides, as well as scythes, clubs, pikes, even stones – anything that could be used as a weapon – the mob demanded the fortress guards to give them gunpowder and to free their prisoners. The guards would not allow the mob inside and prepared to defend the Bastille with rooftop cannon.  No one knows who actually fired first. But after a standoff lasting many hours, a gun blast was suddenly heard. The mob, thinking it was under attack, stormed the fortress.  Members of the new Revolutionary police force, the National Guard, joined them.

The mob chopped off the head of the Bastille guard and stuck it on a pike. His head, dripping with blood, was held high for all to see.

The people went wild, tearing the Bastille apart, stone by stone, until their fingers bled. They freed the prisoners being held there, surprised to find only seven. They stole the king’s gunpowder to fuel the king’s arms.

A violent, more radical Revolution was now upon us.

Chapter Eleven...

The king's reaction...

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Images:

Unknown. Reveil du tiers état (Awakening of the Third Estate), 1789. Digital reproduction of hand- colored etching [LC-USZC2-3595] courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, French Political Cartoon Collection, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Unknown. Prise de la Bastille (Taking of the Bastille). Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine- vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1988-117.



Countdown to App Release: Chapter 9 - The Mob Stirs

Chapter Nine...

12 July 1789, the mob stirs.

On 12 July 1789, while dining here at the Café des Foy, Camille Desmoulins, a poor journalist from northeastern France and Third Estate representative to the Estates General, found himself surrounded by a shouting, angry mob, frightened by the advance of the king’s troops on Paris.  How would they defend themselves against the king’s soldiers?

Desmoulins was known for his awkward stutter.  But on this day he lost it, at least for a little while.  If they needed weapons, they would steal them from the king!  They would capture the king’s munitions at Les Invalides! He climbed up onto a table here at the Café des Foy, and shouted, “Aux armes, citoyens!” To arms, citizens!. “Plunder the arsenal!”

In France, green is the color of hope. Desmoulins tore a green, leafy branch off a nearby tree and put it in his hat.  The rowdy mob of people also tore tree branches to adorn their hats until they had stripped bare the trees of the Palais Royal. From that moment, wearing or waving a tree branch symbolized one’s hope and support for the Revolution.

Chapter Ten...

What happened the day before 14 July 1789, and the storming of the Bastille? Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment...

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Image:

Unknown. Camille Demoulins, from a painting by Rouillard, c. 1921. Photomechanical reproduction of original [LC-USZ62-115911] courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 8 - Peaceful Revolution, pt. 2, A New Constitution

Chapter Eight...

In which Charlotte tells the story of the establishment of France's 1st Republican government: The National Assembly

With the hopes and dreams of the entire nation weighing heavily on their shoulders, the Third Estate refused to leave Versailles. They held their own meeting in the king’s indoor games court, the Jeu de Paume, the only place big enough to accommodate their numbers and shelter them from the storm that raged like their fury with the old regime. They proclaimed themselves “the true representatives of the French people.” They named themselves The National Assembly, an assembly not of the Estates, but of “The People”: France’s new government.

Forty-seven nobles and many clergy as well left the king’s meeting to join the National Assembly, among them Louis-Philippe Joseph II, Duc d’Orleans. They pledged an oath to write France her first constitution. 

It seemed the Revolution was won.

But King Louis XVI was not so quick to recognize France’s new, self-proclaimed government. Where did it put him? Where did it leave his son, the dauphin, the future King of France?  As he awaited the new constitution, he grew anxious of the rumble back in Paris. He sent troops to surround the city.

Parisians grew scared of the weapons now pointing at them.

Tomorrow, Chapter Nine...

12 July 1789, the mob stirs.

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Image:

David, Jacques-Louis. Serment du jeu de paume à Versailles, 20 juin 1789 (The Tennis Court Oath at Versailles, 20 June 1789), 1791. Photo credit © Sarah B. Towle, 2010, photographed with permission, Musée Carnavalet.

Unknown. Fraternité. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1983-311.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 7 - Peaceful Revolution, pt 1

Bonnes Nouvelles! At long last, the Time Traveler Tours 1st StoryApp,

Beware Madame la Guillotine: A Revolutionary Tour of Paris,

has been submitted to Apple for approval!

In honor of this big event, I give you two chapters today to commemorate the events of the Peaceful Revolution that preceded the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789...

Chapter Seven...

In which Charlotte recounts the first, hopeful, peaceful stage of the French Revolution.

To his credit, King Louis XVI recognized in the summer of 1789 that his country was in crisis. He called for a meeting of the Estates General – equal numbers of representatives from the nobility, clergy, and Third Estate – to help him resolve the situation. No French King had convened the Estates General for over 150 years.  So, new delegates to the counseling body had to be selected from all corners of the country. 

In June, 12,000 delegates to the Estates General arrived at Versailles, each sporting the dress of their social class:  The Third Estate wore plain black suits and three corner hats. The nobility were bedecked in silks and plumes. The clergy shouldered their traditional violet vestments.  They came to help find a solution to France’s financial problems. They came to usher in a new, golden age for France. They carried with them the hope and optimism of the entire French nation.  Confidence reigned.

But it quickly soured. The Third Estate demanded more voting power. They did, after all, represent 96% of the French population. But they had only as many votes as the clergy and nobility, and these two always voted with the monarchy.  The demand of the Third Estate did not sit well with the King. He locked them out of the meeting.

Toute de suite: Chapter Eight...

In which Charlotte tells the story of the establishment of France's 1st Republican government: The National Assembly.

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Images:

Bervic, Charles-Clément (1756-1822). Louis XVI, King of France, 1790. Reproduction of original engraving [LC-USZ62-82999], courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Unknown. Equalité. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1983-312.

Countdown to App Release: Chapter 6 - What is a Revolution?

Chapter Six...

In which Charlotte explains the meaning of "Revolution".

What is a revolution?  Take a seat on a nearby bench, and I’ll tell you...

...A revolution is a relatively sudden and drastic change in either the social, political, cultural, or economic institutions of a society. Some revolutions are led by the majority population of a nation; others are led by a small band of people who think radically differently from the rest.  Some revolutions are peaceful; others are violent.

The French Revolution was all these things.  In 1789 it began peacefully, but quickly turned violent. It had the support, initially, of most French people, like me and my nobleman father. But it was taken over in a few short years by the most radical extremists. People like Jean-Paul Marat, whose life I am guilty of taking, Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, who in turn will soon take mine.

Simply put, the French revolution was the overthrow of the French government by the French governed. Some believed that a republican government was possible in France – one run by French citizens rather than an a monarch. Others felt that a constitutional monarchy would bring the greatest liberty, equality, and fraternity to all.  It had happened in England in 1689, and in the United States in 1776, with the help of French soldiers. In 1789, it was France’s turn for political and social change; it was France’s turn for Liberty.

Join us for Chapter Seven...

In which Charlotte recounts the first, hopeful, peaceful stage of the French Revolution.

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Inage:

Unknown. Liberté. Crédit photographique: Musée de la Révolution Françaises, Vizille, France, http://www.domaine-vizille.fr, Inv. MRF 1983-314.