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.
Don't Forget! There's still time to...
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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.