Estates General
Louis XVI
The Estates General opened the revolutionary year that produced the National Assembly, Tennis Court Oath, Bastille uprising and Declaration of Rights.
Storming of the Bastille
14 July 1789 and popular Paris. Explore the related historical entries from the same archive as the main French Revolution records.
33 matching archive records · Complete source archive: 3,449 records
Third Estate
Louis XVI
This record states: The first year of the Revolution sees members of the 3rd Estate proclaiming the Tennis Court Oath in June, the assault on the Bastille in July, the passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and.
Bailly observes transfer from royal to national authority
Jean-Sylvain Bailly
The storming of the Bastille transformed the balance between the crown and the National Assembly. Bailly's parliamentary authority soon gave way to an elected municipal leadership in the capital.
Bastille fall transforms the royal crisis
Marie Antoinette
The capture of the Bastille deprived Marie Antoinette and the court of any expectation that the capital could be controlled without concessions. Popular mobilization dramatically altered the political leverage of Louis XVI.
Citizen militia encounters Bastille crisis
Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette
The capture of the Bastille occurred amid the rapid creation of Parisian citizen forces. Lafayette's subsequent command would place the new National Guard at the center of revolutionary public order.
Defection
Louis XVI
5 out of the 6 battalions had deserted and were prominent in the attack on the Bastille.
Dissolution of Army
Lafayette
The Army dissolves itself.
Lafayette moves toward citizen-guard leadership
Gilbert du Motier Lafayette
The July crisis created the circumstances in which Lafayette would command the Paris National Guard. The consequences of bastille news transforms palace politics reached well beyond the palace and its neighbouring legislative chambers.
Louis XVI faces collapse of coercive confidence
Louis XVI
The capture of the Bastille revealed that military preparations could not easily restore royal control. The bastille news transforms palace politics made Versailles a focal point in the struggle over royal and representative authority.
Mirabeau presses concerns over royal troops
Honore Gabriel Mirabeau
Mirabeau criticized the concentration of soldiers near Paris and Versailles as a threat to representatives. This development concerning bastille news transforms palace politics exposed the limits of the old regime's political arrangements.
National Guard
Lafayette
The National Guard, a citizens militia, is formed which wears the tricolour cockade.
Paris Municipal Council
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Brissot entered the first Paris municipal council during the political transformation following the Bastille's fall.
Storming of Bastille alters political program
Jacques-Pierre Brissot
The fall of the Bastille transformed the political conditions in which Brissot published. He interpreted popular mobilization as a force that could defend reforms against royal resistance.
Storming of the Bastille
Paul Francois Barras
Barras participated in the revolutionary events surrounding the storming of the Bastille in Paris.
Lafayette selected as National Guard chief
Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette
Paris electors chose Lafayette to lead the newly established militia in the aftermath of the Bastille's fall. His reputation from the American War of Independence lent prestige to the citizen force.
Bastille Demolition Order
Lafayette
As commander of the Paris National Guard, Lafayette ordered the demolition of the captured Bastille.
Bailly receives king at Hotel de Ville
Jean-Sylvain Bailly
Bailly formally welcomed Louis XVI to Paris after the Bastille's fall. The encounter symbolized the king's need to recognize the political authority claimed by the revolutionary municipality.
Mayor Receives Monarch at City Hall
Jean Sylvain Bailly
Bailly welcomed Louis XVI at the city hall after the Bastille uprising and publicly confirmed the new municipal leadership. The encounter gave the revolutionaries an important gesture of royal recognition.
Reception of Louis XVI
Jean-Sylvain Bailly
As mayor of Paris, Bailly formally received Louis XVI at the Hotel de Ville after the fall of the Bastille.
Brissot enters revolutionary municipal politics
Jacques-Pierre Brissot
Brissot participated in the emerging Paris municipal establishment after the Bastille crisis. This civic experience connected his journalism to the practical politics of the capital.
Citizen Guard Patrols Protect Public Buildings
Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette
National Guard detachments secured politically sensitive buildings in the unsettled months following the Bastille. Their presence gave the new municipality a means of enforcing decisions without royal troops.
Barras joins revolutionary mobilization
Paul Francois Jean Nicolas Barras
Barras participated in the upheaval surrounding the fall of the Bastille. His association with the movement marked an unexpected political turn for a veteran officer from a noble Provençal family.
Bastille falls after radical Paris mobilization
Camille Desmoulins
The Bastille was stormed two days after Desmoulins's famous Palais Royal address. His public rhetoric formed part of the wider movement that shattered royal authority in the capital.
Bastille uprising context
Louis-Bénigne-François Sauvigny
The storming of the Bastille transformed the political environment in which Bertier de Sauvigny had administered the Paris generality.
Desmoulins calls Parisians to arms on 12 July
Camille Desmoulins
Desmoulins publicly urged Parisians to defend themselves against royal troops. His appeal became one of the memorable acts of agitation immediately preceding the fall of the Bastille.
Electors establish a provisional Paris municipality
Jean-Sylvain Bailly
After the Bastille fell, Parisian electors fashioned a municipal authority to replace the old royal administration. Bailly became a central figure in the new civic government.
Estates General
Louis XVI
The revolutionary year produced the National Assembly, Tennis Court Oath, Bastille uprising, Declaration of Rights and October march on Versailles.
Food shortages before Bastille
Louis-Bénigne-François Sauvigny
Bread scarcity helped generate the revolutionary atmosphere in which officials such as Bertier de Sauvigny became targets of popular anger.
Lynching on 22 July
Louis-Bénigne-François Sauvigny
Bertier de Sauvigny was lynched by a Paris crowd on 22 July 1789 in the revolutionary upheaval after the Bastille's fall.
Paris Electors Establish Provisional City Authority
Jean Sylvain Bailly
After the fall of the Bastille Parisian electors transformed their provisional committee into a new municipal authority with Bailly as mayor. This replaced royal control of city administration.
Paris municipal weakness exposed
Louis-Bénigne-François Sauvigny
The crowd killing of Bertier de Sauvigny exposed the weakness of authorities trying to impose order in the days after the Bastille fell.
Polignac circle leaves court
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette saw close associates, including the Duchess of Polignac, leave France after the fall of the Bastille. Their departure reflected fears for courtiers identified with the unpopular old regime.
Anniversary
Louis XVI
Leads celebrations and oath taking in memory of the 1st yr of the fall of the Bastille.