Events
June 20, 1789 National Assembly members take Tennis Court Oath,
pledging to create new constitution
July 14 Mob of Parisian citizens storms Bastille prison and
confiscates weapons
July 20 Rural violence of Great Fear breaks out; peasants
lash out at feudal landlords for several weeks
August 4 August Decrees release peasants and farmers from
feudal contracts
August 26 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
issued
October 5 Parisian women march to Versailles in response to
food crisis
February 1790 Government confiscates church property
July 12 Civil Constitution of the Clergy issued
Key People
Louis XVI - French
king; was forced to accept August Decrees and Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen when angry mob of women stormed
Versailles in 1789
Jacques Necker - Director
general of finance sacked by Louis XVI in 1789;
public outrage prompted his reinstatement
Marquis de Lafayette - Nobleman who sided with National Assembly and created
French National Guard
The Tennis Court Oath
Three days after splitting from the Estates-General,
the delegates from the Third Estate (now the National Assembly) found
themselves locked out of the usual meeting hall and convened on
a nearby tennis court instead. There, all but one of the members took
the Tennis Court Oath, which stated simply that the
group would remain indissoluble until it had succeeded in creating
a new national constitution.
Upon hearing of the National Assembly’s formation, King Louis XVI held
a general gathering in which the government attempted to intimidate
the Third Estate into submission. The assembly, however, had
grown too strong, and the king was forced to recognize the group.
Parisians had received word of the upheaval, and revolutionary energy
coursed through the city. Inspired by the National Assembly, commoners
rioted in protest of rising prices. Fearing violence, the king had
troops surround his palace at Versailles.
The Bastille
Blaming him for the failure of the Estates-General, Louis
XVI once again dismissed Director General of Finance Jacques
Necker. Necker was a very popular figure, and when word of
the dismissal reached the public, hostilities spiked yet again.
In light of the rising tension, a scramble for arms broke out, and
on July 13, 1789,
revolutionaries raided the Paris town hall in pursuit
of arms. There they found few weapons but plenty of gunpowder. The
next day, upon realizing that it contained a large armory, citizens
on the side of the National Assembly stormed the Bastille,
a medieval fortress and prison in Paris.
Although the weapons were useful, the storming of the
Bastille was more symbolic than it was necessary for the revolutionary cause.
The revolutionaries faced little immediate threat and had such intimidating
numbers that they were capable of nonviolent coercion. By storming
one of Paris’s most notorious state prisons and hoarding weapons,
however, the revolutionaries gained a symbolic victory over the
Old Regime and conveyed the message that they were not to be trifled
with.
Lafayette and the National Guard
As the assembly secured control over the capital, it seemed
as if peace might still prevail: the previous governmental council
was exiled, and Necker was reinstated. Assembly members assumed
top government positions in Paris, and even the king himself traveled
to Paris in revolutionary garb to voice his support. To bolster
the defense of the assembly, the Marquis de Lafayette,
a noble, assembled a collection of citizens into the French
National Guard. Although some blood had already been shed,
the Revolution seemed to be subsiding and safely in the hands of
the people.
The Great Fear
For all the developments that were taking place in Paris,
the majority of the conflicts erupted in the struggling countryside.
Peasants and farmers alike, who had been suffering under high prices and
unfair feudal contracts, began to wreak havoc in rural France. After
hearing word of the Third Estate’s mistreatment by the Estates-General,
and feeding off of the infectious revolutionary spirit that permeated
France, the peasants amplified their attacks in the countryside
over the span of a few weeks, sparking a hysteria dubbed the Great
Fear. Starting around July 20, 1789,
and continuing through the first days of August, the Great Fear
spread through sporadic pockets of the French countryside. Peasants
attacked country manors and estates, in some cases burning them
down in an attempt to escape their feudal obligations.
