Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Western Sieve. Episode four hundred and ninety,
Speaker 1: The Storming of the Bass Deal. On June the twentieth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, a dramatic confrontation unfolded. The Deputies of
Speaker 1: the Third Estate, who had already begun calling themselves the
Speaker 1: National Assembly, arrived at their meeting hall at Versailles, only
Speaker 1: to find it locked, ostensibly for preparations for a royal session.
Speaker 1: To them, however, it felt like an insult, perhaps even
Speaker 1: a plot to dissolve them. So they marched, as we know,
Speaker 1: to a nearby indoor tennis court. They are in the
Speaker 1: echoing space. Jean Silban Bailey, their president, stood before the deputies,
Speaker 1: who pressed shoulder to shoulder with arms raised. They swore
Speaker 1: a solemn collective vow. We will not separate, and we
Speaker 1: will reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the
Speaker 1: Kingdom is established and fixed upon solid foundations. This sermon
Speaker 1: Depieum or tennis court oath, was immortalized by the painter
Speaker 1: Jacques Louis da Vide, though in reality the deputies were
Speaker 1: less statuesque and more weary, sweating men in rumpled coats. Still,
Speaker 1: the significance was clear. They had declared themselves the sovereign
Speaker 1: body of the nation. Count Mirebeau the fiery order captured
Speaker 1: the mood when days later he resisted an order from
Speaker 1: the King's envoy to disperse, saying, go tell those who
Speaker 1: sent you that we are here by the will of
Speaker 1: the people, and we will only be driven out by
Speaker 1: the force of bayonets. The revolution, still fragile, had drawn
Speaker 1: its first line in the sand. Sixteenth. Was no tyrant
Speaker 1: by instinct, gentle, hesitant, fond of hunting and locks more
Speaker 1: than politics, he was now thrust into a storm. On
Speaker 1: June the twenty third, at the Seance Royal, he attempted
Speaker 1: to reassert control. He annulled the National Assembly's decrees and
Speaker 1: demanded that the states meet separately. Yet the tide had
Speaker 1: already shifted. Even some clergy and nobles defied the king's
Speaker 1: orders and joined the Assembly. Within days, Louis yielded, instructing
Speaker 1: all the orders to unite. This concession, however, was accompanied
Speaker 1: by ominous gestures. By early July, rumors spread that the
Speaker 1: king was massing troops around Paris, perhaps twenty thousand soldiers
Speaker 1: encamped nearby Camille des Muren, a young lawyer, later recalled
Speaker 1: the feeling, why are all these groups if not to
Speaker 1: disperse the National Assembly to crush liberty at its birth.
Speaker 1: At the same time, red prices in Paris were soaring
Speaker 1: a loaf cost as much as a laborer's daily wage.
Speaker 1: Hunger sharpened political awareness, and the streets grew reckless. Jacques
Speaker 1: Neckaire tried to ride to the rescue. He was the
Speaker 1: popular finance minister who had long been seen as the
Speaker 1: friend of reform. His dismissal back on July the eleventh,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine, by the King's conservative advisors was like
Speaker 1: a spark in the tinder. The moment that he was
Speaker 1: dismissed again, crowds gathered in the Palais Royale gardens, where
Speaker 1: des Molent leapt into a cafe table and shouted citizens,
Speaker 1: Nickaire is dismissed. The foreign regiments are advancing to massacre us.
Speaker 1: To arms to arms, witnesses remembered him seizing a greenleaf
Speaker 1: to pin to his hat, crying that it would be
Speaker 1: their badge of freedom. The city positively irerupted. Barricades were
Speaker 1: thrown up, gun shops looted, bells rang alarm. The people
Speaker 1: of Paris, fearing repression, sought weapons to defend themselves. The
Speaker 1: Hotel de Valaides, a veterans hospital, was stormed on July
Speaker 1: the fourteenth, yielding thousands of muskets but no powder. For that,
Speaker 1: the new insurgents turned their eyes toward the Bastille, the
Speaker 1: medieval fortress prison whose thick walls loomed over the eastern
Speaker 1: quarter of the city. The Bastial was more symbolic than practical.
Speaker 1: By seventeen eighty nine, it held only seven total prisoners.
Speaker 1: Four were forgers, two were lunatics, and then there was
Speaker 1: one nobleman who had been imprisoned by his family. To
Speaker 1: the Parisian it embodied royal despotism, a place of arbitrary imprisonment.
Speaker 1: As the crowds surged toward it, their shouts mingled with
Speaker 1: a century's worth of resentment. Negotiations dragged on between the
Speaker 1: governor of the Bastille, Bernard Renie de l'aunay, and the crowd.
Speaker 1: Attentions quickly escalated, Shots rang out, and after hours of battle,
Speaker 1: cannon fire, musket volleys and smoke, the Bastille fell to
Speaker 1: the storming crowds of Paris de Lunae was dragged through
Speaker 1: the streets and killed, his head paraded on a pike.
Speaker 1: That evening, the Duke of le Roqueford approached Louis the
Speaker 1: sixteenth at Versailles. The King, having been out hunting, reportedly asked,
Speaker 1: it is it a revolt, to which the Duke replied, no, sire,
Speaker 1: it is a revolution. In Paris, bells rang and the
Speaker 1: crowds cheered. In the countryside, news spread like wildfire, sparking
Speaker 1: both joy and fear. The Bastile's fall marked the end
Speaker 1: of absolute monarchies aura for the people. It proved that
Speaker 1: united action could topple even the king's most intimidating fortress. Thus,
Speaker 1: within less than a month, the revolution had traveled from
Speaker 1: the solemn words of the Tennis Code Oarth to the
Speaker 1: bloody capture of the Bastile. The deputies had declared themselves
Speaker 1: the nation. The people of Paris had armed themselves as
Speaker 1: its defenders. France was now a nation in motion, a
Speaker 1: nation moving toward an unknown future. Even as Paris rejoiced,
Speaker 1: the countryside seethed bread Brice's sword, and harvest prospects remained poor.
Speaker 1: Rumors swept through villages, wild stories that brigands hired by
Speaker 1: nobles were destroying cromps, or that foreign armies would march
Speaker 1: against the people. The wave of panic, known as le
Speaker 1: grand Pierre the Grand Fear, spread in late July and
Speaker 1: August like a fever. Peasants armed themselves, raided manor houses,
Speaker 1: and torched feudal records. In the village of Lufec, a
Speaker 1: report noted that peasants storms the lord's chateau, shouting, we
Speaker 1: are no longer serfs, we are free men. Sometimes violence
Speaker 1: spilled over. Noble families fled, adding to a sense of
Speaker 1: a nation in upheaval. Back in Versailles, the deputies of
Speaker 1: the National Assembly, as they were styling themselves, watched the
Speaker 1: events with alarm. To restore home, they took a radical step.
Speaker 1: On the night of August fourth, seventeen eighty nine. Noble deputies,
Speaker 1: many with theatrical gestures, rose one after another to renounce
Speaker 1: their feudal privileges, hunting rights, feudal dues, clerical tithes all
Speaker 1: were cast aside. In a sweeping moment of revolutionary theater.
Speaker 1: The Duke de Allen, one of the wealthiest nobles, declared,
Speaker 1: quote the most effective means of establishing peace and public
Speaker 1: order is to abolish feudal whites. Deputies cheered, many in tears.
Speaker 1: One chronicler would later label it quote a night of
Speaker 1: patriotic drunkenness end quote. Within days, decrees went out formalizing
Speaker 1: the abolition of feudalism. Though many details would take months
Speaker 1: to resolve, the symbolic break that happened that night in
Speaker 1: August of seventeen eighty nine was totally decisive. It was
Speaker 1: clear that the at least the old regime's social hierarchy,
Speaker 1: if nothing else, was dissolving. When from this fervor came
Speaker 1: the Declaration of the Rights of Man as it's called,
Speaker 1: it's actually the Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen,
Speaker 1: which was adopted a couple weeks later, on August twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty nine. The declaration did not emerge in a vacuum.
Speaker 1: By late spring seventeen eighty nine, France was convulsed by change.
Speaker 1: The Bass Deal had fallen, feudal dues had been renounced,
Speaker 1: and the National Assembly was already in the process of
Speaker 1: dismantling the old regime. Yet the Deputies wanted not only
Speaker 1: to sweep away the past, but to also set down
Speaker 1: the foundations for a New Order Abbey Emmanuel Joseph Siez,
Speaker 1: whose pamphlet What is the Third Estate had electrified France
Speaker 1: earlier that year, arguing that a constitution must be anchored
Speaker 1: by a declaration of principles. Others pointed to precedents abroad.
Speaker 1: The American Revolution loomed Lard and Lafayette, fresh from fighting
Speaker 1: with Washington, was eager to introduce something like Virginia's Bill
Speaker 1: of Rights. In seventeen seventy six, even consulted with Thomas
Speaker 1: Jefferson than the American minister in Paris, while drafting proposals.
Speaker 1: And so, with that being said, let us now turn
Speaker 1: for a moment to the figure who straddled two revolutions,
Speaker 1: a young nobleman who styled himself the hero of two worlds,
Speaker 1: Guilbert de Montier, Marquis de Lafayette. He wasn't yet thirty
Speaker 1: two years old in July of seventeen eighty nine, but
Speaker 1: already his life had carried him from the salons of
Speaker 1: Paris to the battlefields of America, and now he sat
Speaker 1: at the epicenter of France's own revolution. Mary Joseph Paul
Speaker 1: Yves Roch de Guerbert Mimentier was born on September sixth,
Speaker 1: seventeen fifty seven, into one of France's oldest aristocratic families
Speaker 1: in the province of Avergnez. His father, a colonel in
Speaker 1: the French army, was killed at the Battle of Menden
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty nine, when Lafayette wasn't quite two years old.
Speaker 1: His mother died when he was twelve, leaving him an
Speaker 1: orphan but the heir to the great wealth and title.
Speaker 1: Educated at the College de preci in Paris, he was
Speaker 1: groomed for service at court and in the military. In
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, at the age of sixteen, he married
Speaker 1: Adrianne Denis, daughter of one of France's most influential noble families,
Speaker 1: tying him to the heart of Versailles aristocracy. Yet lafayette
Speaker 1: restless spirit sought more than privilege. The American Revolution provided
Speaker 1: the stage for his first great act in life. In
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, as news of colonial resistance to Britain spread,
Speaker 1: Lafayette was inspired by the cause of liberty. Despite the
Speaker 1: opposition of his family and the French crown, officially allied
Speaker 1: with Britain at that time, he resolved that he would
Speaker 1: fight for the Americans. In seventeen seventy seven, he secretly
Speaker 1: purchased a ship, the Law Victory, the Victory, and sailed
Speaker 1: for the New World. He was only nineteen years old
Speaker 1: when he presented himself to the Continental Congress in America.
Speaker 1: At first, skeptical Americans were wary of another European adventurer
Speaker 1: seeking fortune, but Lafayette offered to serve without pay, and
Speaker 1: his sincerity won them over General George Washington nearly twenty
Speaker 1: five years his senior took a liking to the young Frenchman,
Speaker 1: calling him quote my adopted son end quote. Lafayette quickly
Speaker 1: distinguished himself at the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded,
Speaker 1: but refused to quit the field. He fought at Monmouth
Speaker 1: and helped secure the Franco American alliance at Yorktown in
Speaker 1: seventeen eighty one. His command of division was instrumental in
Speaker 1: cornering Lord Cornwallis and bringing the war to the end.
Speaker 1: By the end of the Revolution, he was celebrated both
Speaker 1: in America and France as a champion of liberty. Now
Speaker 1: back in France, Lafayette's American service made him a very
Speaker 1: popular figure. He corresponded with George Washington, John Adams, and Jefferson,
Speaker 1: cultivating a reputation as a bridge between the old world
Speaker 1: and the new. At court, however, he remained regarded as
Speaker 1: a bit of an idea and something of an eccentric,
Speaker 1: more devoted to the abstract concept of liberty than to
Speaker 1: royal protocol. In seventeen eighty seven, as France entered its
Speaker 1: financial and political crisis, Lafayette began to speak out. He
Speaker 1: was a member of the Assembly of Notables convened by
Speaker 1: Louis the sixteenth, and there he proposed a declaration of
Speaker 1: rights modeled on America's example. His proposal was dismissed at
Speaker 1: the time, but it foreshadowed his later rule. When the
Speaker 1: Estates General was called in seventeen eighty nine, Lafayette was
Speaker 1: elected as a representative of the nobility from Avarney, where
Speaker 1: he was from. Though a nobleman, he sided with the reformers,
Speaker 1: quickly supporting the National assemblies push for constitutional government. On
Speaker 1: July the eleventh, when the Assembly considered a draft of
Speaker 1: the Declaration of Rights of Man, Lafayette presented his own version,
Speaker 1: written with the advice of Thomas Jefferson, declaring liberty, equality,
Speaker 1: and the rights of man are the foundation of government.
Speaker 1: As tensions in Paris mounted after the dismissal of the
Speaker 1: Finance Minister Neckaer, Lafayette was chosen vice president of the Assembly.
Speaker 1: On July the fifteenth, the day after storming the Bastille,
Speaker 1: he was appointed commander of the newly formed National Guard.
Speaker 1: To symbolize unity. It was he that designed the Tricolor cockade,
Speaker 1: combining Paris's blue and red with the white of the monarchy,
Speaker 1: which will, of course eventually be the French flag still
Speaker 1: in use today. Lafayette woul ultimately be instrumental in the
Speaker 1: early events of the revolution and drafting the Rights of Man.
Speaker 1: In the words of Deputy Jean jove S Monier, a
Speaker 1: declaration of rights is the only way to halt the
Speaker 1: abuse of power and establish the foundations of liberty. So
Speaker 1: with Lafayette introduced, let's turn back to that declaration of
Speaker 1: Rights of Man. The drafting was neither simple nor unanimous.
Speaker 1: In August of seventeen eighty nine, the Assembly debated line
Speaker 1: by lane, sometimes word by word, should the declaration emphasize
Speaker 1: natural rights or the sovereignty of the nation should property
Speaker 1: be included as a sacred right or subordinated to public necessity.
Speaker 1: The final text, adopted on August the twenty sixth, reflected compromise,
Speaker 1: but also a clear spirit of Enlightenment thought philosophers such
Speaker 1: as Rousseau, Montesquieu and Locke seemed to echo in its articles,
Speaker 1: though refracted through the urgency of revolutionary France. Seventeen articles
Speaker 1: laid out the framework of a new political and social order.
Speaker 1: There would be natural rights. The very first article declared
Speaker 1: quote men are born and remain free and equal in rights.
Speaker 1: The sweeping statement struck at the very heart of aristocratic privilege,
Speaker 1: again forcing to topple the old regime. And there were
Speaker 1: concepts of sovereignty. Article three proclaim this principle of sovereignty
Speaker 1: resides essentially in the nation. Hence power no longer flowed
Speaker 1: from the king by divine right, but from the people
Speaker 1: as a whole. In terms of law and equality, Article
Speaker 1: six stated law is the expression of the general will.
Speaker 1: Every citizen has a right to participate personally or through
Speaker 1: his representative. In its formation, here was Rousseau's philosophy transmuted
Speaker 1: into law. There were rights to liberty, property, and security,
Speaker 1: Article two identified these as the natural and imprescriptible rights
Speaker 1: of man. Article seventeen property is inviable and sacred those
Speaker 1: subject of course to expropriation for public necessity, but with compensation,
Speaker 1: and there were limits, for the first time placed on authority.
Speaker 1: The declaration defined liberty not as absolute license, but as
Speaker 1: bounded by law. Liberty consists in the freedom to do
Speaker 1: everything which injures no one else. The language was deliberately universal.
Speaker 1: It spoke of man and citizen, not a Frenchman, specifically
Speaker 1: suggesting these were rights belonging to all humanity at once.
Speaker 1: The declaration was hailed as a turning point. In Paris,
Speaker 1: newspapers printed it in full, and copies spread to towns
Speaker 1: and villages. Foreign observers, too, recognized its importance. Thomas Jefferson
Speaker 1: wrote that it was the single best statement of the
Speaker 1: rights of man ever produced. Man means something from Thomas Jefferson.
Speaker 1: The Marquis de Concordette called it the Catechism of free men. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, have also drew some criticism. Some conservatives feared
Speaker 1: it undermined monarchy and religion. Others pointed out its silences.
Speaker 1: Olimpe de Use, the playwright famously perioded it in seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty nine with her Declaration of the Rights of Women
Speaker 1: and Female citizens, asking why woman is born free but
Speaker 1: denied citizenship and of course, in the French colonies enslaved
Speaker 1: people in San domine K, which is modern da Haiti
Speaker 1: invoked its principles to challenge slavery, though the Assembly initially
Speaker 1: excluded them. While the Assembly debated lofty principles, other things
Speaker 1: we weren't going so well. Paris was hung bread remained scarce,
Speaker 1: and the king lingered at Versailles, seemingly distant from the
Speaker 1: people's needs. Rumors spread that the court plotted to resist
Speaker 1: the revolution, perhaps with foreign help. Matters got worse in
Speaker 1: early October. On the first day of October, at Versailles,
Speaker 1: the royal bodyguards hosted a banquet for the officers of
Speaker 1: the Flanders Regiment. Accounts of the feast, exaggerated or not,
Speaker 1: spread quickly to Paris that royalists had trampled the tricolor cockade,
Speaker 1: toasted the white flag of the Bourbons, and cheered the
Speaker 1: Queen Marie Antoinette with open scorn for the revolution. Camille
Speaker 1: de Misien fumed in his pamphlet Revolutions de Paris at
Speaker 1: Albrabant quote, they drink, they sing, They call for the
Speaker 1: destruction of the National Assembly. While the people starve for bread.
Speaker 1: Next week they'll just go get it.