2H - The revolution May-October 1789: developments in Versailles and Paris
Learn how the dispute inside the Estates-General became a revolution involving Paris and the countryside. Follow the changing relationship between representatives, popular action and the king from May to the October Days.
From the Estates-General to national sovereignty
The Estates-General opened at Versailles on 5 May 1789, but the question of separate or joint deliberation soon produced a deadlock. The Third Estate wanted representatives to meet and verify their credentials together. Separate proceedings would preserve the privileged orders' ability to control the outcome. Waiting for a procedure was therefore also waiting for a decision about who possessed political authority.
On 17 June the Third Estate deputies, joined by some clergy, declared themselves the National Assembly. They claimed to represent the nation rather than one order within it. Their claim to authorise taxation challenged the assumption that the king was the sole source of legitimate authority. The change was revolutionary even though most deputies still envisaged a monarchy.
Finding their usual meeting hall closed on 20 June, deputies gathered in a nearby indoor tennis court and pledged not to disperse until France had a constitution. The Tennis Court Oath expressed continuity of their assembly despite attempts to interrupt it. Do not confuse the order: the declaration of the National Assembly came before the oath.
At the royal session of 23 June, Louis offered reforms but rejected the Assembly's independent actions and sought continued separation of the orders. Deputies resisted dispersal. More clergy and nobles joined them, and on 27 June Louis instructed the remaining representatives to unite. The king had conceded a central institutional demand, but the presence of royal troops around Paris and Versailles left fear that concession might be reversed by force.
Paris, armed resistance and the Bastille
The political struggle at Versailles took place amid high bread prices and anxiety in Paris. The dismissal of Necker on 11 July was interpreted by many as a sign of a royal attempt to stop reform. Demonstrations and the search for weapons intensified. Some soldiers sympathised with the crowd or refused to suppress it, weakening the crown's ability to impose order reliably.
On 14 July crowds obtained arms at the Invalides and then moved against the Bastille, seeking gunpowder. Fighting, negotiations and the arrival of trained soldiers with artillery preceded the surrender of its commander, de Launay. His subsequent killing shows that popular action included violence outside formal legal authority. The fortress held only seven prisoners, so its importance cannot be measured by the number released.
The Bastille represented arbitrary royal authority. Its fall demonstrated that armed urban resistance could defeat a royal position and protect the Assembly from threatened suppression. Louis withdrew troops and recalled Necker. A new municipal authority developed in Paris under Bailly, and Lafayette commanded the National Guard, a citizen militia intended both to defend change and contain disorder.
The crowd and the new city leadership were not identical. Property-owning leaders wanted a stable constitutional settlement; poorer participants also wanted bread and protection from perceived enemies. Their temporary cooperation helped defeat royal coercion, but their different aims would matter later. Paris had become a power centre the Assembly and king could neither ignore nor fully control.
Municipal change and the Great Fear
Revolutionary change extended beyond Paris. In many towns, established authorities lost control and new municipal committees or guards appeared. These developments are often called the municipal revolution. Local participants could claim to restore order while replacing officials associated with the old system. The pace and form varied across France, so Paris's experience should not be treated as a description of every community.
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