1789: The Year of Revolution

1789 was the year that transformed a fiscal crisis into a full-scale revolution. In the space of six months, the French people moved from petitioning for reform to storming a fortress, abolishing feudalism, and declaring universal rights.

The Estates-General (May 5)

Louis XVI opened the Estates-General at Versailles on May 5, 1789 — the first such assembly since 1614. The 1,200 deputies represented the three estates: approximately 300 for the clergy, 300 for the nobility, and 600 for the Third Estate (doubled in number following Necker’s recommendation, but without a corresponding change in voting procedure).

The immediate dispute was procedural: should voting be by estate (giving the privileged orders a built-in 2-to-1 majority) or by head (where the Third Estate’s larger delegation could prevail with support from liberal clergy and nobles)? The crown and the privileged estates insisted on voting by order. The Third Estate refused to verify its credentials separately.

The National Assembly and the Tennis Court Oath (June 17–20)

After six weeks of deadlock, the Third Estate took a decisive step. On June 17, it declared itself the National Assembly — the legitimate representative body of the French nation, with or without the other estates. Three days later, locked out of their meeting hall, the deputies gathered in a nearby indoor tennis court and swore the Tennis Court Oath: they would not disband until they had given France a constitution.

This was a revolutionary act. It asserted that sovereignty resided in the nation, not the king, and that the representatives of the people had the authority to reshape the government.

The Fall of the Bastille (July 14)

Alarmed by the National Assembly’s defiance, Louis XVI began concentrating troops around Paris and Versailles. On July 11, he dismissed the popular finance minister Jacques Necker, triggering panic in Paris. Crowds began arming themselves, raiding arsenals, and forming a citizen militia.

On July 14, a crowd of roughly 1,000 Parisians marched on the Bastille, a medieval fortress and prison that symbolized royal authority. The garrison of 82 invalides (veteran soldiers) and 32 Swiss guards initially tried to negotiate, but fighting broke out. After several hours of combat and the arrival of mutinous French Guards with cannons, the fortress fell. Governor Bernard-René de Launay was seized and killed; his head was paraded through the streets on a pike.

The Bastille held only seven prisoners at the time, but its fall had immense symbolic significance. It demonstrated that royal authority could be challenged by force, and it galvanized revolutionary sentiment across France. Louis XVI, informed of the event, reportedly asked, “Is it a revolt?” The Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt replied, “No, sire, it is a revolution.”

The Great Fear (July–August)

News of the Bastille’s fall, combined with rumors of aristocratic plots and brigand armies, triggered a wave of rural panic and violence known as the Great Fear (Grande Peur). Peasants across France attacked châteaux, burned feudal documents recording their obligations, and seized grain stores.

The Great Fear had concrete results: it demonstrated that the old order could not be restored by force in the countryside, and it pressured the National Assembly to act decisively on feudal reform.

Abolition of Feudalism (August 4)

In a dramatic night session on August 4, 1789, the National Assembly voted to abolish the feudal system. In a cascade of renunciations — partly genuine idealism, partly calculated political maneuvering — nobles surrendered their feudal rights, the church gave up its tithes, and provincial privileges were abolished.

The August 4 decrees formally ended serfdom, eliminated noble hunting rights, abolished the sale of offices, and suppressed tithes. In practice, full implementation would take years and many “abolished” dues were initially converted to payments, but the symbolic and legal impact was enormous: France’s medieval social structure was officially dismantled in a single night.

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26)

On August 26, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, one of the foundational documents of modern democracy. Drafted primarily by the Marquis de Lafayette with input from Thomas Jefferson (then the American ambassador to France) and revised through extensive debate, it proclaimed:

• All men are born and remain free and equal in rights (Article 1)
• The natural rights of man are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression (Article 2)
• Sovereignty resides in the nation (Article 3)
• Law is the expression of the general will; all citizens have the right to participate in its creation (Article 6)
• No one may be accused, arrested, or detained except as determined by law (Article 7)
• Freedom of speech and press are guaranteed (Article 11)
• Property is an inviolable and sacred right (Article 17)

The Declaration drew heavily on Enlightenment philosophy — Rousseau’s social contract, Montesquieu’s separation of powers, and Locke’s natural rights. It became the preamble to the Constitution of 1791 and remains part of the French constitutional framework today.

The October March on Versailles (October 5–6)

On October 5, a crowd of several thousand Parisian market women, enraged by bread shortages and the king’s reluctance to ratify the August decrees and the Declaration, marched the 12 miles from Paris to Versailles. They were joined by National Guard units under Lafayette’s command.

The crowd invaded the palace grounds. In the early hours of October 6, a group broke into the queen’s apartments; Marie Antoinette narrowly escaped. Under enormous pressure, Louis XVI agreed to move with his family to Paris, effectively becoming a prisoner of the Revolution.

The royal family’s relocation to the Tuileries Palace marked the end of Versailles as the seat of French government — a role it had held since Louis XIV — and placed the king under the direct surveillance of the Parisian populace.