The meeting of the
Estates General May 5,
1789
• Each estate solemnly
marched into the hall
at Versailles.
• The third estate,
dressed all in black,
• the nobility dressed
in all their finery
• clergy dressed in full
regalia.
• Estates vote in block;
1 vote per estate
Pg 35
• With which group do you think you would most closely
identify:
• 1st estate: clergy
• 2nd estate: nobility
• 3rd estate: commoners/peasants
Meeting of the Estates General
•3rd Estate refused to conduct any business until the
king ordered all three estates to sit together as a
single representative body
•When it was clear that the EG would meet and vote
as separate orders, the 3rd estate adopted the title
Nation Assembly and declared itself thee true
representative body of France
•On June 19th, a majority of the clergy voted to join
the 3rd estate
•On June 20, 1789, members of the National
Assembly were locked out from their hall in
Versailles because of “repairs”
•They move to a large indoor tennis court in a town
and swore the famous ‘Tennis Court Oath’, pledging
never to disband until they had written a new
constitution for France
July 14, 1789
• By July 1789, about ¼ of the population of Paris was
unemployed
• Bread prices soared so high many people were left
without food
• Rumor spread that the King’s troops were coming to
sack Paris
• Angry citizens seized arms for defense of the city
• On July 14, hundreds of people marched to the
Bastille, a medieval fort and prison, to search for
gunpowder
• The Bastille was a prison, a symbol of absolute
monarchy filled with stories of abuse and torture
• The commanding officer of the Bastille, Governor
DeLunay, refused to give up the gunpowder and fired
on the crowd, killing 98 people
Storming of the Bastille
• The soldiers finally surrendered hours later and the
revolutionary crowds took the Bastille
• The mob grabbed DeLunay and cut off his head, they
put it on a pike and began marching through the
streets of Paris with it
• The mob paraded through the streets, showing off
their captives, and crudely cutting off many heads.
The National Guard tried to stop the crowds from
looting, but it was useless
• The king was informed of the incident and asked, “Oh
my, is this a revolt?”
• His general replied, “No sire, this is a revolution”
• The French Revolution had begun
In your Micro Journal,
• Describe the events of the day, July 14, 1789
we are just getting started