Lead-up to July 14
• End of June troops
sent in to Paris
• Feeling from the
masses: ‘noble counter
offensive’ or
‘aristocratic
conspiracy’
Explanation of
Illustration
Lead-up to July 14
• July 11 - King exiles
Necker
• This action becomes a
symbol of conspiracy,
counter-revolution and
of bankruptcy
Lead - Up to July 14
• July 12 - Paris rebelled
• Members of the Garde
Française joined the
rioters who soon
controlled the streets
• July13 - tolls broken
down
Lead-up to July 14
• July 13 - 14: first
appearance of the
National Guard volunteer militia
July 14
• The mob, in search of
arms, stormed Les
Invalides first, then the
Bastille
• But the storming of the
Bastille took on a quite
different motive:
symbolism of structure:
• A”monstrous urban,
political and human
anachronism”
Aftermath of July 14
• 15 July: recalls Necker and dismissal of
troops
• 17 July: Louis XVI goes to Paris and
acknowledges Bailly (Mayor) and La
Fayette (commander of National Guard) as
new order
The Great Fear (July 1789)
• News of the Bastille
reached the provinces
gradually.
• Harvest time: tensions
high
The Great Fear (July 1789)
• Peasants and townspeople
begin to fear that the
aristocracy is going to turn
against them so, in
retaliation they begin
attacking chateaux,
burning feudal documents
etc.
• Combination of hope and
fear at the same time
August Decrees
• August 3 - Patriot party (‘Breton club’)
draw proposals to abolish feudalism
• The reforms apply to serfdom and the
corvée but to property (lods et ventes,
champart)
• Proposals given the legal form in the
decrees of August 5 - 11.
Results of the Decrees
• The final decree, written by Duport
declared:
– “The National Assembly completely destroys
the feudal regime.”
What this meant: corporate society defined by
shared privilege disappeared.
Results of the decrees
• Even though the decrees were sealed on 11
August - not officially completed until 1790
-1793
• Keep in mind the importance, though.
• A new legal society has occurred an
economic society
What was feudalism?
• Elements of true feudalism include aspects
such as:
– Seigneurial justice
– Dues paid by tenant to his lord
– Tenure in perpetuity
What was feudalism?
• People saw that the following were ‘feudal’
eventhough they had nothing to do with
feudalism:
– Ecclesiastical levy of the tithe
– Sale of offices
The Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen
• Context
– Came at a time when there had finally been a
violent outbreak from the national past.
– Were proclaimed against the backdrop of a
system which was fraught with corruption and
also a system which abhorred any idea of a
social contract.
The Declaration of Rights of Man
and Citizen
• In such a context, some were fearful then of
the ramifications of a contract. Why?
• The main problem which faced the deputies
in drawing up contract were that of
reconciling freedom with duty.
The Declaration of Rights of Man
and Citizen
• Had its genesis before
July 14
• Final draft was agreed
upon by 26 August
• Influence of the
American Declaration
The Declaration of Rights of Man
and Citizen
• Lafayette’s role
• Why was it unrealistic
to assume that such a
document would be
readily accepted?
• Jefferson’s role
The Declaration of Rights of Man
and Citizen
• Key difference
between the American
model and the French
one
• American model had
assumed the natural
law existed before therefore man was
obliged to obey it
The Declaration of Rights of Man
and Citizen
• The French Model:it
was society’s
responsibility to
ensure that the rights
of the individual were
carried out
Cobban’s view in
A History of Modern France Vol.1
P.164
The Declaration of Rights was the death-warrant of
the system of privilege and so of the Old Regime. In
this respect, it inaugurated a new age. Yet in the
history of ideas, it belonged to the past rather than
the future. The age of individual rights was not
beginning but ending …the state had ceased to be
simply a territory … under a single authority; it
had become a people, a nation, and as the
Declaration stated ‘the source of all sovereignty
resides essentially in the nation.’