Today is quatorze juillet here in France, commemorating the 14th July 1789 storming of the Bastille, which ultimately triggered the Jacobin Revolution.
The storming of the Bastille is typical of those events in history, such as the burning of the Reichstag, or the 11th September “attacks;” events which are entirely fabricated and manipulated for the sake of public opinion – in this case to arrange for the restoration of Swiss born Jacques Necker as Finance Minister, who had been dismissed from his post by Louis XVI on the 11th July.
It was certainly clear to Jean-Sylvain Bailly, first deputy of Paris to the Estates General, first president to the National Assembly, first Mayor of Paris, and later beheaded during the Jacobin Terror of Robespierre, that the storming of the Bastille was such an event. “The agitation of the people, had changed to fury,” he wrote. “It was clear that an order had been given to storm the Bastille.”
By 8 o’clock on the morning of the 14th July, the cannons on the Bastille were already pointing at the people. Why? Why defend such an unimportant post? It was only a prison, after all. What’s more, there were only seven prisoners – four forgers, two “lunatics” and one “deviant” aristocrat, the comte de Solages. The Marquis de Sade had been transferred out ten days earlier, by “coincidence.”
At around 1.30 pm, the guns fired on the crowd outside. By 3pm, the crowd was reinforced by “mutinous” gardes françaises and other “deserters” from among the regular troops, along with two cannon. At 5pm, the governor, de Launay, ordered a cease fire. The gates were opened and at 5.30 pm the vainqueurs swept in to “liberate” the Bastille.
Bailly wrote in his memoires, “there is no doubt that orders were given to defend himself [de Launay] to the very last; and I cannot conceive of the reason for this, because the Bastille was neither a citadel, nor an important post … Whatever may have been his orders, a general insurrection was surely not intended; it necessarily had to force a modification of them. The Bastille was a prison and not a citadel; it was not worth defending at the cost of the people’s blood; even the commandant of a post must defend himself differently, whether he is attacked by the people or by the enemies of the nation. This situation required more precise orders, much more appropriate to the circumstances of the moment, which were not known in Versailles, for taking the extreme decision to open fire and to massacre Frenchmen. De Launay has not recognised the deputations that were sent to him; furthermore it was his duty to call on the city to discuss [the situation] with him.”
Bailly believed that the whole affair had been a pre-planned insurrection organised by Jacques Necker, Philippe Égalité, and Baron Besenval de Bronstadt. It bears an uncanny resemblance to the Jacobin storming of Newgate prison in London, nine years earlier.