In 1785 Thomas Jefferson replaced Uncle Bennie as the Ambassador to France. Going into it, Jefferson was excited about the food and architecture, but was over this Monarchy business. He loved Lafayette, so naturally he supported his brosef’s ideas for France. Jefferson also lived in Paris, and because of this he got to see first hand the chaos that followed the French people when they took up arms against the monarchy. Le quatorze de julliet is what us uncultured Americans know as Bastille Day. Though I refer to it off mic as Bastille Day, I want to impress those who know that it is absolutely not called that. Therefore, from this moment forward I will only say it is the 14th of July, or the fete nationale.
Leading up to the events in the year 1789 -The harvest had been bad for lots of times pasted
-Jobs were ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - Samsies for money
-A select few held most of the wealth
-And people kept being born
Sooo things weren’t great if you were poor. The bourgeoisie also though things weren’t great. A little insight, the bourgeoisie were a class of people that were rich. They did not technically exist in the same circle as the aristocracy. In many cases, they were much wealthier. So while the lowest class was starving, the “middle” class was upset that they didn’t have the same privileges as the nobles.
The beginning of 1789 Louis XVI summoned together the Estates General, and the last time we talked about the estates general was the last time they convened (see ep 1.5 The Edict of Nantes). Hopefully that paints a picture.
These meetings are being held for a few months before the 1st and 2nd estate decided that the 3rd estate is holding back serious progress for the sake of a power grab. Historically, it was said that this meeting was a royal assembly and the Third Estate misunderstood. However, I would like to say that the country had been run without the estates general for over a century, and I’m positive that the Monarchy thought that they did a swell job, until now. So why, pray tell, would we need those stinky peasants now?
So, when the 3rd Estate has been effectively locked out of an assembly of political importance, they made their way to the indoor tennis court at Versailles and made a proclamation to never disassemble until there was a constitution for France. Because they are a government body, this is more that a group of guys saying they aren’t happy, this becomes an actual political standing for technical treason(claiming sovereignty from the King). Wowwee I got real serious.
The new “National Assembly” was now refusing concessions from the King, and soon the 1st and 2nd Estates were switching sides. Within a week Louis was ordering diehard loyalists to join the National Assembly.
This is a good time to talk about Jaques Necker. He is the super dooper loved Finance Minister, sometimes he has good ideas, and those ideas sometimes make enemies of the nobel courtiers. Either way, he is asked to leave, asked to comeback, hands in his resignation, withdraws his resignation, so on and so forth.
While all of this is going on at Versailles, the king and others in the Assembly order extra troops at the Palace. It’s not for naught. The National Assembly is staying at the Palace, and lot’s of people have hurt feelings over the tug and pull of “political change” (nothing really changes)
Necker Resigned after a month of “reform”, and three days later a mob of angry Parisians tore down the Bastille. Coincidence? Yeah okay, not! Into la Fete Nationale!
The three days leading up to the storming of the Bastille were a mess. There were issues of where the foreign guards were posted, the citizens were restless and angry, so whenever there was a slight misstep of anyone, a small riot broke out. This set the rich people in the city on edge to say the least. Someone’s house was always getting broke into, including Thomas Jefferson. Who wrote about it “On the 14th the[bourgeoise] sent one of their members to the Hotel des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde-Bourgeoise...he found there a great collection of people. The governer of the Invalides came out and represented the impossibility of his delivering arms without orders…De Corny advised the people to retire...but the people took possession of the arms”
So essentially, the rich people inadvertently armed the citizens they were aiming to arm against and went with it.
After the people had guns, next they needed gunpowder, and do you know where there are droves of it stored? The bastille. And it’s just a hop skip and a jump. When the crowd (and Jefferson who just happened upon it all) got there, a mob was already formed and the castle was ready to surrender. Instead they fired a cannon into the mob killing 4 people.
The people then broke into the castle and tore it down brick by brick
Flash over Versailles. It’s a normal day, Louis is stressed about Necker being fired again. Marie Anoitnette is eating her cake and later in the day the palace is buzzing, but no one really tell the King or Queen what is going on. So, Louis writes “Nothing” in his hunting journal and is being tucked in by his ministers when one of them leans over and lets him know what happened in Paris that afternoon. *record scratch*
Louis jumped out of bed and immediately wrote an order to relinquish his sovereignty to the nation and his power to the assembly. He runs it through the edit (his brothers) and then summons the assembly to ride into Paris to give his speech. When he got to Paris, the mobs are shouting “Vive la Nation” by the time the King was finished with his speech the mobs were shouting “Vive le Roy”
Flash back over the Versailles. Everyone is freaking out, the queen thinks that the king is going to be killed, the bourgeois think everyone is dead in the city, they think that the mob is coming for them next, and Thomas Jefferson decided to stroll on over to Versailles to see if the mob decided to tear down the Palace also. To his Dismay? Everyone was alive and well, just freaking out a bit.
These events were the first real demonstration by France to demand some change, and I think that it is similar to America’s “boston tea party” just more people were physically torn to pieces by angry starving people.
Thomas Jefferson LOVED the DRAMA of it all. He wrote several letters to people outlining the events, the letters varied in detail and intensity. So, for James Madison, it’s like a poetic story, For John Jay it was a very detailed outline of events and for John Adams it was a “France is rebelling, sorry you missed it *wink emoji*”
By the time TJ made his way back to America, he was fully into France, full on Francophile, even adopted the same petty standard for his friends that he saw practiced at Versailles. Unfortunately didn’t pick up the practice of abolition of slavery which he help write into the Rights of Man for Versailles? What’s wrong with you TJ?