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 inA History of Modern France Vol.1

P.164The 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.’