A Lengthy, Contemporary Account Written at the Outbreak of the French Revolution

“I told you earlier… of the violent intentions of the Court against the National Assembly and the generous conduct of the French Guards who refuse to serve and the resolution that all the citizens rendered ineffective. We believed that it was over. But the number of foreign troops approaching Paris and Versailles worried everybody. M. de Mirabeau made a great motion in the Assembly that was applauded by everybody to demand from the King the removal of these foreign troops that are such an insult to the nation… The Court’s reprehensible plan that put Paris within inches of its loss, that almost flooded France with blood, and that made us witness within six days the most extraordinary events in quick succession, fell apart. [The nobility] had raised objections and made declarations contrary to the general wishes of the Assembly and demanded time to get new power. Then finally on the 10th or 11th of this month, more than 80 noble deputies protested to the estates that they would adhere neither to the deliberations by count, nor to what could be done against their privileges… Saturday the 11th at 11 at night M. de Montmorin was ordered to ask M. Necker for his resignation… and he handed the minister of finance an order to leave the Kingdom. He only had time to write to is daughter and left. The news didn’t reach Paris until Sunday morning at 11… Excitement gradually took hold at the frightful sight of troops surrounding Paris on all sides, 7 to 8 thousand men at Sèvres or St. Cloud, 4 or 5 thousand camped out at the Champ de Mars, and even more in the plain of St. Denis, all the villages [page 2] bursting with soldiers… Nobody doubted but that the Court wanted to make one last effort to subjugate the nation and break up the National Assembly. From that moment we saw all the terrible suffering that was going to result… and we expected to be plunged into the horrors of a civil war. On Sunday night the Prince of Lambesc had the German Royal Regiment march into the Place de Louis XV and another regiment of Hussars with cannons to stop the people who had gathered and threatened to march on Versailles. Soon there were citizens in arms… During the night from Sunday to Monday there was a run on Pères de St. Lazare to free the prisoners and get ahold of the grain provisions that were said to be stored there… They forced the doors open, grabbed all the food, and took it to market… Now the city became serious about coming up with ways to resist the enemy, support the representatives of the nation, and suppresses the mass unrest. There was a meeting at city hall to form a permanent committee… and every citizen who carried a weapon had to register in his parish or district. People procured as many weapons as possible and distributed them. The French Guards left their depots fully armed and came to order vowing to serve the nation at the behest of the permanent committee… Deputies were sent to Versailles to request permission from the King to establish a citizens’ guard, which was refused… The night from Monday to Tuesday several alarms were sounded, which made for more worry and confusion in the city. The bell was rung almost incessantly in all the churches for all the inhabitants to come to the rescue because the enemy was thought to be entering from all sides. On Tuesday, there was talk of seizing the Bastille, the Arsenal, the Invalides. The governor of the Bastille turned himself over easily. They turned up in small numbers in front, found it easy to reach the second court, but then the drawbridge was drawn up and they were fired at and, surprised by that defense, they withdrew, leaving five dead behind. But now their hearts were filled with rage and they ran to the Invalides where they met no resistance. They took six cannons, trained them on the gates of the Bastille… broke down the gates and threw fire into the castle… They mounted a furious assault and within an hour and a half they had become masters of the entire fort. The governor, the major, and a powder inspector were arrested and taken to city hall, but before they got there, the enraged people killed them, cut off their heads, and paraded them through town on lances. At the same time a letter was found in the pocket of the provost of merchants who had been under general suspicion […] that betrayed the interests of the city… He met with the same fate as the governor of the Bastille. Next they wanted to head over to Versailles to seize the ministers who were deceiving the King and raze the palace… On Wednesday morning, the King was finally told about what was going on in Paris and that his crown was hanging by a thread if he does not show a favorable disposition to the nation. Alarmed by the danger that threatens him, the King appears in the Hall of the National Assembly and announces his surprise and pain that people attribute to him such malicious designs against the representatives of the nation and against the nation itself for whom he desires only happiness and that he is ready to do whatever it takes to assure it seeing the grave troubles [page 4] that are stirring up the capital… He approves the civilian militia that had been requested. He will give orders for the immediate withdrawal of the troops around Paris and Versailles… The return of the King and his declarations of peace made people happy, but they did nothing to give a sense of security. The distrust was so strong, so deeply rooted in their minds that they still feared treason. Several cannons were taken into all the avenues, all the guards and patrols were doubled… There were more than 150,000 armed men in the streets, not a single carriage… Nobody was allowed out in the street anymore. The city demanded that the King himself come to reassure the people and give them proof of his trust that could dissipate their fears and suspicions…”

From its beginning, the reign of King Louis XVI (1754-1793) was plagued by France’s grave economic situation, made worse by his financial support of the American Revolution and his simultaneous attempts to create and maintain a large army and navy. Suggestions from the king’s advisors only aggravated the serious pecuniary crisis and led to the French Revolution, his fall from absolute power and his execution along with most members of the royal family, including his wife, Marie Antoinette.

Among Louis XVI’s chief advisors was the Director-General of Finance, Jacques Necker (1732-1804), a great supporter of loans to the American revolutionaries. In 1781, he published Compte rendu au roi, the first published record of the royal finances – one that was considerably more optimistic than it was accurate, as it hid France’s enormous debt and growing interest rates. That same year, Necker resigned but was reappointed to his position in 1788 because the rosy financial picture he had painted in Compte rendu au roi also gave the impression that he was responsible for a better financial situation than that of his predecessors. Necker played no little part in 1789’s revolution. He prevented a revolt in the southeastern Dauphiné province by legalizing the Assembly of Vizille. He was also instrumental in the king’s summoning of the Estates-General and advocating for increased representation of the Third Estate, a view antithetical to the king’s. The king demanded Necker’s resignation on July 11, 1789, an event recounted in our letter, because he did not attend Louis’ address to the Estates-General. His dismissal angered the French populace and fueled rumors that the king was planning to attack Paris.

As our letter details, various military units were camped in and around Paris, and their presence helped precipitate the revolt. French citizens feared that troops had been sent to Versailles and Paris from garrisons throughout the country to shut down the National Assembly. Among the regiments of the French Royal Army, the king’s own force, were several German units, comprised of troops from west German Catholic states. On July 12, 1789, Charles Eugene, Prince Lambesc (1751-1825), led his Royal-Allemand regiment against the crowds protesting Necker’s dismissal on the Place Louis XV and the Tuileries. “Lambesc’s men used their swords against the crowd, several civilians were injured, and one old man may have been killed… within the large output of illustrations depicting the Paris Insurrection, the clash between Lambesc’s German Guards and the civilians was among the events portrayed most frequently,” confirming the importance of the event, often cited by historians as the official start of the French Revolution, (Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Louis Prieur, Revolutionary Artists: The Public the Populace, and Images of the French Revolution, Roberts).

The following day, members of the Third Estate (including all Frenchman except the clergy and aristocracy) organized a permanent committee, mentioned several times in our letter, to maintain order in the municipality of Paris. “This seizure of sovereign power by a handful of electors or obscure echevins was a strange blow of audacity. To organize an army for the service of the middle classes, to order the people to be licensed, to dispose of high military grades, to impose a cockade on the revolution, to erect itself into a supreme tribunal, was what some bourgeois dared both against the sovereignty of one and the sovereignty of all,” (History of the French Revolution of 1789, Volume 1, Blanc).

The next day, Tuesday, July 14, an angry mob stormed the Bastille with weapons taken from the Hôtel des Invalides. The Bastille contained a huge arsenal and was symbolic of the ancien regime’s tyranny. At first, its governor, Bernard René Joudan, Marquis de Launay (1740-1789), refused to surrender the 14^th-century fortress that still held a few political prisoners, promising not to shoot unless fired upon. However, when the crowd pushed its way into the courtyard of the Bastille, de Launay’s troops opened fire, killing one and injuring about 100. De Launay eventually surrendered and was taken prisoner along with several other officials. Our letter describes in vivid detail how, while being transported to the Hôtel de Ville, de Launay and his subordinates were beaten, stabbed, shot, and lynched by the angry mob, after which their heads were cut off, stuck on pikes, and paraded throughout the streets of Paris.

Jacques de Flesselles (1721-1789), the last provost of merchants (prévôt des marchands), was the head of the municipality of Paris prior to the revolution. Flesselles became one of the revolution’s first victims when an angry mob accused him of being a royal sympathizer and killed him on the steps of the Hôtel de Ville the day after the Bastille fell. Such acts of violence forced the king’s cooperation and led to his approval of a civilian militia. The Marquis de Lafayette was named commander-in-chief of the Paris militia (renamed the National Guard) by a grateful French citizenry. He immediately issued orders to disarm all civilians, hoping to restore order to the tumultuous capital.

Armand Marc, comte de Montmorin (1745-1792) was the king’s minister of foreign affairs and a Necker supporter. He resigned his post when Necker left, returning with Necker after the storming of the Bastille. At that point, however, Montmorin became something of a figurehead as the real power now lay with Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791), a deputy of the National Assembly from May 1789 to April 1791. Mirabeau advocated for a constitutional monarchy and engaged in the failed negotiations with the king.

Our incredibly detailed letter providing a contemporary account of one of the greatest uprisings in modern history is in very fine condition with some light staining and toning on a few edges of the sheets of paper. Very neatly penned with the address panel intact bearing a broken red wax seal. A remarkable historic document in very good condition.