Storming the Bastille on July 14 1789
When French citizens stormed the Bastille Prison in Paris on the morning of July 14, 1789, many people, including noted historians, still believe they sang "La Marseillaise", later to become the French national anthem. The myth is that the song inspired them in their mission to free the Bastille's political prisoners. Almost every Hollywood movie about the event features the stirring music as background or with the marchers actually singing the words.
It is an inspiring song that begins with"Allons enfants de la patrie, le jour de gloire est arriv ! (Let us go, children of the fatherland, the day of glory has arrived!) Actually the song was written three years later in 1792, and the words are about another locale of the revolution in the port city of Marseille, where the rebels fought foreign mercenaries hired by King Louis the 16th. If it had been about the Paris uprising, the name would have been called something like "La Pariseillaise".
After the song became popular throughout France, it was first adopted as the national anthem by the newly-formed Republic government in 1795. No one knows what the Paris mob's musical inspiration was as it stormed the Bastille, if there was any at all. They were probably just howling ... howling mad.
Another myth is that the mob of tens of thousands joined in on the attack, when actually it was less than 900. And how about the formidable array of King Louie's troops lined up against them? It was just 82 French Army guys on light duty because of age and infirmity, aided by 32 Swiss guards who were mostly costumed dandies used for ceremonies and parades. That makes a force of 114 who faced a mob ten or more times their number. Oh, did anyone tell you that most of the French guards and 300 other French soldiers stationed nearby deserted and joined the mob?
Another legend is that the revolutionaries attacked the dreaded fortress with the noble purpose of freeing hundreds of suffering political prisoners who were jailed there under horribly inhumane conditions. After the mob had captured the Bastille, the prisoner count was just seven: a young dandy accused to sex crimes, two men confined there because their families declared them insane, and four career criminals sentenced for forgery. Well, gee, those seven guys were just as grateful for their freedom as hundreds more would have been.
It wasn't quite like Moses freeing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, but it did capture the imagination of all the people of France who were tired of living in abject poverty under the tyranny of King Louie and his wife, Marie Antionette. No, she never did say, "Let them eat cake" when the peasants were starving for bread. Actually she was an Austrian who barely spoke French, and had only a faint idea the revolution was happening until she was hauled away, jailed and executed along with Louie and hundreds of French nobles, their families, servants and just about anyone the kangaroo courts declared enemies of the new state.
OK, Frankophiles, now that your illusions are shattered, I'll add just one more insult to your romanticized version of the history of the storming of the Bastille. The myth of torture and inhumane treatment is not upheld by the facts. If King Louie or anyone else had you hauled off to the Paris hoosegow, and you had a lot of francs, you could bring in your own furniture to make your cell more comfy. And that wasn't all.
If you paid the prison staff enough, your room wasn't locked and you could roam around the grounds or join other rich prisoners and guards in card games. You could have your room cleaned and meals catered by a staff of your own servants. If there was a special family event or social gathering in the city, you could be paroled on your honor to attend and eventually return to the Bastille. Of course, poor prisoners, confined mostly in their cells, could only envy the privileged rich.
The romanticized version of the storming of the Bastille lives on, and people believe it because they want it to be true. In the 1962 movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", a newspaper man says,"If the truth isn't big enough, you print the legend".
