Bastille Day is a French national holiday celebrating the storming of the Bastille - a notorious French prison where people were arbitrarily interred. The mechanism was the lettres de cachet which were executive orders from the King that had no legislative or judicial oversight. An individual served under a lettres de cachet had no right of appeal either.
This was the basis for French absolutism which existed since Phillipe II. It was a despotic, tyrannous and arbitrary form of executive power. Consequently the storming of the Bastille carried emotional and symbolic appeal as the overthrow of tyranny by the people.
Claude Manet's Rue MontorgueilThere now took place the famous gathering in the Jeu de Paume, or indoor tennis court, so well depicted by David. The floodgates were now opening. The aristocracy had lost its influence, the bourgeoise, already shaken to the core, by the bursting of the Law bubble [Bank speculation], now wanted something more than reform - though what that was it did not quite know until the Jacobins, a society of radicals, led the way. On July 11th the King sacked Necker [Jacques Necker, the director general of finances] and with him went the best chance of reform. Fearing national bankruptcy, the Bourse closed its doors. An empty exchequer and republican sentiment now combined.The Bastille, despite being a feared symbol of arbitrary monarchical authority, only had seven prisoners in it when it was stormed after dissenters were killed by gunfire from the tower. The Bastille was dismantled, stone by stone, and revolution ran through the streets. Like the establishment of nearly all the French republics the violence was extreme between the warring political and class factions. In the same way that I throw ANZAC Day parties in America which serve as an ethnic outlet for all things Australian, I have been invited this weekend to a Bastille Day party from a French-American mate of mine. I am excited to see what French ethnicities are served up as part of the celebration.
