The marchers' success in forcing the king to move to Paris and support the reforms was a major turning point in the French Revolution. The Women’s March on Versailles was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The crowd now numbered around 60,000, and they accompanied the royal family back to Paris, where the king and queen and their court took up residence at the Tuileries Palace. Infuriated, the rest surged towards the breach and streamed inside. These uncertainties added to general anxiety. The Women’s March on Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. In May of 1789, the Estates-General began to consider reforms, and in July, the Bastille was stormed. On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some men, and marched toward Versailles, arriving soaking wet from the rain. Some even chanted “Vive la Reine!” ("Long Live the Queen!). The Women's March on Versailles in October 1789 is often credited with forcing the royal court and family to move from the traditional seat of government in Versailles to Paris, a major and early turning point in the French Revolution. Rumors swirled that foods, especially grain, were purposely withheld from the poor for the benefit of the privileged. The Many Roles of Women in the French Revolution, Biography of Marie Antoinette, Queen Executed in the French Revolution, A History of the Palace of Versailles, Jewel of the Sun King, The Bastille, and its Role in the French Revolution, The Estates General and the French Revolution, The French Revolution, Its Outcome, and Legacy, Civil Rights Movement Timeline From 1965 to 1969, The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Biography of Marie-Antoinette, French Queen Consort, Biography of King Louis XVI, Deposed in the French Revolution, American Revolution: Marquis de Lafayette, Everything You Need to Know About Bastille Day, A Narrative History of the French Revolution - Contents, Biography of King Louis XIV, France’s Sun King, M.Div., Meadville/Lombard Theological School. Despite its post-revolutionary mythology, the march was not a spontaneous event. An illustration of the Women’s March on Versailles, October 5, 1789, author unknown. In 1789, one loaf of bread cost more than half a day's pay for the common workers. Armed with sticks and clubs and shouting, “Bread!” a mob of women and men (some dressed as women) marched the 12 miles from Paris to Versailles on the night of October 5, 1789. This combination of a bread shortage and high prices angered many French women, who relied on bread sales to make a living. The reasoning behind their march was the increased bread prices and the short term rumors. The Women's March on Versailles began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. Following the Storming of the Bastille and the Great Fear, revolutionary fervor spread among the populace. While the march turned into a more general revolutionary upsurge, this fear remained at its roots. A 1789 engraving of the women’s march on Versailles. The rest of the National Constituent Assembly followed the king within two weeks to new quarters in Paris, excepting 56 pro-monarchy deputies. The march of the Market Women to Versailles was one of the most significant events at the beginning of the French Revolution. Speakers at the Palais-Royal mentioned it regularly, but the final trigger was a royal banquet on October 1 at which the officers at Versailles welcomed the officers of new troops, a customary practice when a unit changed its garrison. Conversely, Robespierre’s impassioned defense of the march raised his public profile considerably. Stanislas-Marie Maillard, who had been a captain and national guardsman and helped attack the Bastille in July, had joined the crowd. Protecting the king during the March on Versailles in October, he diffused the situation—although the crowd demanded that Louis move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. What was the Bastille? Maillard remained a hero, but he died in 1794 at age 31. The march symbolized a new balance of power that displaced the ancient privileged orders of the French nobility and favored the nation’s common people, collectively termed the Third Estate. The chapel on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, France, built on two levels, by Robert de Cotte, 1710. On October 5, 1789, women had suffered enough injustice as a result of the economic crisis in France. The clergy and the aristocracy had lost their priviliges, and feudalism had been abolished, but true change for the working class was slow to come.Ordinary citizens were still struggling to keep themselves fed, with the price of grain having skyrocketed due to droughts in the summer of 1788. However, the revolutionaries forced the royals to return to Paris. Although the location existed for centuries before the sovereign, Louis XIV developed a genuine liking for Versailles early on, and decided to extend it beyond the chateau that had grown out of the hunting lodge of brick and stone first built by his father. In May of 1789, the Estates-General began to consider reforms, and in July, the Bastille was stormed. Versailles was seen as a glorious symbol of the absolute monarch, of France’s divinely ordained royal family, and of the state itself. March to Versailles On October 5th 1789, a violent dispute broke out in Paris at the Hotel de Ville regarding the lack of bread throughout the country. This embellished tale of the royal banquet became the source of intense public outrage. They were convinced that the royal family lived in luxury oblivious to the problems … Because of poor harvests for several years, grain was scarce, and the price of bread in Paris had increased beyond the ability of many of the poorer residents to buy it. Bread was very difficult to get and very expensive. On the morning of October 5, 1789, women were near rioting in the Paris marketplace over the high price and scarcity of bread. Lafayette eventually attempted to leave France, as many thought he’d been too soft on the royal family. However, at about 6 a.m., some of the protesters discovered a small gate to the palace was unguarded. A History of the Women's March on Versailles Context. They demanded to see "the Baker," "the Baker's wife," and "the Baker's boy". Calls for more radical action were increasing, and many nobles and those who were not French nationals left France, fearing for their fortunes or even their lives. Lafayette brought her to the same balcony, accompanied by her young son and daughter. Rampant rumors of a conspiracy theory held that foods, especially grain, were purposely withheld from the poor for the benefit of the privileged (the Pacte de Famine). For its inheritors, the march would stand as an inspirational example, emblematic of the power of popular movements. In some ways, this meant that hopes were high among the French for a successful change in government, but there was a reason for despair or fear as well. On 5th October 1789, a large crowd of protesters, mostly women, began to assemble at Parisian markets. As the Revolution progressed, he was hounded into exile by the radical leadership. Stories of a plot to destroy wheat crops in order to starve the population provoked the so-called Great Fear in the summer of 1789. Some in the crowd called for the children to be removed, and there was fear that the crowd intended to kill the queen. Sellers also were anxious about the shrinking market for their goods. She is a former faculty member of the Humanist Institute. Some in the crowd felt that their goals had been satisfactorily met. The people were hungry. At the end of the Ancien Régime, the fear of famine became an ever-present dread for the lower strata of the Third Estate. The … Angered by this kind of out-of-touch behavior, the French people began rebelling against the royals in 1789, launching the famous French Revolution. Amira Casar as Béatrice, Madame de Clermont (season 1) Evan Williams as Chevalier de … The Women's March on Versailles, also known as the October March, the October Days or simply the March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. After getting unsatisfactory responses from city officials, the women marched from Paris to the Palace of Versailles. The south wing was nicknamed “the princes’ wing,” as the princes du sang (“ princes of the blood ”) were given quarters there. A group of six women were escorted into the king’s apartment, where they told him of the crowd’s privations. He led some 15,000 troops and a few thousand civilians to Versailles to help guide and protect the women marchers, and, he hoped, keep the crowd from turning into an uncontrollable mob. Lafayette, though initially acclaimed, found he had tied himself too closely to the king. It gave the revolutionaries confidence in the power of the people over the king. In October, food shortages in the popular markets of Paris fostered discontent and fear, prompting market women and women consumers to show their concern by marching on foot to Versailles and calling upon the king, Louis XVI, to exercise his paternal role by … They seized more weapons at city hall, and also seized the food that they could find there. Driven to desperation by food shortages, they hoped the king would intervene – but some had more sinister ambitions. The history of Versailles is inextricably linked with the figure of Louis XIV. A month later, in August, feudalism and many of the privileges of the nobility and royalty were abolished with the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” modeled on America’s Declaration of Independence and seen as a precursor to forming a new constitution. As more and more women and men arrived, the crowd grew to more than 7,000 individuals. More women from other nearby marketplaces joined in, many bearing kitchen blades and other makeshift weapons. Behind them, at a distance, Lafayette followed with the National Guard. At about 1 p.m. on October 6, the vast throng escorted the royal family and a complement of 100 deputies back to the capital, this time with the armed National Guards leading the way. It was clear that major upheaval was underway in France. Although the fighting ceased quickly and the royal troops had cleared the palace attacked by the revolutionaries, the crowd was still everywhere outside. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries seeking liberal political reforms and a constitutional monarchy for France. The royal guards fired their guns at the intruders, killing a young member of the crowd. The women's march was a signal event of the French Revolution, its impact on a par with the fall of the Bastille. The Bastille was a fortress built in the late 1300s to protect Paris during the Hundred Years' War. Louis attempted to work within the framework of his limited powers after the women’s march but won little support, and he and the royal family remained virtual prisoners in the Tuileries. Feeding children seemed like an impossible task. More and more women began to gather around her and, before long, a group of them was marching through Paris, gathering a larger crowd as they stormed through the streets. Some years later he attempted to flee Paris but was again dragged back by a … Attempting to escape and join with royalist armies, the king was once again captured by a mixture of citizens and national guardsmen who hauled him back to Paris. When the king was finally convinced by Lafayette to appear before the crowd, he was surprised to be greeted by the traditional “Vive le Roi!” ("Long Live the King!") Worst of all, the papers dwelt scornfully on the reputed desecration of the tricolor cockade; drunken officers were said to have stamped upon this symbol of the nation and professed their allegiance solely to the white cockade of the House of Bourbon. Versailles, 12 miles (19 kilometers) from Paris, was practically its own town.It was an opulent palace with extensive grounds, many buildings and 60,000 people living or employed there in the late 18th century. At least two guards were killed, and their heads were raised on pikes before the fighting in the palace calmed. 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