“Is it a revolt?”

“No, sire. It is a revolution.”

6 July 1789

The National Assembly had won a great victory. Recognized by the King, and determined to write a new constitution for France, things were looking up. On the horizon, however, things were not all great. The King, though seemingly supportive of the National Assembly, has ordered troops to Paris. Tensions were mounting, as members of the First and Second Estates refused to join the National Assembly.

On the 6th of July, 1789, a committee of 30 members was formed to begin the writing of the new constitution.

8 July

Recognising the rising tensions, and fearing a crackdown by the King, Third Estate deputy Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau demands that all soldiers must be removed from Paris, and that a new civil guard should be created to maintain the peace. The King refuses.

11 July

The King, for some unknown reason, dismisses the Financial Minister Necker. Extremely popular with the people, Necker's sacking is met with fury in Paris. Parisians loot and burn customs posts throughout Paris, and an angry crowd even storms, and destroys, the Lazarite Monastery. In the holds, more stores of grain are found, again contributing to the theory that the Nobles and Clergy are hellbent on starving the peasants of France.

As the mob swelled and rampaged through Paris, it became clear that the crowd was headed for the Tuileries Palace, the former home of the royal family. The Régiment de Royal-Allemand Cavalerie was deployed to disperse the crowd, along with the Gardes Françaises.

The Gardes Françaises, as the name implies, was largely made up of French soldiers, and harboured many sympathies towards the angry crowd, many of whom share many of the same grievances. The German Cavalry, however, being mercenaries, largely do not share sympathy.

When the soldiers clashed with the crowd, the Gardes Françaises took the side of the crowd, mutinying against their officers, and joining the crowd. The German Cavalry, however, are able to largely disperse the crowd.

13 July

As riots broke out throughout Paris, and the soldiers of the King wavered, at the Hôtel de Ville, Parisian city leaders began coalescing to form a governing body, as well as a city militia, to at best keep the peace, and at worst, fight off the crowds and King alike. As the militia was hastily put together, uniforms were not able to be put together. As a temporary measure, these militiamen wore a cockade of the city colours of Paris, red and blue. The "bourgeois militia" is decided to comprise of 48,000 volunteers.

14 July

The leaders of Paris, seeking arms for their new Bourgeois Militia, took it upon themselves to storm Les Invalides, a military hospital and storehouse, for their weapons. Unable to put up any sort of opposition, the Bourgeois Militia now possessed cannons and a great deal of muskets. The commander of the guard at Les Invalides, painfully aware of his inadequacies, had transferred some 250 barrels of powder from his own stores to the Bastille, in the hopes that the crowd would not be able to reach them.

The Bastille was an old castle, built to protect Paris in the 14th century. Now overtaken and surrounded by Paris, the Bastille was used as a prison for the Kingdom. Over the years of use as a prison, the Bastille had gained a fearsome reputation for being where political prisoners were kept, for the King to torture and abuse as he pleased. During the rioting in Paris, the Bastille quickly became a target of the angry crowd, frustrated with the Monarchy.

Aiming to get the powder in the Bastille, the Bourgeois Militia demanded that the guard of the Bastille surrender. The man in command of the guard was Bernard-René de Launay. A stern and capable commander, the man was the son of the former governor of the Bastille, and was actually born within the walls. He would not give up the garrison easily. Defending the Bastille was 82 veterans, no longer fit for front-line service, though, with the transfer of the powder, came 32 Swiss grenadiers.

A crowd of about 1000 gathered outside the palace by mid-morning, demanding the surrender of the garrison, the handing over of the powder, as well as the cannon lining the walls. At noon, de Launay, recognizing that his situation was dire, invited two representatives of the crowd into the prison to negotiate terms.

By 13:30, the crowd grew impatient. Impetuous and spoiling for a fight, the crowd surged into the undefended courtyard. A small party climbed onto the gatehouse, and cut the chains to the drawbridge, opening the way further into the prison. The garrison ordered the mob to cease, saying that negotiations were still underway. The crowd did not obey, and the soldiers opened fire.

The crowd, believing that they were lead into a trap, began to fight violently and intensely.

By 15:00, the fighting was continuing, and there was no end in sight, until the mutinous Gardes Françaises heard the gunshots and came to assist the crowd. Until this point, the garrison of the Bastille had not suffered any deaths, though de Launay knew that with the arrival of mutinous professional soldiers, things would quickly end poorly for him. Ordering a ceasefire, he handed a letter offering terms to the mob. His demands refused, and supplies woefully low, de Launay capitulated. Opening the gates, the mob surged into the prison, and took the garrison into custody.

In the fighting, only a single defender had died, along with ninety-eight attackers. In the prison, were merely seven men. Four convicted of forgery, two lunatics, and one deviant noble. The governor, de Launay, was taken by the crowd, and beaten. Dragged to the Hôtel de Ville, de Launay, ready for death, cried "Enough! Let me die!" and kicked a man in the groin. The crowd happily obliged, plunging knives and all manner of sharp implements into him, and finishing him off with a gunshot to the chest. His head was sawed off, and mounted on a pike to be paraded through the streets.

The mob now ruled Paris. With cries of "Vive le Roi!" and "Vive la Nation!", the city leaders of Paris, and the Bourgeois Militia now ruled, and the soldiers of the King were forced to withdraw.

15 July

When the King heard of the events in Paris, he ordered the soldiers to back down. The National Assembly was impetuous as well, and word that the King was ordering the suppression of peasants in Paris would surely send them over the edge.

Word, too, reached the National Assembly. The city leaders of Paris had held a vote, and invited Jean Sylvain Bailly to be Mayor of Paris. The city leaders also reorganized the Bourgeois Militia into a National Guard of France, and invited the renowned military leader, Gilbert de Motiers, Marquis de Lafayette, to lead them.

When Lafayette arrived in Paris, he organized the National Guard. He had worked with militia before, and had done quite well with them, in America. Upon seeing the cockade they wore, Lafayette suggested adding a band of white in the middle, to include the Monarchy, and to 'nationalize' the symbol.

16 July

The riots had started in Paris due to the sacking of Necker, and the King had hoped that reinstating him would assuage the unrest.

At the same time, the council of Paris voted to destroy the Bastille. Word is also sent to other cities, instructing local leaders to form their own councils, and to form their own National Guard units.

17 July

The King, too, was invited to Paris. Arriving at the Hôtel de Ville to cheers of "Vive le Roi!" and "Vive la Nation!", the King is caught up in the revolutionary fervor, and dons the Tricolour Cockade of the National Guard.

Among the nobility, however, things are not quite so positive. Louis' brother, the Comte d'Artois, as well as 5 other nobles, along with their wives, slip out of France in the night. These men head for safer regions in the Holy Roman Empire, principally the Austrian Netherlands, as Austria is allied to the Bourbons.

18 July

Camille Desmoulins, a aspiring journalist in Paris, begins to publish La France Libre, demanding a much more radical revolution, one that destroys the Monarchy entirely, to be replaced by a republic.

21 July

Riots break out across France. In Strassbourg, Colmar, Le Mans, Alsace, and Hainaut, events mirroring those in Paris take place, with the King's soldiers being expelled from the city, and city councils being established, along with National Guard units.

28 July

Jacques Pierre Brissot begins publication of Le Patriote Français, another radical republican newspaper.

4 August

Returning to Versailles, the King appoints a cabinet of reformist ministers to compliment Necker. At the same time, the National Assembly votes to abolish all privileges and feudal rights of the Nobility.

The Seigneurial rights of the nobility, as well as any and all tithes by the First Estate, have been abolished.

Additionally, King Louis XVI has been proclaimed the Restorer of French Liberty.

7 August

"A plot uncovered to lull the people to sleep" by Jean-Paul Marat, denouncing the reforms of August 4 as insufficient and demanding a much more radical revolution, is published.