Women's March On Versailles: The French Revolution

 Throughout history, the Women's March has had a major impact on the country's political landscape, from March 1908 to women's suffrage in England, which gave the right to vote on the 2017 Women's March around the world, which marked the era of #EeToo Introduced. However, perhaps the most influential (and certainly the most violent) large-scale women's-led protest was the one that took place in Versailles on the morning of the French Revolution on October 5, 1789, when more than 7,000 women gathered in the royal. With a thirst for blood in the palace.

How do we get here?

Prior to the massacre, France was in a state of great political and economic upheaval, divided into three "estates", consisting of clergy, royalty and nobles, and all the rest. The affluent lived in the lap of extreme luxury, while most third estates were barely able to complete. To make matters worse, the nobility and clergy did not have to pay most of the taxes, so all the burden fell on the backs of the hardworking peasant and merchant class, who were hungry for a poor harvest. It is not difficult to see why a lot of nobility lost their heads. Although major revolts, like the storm of the BastilleI in July of that year, led to reforms on the political front, none of King Louis XVI's actions were rapid or strong enough to improve the lives of everyday people. .

Riot for bread

The events of October 5 served to begin the worst days: with works. Parisian women gathered in their local markets in the morning to do their grocery shopping and faced themselves with a boom in the price of bread, thanks to the poor harvest and Louis's terrible economic policies.

Frightened by the terrible threat of famine, people threatened to starve their families, while the royal family spent the day in the notorious extravagant palace, the women agreed to go to city hall to ask for bread. Along the way, many grabbed kitchen knives and other homemade weapons, suggesting they meant business. At City Hall, they would steal more weapons and eat every scrap of food they could eat.

Revolutionaries such as Stanislas-Marie Maillard became increasingly involved and protests grew rapidly in both size and intensity. In response, the Marquis de Lafayette, a French nobleman and American Revolutionary War hero, rounded up the National Guard and attempted to stop the growing crowd from using violence.

The Women's March at Versailles

Although she tried to return order and security to the city, Lafayets' personal politics did not really conflict with the protesters, as she had long hoped to transform France into an equal and free society. A few months ago, he, along with Thomas Jefferson, drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man of the Cities and Citizens, calling for universal equality under the law, and the ability of all French citizens to control basic inalienable rights and taxes. Rebuilt with. The young Marquis occupied a unique place in France, as he was respected by his nobles for his nobility and military experience but was dear to the Third Estate due to his revolutionary vigor.

With Lafayette's protective presence and Maillard's organization, the mob led Versailles to bring the king back to Paris and called for comprehensive legal and economic reforms. He walked six hours through the torrential rain to reach Versailles' vast palace, and when the king heard his chants and screams, he knew that he could no longer ignore his people. After a short conversation with some women, they agreed to sign the Declaration of the Rights of Man into law and even offered food.

However, his hesitation to go with the crowd in Paris was much worse with him than his charcoat. While the crowd still had some allegiance to the king, his Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette, was disbelieved and subjugated. It was on this day that Marie Antoinette described her lack of bread to "let them eat cake", but quipped practically every historian worth her salt as a rumor. Nevertheless, the women feared that if she was allowed to live in Versailles, she would molest the king with the proclamation, so they attacked the palace the next morning.

Storming The Palace

On 6 October, the women found an uncontrolled entrance to the palace, which burst, and swiftly killed the guard. The two guards, who had been stripped naked, found a shiny new house for their heads, which was built by the women. Told you they meant business.

Marie Antoinette heard the commotion and ran into the king's chamber in time to escape the crowd. After robbing their initial target, they sneak into her bedroom and destroy her ornate furniture. Lafayette again tried to bring order to the chaos and begged the king to address the crowd outside.

Finally, Louis appeared in an upstairs balcony and promised to go to Paris and sign the declaration into law. Expressing the crowd's joy, the King's words were made noisy by the Queen, until Lafayette knelt by her and offered a kiss to her hand as a show of respect. The protesters pacified, but some opposed courtesy to the Queen of Lafayette, and her more liberal approach to the French Revolution was eventually imprisoned by the radicals in 1792. The protesters, whose number exceeded 50,000, eventually went back with the king. To Paris and said the end of March on 7 October.

The Women's March of Versailles was a turning point in the French Revolution, which informed the king once and for all that he worked for the people and not the other way around. In 1791, King Louis upheld the dissolution of the three estates and reorganized France as a constitutional monarchy, but enough to save him or his wife from being in the Place de la Concorde before appeasing the crowd in 1793 was not.