III.

Open Rebellion

Continued defiance of royal decrees and the mutinous mood of the royal army forced the king to capitulate. On June 27 he ordered the refractory nobility and clergy to join the unicameral legislature, which then designated itself the National Constituent Assembly. Yielding to pressure from the Queen and the Comte d'Artois, later Charles X, Louis issued orders for the concentration of several loyal foreign regiments in Paris and Versailles. At the same time, Necker, the popular apostle of a regenerated France, was again dismissed from the government. The people of Paris reacted to these provocative acts with open insurrection. Rioting began on July 12, and on July 14 the Bastille, a royal prison that symbolized the despotism of the Bourbons, was stormed and captured.

Even before the Parisian outburst, violence, sporadic local disturbances, and peasant uprisings against oppressive nobles occurred in many parts of France, alarming the propertied bourgeoisie no less than the Royalists. Panic-stricken over these ominous events, the Comte d'Artois and other prominent reactionaries, the first of the so-called émigrés, fled the country. The Parisian bourgeoisie, fearful that the urban mob would take further advantage of the collapse of the old administrative machine and resort again to direct action, hastily established a provisional local government and organized a people's militia, officially designated the National Guard. A red, white, and blue tricolour was substituted for the white standard of the Bourbons as the national flag. Provisional local governments and militia units were soon established throughout France. The National Guard was placed under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American War of Independence. Unable to stem the rising tide of revolt, Louis XVI withdrew his loyal troops. He recalled Necker, and then formally legalized the measures that had been taken by the provisional authorities.