With the formulation of the August Decrees on feudalism, and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and of the Citizen, the National Assembly had laid down a blueprint for a new society and a new political system. There was, however, a fundamental problem. And that is that Louis XVI, on the advice of his court, had withheld his consent from those two documents. After all, Louis XVI had convened the Estate's-General to give him advice on the reform necessary to make the kingdom flourish again, to solve problems of bankruptcy. And yet the National Assembly had not only insisted on governing France in conjunction with him, it had now articulated a blueprint for a new society that repudiated the fundamentals of the way that France had been. He withdrew his consent from those two crucial revolutionary statements. In Paris itself there was also anxiety because despite the abundant harvest of 1789, bread prices in particular, still remained high. And places like this marketplace in Paris, became the center of angry discussion, of angry debate, as people worried about why it was that things still had not improved in terms of their subsistence. They were furious when news arrived that senior army officers out at Versailles, 20 kilometers away, had shown disrespect for the new revolutionary cockade of the red, white and blue, and had stamped it under foot during a banquette. Rumors swept Paris. And on the 5th of October 1789, a huge band, five or six thousand women from the marketplaces, store holders, consumers decided to do something about it. And set out to march from Paris to Versailles 12 miles or 20 kilometers away. This contemporary representation of the march suggest that not only were they dragging weaponry with them, but they're also dragging along unwilling well to do women, bourgeoises, as they're called at the tim sometimes, femmes a chapeau women who wear fancy hats, we don't know about that. But certainly a large band of women with Lafayette's national guard in it's wake marches out to Versailles, and effectively confronts the National Assembly, and the Royal family. They succeed in being admitted to the National Assembly, and they succeed in forcing Louis XVI the 16th to give his consent to those decrees, as a way of calming the crowd and also force him to agree to accompany them back to Paris. That instead of him being surrounded by what is seen to be a malevolent court, giving him bad advice, it's felt that he will somehow be safer under the control of ordinary people in the city of Paris. One of the chants that goes on by the way, as he's being brought back to Paris, is that we're bringing with us the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's apprentice. In a way a reference to the way in which, because the king is meant to be responsible to God for the well being of his people, he somehow is responsible to God for the feeding of his people - give us this day our daily bread as the prayer goes. And that in having Louis XVI and his family back in Paris, somehow the capital will be properly provisioned, and certainly, that people in Paris can keep a watchful eye from him away from the nefarious influence of the court at Versailles. In that sense people feel that the Revolution is over in October 1789. The King has given his consent, to those crucial decrees. And it's at this point that a great surge of revolutionary symbolism is generated. It takes various forms, but people want to find various ways of marking what has been achieved. It's at this time that they start referring, by the way, to the previous regime the pre-revolutionary regime as the ancient regime, which means not only the old regime in France, it means the former regime, the way that things used to be. France is now a new regime. One of the things the National Assembly decides needs to be done symbolically, is to literally demolish that great Bastille fortress, in the heart of the popular neighborhoods of eastern Paris. And you can see from this painting if you look carefully, workers beginning to knock off the bricks from the towers of the Bastille fortress. The contract to demolish it is won by this man, Pierre-Francois Palloy, who becomes known by nickname of Patriote Palloy, and he is a very canny man, he is a very successful entrepreneur, who's also a great patriot, a great supporter of what's been achieved. He decides that among the things he'll do with the great foundation stones of the Bastille, is to have them individually carved into representations of the fortress itself, that he sends off to the regional administrations of France, across the country as a gift to recognize the symbolism of what has been achieved. But there are other things that are done with the stones from the Bastille. This is a little village St-Julien-du-Sault, a couple of hundred kilometers south of Paris, and there still today in one of the towers at the entrance of the village is a stone from the Bastille fortress, which was procured by that village after 1789, and set into that tower, the following year, in 1790. And this is what the inscription actually says: this stone, it says, was taken from the stones of the Bastille, and it was then erected for a much more useful purpose to give to this square, the name of the square of liberty in our village. Along the bottom here which is very difficult to make out, you can actually see a statement of authenticity, that's signed by Palloy himself. There, still today more than 220 years later. But the symbolism of the revolution of 1789 takes various forms. One of the most popular representations of course is visual. We're talking about a society which is visual and oral rather than verbal in its communications. One of the most popular representations is to depict the third estate crushed underfoot of the privileged orders before 1789, supporting the privileged orders but also supporting all of the taxes, the obligations that are payable in that society. That's the way people visualize what the old regime, the bad old days had been like. This is another very popular representation where, here a peasant man, here a peasant woman, giving piggybacks to members of the first and second estate, both male and female, and both saying, let's just hope that this game is soon over, I've got a terribly sore back. And, of course, 1789 is seen to be the time when the game at last is well and truly over. Sometimes, the visual representations are of celebration. The caption here is saying in rather slurred tones, we're from the Third Estate, having a glass of wine to celebrate. But rather more common is the message embedded in this representation, where outside a tavern, a country tavern, which is called the, Three Orders reunited, a noble army officer, a priest, and members of the third estate, are celebrating the great achievements of 1789. And the name of that hotel says a great deal, The Three Orders Reunited. Because even though the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the August Decrees had overthrown a social and political system which was based on privilege and the unequal access to power, the great hope that suffuses the work of the national assembly, in fact suffuses all of France in 1789, is of regeneration - ne of the most potent and common words that is used in that year. That somehow, now, the three estates will be reunited with the common goal of regenerating, of remaking a France in which all can celebrate. And what we'll do next week is look at the ways in which the National Assembly set about creating that new France.
