What really happened at the Bastille on 14 July 1789?
The fortress held only seven prisoners; the crowd came for gunpowder.
▶ Start the storyOn 14 July 1789 a crowd of Parisians, mostly local artisans, captured a royal fortress. They did not come to free prisoners: the Bastille held only seven, and it was already scheduled for demolition. The crowd called for the arms and gunpowder stored inside, after days in which Paris feared a coup by conservative elements. Revolutionaries still saw the fortress as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power.
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The trigger was 11 July, when Louis XVI dismissed and banished Necker, a minister sympathetic to the Third Estate, and reshuffled his ministry. Parisians generally presumed this was the start of a coup by conservative elements. Camille Desmoulins climbed on a table, pistol in hand, and rallied the crowd.
On the morning of 14 July the crowd stormed the Hôtel des Invalides for muskets, 29,000 to 32,000 of them, but found no powder or shot. The Invalides' commandant had moved 250 barrels of gunpowder to the Bastille for safer storage. So the powder the crowd wanted was inside the Bastille.
11 July
Necker dismissed and banished
14 July morning
Crowd takes muskets at the Invalides
14 July afternoon
Mutinous guards and cannons join; the Bastille capitulates
Then gunfire began, apparently spontaneously, turning the crowd into a mob. After 3:00 pm the attackers were reinforced by mutinous French Guards and two cannons. The Royal Army troops camped on the Champ de Mars did not intervene, and the governor, with limited food and no water, surrendered. In the fighting, 98 attackers died against one defender, because the walls protected the garrison. The surrender did not save the defenders: the governor, de Launay, and several of his men were killed by the crowd afterwards, though accounts differ on exactly how many.
The next morning Louis XVI asked whether it was a revolt. The answer he got was: no, sire, it is a revolution.
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Recap
The crowd at the Bastille wanted the gunpowder inside, not the seven prisoners; 98 attackers died in the fight, and the governor was killed after he surrendered.
💡 A trick to remember it · Seven prisoners, 250 barrels of powder: the barrels were the prize.
Surprising fact · Only seven prisoners were inside, yet the crowd called for the gunpowder stored there.
Sources (1)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (21 claims) cites at least one of these.