(1789)

On the morning of 14 July 1789 a mob stormed the gates and courtyards of an old feudal fortress in Paris where Governor de Launay held the Bastille with a garrison of 110 soldiers. de Launay agreed to surrender the fortress on terms of a safe withdrawal for himself and his men. (The mob believed learned patriots, defenders of the oppressed were imprisoned within.) When de Launay opened the gates to leave, the mob swept in, seized de Launay and murdered him. There were no patriots imprisoned, and history has painted the mob's hysteria into heroics. Thus we have the French Revolution.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, French-Revolution, history[/tags]