When was bastille prison built

Despite inheriting tremendous debts from his predecessor, Louis XVI continued spending extravagantly, including by helping the American colonies win their independence from Great Britain. To make The young couple soon came to symbolize all of the excesses of the reviled French monarchy, and Marie Antoinette herself became the target of a great deal The French Revolution was a watershed event in modern European history that began in and ended in the late s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon Bonaparte , also known as Napoleon I, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution The Alien and Sedition Acts were a series of four laws passed by the U. Congress in amid widespread fear that war with France was imminent. The four laws—which remain controversial to this day—restricted the activities of foreign residents in the country and limited Cubism is an artistic movement, created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, which employs geometric shapes in depictions of human and other forms.

Over time, the geometric touches grew so intense that they sometimes overtook the represented forms, creating a more pure level of In that time, he transformed the monarchy, ushered in a golden age of art and literature, presided over a dazzling royal court at Live TV.

This Day In History. History Vault. Causes of the French Revolution Despite inheriting tremendous debts from his predecessor, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette continued to spend extravagantly, such as by helping the American colonies win their independence from the British. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland.

Bastille Day. Over time, though, its purpose evolved, and it became a state prison—and a potent symbol of royal overreach and the suppression of free speech. In pre-revolutionary France, the king had the power to issue lettres de cachet —a royal edict sending his subjects to jail with no trial, no release date, and no appeal.

As time went on, fewer and fewer prisoners were held at the Bastille. Its aristocratic detainees even lived in relative comfort. Louis took power in the midst of a financial crisis due to overspending and years of expensive wars.

Though he and his wife, Marie Antoinette , lived a lavish lifestyle, the state was nearly bankrupt, and the public struggled with food shortages, mass unemployment, and high taxes.

Ladies at Versailles scrambled to keep up with the queen's extravagent fashion taste. At the time, French society was divided into a strict hierarchy based on three social orders, or estates. In times of crisis, the king could convene a representative assembly, known as the Estates-General, to help address pressing issues. The move backfired. The assembly reached a political impasse and, in mid-June, the Third Estate, which represented the vast majority of French society yet had less power than the other estates, broke off and formed a national assembly.

Inspired by Enlightenment principles and emboldened by the recent American Revolution, they demanded a constitution and the ability to make law for the people, by the people. Louis responded a few weeks later by firing his finance minister, Jacques Necker, who had showed support for the Third Estate. The revolutionaries saw this—and a buildup of royal troops throughout Paris in early July —as proof that the king planned to purge his government of all republican sympathizers.

In response, people took to the streets to protest, clashing with soldiers along the way. But they had no gunpowder for their new weapons. Unbeknownst to the revolutionaries, only seven people were imprisoned there at the time.

Who was the nameless Bastille prisoner who wore an iron mask? Prison guards fired on them, and fighting broke out as royal guards stood by. The revolutionaries stormed in, freed the prisoners, and took the gunpowder. They killed at least six prison guards, beat and stabbed Launay to death, then put his head on a pike to display.

During this period in the history of Paris , it became one of the dark symbols, especially when a letter de cachet, which basically translates to a letter of royal seal was received from the king informing you that you would be detained in the Bastille prison. In fact, there are only a few of these letters in existence today and one of the original letter de cachet, which dates from , is now housed within the Musee Carnavelet museum in Paris.

However, because those that were detained at this time were classed as upper class citizens, the living conditions at the Bastille prison where they were imprisoned was actually quite comfortable, as they were given a daily ration by the Paris government that provided them with luxury cuisine. The upper class prisoners were also able to have visitors, their own furniture, clothes, books for study and even have their own servants and even though it started out as a prison for those opposed to the king, it ended up including those opposed to the Catholic religion and free thinkers.

Some of the wealthy aristocrats also had members of their own family committed and sent to prison at the Bastille whether it be because they were classed as insane, had done some kind of wrongful deed that the family deemed unfit, or just purely for their own protection. However, even though he was against religion and a free thinker, he was also a remarkable writer and eventually he had his place in history, as he had his remains brought back to the Pantheon in a fabulous ceremony, which is where he remains even today.

Unfortunately, with the letter de cachet issued by the king of France to numerous people, the Bastille prison became a place of hatred, fear and then had a terrible reputation, as it also started to imprison commoners. Now, the governor was given an allowance that he could spend on an individual prisoner at the Bastille, and this varied greatly from a person that was a commoner, right through to academics or aristocracy, and yet this was still a better environment than some other prisons in France.

During the reign of King Louis XV, the Bastille prison started to accommodate more and more commoners in far less comfortable conditions than those of the intellectuals or aristocracy. Yet the subterranean cells called cachots, that were dirty, infested with rats, had the remains of people that had been tortured to death, etc were no longer used by the later half of the 18th century. But one of the most documented prisoners over the years was known as the man in the iron mask that has conjured up much speculation and many legends over the years, even with films being produced about this prisoner and yet no one knows who this person was, as he was to be silent and masked at all times.

Speculation has come up with numerous ideas as to his identity such as Oliver Cromwell, or even King Louis himself! There were many prominent figures that were imprisoned in the Bastille throughout the s, although the government were thinking about demolishing the prison due to the costs of running it and by the time the Storming of the Bastille occurred, there were very few people remaining imprisoned.