Events of note occurring on July 14 throughout history
In the heart of Paris, on a warm summer's day in 1789, the Bastille, a symbol of royal oppression to the Parisian mob, was under the governance of Bernard-René de Launay, a man who spent much of his career in the French Guards. Born in 1740, de Launay had become the governor of the state prison in the centre of Paris.
However, the Bastille was not as terrible a place as portrayed in political pamphlets. On that fateful day, de Launay was in charge of only seven prisoners. Yet, the mob's anger was not to be quelled so easily. At dawn, they demanded that de Launay surrender the keys and hand over all arms and artillery.
Despite de Launay's attempts to negotiate, the mob stormed the Bastille. In the chaos that ensued, de Launay was dragged to the nearby town hall, where he was killed and beheaded by the mob. His fate was a grim omen of the bloodshed that lay ahead.
Across the Channel, in Britain, the political climate was also tense. The Birmingham area, home to a notable community of Dissenters—Protestants who did not conform to the Church of England—was no exception. The immediate catalyst for the anti-radical riots in Birmingham on 14 July 1791 was a Bastille Day dinner organised by Joseph Priestley and fellow Dissenters to celebrate the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille.
The riots that followed were not just a response to the Bastille celebration; they also reflected deep-seated resentment and fear among the ruling classes against Dissenters and their perceived role in promoting revolutionary ideas from America and France. The riots, marked by clear organization, destroyed twenty-six Dissenters’ homes and three more churches, with the mob burning Priestley’s laboratory and all his belongings.
The aftermath of these events had a chilling effect on reformist movements in Britain, demonstrating the lengths to which conservative forces were willing to go to suppress radical ideas and those associated with them.
In the grand scheme of history, the fall of the Bastille and the fate of de Launay serve as a poignant reminder of the power of the people and the consequences of political unrest. While the events in Paris and Birmingham were separated by distance and time, their echoes reverberated across Europe, shaping the course of the 18th century and beyond.
- Despite the confrontation between the Parisian mob and Bernard-René de Launay being a notable historical event in 'politics', the actual number of prisoners in the Bastille was relatively small.
- The anti-radical riots in Birmingham, sparked by a Bastille Day celebration, expressed not only anger towards the event but also ongoing 'general-news' fear and resentment against Dissenters and their representation of revolutionary ideas from America and France.
