The National Assembly

    When the Estates-General held its first meeting at Versailles on
    May 5, 1789, Louis XVI ordered the estates to meet separately
    and to vote by estate. The Third Estate demanded that the
    Estates-General be transformed into a National Assembly with
    each member, not each estate, having one vote. When the king
    rejected the proposed National Assembly, the representatives of
    the Third Estate, on June 17, declared themselves to be the
    National Assembly. This was now a revolution!

    The Tennis Court Oath

    Louis XVI, under pressure from the nobles, locked the member
    of the National Assembly out of the hall in which it met. The
    members assembled at an indoor tennis court nearby. There, on
    June 20, they swore never to disband until they had given
    France a constitution.

  The Storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789

    On July 14 the event occurred that, more than any other, has
    symbolized the French Revolution - the storming of the Bastille.
    Incited by rumors that the king had ordered troops to Paris to
    disperse the National Assembly, a Paris mob surrounded the Bastille
    hoping to secure weapons and demanding the removal of some
    cannon the governor of the prison had placed facing outward. The
    crowd got out of hand, fighting began, and soon the prison was in the
    hands of the mob. The governor of the prison was murdered as was
    the mayor of Paris. Their heads were mounted on pikes and paraded
    through the city. When the Duke de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
    told King Louis XVI about the storming of the Bastille, the king
    angrily exclaimed, "This is a revolt!" "No sire," replied the duke, "it is
    a revolution."
 

    In late July, serious unrest called the "Great Fear" broke out in rural areas. Rumors reported an impending famine and told of bandits, in the pay of the nobles, roaming the countryside attacking peasants. Driven by fear and anger, the peasants armed themselves and prepared the fight the ruthless bandits. In addition, the peasants attacked many manor houses, often hoping to destroy the records of dues and services owned the lord. News of these disorded alarmed many of the delegates in the National Assembly.

    The events in Paris and the disorder in the countryside forced the National Assembly into action. On the night of August 4, the nobles and clergy offered to end tax exemptions of the privileged classes, payment of feudal dues by
the peasants, the tithe, and all class distinctions. It would prove to be the most sweeping and radical legislative session of the whole French Revolution.

    The Declaration of the Rights of Man

    On August 27, 1789, the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which embodied many of the ideas of the  philosophes. It declared that the authority of a government is derived from
the people; that all citizens should be equal before the law; that all citizens are entitled to a voice in making the nation's laws; and that the purpose of government should be the protection of the natural rights of men to liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression. Freedom of speech, press, and religion should be guaranteed to all.

    The Declaration, along with the English Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and US Constitution, ranks as one of the great documents of modern times.

    The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789). From the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School.

    March of the Women to Versailles

    In Paris new tensions were building. A rumor circulated that at a
    banquet in Versailles, newly arrived soldiers had treated the
    tricolor with disrespect. On October 5, an angry mob of some six
    or seven thousand women set off for Versailles dragging a cannon
    and brandishing whatever makeshift weapons they could lay their
    hands on. They were followed by Lafayette and 20,000 National
    Guardsmen. They reached Versailles in the evening and invaded
    the National Assembly, calling for bread and punishment of those
    who had insulted the national flag. Then the women marched to
    Versailles and gained entrance to the elegant apartment of the
    queen. The king finally agreed to the demands of the women and
    under their escort journeyed with his family to Paris. Henceforth,
    the king and his family would be confined to Paris, "more like
    prisoners than Princes."

    The Constitution of 1791

    The National Assembly continued its efforts to draft a new constitution for France. At last, in September 1791, the constitution was complete providing for a limited monarchy.