French nobleman Honor? Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau,
for instance, sought to be elected to the Estates-General, a
consultative assembly not convened since 1614, as a delegate of the
"third estate" (people who were neither aristocrats, nor clergy).
The revolution itself may have been set off by a misunderstanding.
The representatives of the third estate joined forces with dissenting
delegates from the other two estates to form the National Assembly.
One day, officials of the king locked the regular meeting place of the
Assembly in order to prepare it for an address by the king. The
members of the Assembly wrongly concluded that they are about to be
crushed.
On June 20, they regrouped in an indoor tennis court and vowed not to
disband until France had a constitution and the king's powers are
drastically curtailed. This became known as the "Tennis Court Oath".
On July 14, 1789 crowds stormed the Bastille - a fortress prison in
east Paris - in response to ominous movements of royal troops in and
around the capital. Contrary to later myths, the Bastille was
virtually decommissioned and housed, at the time, only seven aging
inmates.
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