Following the storming of the Bastille in July of 1789, rural unrest, poor harvests, food shortages, and rising prices of grain contributed to rising tensions all throughout France. There was the constant fear of “famine pacts” (Doyle, 21), where many people believed there were others possibly manipulating the grain supply in order to kill off numbers of the population. Violent riots were instigated with mere rumors of food shortage, and France sat on edge, waiting to see how their monarch would react. These riots, ideas for protests, and marches led to the events of October 5, 1789, otherwise known as the Women’s March on Versailles. 

After the mutiny of members of the French Guards after the events at the Bastille, the royal family was left with relatively less protection. The Garde du Corps (Body Guard) had taken over the protective duties in their absence, but this did not bode well with King Louis XVII in regard to the looming reality of the Revolution. He summoned the Flanders Regiment to Versailles, and in honor of their arrival, a banquet was thrown. On October 1, 1789, the event commenced, producing the exact provocation needed for uproarious protests. The guests and militia at the banquet enjoyed drinks, food, and “rowdy demonstrations of loyalty to the throne” (Hibbert, 96). News of the event made its way to the people in the capitol who were struggling to afford food at all, and an idea for a march was contrived.

On the morning of the 5th of October, women attending the central markets, and also in what was known as Faubourg Saint-Antoine, were met with more of the same trying circumstances. Bread, a main staple in people’s diet, had become virtually impossible to obtain, where “the bread queues had been growing ever longer” and the people demanded, “a reduction in the price” (Hibbert, 96). Thousands of Parisian women took to the streets in protest, led by “poissardes, fishwives, working women, prostitutes, and market stall-holders.” The march began with “shouting for bread, forcing the bell-ringer of the Sainte-Marguerite church to ring the tocsin and calling upon the citizens to take up arms to force the Government to help them” (Hibbert, 97). The crowd of women then, “dragging cannon and brandishing whatever makeshift weapons they could lay hands-on,” (Doyle, 121) set out to bring their grievances to King Louis XVII’s doorstep.

The significance of this event has echoed throughout history as one of the first examples of uprisings led primarily by women, and a relatively successful one. These women were in demand of more than just a day's worth of grain, but the assurance that fair prices and abundance of food would once again be a possibility in France. They marched for the purpose of bringing back these necessities, but also to bring King Louis back to Paris; making sure that the monarchy was on more common ground with their subjects. The women of Paris accomplished this. The Women's March on Versailles had an impact that resembled that of Bastille, “the people, by solidarity and by their action, had paralysed the plots of the Court and dealt a heavy blow at the old régime” (Kropotkin, 157). These market women were “treated as heroines” (Stephens, 358) and government after government of Paris treasured them as history makers and fighters, not just for the Revolution, but for early women’s rights.

Sources:

Doyle, William. “The Principles of 1789 and the Reform of France.” The Oxford History of the French Revolution, 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989, pp. 112–135. 

Hibbert, Christopher. “The Day of the Market-Women.” The Days of the French Revolution, Morrow Quill Paperbacks, New York, 1981, pp. 85–106. 

Stephens, H. Morse. “Women During the Terror.” A History of the French Revolution, C. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1911, pp. 357–358. 

Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, and N. F. Dryhurst. “October 5 and 6, 1789.” The Great French Revolution 1789 to 1793, Kessinger, Whitefish, M.T., 2005, pp. 146–157.

Photo source: Bibliothèque nationale de France