Women Storm Versailles: King Dragged Back to Paris
Thousands of Parisian women, many of them market workers, armed themselves with pikes, muskets, and a cannon on October 5, 1789, and marched twelve miles through rain to Versailles. They were hungry. Bread prices had doubled. The king had been stalling on ratifying the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The women invaded the National Assembly, demanding food, then surrounded the palace itself. The next morning, a mob breached the queen's bedchamber, killing two guards. Marie Antoinette escaped through a secret passage. By afternoon, the royal family was forced into carriages and escorted back to Paris under guard. The monarchy never returned to Versailles. The march proved that popular rage could physically move the seat of power, and the Revolution entered a new, more dangerous phase.
October 5, 1789
237 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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