The Second Council of Lyon was the fourteenth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, convoked on 31 March 1272 and convened in Lyon, France, in 1272-1274.Pope Gregory Presided over the council, called to act on a pledge by Byzantine emperor Michael VIII to reunite the Eastern Church with the West. The council was attended by about 300 bishops, sixty abbotsand more than a thousand prelates or their procurators, among who were the representatives of the universities. Due to the great number of attendees, those who had come to Lyon without being specifically summoned were given “leave to depart with the blessing of God” and of the Pope. Among others who attended the council was James I of Aragon, the ambassador of the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos with members of the Greek clergy and the ambassadors of Abaqa Khan of the Ilkhanate. Thomas Aquinas had been summoned to the council, but died en route at Frosinone. Bonaventure was present at the first four sessions, but died at Lyon on 15 July.

In addition to Aragon, which James represented in person, representatives of the kings of Germany, England, Scotland, France, the Spain’s and Sicily were present, with procurators also representing the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Bohemia, the “realm of Dacia” and the duchy of Poland. In the procedures to be observed in the council, for the first time the nations appeared as represented elements in an ecclesiastical council, as they had already become represented in the governing of medieval universities. This innovation marks a stepping-stone towards the acknowledgment of coherent ideas of nationhood, which were in the process of creating the European nation-states.

The main topics discussed at the council were the conquest of the Holy Land and the union of the Eastern and Western Churches. The first session took place on 7 May 1274 and was followed by five additional sessions on 18 May, 4 or 7 June, 6 July, 16 July and 17 July. By the end of the council, thirty-one constitutions were promulgated. In the second session, the fathers approved the decree Zelus fidei, which contained no juridical statutes but rather summed up constitutions about the perils of the Holy Land, the means for paying for a proposed crusade, the excommunication of pirates and corsairs and those who protected them or traded with them, a declaration of peace among Christians, a grant of remission of sins for those willing to go on crusade, the intention to deal with the schismatic Greeks and the definition of the order and procedure to be observed in the council. The Greeks conceded on the issue of the Filioque (two words added to the Nicene Creed), and union was proclaimed, but the union was later repudiated by Andronicus II, heir to Michael VIII. The council also recognized Rudolf I as Holy Roman Emperor, ending the Interregnum.

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Lucien Pissarro was born on 20 February 1863 in Paris, the eldest of the seven children of the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro and his wife Julie (née Vellay). He studied with his father, and was influenced by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac.

In 1886 he exhibited with the Impressionists. From 1886 to 1894 he exhibited with the Salon des Independents.

He first visited Britain in 1870-1 during the Franco-Prussian War. He returned in 1883-4, and in 1890 settled permanently in London. In 1892 he married Esther Bensusan, who in 1893 gave birth to their only child, Orovida Camille Pissarro. He metCharles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, and contributed woodcuts to their Dial. In 1894 he founded the Eragny Press and with his wife printed illustrated books until 1914. In 1903 he designed the typeface Brook Type.

He associated with Walter Sickert in Fitzroy Street, and in 1906 became a member of the New English Art Club. From 1913 to 1919 he painted landscapes of Dorest, Westmorland, Devon, Essex, Surrey and Sussex.

In 1916 he became a British citizen.

While in Britain he was one of the founders of the Camden Town Group of artists. In 1919, he formed the Monarro Group with J.B. Manson as the London Secretary and Theo Van Ryssel Berghe as the Paris secretary, aiming to show artists inspired by Impressionist painters, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro. The group ceased three years later.

From 1922 to 1937 he painted regularly in the south of France, interspersed with painting expeditions to Derbyshire, south Wales and Essex.

From 1934 to 1944 he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.

He died on 10 July 1944, in Hewood, Somerset.

The Pissarros’ only child, Orovida Camille Pissarro, was also an artist.

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In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6, and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30. Notwithstanding that, conventionally, members of the Greek Orthodox Church named Valentinos (male) or Valentina (female) celebrate their name on February 14.

The name Valentinus does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with Feb 14 is described either as:
1. A priest in Rome,
2. A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), or
3. A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.

The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine, the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner – until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.

The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.

English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine’s identity, suggested that Valentine’s Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love. While a website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saints Valentine, the Catholic Church’s official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18).

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Prelude
On 17 January, three Parliamentarian ships had sought refuge from a storm at Falmouth and been captured, enabling the Royalists to replenish their stores.
Sir Ralph Hopton’s Royalist forces had been camped the night before at Boconnoc. On breaking camp, their dragoon vanguard encountered enemy cavalry to the east, and discovered the Parliamentarian army deployed on Braddock Down. The Parliamentarian commander, Colonel Ruthven, had been unwilling to wait for reinforcements under the Earl of Stamford to arrive and had marched to face the Royalists.

The battle
Ruthven had more cavalry, but Hopton had more infantry and also two light cannon. These he kept concealed during the first two hours of the battle, which was largely a long-range musketry duel. After deciding to attack, Hopton ordered his Cornish foot under Sir Bevil Grenville to charge. The defending Parliamentarians fired just one volley at the Cornish, causing two casualties, then turned and fled. The defeated Parliamentarians reached Liskeard, where the townsfolk turned on them.

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The historical Saint Nicholas is remembered and revered among Catholic and Orthodox Christians. He is also honored by various Anglican and Lutheran churches. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children, and students in various countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria,Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia,Slovakia), as well as in parts of Western Europe (Belgium, France, Netherlands, Portugal). He is also the patron saint of Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Barranquilla, Bari, Beit Jala, Fribourg, Huguenots, Kozani, Liverpool, Paternopoli, Sassari, Siggiewi and Lorraine. He was also a patron of the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors, who protected his relics in Bari.

On 26 August 1071 Romanus IV, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (reigned 1068–1071), faced Sultan Alp Arslan of the Seljuk Turks (reigned 1059–1072) in the Battle of Manzikert. The battle ended in humiliating defeat and capture for Romanus. As a result the Empire temporarily lost control over most of Asia Minor to the invading Seljuk Turks. The Byzantines would regain its control over Asia Minor during the reign of Alexius I Comnenus (reigned 1081–1118). But early in his reign Myra was overtaken by the Islamic invaders. Taking advantage of the confusion, sailors from Bari in Apulia seized the remains of the saint from his burial church in Myra, over the objections of the Orthodox monks. Returning to Bari, they brought the remains with them and cared for them. The remains arrived on 9 May 1087. There are numerous variations of this account. In some versions those taking the relics are characterized as thieves or pirates, in others they are said to have taken them in response to a vision wherein Saint Nicholas himself appeared and commanded that his relics be moved in order to preserve them from the impending Muslim conquest. Currently at Bari, there are two churches at his shrine, one Roman Catholic and one Orthodox.

According to a local legend, some of his remains were brought by three pilgrims to a church in what is now Nikolausberg in the vicinity of the city of Göttingen, Germany, giving the church and village its name.

There is also a Venetian legend (preserved in the Morosini Chronicle) that most of the relics were actually taken to Venice (where a great church to St. Nicholas, the patron of sailors, was built on the Lido), only an arm being left at Bari. This tradition was overturned in the 1950s when a scientific investigation of the relics in Bari revealed a largely intact skeleton.

It is said that in Myra the relics of Saint Nicholas each year exuded a clear watery liquid which smells like rose water, called manna (or myrrh), which is believed by the faithful to possess miraculous powers. After the relics were brought to Bari, they continued to do so, much to the joy of the new owners. Vials of myrrh from his relics have been taken all over the world for centuries, and can still be obtained from his church in Bari. Even up to the present day, a flask of manna is extracted from the tomb of Saint Nicholas every year on 6 December (the Saint’s feast day) by the clergy of the basilica. The myrrh is collected from a sarcophagus which is located in the basilica vault and could obtain in the shop nearby.

On 28 December 2009, the Turkish Government announced that it would be formally requesting the return of St Nicholas’s bones to Turkey from the Italian government. Turkish authorities have cited the fact that St Nicolas himself wanted to be and actually got buried at his Episcopal town. They also state that his remains were illegally removed from his homeland.

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He preferred study to business but, as his parents were Quakers, he did not go to the university. Notwithstanding this circumstance, he was ordained deacon in the Church of England in 1730 and priest in 1731. As a strong supporter of the Whigs, he gained the favor of Philip Yorke, afterwards lord chancellor and first earl of Hardwicke, and his subsequent preferment’s were largely due to this friendship. He held successively a number of benefices in different counties, and finally in London.

In 1735 he became a member of the Society of Antiquaries, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, of which he was secretary from 1752 to 1765. In 1728 he had married Hannah Cox, who died in the following year.

Birch was killed on 9 January 1766 by a fall from his horse, and was buried in the church of St Margaret Pattens, London, of which he was then rector. He died, according to his will, “in a full confidence in the Mercy and Goodness of almighty God and with a firm persuasion of a blessed Immortality discoverable by the Light of Nature and confirmed for us Christians by that of Revelation”, leaving his books and manuscripts to the British Museum, and a sum of about £500 to increase the salaries of the three assistant librarians.

Writings

Birch had an enormous capacity for work and was engaged in a large number of literary undertakings. In spite of their dullness many of his works are of considerable value, although Horace Walpole questioned his “parts, taste and judgment.” He carried on an extensive correspondence with some of the leading men of his time, and many of his letters appear in Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century (London, 1812–1815) and Illustrations of the Literary History of the 18th Century (London, 1817–1858) by J. Nichols, in the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. iii. (London, 1780–1790), and in James Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

Samuel Johnson wrote: “Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties”.
Birch wrote most of the English lives in the General Dictionary, Historical and Critical, 10 vols. (London, 1734–1741), assisted in the composition of the Athenian Letters (London, 1810), edited the State Papers of John Thurloe (London, 1742) and the State Papers of W. Murdin (London, 1759). He also wrote a Life of the Right Honourable Robert Boyle (London, 1744); Inquiry into the share which King Charles I had in the transactions of the Earl of Glamorgan for bringing over a body of Irish rebels (London, 1756); Historical view of Negotiations between the Courts of England, France and Brussels 1592-1617 (London, 1749); Life of Archbishop Tillotson (London, 1753); History of the Royal Society of London (London, 1756–1757); Life of Henry, Prince of Wales (London, 1760), and many other works. Among the papers left at his death were some which were published in 1848 as the Court and Times of James I and the Court and Times of Charles I.

The Order consists of the Sovereign (currently Elizabeth II), the Great Master (currently HRH the Prince of Wales), and three Classes of members:

Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross
Knight Commander or Dame Commander
Companion

Members belong to either the Civil or the Military Division. Prior to 1815, the order had only a single class, Knights Companion (KB), which no longer exists. Recipients of the Order are now usually senior military officers or senior civil servants. Commonwealth citizens not subjects of the Queen and foreigners may be made Honorary Members.

The Order of the Bath is the fourth-most senior of the British Orders of Chivalry, after The Most Noble Order of the Garter, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and The Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick. The last of the aforementioned Orders, which relates to Ireland, still exists but has been in disuse since the formation of the Irish Free State.

Knights of the Bath

In the middle Ages, knighthood was often conferred with elaborate ceremonies. These usually involved the knight-to-be taking a bath (possibly symbolic of spiritual purification) during which he was instructed in the duties of knighthood by more senior knights. He was then put to bed to dry. Clothed in a special robe, he was led with music to the chapel where he spent the night in a vigil. At dawn he made confession and attended Mass, then retired to his bed to sleep until it was fully daylight. He was then brought before the King, who after instructing two senior knights to buckle the spurs to the knight-elect’s heels, fastened a belt around his waist, then struck him on the neck (with either a hand or a sword), thus making him a knight. It was this “accolade” which was the essential act in creating a knight, and a simpler ceremony developed, conferring knighthood merely by striking or touching the knight-to-be on the shoulder with a sword, or “dubbing” him, as is still done today. In the early medieval period the difference seems to have been that the full ceremonies were used for men from more prominent families.

From the coronation of Henry IV in 1399 the full ceremonies were restricted to major royal occasions such as coronations, investitures of the Prince of Wales or royal Dukes, and royal weddings,and the knights so created became known as Knights of the Bath. Knights Bachelor continued to be created with the simpler form of ceremony. The last occasion on which Knights of the Bath were created was the coronation of Charles II in 1661.

From at least 1625, and possibly from the reign of James I, Knights of the Bath were using the motto Tria iuncta in uno (Latin for “Three joined in one”), and wearing as a badge three crowns within a plain gold oval. These were both subsequently adopted by the Order of the Bath; a similar design of badge is still worn by members of the Civil Division. Their symbolism however is not entirely clear. The ‘three joined in one’ may be a reference to the kingdoms of England, Scotland and either France or Ireland, which were held (or claimed in the case of France) by British monarchs. This would correspond to the three crowns in the badge. Another explanation of the motto is that it refers to the Holy Trinity. Nicolas quotes a source (although he is skeptical of it) who claims that prior to James I the motto was Tria numina iuncta in uno, (three powers/gods joined in one), but from the reign of James I the word numina was dropped and the motto understood to mean Tria [regna] iuncta in uno (three kingdoms joined in one).

Biography

Louis was born in Paris, the son of Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condé and Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency. His father was a first cousin-once-removed of Henry IV, the King of France, and his mother was an heiress of one of France’s leading ducal families.

Conde’s father saw to it that his son received a thorough education – Louis studied history, law, and mathematics during six years at the Jesuits’ school at Bourges. After that he entered the Royal Academy at Paris. At seventeen, in the absence of his father, he governed Burgundy.
His father betrothed him to Claire-Clémence de Maillé-Brézé, niece of the powerful Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of the king, before he joined the army in 1640. Despite being barely twenty years of age and in love with Mlle du Vigean (Marthe Poussard, calledmademoiselle du Vigean, daughter of the king’s gentleman of the bedchamber François Poussard, marquis de Fors and baron du Vigean, by his wife Anne de Neubourg, daughter of Roland, sieur de Sercelles), he was compelled by his father to marry his fiancée, a child of thirteen. Although she bore her husband three children, Enghien later claimed she committed adultery with different men in order to justify locking her away at Châteauroux, but the charge was widely disbelieved: Saint-Simon, while admitting that she was homely and dull, praised her virtue, piety and gentleness in the face of relentless abuse.

Enghien took part with distinction in the siege of Arras. He also won Richelieu’s favor when he was present with the Cardinal during the plot of Cinq Mars, and afterwards fought in the siege of Perpignan (1642).

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The death of Robert I in 1329 left Scotland with a four-year-old king, David II (1329–1371). His right to the throne was far from absolute, and in the early 1330s was challenged by Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol. The rebels were known as ‘The Disinherited’, since they lost their land as a consequence of the Battle of Bannockburn.

In the winter of 1331, in response to the urgings of Henry Beaumont, chief among the disinherited, Balliol left his home in France and came to England, where he settled in Standal Manor in Yorkshire. Beaumont then visited Edward III, the young English king.

By the summer of 1332 all of the preparations for the expedition were complete. The size of the force assembled by Balliol and Beaumont cannot be established with any real accuracy, but the sources all agree that it was fairly modest: the Bridlington Chronicle suggests a figure of 500 men-at-arms and 1000 foot; Henry Knighton, prone on occasions to wild exaggeration, puts forward a figure of 300 men-at-arms and 3000 foot; while the Lanercost Chronicle, probably the most reliable, suggests a total force in the region of 1500 to 2800. All agree that by far the largest proportion of the footmen were archers, armed with the longbow. By mid July Balliol’s little armada of some 88 ships waited for the right moment to sail. It came with the news that Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, the guardian of the infant David, had died suddenly on 20 July.

Battle

The rebels and their English allies sailed on 31 July from several Yorkshire ports to Kinghorn in Fife to get round the terms of the Treaty of Northampton that did not permit English forces to cross the Tweed. From Kinghorn they marched to Dunfermline and then on towards Perth. On 10 August they camped at Forteviot, just south of the River Earn, a few miles short of their objective. To the north of the river Donald, Earl of Mar, the new regent, had taken up position with a much stronger force on the heights of Dupplin Moor. The disinherited now faced one Scottish army to their front with another commanded by

Patrick Earl of Dunbar fast approaching from the rear.
In view of their predicament it comes as no surprise that morale in Balliol’s camp began to sink. According to Thomas Gray, the disinherited lords were so dismayed by the size of Mar’s army that they accused Henry Beaumont of having betrayed them with false promises of Scottish support for Balliol. But Beaumont, the most experienced soldier on either side, reacted to this dangerous situation with coolness and precision. It was obvious that they could not wait for Dunbar to link up with Mar. He decided to risk crossing the Earn at night, and launching a surprise attack on the enemy.

On the opposite bank of the river the Scots had a clear view of Balliol’s small army. Mar was so confident of his strength and the superiority of his position that he did not even bother to set a watch, and his army settled down on the night of 10 August, relaxed enough to spend much of the time drinking, convinced of an easy victory the following day. At midnight, unobserved by the carousing Scots, Sir Alexander Mowbray led a picked force across a nearby ford shown to him by the sole traitor from the Scottish camp, one Murray of Tullibardine.

After crossing the ford Mowbray climbed up the rising ground towards Gask, where he immediately attacked the slumbering Scottish camp followers, in the mistaken belief that he had encountered Mar’s host. He learned his mistake by daybreak on 11 August; but by that time the rest of the army had safely crossed the Earn and taken up a strong defensive position on some high ground at the head of a narrow valley. Mar had been outflanked. Learning of the rapid approach of the main Scots force, Balliol’s army was ordered to form a line, with the archers projecting outwards on both flanks and the men-at-arms in the centre, the whole formation resembling a quarter moon. All were dismounted, save for a small group of Germans to the rear. Beaumont now made ready to employ tactics that had been demonstrated in outline at Boroughbridge ten years before, which in their fully evolved form were to allow the English to dominate the battlefields of Britain and western Europe for the next hundred years.

The Scots were angry that their enemy had been allowed to carry out so simple a maneuver under their noses. Lord Robert Bruce, the illegitimate son of the late king, made no secret of his conviction that Mar’s incompetence was evidence of treachery. Mar denied this, and like the Earl of Gloucester at Bannockburn, resolved to be the first into battle. Lord Robert claimed this honour for himself and both charged off to destruction, followed by their disorganized schiltrons, all semblance of generalship gone. Bruce and Mar’s wild charge was met by great clouds of arrows, which fell in rapid succession on the Scottish flanks. Each bowman was so skilled, and could fire at such speed, that he had several arrows in the air at one time. The badly armored Scots with their unarmored helmets had no protection against the repeated volleys. Bruce’s battalion, pushing through the storm of missiles, was the first to make contact with the enemy centre, forcing Beaumont and the men-at-arms to yield some ground. But the arrow fire was so unrelenting and fierce that his flanks converged towards the middle, as if seeking shelter from a storm. The front units were pushed forward on to Beaumont’s spears. Retreat or redeployment was made impossible by the arrival of Mar’s schiltron, charging down the narrow glen, and straight into the rear of Lord Robert’s men. The crush was so great that many fell never to rise again. The chronicler and historian John Capgrave describes the carnage at Dupplin thus;
In this battle…more were slain by the Scots themselves than by the English. For rushing forward on each other, each crushed his neighbor, and for every one fallen there fell a second, and then a third fell, and those who were behind pressing forward and hastening to the fight, the whole army became a heap of the slain.

The bodies of the Scots were piled so high above each other that it is said they reached the height of a spear. The English surrounded the bloody heap, thrusting in their swords and spears, so that no one could be taken out alive. Scots losses were heavy: Mar and Bruce were both killed, as was Thomas Randolph, 2nd Earl of Moray, Murdoch III, Earl of Menteith and Alexander Fraser, the High Chamberlain. Ironically, Sir Robert Keith, who scattered Edward II’s archers at Bannockburn, was also among the slain. The exact number of the dead is unknown, but estimates range from a low of 2000 to a high of 13000. English losses were light, amounting to no more than thirty-three knights and men-at-arms. The Earl of Fife tried to lead the survivors of Mar’s shattered army on an orderly retreat; but this turned into a rout after Beaumont and others took to horse, charging off in pursuit. Many who escaped the carnage inflicted by the archers were cut down by the cavalry.

A stone cross, now in St. Serf’s Church in Dunning, once marked the traditional site of the battle, although there is no strong reason to locate the battle there.

Outcome

The Battle of Dupplin Moor was the worst Scottish defeat since the Battle of Falkirk, 34 years before, far exceeding the setback at Methven. The losses were heavy, but they could be made good, and Dunbar’s army, probably as strong as Mar’s, was still in the field. However, the worst casualty of all was the national confidence that had grown from the successive victories of King Robert Bruce, which had produced an illusory sense of invulnerability. Once again the nation had tasted serious defeat, and the effect it had on morale surely explains Dunbar’s reluctance to engage Balliol’s tired little army in battle. In his classic study, The History of War in the Middle Ages, Sir Charles Oman says of Dupplin: “The Battle of Dupplin forms a turning point in the history of Scottish wars. For the future the English always adopted the order of battle which Balliol and Beaumont had discovered. It was the first in a long series of battles won by a combination of archers and dismounted men-at-arms”.

Aftermath

A few weeks after the battle Edward Balliol was crowned King at Scone. But dangerously isolated in a hostile country he moved his forces south to the old Balliol patrimony in Galloway, the only part of Scotland that showed any kind of support for the new king. In December at Annan he was surprised by a party of Bruce loyalists and chased half-dressed across the English border. Any future attempt to recover his throne would have to be with the open support of the English king.

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The storming of the Bastille

On 17 May 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates-General to hear their grievances. The deputies of the Third Estate representing the common people (the two others were the Catholic Church and nobility) decided to break away and form a National Assembly. On 20 June the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing not to separate until a constitution had been established. They were gradually joined by delegates of the other estates; Louis XVI started to recognize their validity on 27 June. The assembly re-named itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, and began to function as a legislature and to draft a constitution.

In the wake of the 11 July dismissal of Jacques Necker, the people of Paris, fearful that they and their representatives would be attacked by the royal military, and seeking to gain ammunition and gunpowder for the general populace, stormed the Bastille, a fortress-prison in Paris which had often held people jailed on the basis of lettres de cachet, arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed. Besides holding a large cache of ammunition and gunpowder, the Bastille had been known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the siege in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political significance.

When the crowd—eventually reinforced by mutinous gardes françaises—proved a fair match for the fort’s defenders, Governor de Launay, the commander of the Bastille, capitulated and opened the gates to avoid a mutual massacre. However, possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed. Ninety-eight attackers and just one defender died in the actual fighting, but in the aftermath, de Launay and seven other defenders were killed, as was the ‘prévôt des marchands’ (roughly, mayor) Jacques de Flesselles.

The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance.
Shortly after the storming of the Bastille, on 4 August feudalism was abolished and on 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed.

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