Storming of the Bastille
The Storming of the Bastille was an event that occurred on 14 July 1789, during which angry Parisian citizens stormed and captured the infamous Bastille prison, a symbol of monarchist oppression in France.
Although the prison was thought to be filled with political prisoners, only seven inmates were held at the time of the storming. One of them was a member of the French Brotherhood of Assassins, Pierre Bellec, and the son of the late Assassin Charles Dorian, Arno. After the two had met in May of that year, Bellec began training Arno in combat. When the fortress was attacked by outraged Frenchmen two months later, Arno and Bellec used the opportunity to make their escape. The novelist Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was also a prisoner, but had been transferred shortly before the building fell to the mob.
After the attack, the Bastille was used as a powerful propaganda tool during the French Revolution, symbolizing the might and willpower of the people. In the following months, and after much debate on what to do with the former prison, the comte de Mirabeau settled the matter by destroying the first brick. By November, almost the entire structure had been demolished. The date of the storming, 14 July, was commemorated the following year as Le quatorze juillet, or French National Day, known around the world as Bastille Day.
Gallery
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Revolutionaries about to storm the Bastille -
Civilians storming the fortress's walls -
The storming, as seen from Notre-Dame's rooftops
Trivia
- Despite the fact that the prison was demolished by 1790, it remains intact throughout the storyline of the game, albeit heavily damaged.
Reference