Block of 2 stamps - Les grandes heures de l'Histoire de France - 2024 - International Letter

Description

Women's March on Versailles or "October Day" or "October March": when a crowd of over 7,000 Parisians, led by market women, headed for the royal city of Versailles to demand peacocking and political reforms from the king, on October 5, 1789. The march was provoked by the high price of bread, the King's refusal to accept major revolutionary reforms and a royal banquet held at Versailles, during which soldiers trampled on the tricolor cockade, the symbol of the revolution. The march on Versailles deprived King Louis XVI of his remaining independence, ending France's absolute monarchy and paving the way for a brief period of constitutional monarchy. The Paris uprising of July 14, 1789 signed the surrender of absolute monarchy to the National Assembly. Since then, the King has adopted an attitude of passive resistance, refusing, for example, to promulgate the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. With the right of veto and plans for a hereditary Senate modelled on the House of Lords, he intended to challenge the Assembly for power. The revolutionaries' concerns were amplified by the food shortage in Paris. On October 5, local women gathered in front of the Hôtel de Ville and decided to march on Versailles to demand bread from the king. They were soon followed by a more masculine crowd, as well as the National Guard, all of whom supported the Revolution. In the late afternoon, Louis XVI promised the women that he would deliver a large quantity of flour to the capital. In the evening, he also bowed to political pressure and ratified the laws he continued to block. The third demand, that of settling in Paris, was postponed until a later date. But in the early hours of October 6, groups invaded the Château de Versailles. Marie-Antoinette had to flee in scant clothing to her husband's bedroom. Faced with this show of force, Louis XVI capitulated. He appears on the balcony, with his wife and the Dauphin, and says: "Mes amis, j'irai à Paris." Cheers rang out, and the deputies immediately voted to leave for the capital. A few hours later, an impressive procession of 30,000 people set off, with the royal carriage, now a prisoner of the people, symbolically at the center. Enthusiastic women chanted: "We're bringing back the baker, the boulangère and the petit mitron." October 6 thus completes July 14. Henceforth, the King was no longer in a position to oppose the forward march of the Revolution.

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Bloc de deux timbres-poste (taille-douce) : création et gravure Sarah Lazarevic, timbres-poste d'après : « La marche des femmes à Versailles le 5 octobre 1789 », gravure anonyme, The Granger Collection, New York/ Coll. Christophel. « Dames de la Halles, en marche pour Versailles, le matin du 5 octobre 1789 », gravure anonyme, Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris / Coll. Christophel. Fond de bloc d'après : « Vue et perspective du château de Versailles du côtés des jardins » © bibliothèque nationale de France.