The Bastille

The Bastille was a medieval fortress on the East side of Paris that became, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, a French state prison and a place of detention for important persons charged with miscellaneous offences. The Bastille, stormed by an armed mob of Parisians in the opening days of the French Revolution, was a symbol of the despotism of the Bourbons and held an important place in the ideology of the Revolution.

With its eight towers, 100 feet high, linked by walls of equal height and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide, the Bastille dominated Paris. The first stone was laid on April 22, 1370, on the orders of Charles V of France, who had it built as a bastide, or fortification (the name Bastille is a corruption of bastide), to protect this wall around Paris against English attack.

The Cardinal de Richelieu was the first to use the Bastille as a state prison in the 17^th century. Prisoners included political troublemakers and individuals held at the request of their families, often to coerce a young member into obedience or to prevent a disreputable member from marring the family's name. Under Louis XIV, the Bastille became a place of judicial detention; and later persons being tried by the Parliament were also detained there. It is noteworthy that prohibited books were also placed in the Bastille. The high cost of maintaining the building prompted talk of demolition in 1784.

On July 14, 1789, when only seven prisoners were confined in the building, a mob advanced on the Bastille with the intention of asking the prison governor to release the arms and munitions stored there. Angered by the governor's refusal, the people stormed and captured the place. This dramatic action came to symbolise the end of the ancient regime. The Bastille was subsequently demolished by order of the Revolutionary government.

TASK 11. Answer the following questions:

1. When and why was the Bastille built?

2. Who was the first to use the Bastille as a state prison?

3. What was the Bastille like in the 17^th and 18^th centuries? Who was confined there?

4. How was the Bastille demolished?

TASK 12. Read the text in the section "It's Interesting to Know". Find more information about the research into the treatment of criminals carried out by the 18^th century humanists:

It's Interesting to Know John Howard, 1726—1790

There is in England today a society called The Howard League of Penal Reform. It is named after one of the greatest figures in the history of law in the eighteenth century. Howard was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire when, in 1773 he started to investigate prison conditions. The thing that drew his interest was the discovery that innocent people were often held in gaol until they had paid the gaoler's fees even though the court had found them not guilty. In the next three years he visited every prison in Great Britain and Ireland as well as many in Europe and wrote a book based on his experiences called The State of Prisons. He died in Russia on his way to find out about sanitary conditions in the Russian army. Through his work and that of Elizabeth Fry prisons were at last improved and prisoners treated more like human beings than animals.