FREE FOR ALL
“Storm the Bastille! Free the prisoners!”
That’s what an angry crowd shouted as they ran through the streets of
Paris, France, on July 14,1789.
The French Revolution had already begun. And the people wanted to free
the prisoners jailed in the Bastille to show King Louis XVI how much
they hated the way he treated all Frenchmen.
When Governor De Launay lowered the drawbridge of the Bastille to let in
some of the king’s troops, the crowd rushed inside, too. They killed the
guards and freed the prisoners. The next day they began to tear down the
Bastille, and today only a few stones remain.
Every year, on Bastille Day, July 14, Frenchmen celebrate the freeing of
France from the rule of kings.
Citizens of France freed prisoners from the Bastille in Paris during the
French Revolution.
