The March on Versailles

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The Women's March to Versailles was an event in the French Revolution. Although the National Assembly had taken the Tennis Court Oath and the Bastille had fallen at the hands of the crowd, the women of Paris still found that there was a considerable bread shortage. Becoming increasingly angry and incited by revolutionaries, the women marched to the Palace of Versailles on October 5 1789 where they demanded to see the King and Queen. At first quite rowdy, upon seeing their monarchs they calmed a little before asking them for bread and food. As well as this they asked that the royal family leave Versailles and return to Paris to lead the people. Louis XVI reluctantly agreed and the family moved to the Tuileries palace, the royal residence in Paris. Accompanying them were the women, who experienced a triumphant return to Paris. Louis XVI made a fatal mistake and was to never see Versailles again.

The Women's March to Versailles was one of the turning points of the French Revolution; it showed that the peasants of the Third Estate were a force to be reckoned with.

This march-o, mostly composed of women at the outset, showed that women could be a driving force in history. These women of the Third Estate, however, were mostly burly, knife-wielding fishwives, and are depicted as such (often crudely) in art from the Revolution.