Editing Bastille (section)

====Criticism and reform====
[[File:Bastille 1719.jpg|thumb|180px|[[Dragon]]s destroy the Bastille on the title page of Bucquoy's ''Die Bastille oder die Hölle der Lebenden''.]]

During the 18th century, the Bastille was extensively criticised by French writers as a symbol of ministerial [[despotism]], which ultimately resulted in reforms and plans for its abolition.<ref name="Reichardt, p. 226">Reichardt, p. 226.</ref> The first major criticism was by [[René Auguste Constantin de Renneville|Constantin de Renneville]], who had been imprisoned in the Bastille for 11 years and published his accounts of the experience in 1715 in his book ''L'Inquisition françois''.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 10; Renneville (1719).</ref> Renneville presented a dramatic account of his detention, explaining that, despite being innocent, he had been abused and left to rot in one of the Bastille's ''cachot'' dungeons, enchained next to a corpse.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 11.</ref> More criticism followed in 1719 when the {{ill|Jean Albert d'Archambaud|lt=Abbé Jean de Bucquoy|fr|Jean Albert d'Archambaud}}, who had escaped from the Bastille ten years previously, published an account of his adventures from the safety of [[Hanover]]. He gave a similar account to Renneville's and termed the Bastille the "hell of the living".<ref>Coueret, p. 13; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 12; Bucquoy (1719).</ref> Voltaire added to the notorious reputation of the Bastille when he wrote about the case of the "[[Man in the Iron Mask]]" in 1751, and later criticised the way he himself was treated while detained in the Bastille, labelling the fortress a "palace of revenge".<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 14–5, 26.</ref>{{refn|[[Voltaire]] is usually considered to have exaggerated his hardships, as he received a string of visitors each day and in fact voluntarily stayed on within the Bastille after he was officially released in order to complete some business affairs. He also campaigned to have others sent to the Bastille.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 26–7.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}}

In the 1780s, prison reform became a popular topic for French writers and the Bastille was increasingly condemned as a symbol of arbitrary despotism.<ref>Schama, p. 333; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 19.</ref> Two authors were particularly influential during that period. The first was [[Simon-Nicholas Henri Linguet|Simon-Nicholas Linguet]], who was arrested and detained at the Bastille in 1780, after publishing a critique of [[Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort de Duras|Maréchal Duras]].<ref name=SchamaP334>Schama, p. 334.</ref> After his release, he published his ''Mémoires sur la Bastille'' in 1783, a damning critique of the institution.<ref>Schama, p. 334; Linguet (2005).</ref> Linguet criticised, sometimes inaccurately, the physical conditions in which he was kept, but went further by capturing in detail the more psychological effects of the prison regime upon an inmate.<ref>Schama, pp. 334–5.</ref>{{refn|The accuracy of all of Linguet's records on the physical conditions have been questioned by modern historians, for example Simon Schama.<ref name=SchamaP334/>|group=upper-alpha}} Linguet also encouraged Louis XVI to destroy the Bastille, publishing an engraving depicting the king announcing to the prisoners "may you be free and live!", a phrase borrowed from Voltaire.<ref name="Reichardt, p. 226"/>

Linguet's work was followed by another prominent autobiography, Henri Latude's ''Le despotisme dévoilé''.<ref name=SchamaP335>Schama, p. 335.</ref> Latude was a soldier who was imprisoned in the Bastille following a sequence of complex misadventures, including the sending of a letter bomb to [[Madame de Pompadour]], the King's mistress.<ref name=SchamaP335/> Latude became famous for managing to escape from the Bastille by means of climbing up the chimney of his cell and then descending the walls with a home-made rope ladder, before being recaptured in Amsterdam by French agents.<ref>Schama, pp. 336–7.</ref> Latude was released in 1777, but was rearrested following his publication of a book entitled ''Memoirs of Vengeance''.<ref>Schama, pp. 337–8.</ref> Pamphlets and magazines publicised Latude's case until he was finally released in 1784.<ref name=SchamaP338>Schama, p. 338.</ref> Latude became a popular figure with the [[Académie française]], or French Academy, and his autobiography, although inaccurate in places, did much to reinforce the public perception of the Bastille as a despotic institution.<ref>Schama, p. 338; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 31; Latude (1790).</ref>{{refn|Latude's inaccuracies include his referring to a new fur coat as "half-rotted rags", for example. Jacques Berchtold observes that Latude's writing also introduced the idea of the hero of the story actively resisting the despotic institution – in this case through escape – in contrast to earlier works which had portrayed the hero merely as the passive victim of oppression.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 31; Berchtold, pp. 143–5.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}}

[[File:Memoires sur la Bastille.jpg|thumb|left|Linguet's ''Mémoires sur la Bastille'', depicting the fictional destruction of the Bastille by Louis XVI]]

Modern historians of the period, such as Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Simon Schama and {{ill|Monique Cottret|fr|Monique Cottret}}  concur that the actual treatment of prisoners in Bastille was much better than the public impression left through those writings.<ref>Schama, p. 334; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 27.</ref> Nonetheless, fuelled by the secrecy that still surrounded the Bastille, official as well as public concern about the prison, and the system that supported it, also began to mount, prompting reforms.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 27.</ref> As early as 1775, Louis XVI's minister [[Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes|Malesherbes]] had authorised all prisoners to be given newspapers to read, and to be allowed to correspond with their family and friends.<ref>Funck-Brentano, pp. 78–9.</ref> In the 1780s, [[Louis Auguste Le Tonnelier de Breteuil|Breteuil]], the [[Secretary of State of the Maison du Roi]], began a substantial reform of the system of ''lettres de cachet'' that sent prisoners to the Bastille: such letters were now required to list the length of time a prisoner would be detained for, and the offence for which they were being held.<ref>Gillispie, p. 247; Funck-Brentano, p. 78.</ref>

Meanwhile, in 1784, the architect [[Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart|Alexandre Brogniard]] proposed that the Bastille be demolished and converted into a circular public space with [[colonnade]]s.<ref name=SchamaP338/> Director-General of Finance [[Jacques Necker]], having examined the cost of running the Bastille, amounting to well over 127,000 livres in 1774, proposed closing the institution on the grounds of economy alone.<ref>Funck-Brentano, pp. 81–2.</ref>{{refn|Comparing 18th century sums of money with modern equivalents is notoriously difficult but, for comparison, the Bastille's 127,000 livres running costs in 1774 were around 420 times a Parisian labourer's annual wages or, alternatively, roughly half the cost of clothing and equipping the Queen in 1785.<ref name="Andress, p. xiii"/>|group=upper-alpha}} Similarly, Pierre-François de Rivière du Puget,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-de-la-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france-2010-2-page-25.htm |title=Un geôlier réformateur. Du Puget, lieutenant de roi de la Bastille |doi=10.3917/rbnf.035.0025 |access-date=4 August 2021 |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804211005/https://www.cairn.info/revue-de-la-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france-2010-2-page-25.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> the Bastille's ''lieutenant de roi'', submitted reports in 1788 suggesting that the authorities close the prison, demolish the fortress and sell the real estate off.<ref>Funck-Brentano, p. 83.</ref> In June 1789, the [[Académie royale d'architecture]] proposed a similar scheme to Brogniard's, in which the Bastille would be transformed into an open public area, with a tall column at the centre surrounded by fountains, dedicated to Louis XVI as the "restorer of public freedom".<ref name=SchamaP338/>

The number of prisoners held in the Bastille at any one time declined sharply towards the end of Louis's reign. It contained ten prisoners in September 1782 and, despite a small increase at the beginning of 1788, by July 1789 only seven prisoners remained in custody.<ref>Funck-Brentano, p. 79.</ref> Before any official scheme to close the prison could be enacted, however, disturbances across Paris brought a more violent end to the Bastille.<ref name=SchamaP338/>