Editing Bastille (section)

====Destruction====
[[File:Bastille in demolition July 1789.jpg|thumb|300px|The demolition of the walls of the Bastille, July 1789]]

Within hours of its capture the Bastille began to be used as a powerful symbol to give legitimacy to the revolutionary movement in France.<ref>Reichardt, p. 240; Schama, p. 345; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 86.</ref> The faubourg Saint-Antoine's revolutionary reputation was firmly established by their storming of the Bastille and a formal list began to be drawn up of the ''vainqueurs'', or "the victorious", who had taken part so as to honour both the fallen and the survivors.<ref>Hazan, p. 122; Schama, p. 347.</ref> Although the crowd had initially gone to the Bastille searching for gunpowder, historian Simon Schama observes how the captured prison "gave a shape and an image to all the vices against which the Revolution defined itself".<ref name=ReichardtSchamaP240>Reichardt, p. 240; Schama, p. 345.</ref> Indeed, the more despotic and evil the Bastille was portrayed by the pro-revolutionary press, the more necessary and justified the actions of the Revolution became.<ref name=ReichardtSchamaP240/> Consequently, the late governor, de Launay, was rapidly vilified as a brutal despot.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 64.</ref> The fortress itself was described by the revolutionary press as a "place of slavery and horror", containing "machines of death", "grim underground dungeons" and "disgusting caves" where prisoners were left to rot for up to 50 years.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 74, 77.</ref>

As a result, in the days after 14 July, the fortress was searched for evidence of torture: old pieces of armour and bits of a printing press were taken out and presented as evidence of elaborate torture equipment.<ref name=SchamaP345>Schama, p. 345.</ref> Latude returned to the Bastille, where he was given the rope ladder and equipment with which he had escaped from the prison many years before.<ref name=SchamaP345/> The former prison warders escorted visitors around the Bastille in the weeks after its capture, giving colourful accounts of the events in the castle.<ref name=SchamaP348/> Stories and pictures about the rescue of the fictional [[Count de Lorges]] – supposedly a mistreated prisoner of the Bastille incarcerated by Louis XV – and the similarly imaginary discovery of the skeleton of the "Man in the Iron Mask" in the dungeons, were widely circulated as fact across Paris.<ref>Reichardt, pp. 241–2.</ref> In the coming months, over 150 [[Broadside (printing)|broadside]] publications used the storming of the Bastille as a theme, while the events formed the basis for a number of theatrical plays.<ref>Reichardt, p. 226; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp .98–9.</ref>

Despite a thorough search, the revolutionaries discovered only seven prisoners in the Bastille, rather fewer than had been anticipated.<ref>Schama, pp. 344–5; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p .67.</ref> Of these, only one – de Whyte de Malleville,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishmeninparis.org/soldiers-and-politicians/francis-xavier-whyte |title=Francis Xavier Whyte / Joseph Kavanagh |access-date=4 August 2021 |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804212449/http://www.irishmeninparis.org/soldiers-and-politicians/francis-xavier-whyte |url-status=live }}</ref> an elderly and white-bearded man – closely resembled the public image of a Bastille prisoner; despite being mentally ill, he was paraded through the streets, where he waved happily to the crowds.<ref name=SchamaP345/> Of the remaining six liberated prisoners, four were convicted forgers who quickly vanished into the Paris streets; one was the Count Hubert de Solages, who had been imprisoned on the request of his family for sexual misdemeanours; the sixth was Auguste-Claude Tavernier, who also proved to be mentally ill and, along with Whyte, was in due course reincarcerated in the [[Charenton (asylum)|Charenton asylum]].<ref name=SchamaLusebrinkP345>Schama, p. 345; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 106–7.</ref>{{refn|Jacques-François-Xavier de Whyte, often called Major Whyte, had originally been imprisoned for sexual misdemeanours – by 1789 he believed himself to be [[Julius Caesar]], accounting for his positive reaction to being paraded through the streets. Tavernier had been accused of attempting to assassinate Louis XV. The four forgers were later recaptured and imprisoned in the [[Bicêtre]].<ref name=SchamaLusebrinkP345/>|group=upper-alpha}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rodama1789.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-prisoners-of-bastille-in-1789.html |title=The prisoners of the Bastille in 1789 |date=17 October 2015 |access-date=4 August 2021 |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804212449/https://rodama1789.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-prisoners-of-bastille-in-1789.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Carnavalet - Modèle réduit de la Bastille 01.jpg|thumb|left|A model of the Bastille made by [[Pierre-François Palloy]] from one of the stones of the fortress]]

At first the revolutionary movement was uncertain whether to destroy the prison, to reoccupy it as a fortress with members of the volunteer guard militia, or to preserve it intact as a permanent revolutionary monument.<ref>Schama, p. 347.</ref> The revolutionary leader [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] eventually settled the matter by symbolically starting the destruction of the battlements himself, after which a panel of five experts was appointed by the Permanent Committee of the Hôtel de Ville to manage the demolition of the castle.<ref name=SchamaP348>Schama, p. 348.</ref>{{refn|[[Pierre-François Palloy|Palloy]] actually began some limited demolition work on the evening of the 14 July, before any formal authorisation had been given.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 120.</ref>|group=upper-alpha}} One of these experts was [[Pierre-François Palloy]], a bourgeois entrepreneur who claimed vainqueur status for his role during the taking of the Bastille, and he rapidly assumed control over the entire process.<ref>Schama, pp. 347–8.</ref> Palloy's team worked quickly and by November most of the fortress had been destroyed.<ref name=SchamaP349>Schama, p. 349.</ref>

The ruins of the Bastille rapidly became iconic across France.<ref name=SchamaP345/> Palloy had an altar set up on the site in February 1790, formed out of iron chains and restraints from the prison.<ref name=SchamaP349/> Old bones, probably of 15th century soldiers, were discovered during the clearance work in April and, presented as the skeletons of former prisoners, were exhumed and ceremonially reburied in Saint-Paul's cemetery.<ref name=SchamaP350>Schama, p. 350.</ref> In the summer, a huge ball was held by Palloy on the site for the [[National Guard (France)|National Guardsmen]] visiting Paris for the 14 July celebrations.<ref name=SchamaP350/> A memorabilia industry surrounding the fall of the Bastille was already flourishing and as the work on the demolition project finally dried up, Palloy started producing and selling memorabilia of the Bastille.<ref>Schama, pp. 351–2; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp .80–1.</ref>{{refn|The extent to which [[Pierre-François Palloy|Palloy]] was motivated by money, revolutionary zeal or both is unclear; Simon Schama is inclined to portray him as a businessman first, Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink and Rolf Reichardt depict him as a slightly obsessed revolutionary.<ref>Schama, pp. 351–3; Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 120–1.</ref> |group=upper-alpha}} Palloy's products, which he called "relics of freedom", celebrated the national unity that the events of July 1789 had generated across all classes of French citizenry, and included a very wide range of items.<ref name=SchamaP351>Schama, p. 351.</ref>{{refn|[[Pierre-François Palloy|Palloy]]'s products included a working model of the fortress; royal and revolutionary portraits; miscellaneous objects such as inkwells and paperweights, made from recycled parts of the Bastille; Latude's biography and other carefully selected items.<ref name=SchamaP351/>|group=upper-alpha}} Palloy also sent models of the Bastille, carved from the fortress's stones, as gifts to the French provinces at his own expense to spread the revolutionary message.<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, pp. 120–1.</ref> In 1793 a large revolutionary fountain featuring a statue of [[Isis]] was built on the former site of the fortress, which became known as the [[Place de la Bastille]].<ref>Lüsebrink and Reichardt, p. 168.</ref>