Mirabeau and a clergy, Abbé Sieyès. Tennis Court Oath The Storming of the Bastille When the representatives of the third estate were busy with the formation of the national assembly, the common people were suffering due to the high price of essential commodities, even as the rich merchants started hoarding the grains. The agitated women started storming into the market area. Seeing the unrest, the king ordered the army to move into the streets of Paris.
Angered by this move, the people stormed the Bastille, the great prison of the city of Paris, and after destroying the fort released the prisoners on July . under the rule of the monarchs. Rousseau ( – ), in his Social Contract , argued that the relationship between the rulers and ruled should be bound by a contract. If the ruler ruled the country in a just manner, he would be respected by his subjects.
If he ruled in an unjust manner, in violation of the contract, he should be punished. The English philosopher, John Locke, in ‘Two Treatises of Government’, opposed the divine right and absolute monarchy. These ideas were also expressed in the writings of Diderot and the Encyclopaedists. Rousseau is known for his famous beginning lines of The Social Contract , 'Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains'.
Rousseau Voltaire Montesquieu The French Revolution The Beginning The French Revolution began with the meeting of the Estates-General in May . The summoning of the Estates-General became necessary because of the financial problems faced by the government. The first two estates, namely, the clergy and nobility had sent representatives each to the meeting held at the palace of Versailles, while the delegates of the third estate, mainly the business people and educated members, were made to stand behind them. The question that was taken up at the Estates General was how they would vote.
According to the norm each estate had one vote and Louis XVI wanted the same arrangement to continue. However, the third estate wanted one vote for each member.