Bastille Articles, Video, Pictures and Facts

The Bastille was a medieval fortress on the east side of Paris that became, in Cheap Rosetta Stone the 17th and 18th centuries, a French state prison and a place of detention for important persons charged with various offenses. The Bastille, stormed by an armed mob of Parisians in the opening days of the French Revolution, was a symbol of the despotism of the ruling Bourbon monarchy and held an important place in the ideology of the Revolution.With its eight towers, 100 feet (30 meters) high, linked by walls of equal height and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet (24 meters) wide, the Bastille dominated Paris. The first stone was laid on April 22, 1370, on the orders of Charles V of France, who had it built as a bastide, or fortification (the name Bastille is a corruption of bastide), to protect his wall around Paris against English attack. The Bastille, in fact, was originally a fortified gate, but Charles VI turned it into Rosetta Stone Spanish Latin an independent stronghold by walling up the openings. In 1557 its defensive system was completed on the eastern flank by the erection of a bastion. In the 17th century a transverse block was built, dividing the inner court into unequal parts.Cardinal de Richelieu was the first to use the Bastille as a state prison, in the 17th century; the yearly average number of prisoners was 40, interned by lettre de cachet, a direct order of the king, from which there was no recourse. Prisoners included political troublemakers and individuals held at the request of their families, often to coerce a young member into obedience or to prevent a disreputable member from marring the family's name. Under Louis XIV the Bastille became a place of judicial detention in which the lieutenant de police could hold prisoners; under the regency Rosetta Stone Italian of Philippe II, duc d'Orlans, persons being tried by the Parlement were also detained there.