"Three Glorious Days
Monday, 26 July 1830 – Most businessmen remained in Paris for they could not afford to leave for the country after a hot and dry summer. The Parisians read “Le Moniteur” and found out about the ordinances. In response, the commercial bourgeoisie protest by refusing to lend in La Bourse and shut down their factories. This leads to unemployment which had already risen throughout the summer. “Large numbers of… workers therefore had nothing to do but protest.”
While newspapers such as the “Journal des débats”, Le Moniteur, and “Le Constitutionnel” had already ceased publication in compliance with the new law, nearly 50 journalists from a dozen city newspapers met in the offices of “Le National”. There they signed a collective protest, and vowed their newspapers would continue to run. “The legal regime has been interrupted: that of force has begun… Obedience ceases to be a duty!” – Call for revolt signed by 44 prominent journalists.
To add further incitement to the masses, “Le Prefet de Police” – The police prefect writes: “The most perfect tranquility continues to reign in all parts of the capital. No event worthy of attention is recorded in the reports that have come through to me.” This was again an insult, as before this statement, the police raided a news press and seized contraband newspapers. They were greeted by a sweltering, unemployed mob that angrily shouted: “À bas les Bourbons!” (“Down with the Bourbons!”) And “Vive la Charte!” (“Long live the Charter!”)
Armand Carrel, a journalist, wrote in the next day’s edition of Le National: “France… falls back into revolution by the act of the government itself… the legal regime is now interrupted, that of force has begun…”
Tuesday, 27 July 1830: Day one
Over 50 newspapers refuse to submit to the new ordinances and start to publish inflammatory material against the king. The police attempted to seize the presses; but they were attacked by a vicious mob.
Barricades were already being established and soon after the first altercations between rioters and soldiers began. From the rooftops, Parisians threw rocks, roof tiles and more against the patrolling troops. The soldiers responded by firing in the air in an attempt to scare them, but then they started to aim for the people. The protestors gained little by little weapons, likely supplied by the National Guard that had been disbanded three years prior. This gave them an important advantage as they used it to pillage various barracks, thus gaining even more weapons.
The fighting went on until the night, 22 rioters have been killed. One of the bodies was dragged around the city to incite further outrage. The revolution started.
Wednesday, 28 July 1830: Day two
In an attempt to quell the rebellion, the king sends General Auguste de Marmont to Paris. Marmont is severely outnumbered as most of his soldiers were sent for the conquest of Algiers.
In the capital, anti-Bourbon settlements turn into calls for the guillotine. The king’s ministers including Polignac, are forced to hide in the Palas des Tuileres along with Marmont who tells the king: “Sir. It is no longer a riot. It is a revolution.”
The French troops are hopeless, as revolutionaries’ fire upon them and then quickly disappear. Bolstered by the once soldiers of the National Guard who had come to join them in their old uniforms, the Parisians capture the Hotel de Ville – the town hall. They raise the tricolor flag and ring the bell of Paris. Despite this, the king and his Prime Minister Polignac refuse to see anybody. The king asked Polignac for advice, and the advice was to resist.
Thursday, 29 July 1830: Day three
Poet Alfred de Vigny writes: “They do not come to Paris. People are dying for them. Not one prince has appeared. The poor man of the guard abandoned without orders, without bread for two days. Hunted everywhere and fighting.”
An outstanding 4,000 barricades had been erected across Paris in one day and night. They were manned by 30,000 revolutionaries. Marmont receives neither orders nor reinforcements. The Louvre is easily captured as the Swiss Guard flees without fighting. They were probably disheartened by the memory of their fallen brothers who stood their ground similarly in 1792 and were torn to pieces. The Tuileries Palace is quickly captured afterwards and thus the king is defeated. The liberals impose a provisional government and Lafayette is sent to calm the mobs before the whole affair degenerates like in 1792. There was a fear that the revolutionaries would succeed in creating another republic.
The revolution of July 1830 created a constitutional monarchy. Charles X abdicated in second day of August and departed for Great Britain. The provisional government placed on the throne a distant cousin of the king, Louis Philippe of the House of Orleans who agreed to rule as a constitutional monarch. This period became known as the July Monarchy. Supporters of the exiled senior line of the Bourbon dynasty became known as Legitimists. Philippe was well received and to bolster his popularity, renames himself as King of the French and not King of France thus implying he was the people’s king. He adopts the tricolor flag of the revolution.
Aftermath
The abdication of Charles marks the end of the Bourbon dynasty in France. A dynasty which excluding the revolution and Bonaparte, had reigned since Henry IV, almost 250 years.
The July Revolution inspired and sparked the November rising in Poland against the rule of Russia, though it was a failure and Russia annexed the whole of Poland. More successful, however, was the August revolution that occurred in Brussels and would end up creating a little country known as Belgium. The July Column, located on Place de la Bastille, commemorates the events of the Three Glorious Days. “Liberty Leading the People” Eugene Delacroix – 1830" (from (
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