Assembly of Vizille
The Assembly of Vizille was the result of a meeting of various representatives in Grenoble, which took place on 7 June 1788. Its purpose was to discuss the events of The Day Of The Tiles, one of the first revolts preceding the French Revolution.
Day of the Tiles
On 7 June 1788, riots broke out all over the town of Grenoble. Soldiers sent to quell the disturbances forced the townspeople off the streets. Some sources say that the soldiers were sent to disperse parliamentarians, who were attempting to assemble a parliament.[1] However, the townspeople climbed onto the roofs of buildings, hurling roof-tiles at the soldiers in the streets below, hence the name. This drove royal troops out of the city in the first outbreak of political violence that became the revolution.[2]
The Assembly
The commander of the troops found the situation so alarming, that he agreed to allow the meeting of the Estates to proceed, but not in the capital. A meeting was therefore arranged for 21 July 1788, at the nearby village of Vizille. This meeting became known as the Assembly of Vizille. On 21 July, local notables (mainly burghers, with a large proportion of lawyers) organized the Vizille Assembly, attended by 50 priests, 165 nobles, and 276 representatives of the third estate.[3] The assembly demanded a meeting of the Estates General (a form of national parliament), with the votes of individual representatives being counted, not just the views of the three estates. Opposition to absolutist monarchy finally came out into the open, with increasing support for its demands, culminating in the meeting of the Estates General, which coincided with the start of the French Revolution, in 1789.
Footnotes
- ^ La «Journée des tuiles» à Grenoble, Herodote.net
- ^ From Failed Reforms to Revolutionary Crisis, A Short History of the French Revolution, Jeremy D. Popkin, Prentice-Hall, 14 July 2005
- ^ Grenoble Archived 24 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine.
