The Women’s March on Versailles

On 5 October 1789, life was proceeding as usual at Versailles. Marie Antoinette was spending the day at the Petit Trianon while Louis was out hunting in the woods. His hunt was interrupted when an urgent message arrived from the Minister of the Royal Household, saying that there had been “events.”

In fact, a march of market women had set out from Paris at ten that morning, and they were intending to demand flour or grain from their King, as well as his assent to constitutional changes proposed by the Assembly.

King Louis returned to Versailles upon receiving the message, and he arrived there around 3 in the afternoon. Marie Antoinette was also summoned home, while their son’s daily outing in his carriage was cancelled. As the women marched on, they discussed what to do. Should they change locations or send Marie Antoinette and the children away at least? Marie Antoinette vetoed that idea, as she believed her place was by the King’s side. King Louis refused to leave as he did not want to be seen as a fugitive King.

The first women began to arrive about an hour later, and no decision had been reached. Eventually, he agreed to receive one of the women whom he promised that he would tell the directors of two granaries to release all possible stores. He even gave her his promise in writing before she returned to the crowd. However, they did not disperse and remained angry. A plan was then formed that they would bodily transfer the King to Paris. Chants asking for Marie Antoinette’s head could also be heard. Once again, the idea of the family leaving was floated. In an attempt to alleviate some of the tension, King Louis signed some preliminary decrees which had to do with the Constitution.

As the crowd raged outside, the Dauphin and his sister fell into an uneasy sleep. The Dauphin’s governess had been instructed to take him to the King in case of an emergency. Marie Antoinette went to bed but did not fall asleep. Her daughter, Marie Thérèse, later wrote, “My mother knew that their chief object was to kill her; nevertheless, in spite of that, she made no sign but retired to her room with all possible coolness and courage [after ordering all who had gathered there to retire also].”¹

Early the following morning, some in the crowd found a way into the palace. Marie Thérèse wrote, “At the same moment, the wretches forced the door of my mother’s room; so that one instant later, she would have been taken without means of escape. As soon as she entered my father’s rooms, she looked for him but could not find him; having heard she was in danger, he had rushed to her apartment, but by another way. Fortunately, he met my brother, brought to him by Mme. de Tourzel, who urged him to return to his rooms, where he found my mother awaiting him in mortal anxiety. Reassured about my father and brother, the queen came in search of me; I was already awakened by the noise in her rooms and in the garden under my windows; my mother told me to rise, and then took me with her to my father’s apartment.”²

The violence eventually subsided with the help of the Marquis de Lafayette’s National Guard, and he convinced the King to address the crowd. He expressed his desire to return to Paris, which cheered the crowd. After he withdrew, the crowd demanded to see Marie Antoinette, who appeared with both her son and daughter. As the crowd shouted at her, the Marquis de Lafayette knelt and kissed her hand.

That afternoon, a large procession, including the royal family, headed for Paris. The King’s sister who had told him, “It is not Paris, Sire, that you should go. You have still devoted battalions and faithful guards to protect you. I implore you, my brother, not to go to Paris.” As their carriage passed Montreuil, she bent forward to look at the trees. Her brother asked, “Are you bowing to Montreuil, sister?” She answered, “Sire, I am bidding it farewell.”³

The family was taken to the Tuileries, where they would live under guard. The only one to ever return to Versailles was Marie Thérèse, who, in August 1814, briefly roamed the palace she had grown up in.

The Women’s March on Versailles was an important event in the French Revolution, and P. A. Kropotkin described the invasion of the palace as “one of those defeats of royalty from which it never recovered.”⁴

1. The Ruin of a Princess by the Duchess of Angoulême p.212
2. The Ruin of a Princess by the Duchess of Angoulême p.212-213
3. The life and letters of Madame Élisabeth de France p.24-25
4. The Great French Revolution 1789 – 1793 by P. A. Kropotkin p.156