An inclusive “Nation”: “Foreigners” at the Bastille, July 14, 1789

Among those who joined the attack on the Bastille on the afternoon of July 14, 1789 were a significant number of men who were born outside the boundaries of France. The origins of 668 of the nearly 900 Vainqueurs de la Bastille included on the official lists are documented with reasonable certainty. Fifty-three of them were foreign-born, a further three almost certainly so: roughly one in twelve of the official Vainqueurs. The largest number (at least seventeen) came from areas that today are part of Germany, particularly the Rhineland. Eight more hailed from Savoy and a further seven or eight from what today is Italy. The Southern Netherlands contributed about thirteen Vainqueurs, and at least three were from Austria and one from Prussia.1