The Women's March on Versailles

On 5 October 1789 several thousand women, many of them market women from central Paris, gathered at the Hôtel de Ville to protest the price and scarcity of bread. They marched about 20 kilometres to Versailles in the rain, later followed by thousands of National Guardsmen led, somewhat reluctantly, by Lafayette. Rumours that royal officers had insulted the revolutionary cockade at a banquet added to the anger.

At Versailles the women invaded the assembly and sent a delegation to the king, who promised grain and agreed to accept the Declaration of Rights and the August decrees. Early on 6 October some protesters broke into the palace and two royal guards were killed. That afternoon the royal family was escorted to Paris, followed soon by the assembly. The October Days placed the monarchy under the watch of Paris and showed women's power in revolutionary politics.