The Cockade Column - Bastille Day

225 years ago on July 14, the Bastille - symbol of absolute monarchical power in France - was stormed and the French Revolution officially began. Ten years later Napoleon staged a military coup that led to the end of the Revolution.

In those ten years, the nation of France was turned upside down and history was changed.

World politics altered dramatically as France went from an absolute monarchy to a (mostly) constitutional republic. Clothing fashions were transformed as the sharp divisions between classes were eroded in the revolution. Philosophies about freedom, government and the rights of mankind were overhauled across the globe.

And cockades around the world have never been the same since.

On July 14, the citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille, a fortress used by the king to arbitrarily and without trial hold political prisoners. Though only seven prisoners were there when it was surrendered, it was still a symbol of the king's absolute despotic power. When it fell, the entire foundation of monarchical despotism began to crumble.

The tricolor caused reverberations around the world. As people either sympathized with the revolutionaries or frowned upon their excesses, sides were chosen and cockades were displayed.

An interesting letter during this time by Abigail Adams relates the story of a fight between some men wearing American black cockades and their opponents showing the French tricolor cockade.

In great order & decorum the young men with each a black cockade marched through the multitude and all of them entered the house preceded by their committee....About four o’clock as is usual the State House Yard, which is used for a walk, was very full of the inhabitants, when about 30 fellows, some with snow balls in their hats & some with tri-colored cockades, entered and attempted to seize upon the hats of the young men to tear out their cockades. A scuffle ensued when the young men became conquerors, and some of these tri-colored cockades were trampled in the dust.

Cockades were serious business!