The regiment of Gardes Françaises (French Guards)…
July 1789 CE
This regiment has remained confined to its barracks during the initial stages of the mid-July disturbances.
With Paris becoming the scene of a general riot, Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (Marshal of the Camp, Proprietor of the Royal Allemand-Dragoons), not trusting the regiment to obey his order, post sixty dragoons to station themselves before its dépôt in the Chaussée d'Antin.
The officers of the French Guards make ineffectual attempts to rally their men.
The rebellious citizenry has now acquired a trained military contingent.
As word of this spread, the commanders of the royal forces encamped on the Champ de Mars become doubtful of the dependability of even the foreign regiments.
The future "Citizen King", Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, witnesses these events as a young officer and is of the opinion that the soldiers would have obeyed orders if put to the test.
He will also comment in retrospect that the officers of the French Guards had neglected their responsibilities in the period before the uprising, leaving the regiment too much to the control of its non-commissioned officers.
However, the uncertain leadership of Besenval leads to a virtual abdication of royal authority in central Paris.
On the morning of July 13, the electors of Paris meet and agree to the recruitment of a "bourgeois militia" of forty-eight thousand men, from the sixty voting districts of Paris, to restore order.
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