Day of the Tiles

This blocked the reforms of the king's minister Charles Alexandre de Calonne and the Assembly of Notables of January 1787.

[3] At roughly 10 in the morning of Saturday, 7 June, merchants closed their shops as groups of 300 to 400 men and women formed, armed with stones, sticks, axes, and bars.

[5][additional citation(s) needed] Some rioters attempted to cross the Isère but faced a picket of 50 soldiers at the St. Lawrence bridge, while others headed to the Rue Neuve.

[citation needed] Other insurgents boarded the ramparts and rushed to the hotel (L'hôtel de la Première présidence) the Duke of Clermont-Tonnerre was staying in at the time.

Townspeople climbed onto the roofs of buildings around the Jesuit College[9] to hurl down a rain of roof-tiles on the soldiers in the streets below, hence the episode's name.

[citation needed] A noncommissioned officer of the Royal Navy, commanding a patrol of four soldiers, gave the order to open fire into the mob.

Meanwhile, Colonel Count Chabord began deploying the regiment of Austrasia to aid and relieve the Royal Navy soldiers.

[11] Throughout the night, carillons sounded triumphantly, a large bonfire crackled on Saint-André square surrounded by a crowd that danced and sang "Long live forever our parliament!

[15] In the face of overwhelming public pressure, on 5 July 1788, Brienne announced that the Estates-General would convene as quickly as it could be arranged.

Several hundred people assembled, representing the three Estates, the nobility, the clergy and the middle class (the bourgeoisie), who were granted double representation.

[18] The events as related by R. M. Johnston[3] provide an apparently clear link between the Day of the Tiles, the Assembly of Vizille and the start of the revolution proper.