During the first 6 months of 1789, the people of France, faced with an overbearing regime, crushing taxes and successive poor harvests, were dreading food shortages and bankruptcies. Aware of the dangerous mood of the country, on July 11, King Louis XVI decided to hear the citizen's complaints and convened the Etats Généraux, a council composed only of the King’s vassals. The legislative body was immediately transformed into the Assemblée Nationale to include representatives of the people.
To calm the unrest, the King dismissed his extremely unpopular Finance Minister, Jacques Necker (only to call him back to service five days later). However, Paris remained in a state of high agitation.
On July 14, a crowd led by a certain Pierre Hulin, who was in charge of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s laundry, seized 28,000 guns and 20 canons from a royal armory and marched towards the Bastille, a gargantuan fortress erected in 1369 which was serving as jail. Rumors of an attack had been spreading since the previous week and that day 100 Bastille guards had left their duties out of fear. The mob thus easily marched into the fortress and, after a four-hour round of firing, captured and killed its Governor and soldiers. Casualties among the attackers were estimated at 100 men. The seven prisoners jailed at the time (four forgers, two mental patients and one aristocrat convicted of incest) were liberated and the besiegers marched towards City Hall, rioting and looting along the way.
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http://www.france.com/docs/63.html#storming
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