why was bastillie hated by all
Answers
Bastille was hated by all because it stood for the despotic power of the king
The two answers provided by distinguished Quoran’s of anglo-saxon culture reflect most of the prejudices (and perhaps lack of understanding) of XVIII th French culture. Under Louis XVI France was far from a dictature. It was perhaps the most free country of the world at that time (as far as liberty of thought at least) BUT… this was the result from a general consensus and not from the law. There was an enormous and perilous chasm between law and practice (wich is a contributing cause to the Revolution). Letters of cachet were used mostly to solve family issues (such as an unreformable son making debts or seducing a married lady and ruining the social order).
Lettres de cachets were definitely NOT for sale at the “Lieutenant Général de Police de Paris” office and to compare “La Bastille” with “Guantano” is stretching the facts to a breaking point. Torture was not practiced at “La bastille”. Torture was an ugly judiciary process (legacy from older times) performed under the authority of a judge, in two stages, during inquest to extract confession (question ordinaire) and after the judgement right before execution to extract further information (question extraordinaire).
After the storming of “Bastille” 7 prisoners were found in UNLOCKED cells, 4 of them under pain of counterfeiting money, two were mentally deranged and one had killed his parents.
Nevertheless, the aforementioned chasm, was shocking to many contemporaries. That the King from his own will had the (remote and rarely used) power to detain somebody. The Bastille was just a symbol of that and no more.
The Count de Mirabeau (famous political leader of the Revolution) some years earlier had been subject to a “lettre de cachet”. He was “deported” to “Fort de Joux” a terrible fortress near Pontarlier on the border between France and Switzerland (I have personally visited it). He spend “ONE NIGHT” in his cell before taking more amiable quarters in the vicinity. He is said to have seduced the daughter of the governor of Fort de Joux.
Please do not take for granted the political propaganda that was fed to the populace by Revolutionary extremist like Marat, Couthon, Saint-Just, Robespierre.