Bastille Day had often held people jailed on the basis of "lettres de cachet" (literally "signet letters"), arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the reason for the imprisonment. The Bastille held a large cache of ammunition and gunpowder, and was also known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, none of great political significance. The crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous "Gardes Françaises" ("French
Governor of the Bastille Governor of the Bastille The Bastille or Bastille Saint-Antoine was completed in 1383. The commander of the Bastille was its governor, and was previously called "capitaine". In 1367, King Charles V ordered the construction of the "fort et bastide Saint Anthoine lez Paris", literally fort and bastide of Saint Anthony close to Paris, which will later take the name of "Bastille". The works will be completed twenty years later, in 1387, under the reign of Charles VI. The first captain-governor was a close aquaintaince of the King, already chamberlain under the two previous reigns: Jehan de La Personne, knight, viscount