Siege of the Bastille (Cholat) Siege of the Bastille (Cholat) La Prise de la Bastille is a gouache painting by Claude Cholat, now in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris, France. Claude Cholat was a wine merchant living in Paris on the rue Noyer at the start of the French Revolution in 1789. On the morning of 14 July a large Revolutionary crowd gathered outside the royal prison called the Bastille and in the afternoon fighting broke out between the crowd and the royal garrison. Cholat fought on the side of the Revolutionaries, manning one of their cannon during the battle. Afterwards, Cholat produced a famous
French Constitution of 1852 2 December 1852 and the Imperial Constitution was enacted on 25 December 1852, without any significant change to the 14 January constitution. The constitution rejected the Ancien Régime and the post-revolutionary restoration monarchies with census suffrage. It referred directly to the French Revolution – saying that it "recognizes, confirms and guarantees the principles proclaimed in 1789" – and especially to the First French Empire. Louis Napoléon was persuaded that democracy needed to be incarnated in a man, and the Constitution of 1851 was a return to the democratic Caesarism of his uncle Napoléon Bonaparte. The regime was characterized by a