Ludwig von Flüe (10 March 1752 – 1 April 1817) was a Swiss mercenary in French service. He was the commanding officer of the Swiss Guards in the defense of the Bastille in July 1789. Because of his role in the Storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution, he was later also known as Ludwig von Flüe le Bastillien.
Ludwig von Flüe wrote a critical report of his experiences during the siege and the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, entitled: Bericht von der Eroberung der Bastille. His criticism focuses primarily on the behaviour of the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, who ultimately paid for it with his life. The report was published in 1790–1791. It was read with interest, especially by the kings and ruling princes of Europe.
Family
Ludwig von Flüe was born in Sachseln, in the Canton of Obwalden, as one of three children of the Landammann Johann Wolfgang von Flüe (1691–1754) and his third wife, Marie Barbara, née Blättler (1709–1792), from Kerns. In total, Johann Wolfgang von Flüe had 18 children with his three wives. Ludwig was the second youngest of these 18 children. The Landammann Benedikt Niklaus Ignaz von Flüe (1726–1772) and the Landammann Johann Nikodem von Flüe (1734–1823) were Ludwig's stepbrothers. Other children of Johann Wolfgang von Flüe pursued ecclesiastical careers in the area around Sachseln as well as in other parts of Switzerland, which secured the reputation and influence of the family. However, this was also part of the family tradition, as the family allegedly maintained kinship ties with the family of Niklaus von Flüe. Especially among Catholics, Niklaus von Flüe is considered the patron saint of Switzerland. He was canonized in 1947. Three of Johann Wolfgang von Flüe's daughters became abbesses: At the Monastery of St. Andreas in Sarnen, the Monastery of St. Klara in Stans and the Monastery of Mariazell zu Kalchrain in Hüttwilen. One son became a priest and canon at the College of canons St. Pelagius in Bischofszell.Anton Küchler: Louis Bastilien oder Gardehauptmann Ludwig von Flüe – der Verteidiger der Bastille am 14. Juli 1789, Separat-Abdruck aus dem «Obwaldner Volksfreund», Druck von Josef Müller, Sarnen, 1886, p. 3
Ludwig's father died when he was two years old. Therefore, his brothers, especially his brother Benedikt Niklaus Ignaz (1726–1772), took over the education of young Ludwig. Since five of his older brothers had become officers in the service of the King of France, Ludwig's career path was thus almost predetermined.
Early life and career
Ludwig von Flüe was a rather weak child, so from the age of seven his family made him work in the countryside, on the Alp Stossen and the Alp Seefeld, in order to build up his physical strength. The two alpine pastures belonged to Joseph Rohrer, a friend of the family von Flüe.Anton Küchler: Louis Bastilien oder Gardehauptmann Ludwig von Flüe – der Verteidiger der Bastille am 14. Juli 1789, Separat-Abdruck aus dem «Obwaldner Volksfreund», Druck von Josef Müller, Sarnen, 1886, p. 4
From autumn 1763 to spring 1766 Ludwig von Flüe attended the monastery school in Einsiedeln. Previously, he had already received three years of private tutoring in Latin and natural sciences. He then moved to France, where he became a sous-lieutenant in his brother Peter's company, the Company von Flüe of the Swiss Guards (issuance of the brevet on 13 August 1766). On 2 May 1779, he was promoted to lieutenant in the same company. On 1 June 1786, Ludwig von Flüe transferred to the Company Ettlin and on 14 December 1788, he transferred to the grenadier company Schaffhauser, each time with the rank of lieutenant. Both companies were units of the Swiss Guards. In June 1789, Ludwig von Flüe joined the Regiment de Salis-Samade as deputy to the Captain.Niklaus von Flüe: Ludwig von Flüe, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS), Version vom 26.01.2005, online, 2025Angelo Garovi: Obwaldner Geschichte – Sturm auf die Bastille: Ein Sachsler an vorderster Front, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Obwalden, Sarnen, 2000, p. 149Anton Küchler: Louis Bastilien oder Gardehauptmann Ludwig von Flüe – der Verteidiger der Bastille am 14. Juli 1789, Separat-Abdruck aus dem «Obwaldner Volksfreund», Druck von Josef Müller, Sarnen, 1886, pp. 4–5
Defense of the Bastille
On 6 July 1789, Ludwig von Flüe received orders from Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval, Commandant en chef of the troops concentrated in Paris to suppress the riots which had been going on for some time, to go to the Bastille with a detachment of the Regiment de Salis-Samade to reinforce the guards and to ensure the defence of the prison-fortress. The next day, Ludwig von Flüe arrived at the Bastille with 32 soldiers and a sergeant.Ludwig von Flüe, Bericht von der Eroberung der Bastille, Eigenhändiger Bericht des Offiziers Ludwig von Flüe an den Verleger der Zeitschrift Mercure de France. Publiziert in Thalia, Herausgeber Friedrich Schiller, dritter Band, welcher das IX. bis XII. Heft enthält, Verlagsbuchhandlung Georg Joachim Göschen, Leipzig, 1790–1791, pp. 40–48
On 11 July, King Louis XVI forced the resignation of the only non-noble minister, the Finance Minister Jacques Necker. The king advised Necker to leave the country immediately. However, with this decision the king went a step too far. A step that led to major riots among the population when the news broke on 12 July, as the Genevan banker was especially popular among the common people. His popularity among ordinary Frenchmen stood in sharp contrast to the hostility he often encountered at court, where many aristocrats looked down on the Swiss-born commoner and reformer. In the days that followed, the events came thick and fast. The protests culminated in the riots of 14 July.Jean-Jacques Fiechter: Baron Peter Viktor von Besenval: Ein Solothurner am Hofe von Versailles, Rothus Verlag, Solothurn, 1994, p. 131
On the morning of 14 July, representatives of the Parisian revolutionary militia appeared at the gate of the Bastille. They demanded that the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, surrender the prison-fortress to them. This building was considered by the revolutionaries to be the symbol of the repression and oppression by the representatives of the Ancien Régime. According to Ludwig von Flüe, the governor would probably have complied. However, Ludwig von Flüe as well as the entire armed forces staff of the Bastille advised him against this undignified course of action. Consequently, the governor refrained from doing so, at least at this moment.
On the afternoon of 14 July at 3.00 p.m., the Bastille was attacked by the mob of Paris. A large number of armed revolutionaries, along with some defecting members of the French Guards, seized the Bastille's outer courtyards, which the guards had already abandoned the day before. A skirmish lasting several hours ensued. At that time, Ludwig von Flüe and his men were stationed in the quarters of the Corps de Gardes in the inner courtyard of the prison-fortress, next to the gate with the drawbridge. However, the revolutionaries were unable to penetrate the inner courtyard of the Bastille. The brickwork and gates withstood the attacks. And according to Ludwig von Flüe, there had been no danger that the walls and gates would not have withstood any further attacks, at least until reinforcements would have had arrived. The outcome of the nearly three-hour skirmish, according to Ludwig von Flüe's report: On the side of the revolutionaries: 160 dead and wounded. On the side of the Bastille guards: 1 dead and a few wounded. The mob's incursion into the inner courtyard of the Bastille and thus the Taking of the Bastille was only possible when the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, later gave the order to lower the drawbridge. An action that Ludwig von Flüe found incomprehensible. And an action from which Ludwig von Flüe tried in vain to dissuade the governor. In his report on the Storming of the Bastille, Ludwig von Flüe noted that the Governor of the Bastille was barely responsive at that moment and seemed to have lost his head from sheer nervousness. Shortly afterwards, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, would indeed lose his head when he was lynched by an angry mob in the streets of Paris. Following his death, the Marquis de Launay's head was affixed on a pike and paraded through the city.Angelo Garovi: Obwaldner Geschichte – Sturm auf die Bastille: Ein Sachsler an vorderster Front, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Obwalden, Sarnen, 2000, pp. 148–149Anton Küchler: Louis Bastilien oder Gardehauptmann Ludwig von Flüe – der Verteidiger der Bastille am 14. Juli 1789, Separat-Abdruck aus dem «Obwaldner Volksfreund», Druck von Josef Müller, Sarnen, 1886, pp. 7–9
Handover of the letter of capitulation
In the late afternoon of 14 July 1789, on the orders of the Governor of the Bastille, Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay, Ludwig von Flüe handed over the letter of capitulation with the governor's demands to Stanislas-Marie Maillard through one of the two holes the Swiss Guards had made in the drawbridge of the Bastille, which were intended to serve as gunholes for two of the three two-pounder artillery guns that were available to Ludwig von Flüe and which were operated by 12 soldiers. For practical and technical reasons, Ludwig von Flüe ultimately decided to position rampart guns there instead. In the letter of capitulation, the Governor of the Bastille threatened that if the revolutionaries did not accept his terms of surrender, he would use the 2,000 centners of gunpowder stored in the Bastille to blow up the prison-fortress and thus the entire surrounding area. In his desperation and helplessness, he threatened nothing less than a suicide squad.Angelo Garovi: Obwaldner Geschichte – Sturm auf die Bastille: Ein Sachsler an vorderster Front, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Obwalden, Sarnen, 2000, p. 148
But it was no use. The mood among the revolutionaries had long since become too heated. They thirsted for revenge. The mob kept shouting: "Open the gates and lower the drawbridge!" The governor's demands were not met by the revolutionaries and at 5.30 p.m. the Bastille was stormed, after the Governor of the Bastille, in a panicked reaction, had given the order to lower the drawbridge and to open the gates. The next moment the Bastille was filled with the mob of Paris, who attacked the soldiers, disarmed them and in some cases, such as the Marquis de Launay, massacred them.Angelo Garovi: Obwaldner Geschichte – Sturm auf die Bastille: Ein Sachsler an vorderster Front, Staatsarchiv des Kantons Obwalden, Sarnen, 2000, p. 148
Although the life of Ludwig von Flüe hung by a thread in the aftermath of the Storming of the Bastille, he was freed after many interrogations by the revolutionaries and was able to return to his regiment, which was located in Pontoise at that time, after about 15 days.Anton Küchler: Louis Bastilien oder Gardehauptmann Ludwig von Flüe – der Verteidiger der Bastille am 14. Juli 1789, Separat-Abdruck aus dem «Obwaldner Volksfreund», Druck von Josef Müller, Sarnen, 1886, p. 13
Aftermath