Les Tricoteuses: The Knitting Women of the French Revolution
What comes to mind when you think of the French Revolution? Terror? Violence? Guillotine? Regicide? Mobs? Riots? Starvation? Knitting?... Knitting? Yes, you read that correctly. Whilst it may not jump to the forefront of everybody’s minds when you think of the bloody years following 1789, knitting played an interesting role in the course of the revolution. The role of women is often forgotten in the history of the French Revolution. “Liberty, Equality,” and, tellingly, “Fraternity” became the three words synonymous with these revolutionary years. But what of the role of women? Perhaps the most famous actions by women during these years was the women’s march on Versailles in October 1789 when the hungry women of Paris forced King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to leave the gilded gates of the Palace of Versailles and move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris with the aim of forcing the King to recognise the hardships people were suffering. Less famous is the tale of the knitting women or