French Constitution of 1791
The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty.
Fête de la Fédération
Fourteen thousand "fédérés" came from the province, every single National Guard unit having sent two men out of every hundred. They were ranged under eighty-three banners, according to their "département". They were brought to the place where the Bastille once stood, and went through Saint-Antoine, Saint-Denis and Saint-Honoré streets before crossing the temporary bridge and arriving at the Champ de Mars.
A mass was celebrated by Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, bishop of Autun under the "ancien régime". At this time, the first French Constitution was not yet completed, and it would not be officially ratified until September 1791. But the gist of it was understood by everyone, and no one was willing to wait. Lafayette led the President of the National Assembly and all the deputies in a solemn oath to the coming Constitution: