She Who Dared | Brave Women in History: French Revolution Heroine: Louise-Reine Audu, “La Reine des Halles” (the Queen of the Markets)

The French Revolution heroine, Louise-Reine Audu “La Reine des Halles” (the Queen of the Markets), was a leader in both the Women’s March on Versailles in 1789 and the Storming of the Tuileries Palace in 1792. On October 5, 1789, thousands of Parisian market women marched to Versailles to protest high bread prices and scarcity. Men and women from other walks of life, including the National Guard, joined the march.

Louise-Reine Audu, alongside Théroigne de Méricourt, led the march demanding bread and political change. Théroigne de Méricourt, born Anne-Josèphe Terwagne in 1762, was a Belgian singer, orator, and revolutionary. Both women were part of the delegation that met King Louis XVI to present their grievances. The march pressured King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette to return to Paris, moving the government. 

After the march, authorities imprisoned Audu in the Grand Châtelet and the Conciergerie. The Cordeliers, a pro-democracy political group, and Louis-Barthélemy Chenaux, a revolutionary and member of the Cordeliers, freed her in September 1791.

In 1792, Audu stormed the Tuileries Palace, fighting against the Swiss Guards. For her courage, the Paris Commune presented her with a sword. After her imprisonment, her mental health declined. She died in a hospital in 1793.