Attack on the Royal Hotel banquet
- When
- 14 July 1791
- Where
- Royal Hotel, Birmingham
The riots began with an attack on the Royal Hotel, site of a banquet publicising diners' support for the French Revolutionaries to enhance Anglo-French trade.
On 11 July 1791, a Birmingham newspaper announced a dinner at the Royal Hotel for 14 July, the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, commemorating the French Revolution's outbreak; the invitation encouraged "any Friend to Freedom" to attend. About 90 sympathisers came, led by James Keir, an Anglican industrialist and Lunar Society member. The rioting started with an attack on this banquet, which had been organised to publicise support for the French Revolutionaries and enhance Anglo-French trade.
Sources
- Priestley Riots Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-14
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.