Timeline of the French Revolution
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Timeline of the French Revolution.
Contents
Events preceding but pertinent to the French Revolution
c.1745 onwards
1740
- War of Austrian Succession - Causes the French monarchy to become heavily in debt
- Start of Seven Years' War - Causes the French monarchy to become heavily in debt
- The Accession of Louis XVI
- Louis XVI dismisses Turgot as finance minister
- Start of the American War of Independence (1776-1783)
- France declares war against Britain in support of the American colonies
- Treaty of Versailles ends the American War
- The Diamond Necklace Affair results in the discrediting of Marie Antoinette
- Louis XVI and France face economic ruin
Pre-Revolutionary Phase
- February 22: First Assembly of Notables, called by Charles Alexandre de Calonne against a background of state financial instability and general resistance by e.g. the aristocracy to the imposition of taxes and fiscal reforms.
- May 1: Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne replaces de Calonne as Controller-General of Finances.
- May 25: First Assembly of Notables dissolved.
- May 8: Louis XVI issues the Lamoignon Edict which abolishes the power of parliament to review royal edicts
- August: Jacques Necker replaced as Minister for Finance; de Lomenie, Archbishop of Toulouse made Prime Minister
- November: Necker persuades the king to reconvene the Assembly of Notables.
- January 24: General unrest occasioned by economic conditions leads to the Summoning of the Estates-General for the first time since 1614
- April 27 - Riots in Paris known as the Reveillon Riot.
Estates-General and Constituent Assembly
- May 5: Meeting of the Estates-General
- June 10: The Third Estate (Tiers Etat) (commons) votes for the common verification of credentials, in opposition to the First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (the aristocracy)
- June 13: Some priests from the First Estate choose to join the Third Estate
- June 17: The Third Estate (commons) declares itself as a National Assembly
- June 20: Third Estate/National Assembly are locked out of meeting houses by royal decree; the Third Estate chooses to continue despite decree and decides upon a declarative vow, known as the "serment au Jeu de Paume" (The Tennis Court Oath), not to dissolve until the constitution has been established
- June 23: Two companies of French guards mutiny in the face of public unrest. Louis XVI puts forward his 35-point program aimed at allowing the continuation of the three estates.
- June 24: 48 nobles, headed by the Duke of Orleans, side with the Third Estate. A significant number of the clergy follow their example.
- June 27: Louis orders the First and Second estates to join the Third.
- June 30: Large crowd storms left bank prison and frees mutinous French Guards
- July 1: Louis recruits more troops, among them many foreign mercenaries
- July 9: National Assembly reconstitutes itself as National Constituent Assembly
- July 11: Necker dismissed by Louis; populace sack the monasteries, ransack aristocrats homes in search of food and weapons
- July 12: The Prince de Lambesc appears at the Tuilleries with an armed guard.
- July 14: Storming of the Bastille; de l'Aulnay, (the governor), Foulon (the Secretary of State) and de Flesselle (the then equivalent of the mayor of Paris), amongst others, are massacred
- July 15: Lafayette appointed Commander of the National Guard
- July 16: Necker recalled, troops pulled out of Paris
- July 17: The beginning of the Great Fear, the peasantry revolt against feudalism and a number of urban disturbances and revolts
- August 4: Surrender of feudal rights
- August 27: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly
- September 11 The National Assembly grants suspensive veto to the King; King fails to ratify the August acts of the National Assembly.
- October 5-6: Outbreak of the Paris mob; Liberal monarchical constitution; the Women's March on Versailles
- October 6 Louis XVI agrees to ratify the August Decrees, palace at Versailles stormed.
- November 2: Church property nationalized and otherwise expropriated
- December 12 Assignats are used as legal tender
- February 13 Suppression of monastic vows and religious orders
- March 29: Pope Pius condemns the Declaration of the Rights of Man in secret consistory.
- May 19 Nobility abolished by the National Assembly
- July 12 The Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Demands priests to take an oath of loyalty to the state, splitting the clergy between juring (oath-taking) and non-juring preists.
- July 14: Constitution accepted by King Louis XVI; the first Fete of Federation begins, celebrating the fall of the Bastille.
- July: Growing power of the clubs (including: Cordeliers, Jacobin Club)
- July: Reorganisation of Paris
- August 16 The parlaments are abolished
- September: Fall of Necker
- January 30: Mirabeau elected President of the Assembly
- February 28: Day of Daggers; Lafayette orders the arrest of 400 armed aristocrats at the Tuileries
- March 2: Abolition of trade guilds
- March 10: Pope Pius condemns the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
- April 2: Death of Mirabeau
- April 13: Papal bull, Cavitas, condemning the Civil Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is published
- April 18: Louis and Marie-Antoinette prevented form travelling to Saint-Cloud for Easter
- June 14: Le Chapelier law banning trade unions is passed by National Assembly
- June 20–25: Royal family's flight to Varennes
- June 25: Louis XVI forced to return to Paris
- July 10: Leopold II issues the Padua Circular calling on the royal houses of Europe to come to his brother-in-law, Louis XVI's aid.
- July 14: Second Anniversary of the fall of the Bastille is celebreated at the Champs de Mars.
- July 15: National Assembly declares the king to be inviolable and he is reinstated.
- July 17: Champ-de-Mars massacre in which the National Guard fire on protestors against the reinstatement of the king
- August 14: Slave revolts in Saint Domingue (Haiti)
- August 27: Declaration of Pillnitz (Frederick William II and Leopold II)
- September 13–14: Louis XVI accepts the constitution formally
- September 30: Dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly
Legislative Assembly
- October 1: Legislative Assembly meets
- November 9 All emigrés are ordered by the Assembly to return under threat of death
- November 11 Louis vetoes the ruling of the Assembly on emigrés.
- January – March : Food riots in Paris
- February 7: Alliance of Austria and Prussia
- April 20: French declare war against Austria
- August 10–13: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody, along with his family
- August 19 Lafayette flees to Austria
- August 22 Royalist riots in Brittany, La Vendée and Dauphiné
- September 2–7: The September Massacres
The National Convention
- September 20: Battle of Valmy
- September 20: Final sessions of the Legislative Assembly and first meeting of the National Convention; unanimous vote for the abolition of the monarchy
- September 20: France declared a Republic by the National Convention
- October 10: The terms monsieur and madame are banned by decree, to be replaced with citoyen and citoyenne
- December 11: Commencement of the trial of Louis XVI before the Convention
- January 14: The Convention votes almost unanimously in affirmation of Louis' guilt
- January 17: A sentence of death is imposed on the King by the majority of a single vote
- January 21: Execution of Louis XVI
- February 1: War declared against Britain, Holland, Spain
- February 14: France annexes Monaco
- March: Royalist revolt in the Vendée
- March 10: Establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal
- April 6: Power centered in the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security
- June 2: Arrest of 31 Girondist deputies
- June 24: Ratification of the Constitution of 1793 (the Constitution was never put into effect)
- July 12: Royalist revolt in Toulon
- July 13: Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
- July 27: Robespierre joins the Committee of Public Safety
- August 23: Levy of entire male population, the Levée en masse
- September 17: Passing of the Law of Suspects
- September 29: Passing of the Law of Maximum Général, a comprehensive program of wage and price controls
- October 9: Lyons retaken by republicans from rebelling federalists
- October 16: Execution of Marie Antoinette
- October 31: Execution of Girondist leaders
- November 8: Madame Roland executed
- November 10: Abolition of the worship of god: Cult of Reason
- December: Retreat of the allies across the Rhine
- December 19: English evacuate Toulon
- December 23: Battle of Savenay crushes the royalist revolt in La Vendée
- January 19: English land in Corsica
- February 4: Abolition of slavery in colonies
- March 24: Execution of the Hébertists
- April 2: Trial of Danton begins
- April 6: Execution of the Dantonists
- May 7: Beginning of Cult of the Supreme Being
- June 8: Festival of the Supreme Being
- June 10: Law of 22 Prairial
- June 26: Battle of Fleurus (1794) (French victory in Belgium)
- July 2-July 13: Battle of the Vosges (French victory on the Rhine)
- July 27: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre (9 Thermidor)
- December 24: Repeal of maximum
- March 5: Peace of Basel (Prussia withdraws from war)
- April 1: Bread riots in Paris
- June 8: Death of the dauphin (Louis XVII)
- August 22: Constitution of 1795
The Directory
- October 5: 13 Vendémiaire - Napoleon's "whiff of grape-shot"
- October 26: Convention dissolved; Directory begins
- March 5: War against the Holy Roman Empire
- March 9: Marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine
- May 10: Battle of Lodi (Napoleon in Italy)
- July: Siege of Mantua
- April 18: Preliminary Peace of Leoben
- July 8: Cisalpine Republic established
- September 4: Coup d'Etat at Paris (republicans over reactionaries)
- October 17: Treaty of Campo Formio
- February: Roman Republic proclaimed
- April: Helvetian Republic proclaimed
- July 21: Battle of the Pyramids
- August 1: Battle of the Nile
- December 24: Alliance between Russia and Britain
- June 17–19: Battle of the Trebia (Suvorov defeats French)
- August 24: Napoleon leaves Egypt
- October 22: Russians withdraw from coalition
Beginning of the Napoleonic Era
There is no precise date for the beginning of the Napoleonic Era. The coup of 18 Brumaire produced the effective dissolution of the Directory; the constitution some six weeks later produced its formal end.
- November 9: The Coup d'Etat of 18 Brumaire: end of the Directory
- December 24: Constitution of the Year VIII: Dictatorship of Napoleon established under the Consulate
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