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Period: to
Insurrection at Grenoble.
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Louis XVI convokes Etat-general on suggestion of former finance minister Jacques Necker, to hear grievances.
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Opening of the Etat-general at Versailles.
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National Assembly declares itself Constituent Assembly.
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Representatives of the tiers état form a National Assembly swearing not to leave until a new constitution is established.
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King rejects Resolutions of the tiers etat.
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Necker is dismissed. 50,000 citizens arm themselves with pikes and form National Guard.
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Armed citizens storm and capture the Bastille.
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Lafayette appointed Commander of National Guard.
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‘Great Fear’ begins as peasants revolt across France.
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Period: to
‘Great Fear’ begins as peasants revolt across France.
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National Assembly decrees Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
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Women lead delegation to King in Versaille demanding bread. After scuffles, they are fobbed off by the King.
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King returns to Paris.
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Constituent Assembly decrees expropriation of Church property.
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National Assembly legislates for departments, etc.
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Removal of civil disabilities against Jews.
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Suppression of religious orders and vows.
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Abolition of nobility and titles.
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Civil Constitution, subordinating the Church to the civil government, inaugurated by Louis XVI.
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First counter-revolutionary assembly at Jales
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Period: to
Food riots across Paris.
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Mirabeau elected President of the French Assembly.
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Property of emigres forfeited.
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Abolition of Royal guilds and monopolies.
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Black citizens of French colonies granted equal rights.
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Louis XVI attempts to flee to Varennes but is recognised and forcibly returned to Paris.
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Assembly declares King inviolable and restores his prerogatives.
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National Guard fires on crowd protesting against restoration of the King.
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King formally accepts Constitution.
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Constituent Assembly dissolves.
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Legislative Assembly commences.
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Civil marriage and divorce instituted. Assembly orders all émigrés to return under pain of death.
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King vetoes Assembly’s ruling on emigres
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France declares war on Austria, but French army flees at sight of the enemy.
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Jacobin Insurrection, again thwarted by gestures by the King, but Jacobins continue to defy the Assembly.
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Duke of Brunswick publishes call for allied attack on France.
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Jacobin masses storm the Tuileries Palace, massacring the Swiss Guard, and the King imprisoned.
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Lafayette flees to Austria.
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Royalist riots in the Vendee, Britanny; armies suffer setbacks at Langwy and Verdun.
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General mobilisation, citizens sent to the front.
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Danton instigates the massacre of about 1,200 Royalists held in Parisian prisons.
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French forces defeat the invading force at Valmy. Henceforth the Revolution would enjoy victory in its military conflicts.
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The Convention elected by the Legislative Assembly commences, abolishes monarchy; day one of the Republican Calendar.
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“Edict of Fraternity” offers aid to “subject peoples.”
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Trial of the king begins.
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Louis XVI executed.
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France declares war on Britain and Holland.
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Food riots in Paris.
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Committee of Public Safety established.
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Committee of Public Safety established.
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Maximum price of bread imposed.
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Uprising of Paris Commune against the Convention
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Expulsion of the Girondists (the party of compromise) from all offices. The Commune of Paris becomes the centre of power.
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Jacobin Constitution accepted by the Convention.
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Marat, “the people’s friend,” murdered by Charlotte Corday.
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Corday executed amid popular outrage.
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Metric system of measures adopted.
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Levee en masse (conscription) decreed.
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Period: to
Popular riots in Paris.
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“Law of Suspects” initiates the Terror.
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Marie-Antoinette tried and executed.
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Republican Calendar decreed.
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22 Girondists tried and executed.
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Festival of Liberty and Reason.
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Robespierre, the Committee of Public Safety and Jacobin Club denounce the Hébertists and Dantonists on framed-up charges and execute all the popular leaders. Robespierre becomes virtually the dictator.
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Robespierre decreed the new religion of the Supreme Being.
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The day of inauguration of the Supreme Being.
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(22 Prairial) procedures for mass trial and execution implemented. Victims will go to the guillotine now in batches of 50 or 60 at a time. An estimated 2,750 are executed of whom the great majority are poor.
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(9th Thermidor) Convention calls for arrest of Robespierre. Robespierre attempts insurrection which flops, is arrested and executed. After about 150 of his supporters are done away with, the Terror is over.
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Jacobin Club is suppressed by the Convention.
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The Churches re-open for Christian worship.
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Period: to
White Terror instituted in the South.
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The Dauphin dies in prison, Comte de Provence assumes title of Louis XVIII.
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Constitution of Year III approved, establishing Directory.
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Royalists attempt a coup and Napoleon Bonaparte makes his name suppressing the move with grapeshot. The popular party gains strength, Gracchus Babeuf is its spokesperson, holding running meetings at the Pantheon.
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The Convention dissolves itself in favour of a dictatorship of the Directorate.
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Napoleon assumes command of French army in Italy.
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Directorate bans popular meetings at the Panetheon.
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Babeuf and his supporters are convicted but take their own lives.
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100s of supporters of Babeuf attack palace of the Directorate but are routed.
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Elections produce a Royalist majority. Elections in 1798 and 1799 produce a more radical result and are annulled by the Directorate.
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Leaders of Babeuf’s “Conspiracy of Equals” arrested.
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Directorate resigns.
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(18th Brumaire) Napoleon Bonaparte named “First Consul,” now the effective dictator.
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Napoleon consecrated as Emperor.
