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Estates General called to session
The estates general was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). Summoned by King Louis XVI, it was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National Assembly, inviting the other two to join, against the wishes of the King. This signals the outbreak of the French Revolution. -
Tennis Court Oath (June 20, 1789)
On June 20th, 1789, the members of the French Estates-General for the Third Estate, who had begun to call themselves the National Assembly, took the Tennis Court Oath, vowing "not to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require until the constitution of the kingdom is established". It was a pivotal event in the early days of the French Revolution. -
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National Assembly in power
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly, which existed from June 13, 1789, to July 9, 1789, was a revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the Third Estate (the common people) of the Estates-General; thereafter (until replaced by the Legislative Assembly on Sept. 30, 1791) it was known as the National Constituent Assembly, though popularly the shorter form persisted. -
Storming the Bastille (July 14, 1789)
The Storming of the Bastille occurred in Paris, France, on the afternoon of 14 July 1789. The medieval fortress, armory, and political prison in Paris known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the center of Paris. The prison contained just seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuses of power; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution. -
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Women's March on Versailles (October 5-6, 1789)
The Women's March on Versailles, also known as The October March, The October Days, or simply The March on Versailles, was one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution. The march began among women in the marketplaces of Paris who were near rioting over the high price and scarcity of bread. -
Escape Attempt by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
The Royal Flight to Varennes during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant episode in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of France, his queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family unsuccessfully attempted to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution at the head of loyal troops under royalist officers concentrated at Montmédy near the frontier. -
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Legislative Assembly in power
The Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to 20 September 1792 during the years of the French Revolution. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention. -
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National Convention in power
The National Convention was the second government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the great insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. -
Overthrow of the Monarchy
The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was one of the defining events in the history of the French Revolution. The storming of the Tuileries Palace by the National Guard of the insurrectional Paris Commune and revolutionary fédérés from Marseille and Brittany resulted in the fall of the French monarchy. -
Execution of Louis XVI
The execution of Louis XVI, by means of the guillotine, took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. It was a major event of the Revolution. -
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Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror or The Terror is the label given by some historians to a period during the French Revolution after the First French Republic was established. -
Execution of Marie Antoinette
On 21 September 1792, the monarchy was abolished. After a two-day trial begun on 14 October 1793, Marie Antoinette was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution on 16 October 1793. -
Execution of Robespierre
He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. ... As part of his attempts to use extreme measures to control political activity in France, Robespierre later moved against the more moderate Danton, who was accused of corruption and executed in April 1794. -
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The Directory is in power
Directory, French Directoire, the French Revolutionary government set up by the Constitution of the Year III, which lasted four years, from November 1795 to November 1799. -
Napoleon comes to power (November 9, 1799)
The coup of 18 Brumaire brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France, and, in the view of most historians, ended the French Revolution. This bloodless coup d'état overthrew the Directory, replacing it with the French Consulate. -
Napoleon confirmed as "first consul for life"
August 1802, a second national referendum was held, this time to confirm Napoleon as "the First Consul for Life." As Napoleon increased his power, he borrowed many techniques of the Ancien Régime in his new form of one-man government. Like the old monarchy, he re-introduced plenipotentiaries, an over-centralized, strictly utilitarian administrative and bureaucratic methods, a policy of subservient pedantic scholasticism towards the nation's universities. -
Napoleonic Code enacted
The Napoleonic Code is the French civil code established under Napoléon I in 1804. The Code, with its stress on clearly written and accessible law, was a major step in replacing the previous patchwork of feudal laws. -
Holy Roman Empire abolished; "Confederation of the Rhine" created in its place with Napoleon as leader
Confederation of the Rhine was a confederation of client states of the First French Empire. It was formed initially from 16 German states by Napoleon after he defeated Austria and Russia at the Battle of Austerlitz. The Treaty of Pressburg, in effect, led to the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine. It lasted from 1806 to 1813. -
Continental System begins
Continental System, in the Napoleonic wars, the blockade designed by Napoleon to paralyze Great Britain through the destruction of British commerce. The decrees of Berlin (November 21, 1806) and Milan (December 17, 1807) proclaimed a blockade: neutrals and French allies were not to trade with the British. -
Napoleon has his brother, Joseph, crowned king of Spain
Joseph Bonaparte was the older brother of Napoleon I, emperor of France. During his brother's reign, Joseph was made the king of Naples and Sicily (1806–08), and the king of Spain (1808–13). -
Napoleon abdicates and agrees to exile on Elba
On this day in 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France and one of the greatest military leaders in history, abdicates the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba. The future emperor was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15, 1769. -
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Napoleon's "Hundred Days"
The Hundred Days marked the period between Napoleon's return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days). -
(Second) restoration of King Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII fled and a Seventh Coalition declared war on the French Empire, defeated Napoleon, and restored Louis XVIII to the French throne. Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. The Bourbon Restoration regime was a constitutional monarchy.
