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National Assembly in power
During the French Revolution, the National Assembly was a revolutionary assembly formed by the representatives of the Third Estate (the common people) of the Estates-General; thereafter it was known as the National Constituent Assembly -
Estates General called to session
In 1789, the King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General. It was the first meeting of the Estates General called since 1614. He called the meeting because the French government was having financial problems. -
Tennis Court Oath
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 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. -
Storming the Bastille
Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress and prison that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution. -
Women's March on Versailles
On October 4, 1789, a crowd of women demanding bread for their families gathered other discontented Parisians, including some men, and marched toward Versailles, arriving soaking wet from the rain. It was the last time the King saw Versailles. -
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Legislative Assembly in power
The Legislative Assembly was the governing body of France between October 1791 and September 1792. It replaced the National Constituent Assembly. 2. The Legislative Assembly was formed under the Constitution of 1791, which created a constitutional monarchy with Louis XVI as the head of state. -
Escape Attempt by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
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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National Convention in power
The National Convention was, therefore, the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class. Although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. -
Overthrow of the Monarchy
In 1789, food shortages and economic crises led to the outbreak of the French Revolution. King Louis and his queen, Mary-Antoinette, were imprisoned in August 1792, and in September the monarchy was abolished. -
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 simply The Terror was a period during the French Revolution. During this time, French people who did not support the revolution, as well as many innocent citizens were executed at the guillotine. The Reign of Terror started on 5 September, 1793. -
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
Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution. The day after his arrest, Robespierre and 21 of his followers were guillotined before a cheering mob in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. -
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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. The Directory suffered from widespread corruption. -
Napoleon comes to power
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, and begun Napoleon's dictatorship. -
Napoleon confirmed as "first consul for life"
During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, established himself as the head of a more authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. -
Napoleonic Code enacted
Napoleon Bonaparte gave this civil code to post-revolutionary France, its first coherent set of laws concerning property, colonial affairs, the family, and individual rights. On March 21 1804, the Napoleonic Code was finally approved -
Holy Roman Empire abolished; "Confederation of the Rhine" created in its place with Napoleon as leader
The 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. -
Continental System begins
Continental System, in the Napoleonic wars, the blockade designed by Napoleon to paralyze Great Britain through the destruction of British commerce. -
Napoleon has his brother, Joseph, crowned king of Spain
Napoleon refused to help Charles, and also refused to recognize his son, Ferdinand VII, as the new king. Instead, he succeeded in pressuring both Charles and Ferdinand to cede the crown to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. -
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. -
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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. -
(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.