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Planning for the May 5th meeting
Charles Alexandre de Calonne proposed a financial reform package that included a universal land tax from which the privileged classes would no longer be exempt. -
May 5th Meeting
The Third Estate began to mobilize support for equal representation and the abolishment of the noble veto – in other words, they wanted voting by head and not by status. -
Tennis Court Oath
On June 17, with talks over procedure stalled, the Third Estate met alone and formally adopted the title of National Assembly; three days later, they met in a nearby indoor tennis court and took the so-called Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume), vowing not to disperse until constitutional reform had been achieved. -
Signing the Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen
On August 4, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen), a statement of democratic principles grounded in the philosophical and political ideas of Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau. -
King George XVI attempted to escape and failed.
Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their children snuck out of the palace in Paris disguised as servants and took a carriage throughout the French countryside towards France’s border with Austria.When the carriage arrived in the small French town of Varennes, it was stopped by a town official and the royal family was recognized. He was viewed as a traitor to the revolution. -
French Revolution Turns Radical
The newly elected Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia, where it believed that French émigrés were building counterrevolutionary alliances; it also hoped to spread its revolutionary ideals across Europe through warfare. -
Reign of Terror
In June 1793, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins and instituted a series of radical measures, including the establishment of a new calendar and the eradication of Christianity. -
Execution of King George XVI
On January 21, 1793, it sent King Louis XVI, condemned to death for high treason and crimes against the state, to the guillotine; his wife Marie-Antoinette suffered the same fate nine months later. At his execution, cries of “Long live the Republic” rang out. Some of those gathered pressed forward to dip their handkerchiefs in the blood of the king, which they kept as grisly souvenirs. -
Execution of Robespierrre
They also unleashed the bloody Reign of Terror (la Terreur), a 10-month period in which suspected enemies of the revolution were guillotined by the thousands. Many of the killings were carried out under orders from Robespierre, who dominated the draconian Committee of Public Safety until his own execution on July 28, 1794. -
France's first bicameral legislature
On August 22, 1795, the National Convention, composed largely of Girondins who had survived the Reign of Terror, approved a new constitution that created France’s first bicameral legislature. -
Beginning of Napoleonic era
On November 9, 1799, as frustration with their leadership reached a fever pitch, Bonaparte staged a coup d’état, abolishing the Directory and appointing himself France’s “first consul.” The event marked the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic era, in which France would come to dominate much of continental Europe.