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The political and financial situation in France forces Louis XVI to summon the Estates General. This assembly was composed of three estates (the clergy, nobility and commoners). -
The members of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath. They vow to "not to separate and to reassemble wherever necessary until the Constitution of the kingdom is established". -
Revolutionary insurgents storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison known as the Bastille. At the time, the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. -
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette unsuccessfully attempt to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution. They escape only as far as the small town of Varennes-en-Argonne. -
The king of France is publicly executed at the “Place de la Révolution” in Paris. The National Convention had convicted him of high treason. -
The Coup d'état brings Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. Ending the French Revolution and leading to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. -
Napoleon is crowned “Emperor of the French”, at Notre-Dame. -
The decisive victory of Napoleon's Grande Armée at Austerlitz brought the War of the Third Coalition to a rapid end. -
The Spaniards revolt because they see Ferdinand VII as the successor of Charles IV. -
This battle was the first open-field defeat of a Napoleonic army. It was fought between the Spanish Army and the Imperial French Army. -
Decisively defeated again, Napoleon was compelled to return to France while the Sixth Coalition kept up its momentum, dissolving the Confederation of the Rhine and invading France early the next year. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Elba. -
He is exiled to Elba after his forced abdication following the Treaty of Fontainebleau. -
Napoleon is defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition, at Waterloo. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. -
Napoleon dies on St. Helena at the age of 51. He was buried on the island until 1840 when his body was transferred to Paris where his body rests today.