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The Estates-General Meeting
May 5, 1789 Louis XVI summons Estates-General for its first meeting since 1614.The Estates-General were a very old part of the governing system in France, but by 1789 they had not met for a hundred and fifty years. Despite some superficial resemblances, the Estates were not the French equivalent of an English Parliament. Instead, they were convoked on an irregular basis whenever the monarchy felt the need to seek the advice of its subjects. -
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The French Revolution
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Storming of the Bastille
At dawn on July 14, a great crowd armed with muskets, swords, and various makeshift weapons began to gather around the Bastille.Launay received a delegation of revolutionary leaders but refused to surrender the fortress and its munitions as they requested. He later received a second delegation and promised he would not open fire on the crowd. To convince the revolutionaries, he showed them that his cannons were not loaded. -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Assembly formed committee to draft a bill of rights and, on August 26th 1789, it passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This declaration became a cornerstone document of the French Revolution – and according to some historians, its greatest legacy. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen served as a preamble to all three revolutionary constitutions and a cornerstone document for political clubs and movements. -
Flight to Varennes
The flight to Varennes was the royal family’s failed attempt to escape Paris in June 1791. Appalled by the growing radicalism of the revolution, particularly its anti-clericalism, Louis XVI agreed to abscond from the city. The plan, hatched by Count Axel von Fersen and supported by Marie Antoinette, was to travel by coach to Montmedy, a fortress near the border with Germany that was garrisoned by royalist troops. -
The French Constitution
The short-lived French Constitution of 1791 was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the Absolute Monarchy of the Ancien Régime. One of the basic precepts of the revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing popular sovereignty. -
The Attack on the Tuileries
By dawn on August 10th a crowd of several thousand people was massing outside the Tuileries. Newcomers arrived so quickly from the sections that according to one news report 25 people were killed in the crush. Most of the crowd were carrying some kind of weapon: guns, sabres, pikes, daggers, scythes, iron bars and pieces of wood. After surveying the situation, the king concluded that it was impossible to defend the palace with slaughtering thousands of Parisians. -
The Execution of King Louis XVI
One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. -
The Law of Suspects
This law, passed on 17 September 1793, authorized the creation of revolutionary tribunals to try those suspected of treason against the Republic and to punish those convicted with death. This legislation in effect made the penal justice system into the enforcement arm of the revolutionary government, which would now set as its primary responsibility not only the maintenance of public order but also the much more difficult and controversial task of identifying internal enemies of the Republic. -
The Execution of Marrie-Antoinette
Nine months after the execution of her husband, the former King Louis XVI of France, Marie-Antoinette follows him to the guillotine. The increasing revolutionary uproar convinced the king and queen to attempt an escape to Austria in 1791, but they were captured by revolutionary forces and carried back to Paris. In 1792, the French monarchy was abolished, and Louis and Marie-Antoinette were condemned for treason. -
The Terror Peaks
By the spring of 1794 France's military was winning victories again. Conscription was changing warfare. With the first citizen's army in 2000 years and a massive army of conscripts, France's army was showing its superiority over smaller professional armies. France's generals were using mass attacks at bayonet point to overwhelm their enemy. -
Robespierre Overthrown in France
On July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor in the Revolutionary calendar), Robespierre and his allies were placed under arrest by the National Assembly. Robespierre was taken to the Luxembourg prison in Paris, but the warden refused to jail him, and he fled to the Hotel de Ville. Armed supporters arrived to aid him, but he refused to lead a new insurrection. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he shot himself in the head but only succeeded in wounding his jaw. -
13 Venemiaire
13 Vendémiaire Year 4 (5 October 1795 in the French Republican Calendar) is the name given to a battle between the French Revolutionary troops and Royalist forces in the streets of Paris. The battle was largely responsible for the rapid advancement of Republican General Napoleon Bonaparte's career. -
The National Convention
National Convention, French Convention Nationale , assembly that governed France from September 20, 1792, until October 26, 1795, during the most critical period of the French Revolution. The National Convention was elected to provide a new constitution for the country after the overthrow of the monarchy (August 10, 1792). The Convention numbered 749 deputies, including businessmen, tradesmen, and many professional men.
