The French Revolution Timeline
1787
February 22
The First Assembly of Notables is called byCharles Alexandre de Calonne, Controller General of Finances, with the purpose of overhauling France's tax code. Aristocratic resistance to the Calonne's attempt to impose taxes and limit privileges made reform impossible. On May 25, this Assembly is dissolved.
April
Etienne Charles de Lomenie de Brienne replaces Calonne as Controller General of Finances.
1788
August 8
No solution to the financial crisis is found without calling the Estates-General (representing the three orders of Nobles, Clergy, and Commoners), which had not been assembled since 1614. By calling the Estates-General into session, Louis XVI is confirming that the monarchy has limits to its power.
August 24
Jacques Necker, a Swiss citizen and a Protestant, replaces Lomenie de Brienne with the title of Director General of Finances; he attempts once again to solve the financial crisis and to devise a plan for a successful meeting of the Estates -General.
July through September
Throughout France a poor harvest augurs more hunger and financial difficulties.
December 27
At the end of 1788, France is the most populous country in Europe (about 27 million). Most of the population belongs to the Third Estate. Louis XVI decrees that the Third Estate will have twice the number of representatives as the Orders of the Nobles
and the Clergy. But each Order will be entitled to only one vote, thus giving Nobles and Clergy a combined majority vote.
1789
January
Publication of What is the Third Estate?by the Abbe Sieyes. He claims that the Third Estate is essentially the Nation (as opposed to the monarch ---- remember Louis XIV's "I am the state" mantra)
February
Election of representatives to the Estates-General. One of the traditions of the Estates-General was to request cahiers de doleances or books of complaint from the realm. In accordance with this tradition, the drawing up of the cahiers had been officially decreed on January 24. The cahiers number in the thousands.
May 5
Deliberations of the Estates-General begin at Versailles. Debate begins almost immediately over how voting will be conducted.
June 17
Accepting the proposition of the delegate Abbe Sieyes, the Third Estate proclaims itself The National Assembly. It invites the other two Orders to join in this new body of the nation in creating a constitution.
June 19
A few liberal nobles and many of the lesser clergy join the movement of the Third Estate.
June 20
The Tennis Court Oath. The king orders the meeting hall of the Third Estate closed. The Third Estate, still calling itself the National Assembly, removes to the Tennis Court of Versailles (Jeu de Paume). They swear an oath not to disband until a constitution is approved.
June 23
Louis XVI makes various proposals for reform but continues to demand that the Estates-General vote by Orders-one Order, one vote. This is rejected by the Third Estate. Louis XVI threatens to dissolve the Estates-General.
June 27
The king concedes to public demand and orders the Nobles and the Clergy to join the National Assembly.
July 1
Concerned by the boldness of the Third Estate, the government increases the garrisons of mercenary troops just outside Paris.
July 2
Demonstrations and speeches at the Palais-Royal (a fashionable public gathering place) against the menacing increase of government soldiers.
July 7
The National Assembly appoints a committee of thirty members to draft a constitution.
July 9
The National Assembly proclaims itself the Constituent National Assembly, with full authority and power to decree law; their primary task is to draw up and adopt a constitution.
July 11
Jacques Necker, who had become a popular minister and who had zealously sought a solution to the budgetary crisis, is dismissed by Louis XVI.
July 12-14
The Fall of the Bastille. Parisians, many from the class of artisans and journeyman workers, are alarmed by the gathering of troops, angry at the dismissal of Necker and the price of grain. They form the Permanent Committee and seek to protect themselves from feared attacks by royal forces by seizing 3,000 rifles and some cannon from the royal armory, the Invalides. They march to the Bastille and demand that it be opened and its gunpowder delivered to them. The Swiss Guards inside fire on the crowd. About 100 persons are killed. An attack begins and the Bastille falls; an angry mob kills all the Bastille's guards and tears the structure down brick-by-brick. Though it held only seven prisoners, the Bastille was one of Europe's most famous symbols of cruel and arbitrary power.
July 15
Louis XVI accepts the Marquis de Lafayette as commander of the National Guard, a citizens' militia designed to replace the now unreliable mix of royal troops and foreign mercenaries.
July 16
Upon the insistence of the Constituent National Assembly, Jacques Necker is recalled to his post as Director General of Finances and Minister of State.
July 17
It can be said that on this date the formal power of the Constituent National Assembly begins. Louis XVI travels from Versailles, with some of his retinue, to the city hall of Paris, where he is received by the new mayor, Jean Sylvain Bailly and an enormous crowd of people crying out "Long live the Nation!" The king places the new national blue and red ribbon on his hat. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Ambassador to France, who had witnessed meetings of the Estates- General, is present.
July through August
The period of the so-called "Great Fear."Rural peasants organize to demand nobles relinquish their feudal privileges, but also begin to grow suspicious that the aristocracy is plotting to overthrow the National Assembly.
August 4-11
The National Assembly abolishes most feudal privileges still held by the aristocracy and the clergy, including taxes, tithes, obligatory labor on roads and payment of crops.
August 26
The National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, essentially declaring France to be a constitutional monarchy; Louis XVI chooses to ignore it.
September 12
First publication of Jean-Paul Marat's L'Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People), an eight-page daily newspaper-pamphlet, one of the most influential and radical publications of the Revolution.At first sympathetic to a constitutional monarchy, and progressively supportive of the sans-culottes and the Commune of Paris, Marat's fiery texts raged against both aristocrats and those who argued for egalitarian distribution of property.
October 5-6
The Women's March Upon Versailles. Starving Parisians, led by a large number of women, march upon Versailles and force the royal family back to Paris, where they take up residence at the Tuileries. Louis XVI is considered by many a "Prisoner" in Paris. The Assembly, still in Versailles, declares, in the spirit of constitutional monarchy, its inseparability from the king. Its meetings are transferred to a hall close to the Tuileries. Louis publicly accepts all of the National Assembly's previous decrees.
November 2
All church property is confiscated by the state.
December 9
The administrative reorganization of France begins. Old provincial boundaries give way to 83roughly equal administrativedepartements chiefly run by a bureaucracy made up of bourgeoisie.
December 19
The Assembly issues treasury notes called assignats based on the value of nationalized church property. The assignats would become a form of paper money subject to constant devaluation.
1790
February 13
Monastical vows are prohibited. Religious orders, except the teaching and charitable orders, are abolished.
June 19
All aristocratic, hereditary titles are abolished.
July 12
Adoption of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. It provides for the appointment of all church officers, from archbishop down, by the National Assembly rather than the pope; additionally, all clergy now become employees of the state. October
Louis XVI secretly explores a possible coalition with foreign powers to end the Revolution. He writes a letter to his cousin Charles IV of Spain, complaining of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
November 27
All public officials and priests are required to sign an oath of loyalty to the new French nation.When many of the clergy object and refuse to take oaths to the state, the Catholic Church becomes targeted by more radical elements within the revolutionary movement.
1791
March 2
All guilds, which regulated entry into artisan crafts, are abolished.
March 10
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy are condemned by Pope Pius VI.
June 14
Worker unions and strikes are prohibited by the Le Chapelier Law.
June 20-25
Attempting to flee France, Louis XVI, Marie -Antoinette, and their children are arrested at Varennes and brought back to Paris. The National Assembly suspends the king's authority until further notice. This is a major turning point in the Revolution and would play a role in eventually destroying the constitutional monarchy, still to be formally established by the new constitution. Louis XVI, though in some ways much loved by the people of France, begins to be thought of by many as a traitor and a danger to the nation. Suspicions grow of conspiracies and foreign invasions.
July 6
The Emperor Leopold II of Austria appeals to other royalty to join with him in demanding respect for the liberty and honor of Louis XVI.
July 17
The Massacre of the Champ-de-Mars. Ever since the forced return of Louis XVI to Paris, debates rage over establishing a constitutional monarchy or declaring a republic. The Cordeliers Club demands a republic. The Jacobin Club splits on the question; those against a republic quit the Jacobins to form a new faction-the Feuillants. For the second anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille, a grand Altar of the Nation had been erected on the Champ-de-Mars. The Cordeliers come to this altar on the 17th to declare their demands that a republic be established. The Marquis de Lafayette, hero of the American War of Independence and now Commander of the National Guard, orders his troops to fire upon a large crowd that had gathered. About fifty persons are killed. The attempted flight of the royal family and incidents such as this massacre alarm many members of the National Assembly. Many continue to fear internal and foreign conspiracies and think the Revolution is in danger of being crushed.
August 27
The Declaration of Pillnitz. The rulers of Austria and Prussia agree to halt the French Revolution. They insist that England participate.
September 3
The Constitution of 1791 is proclaimed.
September 18
Louis XVI, swearing to uphold the new constitution, is restored to power.
September 27
Jews in all regions of France are granted full citizenship.
September 30
Last session of the Constituent National Assembly. During its two years, it dismantled feudalist privileges and had begun reordering both government and society. The constitution now in place legalized a constitutional monarchy and a unicameral legislature over whose laws Louis XVI had a veto. It also provided for only a limited franchise for "citoyensactifs," those who paid a certain amount in taxes. And, in effect, only about 50,000 citizens, chosen amongst the richest taxpayers, could elect deputies and representatives to various district councils.
October 1
First session of the new Legislative Assembly (which replaces the National Assembly) under the Constitution of 1791.
October, 1791 to March, 1792
Debates divide the Assembly on a declaration of war against countries allied against the Revolution. Jacques Pierre Brissot, a Parisian deputy, urges war. Maximilien Robespierre argues against war, fearing that France is ill-prepared. Many believe that the royalists want to plunge the country into war, because military defeat would mean the end of the Revolution.
1792
January to March
Serious inflation begins. Food riots occur in Paris.
March 9-10
Louis removes the Count of Narbonne, Minister of War. All of his other ministers resign. Louis XVI forms a new government, composed mostly of republic-minded Jacobins.
April 20
France declares war on Austria. Prussia joins with Austria. French Royalists hope the war will go badly, leading to the restoration of the monarchy.
April 25
Rouget de Lisle composes his War Hymn for the Army of the Rhine and performs it for the Mayor of Strasbourg. In July of this year, it would become La Marseillaise.
June 20
Invasion of the Tuileries. In the previous weeks, tensions increased over a law on the deportation of refractory priests, the king's veto of this law, the dismantling of the king's constitutional Garde (6,000 men), and the stationing of 20,000 troops by the Assembly in Paris. Louis XVI had dismissed his Jacobin ministers on June 12 and replaced them with more moderate Feuillants. When the Assembly objects, Lafayette sends a letter condemning the Assembly and the Jacobins. On June 20, a large crowd, mostly from the neighborhoods of St. Antoine and St. Marcel, invade the Tuileries. They demand the return of the Jacobin ministers. They force Louis to don a liberty cap (bonnet rouge or bonnet phrygien) and to drink to the health of the people.
July 28
The Brunswick Manifesto (declared on July 25) is distributed throughout Paris. The Duke of Brunswick, commanding general of the Austro-Prussian Army, in an inflammatory declaration, warns Parisians to obey Louis XVI. It threatens them with violent punishment if they do not. The Assembly is offended and orders the sections of Paris to ready themselves. The Manifesto creates both fear and anger in Paris.
July 29
At a meeting of the Jacobin Club, Robespierre calls for the removal of the king.
July 30
Singing Rouget de Lisle's War Hymn of the Army of the Rhineor La Marseillaise, a battalion of troops from Marseille arrives in Paris. Plans are made by a revolutionary committee to proceed toward the overthrow of the king.
August 10
Second Invasion of the Tuileries. From August 3 to August 10, the procedure to end the monarchy had begun. Forty-seven of the forty-eight sections of Paris had petitioned the Legislative Assembly to abrogate the king's powers. One Parisian section (in the St. Antoine neighborhood) declares that it will bring down the monarchy on August 10, if the Assembly does not carry out the will of the people.
The Legislative Assembly does nothing before August 10; true to their word, citizens --mostly sans-culottes --march towards the Tuileries, which is defended by a contingent of French soldiers and Swiss Guards. The king, realizing that his French Garde is sympathetic to the Revolution (they had cried: "Vive la Nation!" when passing in review), decides to seek refuge at the Assembly. His troops, however, remain in a position of defense, are attacked, and many are killed by the insurgents. The Tuileries is taken and pillaged.
In the afternoon, the Assembly strips Louis of his powers and declares him a prisoner of the nation. It also decrees the formation of a new assembly to be called the Convention. Like the American Constitutional Convention , the National Convention would write a new constitution to replace that of 1791. The French Convention, however, would last for over three years and produce two constitutions.
August 11
An Executive Council of six ministers is elected by the Assembly to oversee the national election of representatives to the Convention. The Assembly also authorizes the arrest throughout France of suspected enemies of the Revolution. Royalist newspapers are prohibited.
August 13
The royal family is imprisoned in the tower of the Temple, former monastery of the Order of the Templars.
August 19
Lafayette deserts the army and the Revolution and flees to Austria. General Dumouriez takes command of the Armies of the North.
Prussian armies, including French emigres, invade France.
September 2-7
The September Massacres. In Paris, rumors abound of imminent invasion, the collapse of the Revolution, and of conspiracies mounted by imprisoned aristocrats. On September 3, the Prussian Army seizes Verdun. Widespread fear, incited in pamphlets, speeches, and rumors, precedes the massacre of about 1,500 prisoners.
September 20
Last session of the Legislative Assembly and the Constitutional Monarchy. The French Army defeats the Prussians at Valmy. Goethe witnessed this battle and said of it: "On this day begins a new era in the history of the world."
September 21, 1792 to October 26, 1795: The Convention
The Convention actually became a provisional revolutionary government. While debating new constitutional principles and new laws, the Convention also carried out a European war, oversaw the daily affairs of the nation, and repressed several revolts. The Convention can be divided into three periods. During the first (from September 21, 1792, to June 2, 1793) the Convention is dominated by deputies sometimes called Brissotins, or more commonly, Girondins (from the Gironde, in the southwest of France). These deputies represented interests of the provinces, often in opposition to those of the commune of Paris, dominated by the Jacobins. The Jacobins, organized into a political club and usually supported by radical "sections" of Paris, dominate the second period of the Convention, from June 2, 1793, to July 28, 1794. During this period, France was attacked by foreign enemies and unsettled by internal revolts. There was also popular discontent over food distribution, inflation, and legislative factionalism. Day-to-day administration was given over to two important national committees: the Committee of General Surveillance and the Committee of Public Safety. During this time, the Terror was made official policy up to the ninth of Thermidor (July 27, 1794), when Robespierre and his supporters lost their dominant position in the Committee of Public Safety and in the Convention, were accused, and executed. In the third, or post- Thermidorean, period of the Convention the Revolution began to dissolve into dangerous disputes between radical, liberal, and conservative factions.