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Louis XVI assumes the throne of France alongside his wife Marie Antoinette. -
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After being tried, King Louis XVI is guillotined in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. This event marks the triumph of the Jacobins, the most radical group in the Convention, over the Girondins. -
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The Third Estate becomes politicized as notebooks are drawn up, political clubs are formed, and it is debated both verbally and through pamphlets. The middle class believes it has a voice and intends to use it. -
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The agrarian, commercial and financial crisis was at its highest point. The States General are officially summoned; the details of the elections are out. Crucially, no one is really sure how it should be formed, leading to a discussion about voting powers. -
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Some members of the First Estate (priests and clerics) join the Third. -
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Revolt begins in Paris, triggered in part by Necker's dismissal and fear of royal troops. -
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Separation of the members of the third estate from the estates general, by not accepting voting by state, and not accepting their request to vote by head. On that same date, the members of that non-privileged state form their own meeting, which they call the National Assembly. -
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Oath of the Ball Court, where they promised that they would remain united until a Constitution was enacted, transforming the National Assembly into a Constituent Assembly, on July 9 -
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The Royal Session opens; the King initially orders the estates to meet separately and introduces reforms; the deputies of the National Assembly ignore it. -
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The members of the Second Estate begin to join the National Assembly. -
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The king relents and orders the three estates to unite as one; Troops are called to the Paris area. Suddenly, there has been a constitutional revolution in France. -
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After Louis XVI prohibited the National Assembly from meeting, the assembly members meet in a ball court and swear not to dissolve until there is a Constitution. The king assembled his troops outside Paris in readiness for action; On July 11, 1789, the king dismissed the minister Jacques Necker, which caused further discontent, which became apparent when the Parisians took over the Bastille prison-fortress, symbol of the Old Regime. -
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Unable to trust his army, the King surrenders and orders the troops to leave the Paris area. Louis doesn't want a civil war, when that might be all that would save his former powers. -
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The National Assembly abolished feudalism and privileges in what is perhaps the most remarkable evening in modern European history. -
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The National Assembly expounds the "natural, inalienable and sacred rights of Man." The Declaration consists of seventeen articles; two great conquests were the separation of powers, and the transfer of sovereignty to the nation. -
Marches on Versailles
Due to the king's refusal to sanction the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (the Assembly could only act if the king sanctioned its votes, decrees or laws), and the lack of bread and unemployment, thousands of Parisians headed towards Versailles asking for the sanction of the decrees, and the transfer of the Royal Family to the capital to settle in the Tuileries Palace. -
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The nobility was abolished -
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The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, a complete restructuring of the church in France. -
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Feast of the Federation, a celebration to commemorate one year since the fall of the Bastille. -
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Parliaments are abolished and the judiciary is reorganized -
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Approval of the Clergy Oath; all ecclesiastical office holders must take an oath to the constitution -
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Latest date for clergy to have taken the oath; more than half refuse -
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The King is prevented from leaving Paris to spend Easter in Saint-Cloud -
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Decree of Self-denial: Deputies to the National Assembly cannot be elected to the Legislative Assembly -
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King Louis XVI and his family escape from the Tuileries disguised as bourgeois. However, they are caught in Varennes and returned to Paris, generating even more discontent, since according to tradition, a monarch who abandons his subjects does not deserve loyalty. -
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Cordelier organizes a petition declaring that freedom and royalty cannot coexist. -
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The Constituent Assembly declares that the king was the victim of a kidnapping plot. -
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The National Guard fires at people who demand the removal of the King and the establishment of a Republic on the Champ de Mars, led by Georges-Jacques Danton. 50 people die, and the divisions between the revolutionaries and the monarchists are accentuated. -
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Pillnitz Declaration: Austria and Prussia threatened to take action in support of the French king. -
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A new Constitution is adopted, which causes a change in the form of government of France, becoming a Constitutional Monarchy, and the National Constituent Assembly is dissolved to give way to the National Legislative Assembly, through elections, for which no member above could be chosen. -
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The king takes an oath of allegiance to the new constitution. -
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The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria and Prussia. King Louis XVI, the nobles and the clergy hoped that the revolutionary government would be defeated, in order to return to the Old Regime. Likewise, numerous revolutionaries also supported it, since they considered it a way to spread the revolution throughout Europe. -
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On August 10, the people attack the Tuileries Palace, because the king was considered to be responsible for France's first defeats in the war. This revolt forced the establishment of the "Convention", elected through male suffrage. The recently created Convention decreed the arrest of Louis XVI, the abolition of the Monarchy, and the establishment of the First Republic, on September 21.
