HistoryTimelineLayer:French Revolution

Day of the Tiles in Grenoble, first revolt against the king.;;;06.07.1788;long Assembly of Vizille, assembly of the Estates General of Dauphiné.;;;07.21.1788;long The royal treasury is declared empty, and the Parlement of Paris refuses to reform the tax system or loan the Crown more money. To win their support for fiscal reforms, the Minister of Finance, Brienne, sets May 5, 1789 for a meeting of the Estates General, an assembly of the nobility, clergy and commoners (the Third Estate), which has not met since 1614.;;;08.08.1788;long The treasury suspends payments on the debts of the government.;;;08.16.1788;long Brienne resigns as Minister of Finance, and is replaced by the Swiss banker Jacques Necker, popular with the Third Estate. French bankers and businessmen, who have always held Necker in high regard, agree to loan the state 75 million, on the condition that the Estates General will have full powers to reform the system.;;;08.25.1788;long Over the opposition of the nobles, Necker announces that the representation of the Third Estate will be doubled, and that nobles and clergymen will be eligible to sit with the Third Estate.;;;12.27.1788;long (January {1789}) The Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes his famous pamphlet, "What is the Third Estate?" he writes: "What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand to be? Something.";;;01.15.1789;long King Louis XVI convokes elections for delegates to the Estates-General;;;01.24.1789;long Riots in Paris by workers of the Réveillon wallpaper factory in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Twenty-five workers were killed in battles with police.;;;04.27.1789;long Presentation to the King of the Deputies of the Estates-General at Versailles. The clergy and nobles are welcomed with formal ceremonies and processions, the Third Estate is not.;;;05.02.1789;long Formal opening of the Estates-General at Versailles.;;;05.05.1789;long The Deputies of the Third Estate refuse to meet separately from the other Estates, occupy the main hall, and invite the clergy and nobility to join them.;;;05.06.1789;long The nobility refuses to meet together with the Third Estate, but the clergy hesitates, and suspends the verification of its deputies.;;;05.11.1789;long The clergy renounces its special tax privileges, and accepts the principle of fiscal equality.;;;05.20.1789;long The nobility renounces its special tax privileges. However, the three estates are unable to agree on a common program.;;;05.22.1789;long The Third Estate deputies from Paris, delayed by election procedures, arrive in Versailles.;;;05.25.1789;long The scientist Jean Sylvain Bailly is chosen the leader of the Third Estate deputies.;;;06.03.1789;long Upon the death of seven-year-old Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin of France, the eldest son and heir of Louis XVI, his four-year-old brother, Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy, becomes the new Dauphin.;;;06.04.1789;long The deputies of the nobility reject a compromise program proposed by finance minister Jacques Necker.;;;06.06.1789;long At the suggestion of Sieyès, the Third Estate deputies decide to hold their own meeting, and invite the other Estates to join them.;;;06.10.1789;long (June 13–14) Nine deputies from the clergy decide to join the meeting of the Third Estate.;;;06.13.1789;long On the proposal of Sieyés, the deputies of the Third Estate declare themselves the National Assembly. To ensure popular support, they decree that taxes need only be paid while the Assembly is in session.;;;06.17.1789;long By a vote of 149 to 137, the deputies of the clergy join the assembly of the Third Estate.;;;06.19.1789;long On the orders of Louis XVI, the meeting hall of the Third Estate is closed and locked. At the suggestion of Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, the deputies gather instead in the indoor tennis court, where they swear not to separate until they have given France a new Constitution (the Tennis Court Oath).;;;06.20.1789;long The Royal Council rejects the financial program of Minister Necker.;;;06.21.1789;long The new National Assembly meets in the church of Saint Louis in Versailles. One hundred fifty deputies from the clergy attend, along with two deputies from the nobility.;;;06.22.1789;long Louis XVI personally addresses the Estates-General (a Séance royale), where he invalidates the decisions of the National Assembly and instructs the three estates to continue to meet separately. The king departs followed by the Second- and most of the First-Estate deputies, but the Third-Estate deputies remain in the hall. When the king's master of ceremonies reminds them that Louis has invalidated their decrees, the Comte de Mirabeau, Third-Estate deputy from Aix, boldly shouts that "we are assembled here by the will of the people" and that they would "leave only at the point of a bayonet".;;;06.23.1789;long 48 nobles, headed by Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, join the Assembly.;;;06.25.1789;long Louis XVI reverses course, instructs the nobility and clergy to meet with the other estates, and recognizes the new Assembly. At the same time, he orders reliable military units, largely composed of Swiss and German mercenaries, to Paris.;;;06.27.1789;long A crowd invades the prison of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and liberates soldiers who had been imprisoned for attending meetings of political clubs.;;;06.30.1789;long The National Assembly forms a committee of thirty members to write a new Constitution.;;;07.06.1789;long As tensions mount, the Comte de Mirabeau, Third-Estate deputy from Aix, demands that the Gardes Françaises of the military household of the king of France be moved out of Paris, and that a new civil guard be created within the city.;;;07.08.1789;long The National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly.;;;07.09.1789;long Louis XVI abruptly dismisses Necker. Parisians respond by burning the unpopular customs barriers, and invading and looting the monastery of the Lazaristes. Skirmishes between the cavalrymen of the Régiment de Royal-Allemand of the King's Guard and the angry crowd outside the Tuileries Palace. The Gardes Françaises largely take the side of the crowd.;;;07.11.1789;long The National Assembly declares itself in permanent session. At the Hôtel de Ville, city leaders begin to form a governing committee and an armed militia.;;;07.13.1789;long Storming of the Bastille. A large armed crowd besieges the Bastille, which holds only seven prisoners but has a large supply of gunpowder, which the crowd wants. After several hours of resistance, the governor of the fortress de Launay, finally surrenders. As he exits, he is killed by the crowd. The crowd also kills de Flesselles, the provost of the Paris merchants.;;;07.14.1789;long The astronomer and mathematician Jean Sylvain Bailly is named mayor of Paris, and Lafayette is appointed Commander of the newly formed National Guard.;;;07.15.1789;long The King reinstates Necker as finance minister and withdraws royal troops from the center of the city. The new elected Paris assembly votes the destruction of the Bastille fortress. Similar committees and local militias are formed in Lyon, Rennes, and in other large French cities.;;;07.16.1789;long The King visits Paris, where he is welcomed at the Hôtel de Ville by Bailly and Lafayette, and wears the tricolor cockade. Sensing what is ahead, several prominent members of the nobility, including the Count of Artois, the Prince de Condé, the Duke of Enghien, the Baron de Breteuil, the Duke of Broglie, the Duke of Polignac and his wife become the first of a wave of émigrés to leave France.;;;07.17.1789;long Camille Desmoulins begins publication of 'La France libre', demanding a much more radical revolution and calling for a republic arguing that revolutionary violence is justified.;;;07.18.1789;long An armed mob on the Place de Grève massacres Berthier de Sauvigny, Intendant of Paris, and his father-in-law, accused of speculating in grain.;;;07.22.1789;long Riots and peasant revolts in Strasbourg (July 21), Le Mans (July 23), Colmar, Alsace, and Hainaut (July 25).;;;07.21.1789;08.01.1789 Jacques Pierre Brissot begins publication of Le Patriote français, an influential newspaper of the revolutionary movement known as the Girondins.;;;07.28.1789;long