Christopher Hibbert - The Days of the French Revolution

séance-royale: a royal session of the Estates General.

sections: Before the Revolution, Paris was divided into sixty districts. The Commune redivided it into forty-eight sections . Each section had its own particular flavour, its own revolutionary committee and armed force upon which it could rely in times of trouble.

septembriseurs: those responsible for the prison massacres of September 1792, later, like bouveur de sang , a term of opprobrium.

taille: basic tax of the French monarchy during the ancien régime which varied from province to province, being paid in the north on total income and in the south on income from landed property only ( taille réelle ). The privileged and influential managed to escape paying it so that in practice it was paid almost entirely by the poor, principally the peasants.

taxation populaire: the enforced sale by bakers, grocers and other food merchants of goods at lower prices by mobs that invaded their premises.

Terreur, la: method of revolutionary government by intimidation during which the powers of the state – economic, judicial and military – were used to direct the life of the nation and draconian punishments were inflicted on those who opposed it. Also applied to those periods from October to December 1793 and March to July 1794 when the Jacobins imposed such a government upon France.

Thermidor: the eleventh month of the Revolutionary Calendar which corresponded with the days from 19 July to 17 August, from the Greek therme , heat, plus doron , gift.

tricoteuse: a woman who sat and knitted during the sessions of the Revolutionary Tribunal and around the guillotine.

Vainqueurs de la Bastille: title bestowed upon those who were able to satisfy the authorities that they had taken an active part in the storming of the Bastille. As they enjoyed a pension and uniform as well as an honoured title, applications to join their number were numerous; and it seems that many Vainqueurs may well have been present in spirit rather than in person.

Vendémiaire: first month of the Revolutionary Calendar which corresponded with the days from 22 September to 21 October, from the Latin vindemia , vintage.

Ventôse: the sixth month of the Revolutionary Calendar which corresponded with the days from 19 February to 20 March, from the Latin ventosus , windy.

vingtième: originally intended as a five per cent tax on income, it had either been compounded for a lump sum by the privileged orders and by various corporate organizations of the bourgeoisie or had been largely evaded by them by the concealment of their real income. By the time of the Revolution it was mostly paid by the peasants.

1788

8 August

Announcement of recall of Estates General

25 August

Baron Necker appointed to Ministry

25 September

Paris parlement recommends Estates General should be constituted as in 1614

6 November

Assembly of Notables meets

1789

5 May

Estates General meet at Versailles

4 June

Death of Dauphin

17 June

Third Estate adopts title of National Assembly

19 June

Majority of clergy vote to join Third Estate

20 June

Tennis Court Oath

23 June

Séance royale

26 June

Troops begin to concentrate around Paris

27 June

King orders clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate

11 July

Dismissal of Necker

12–17 July

Riots in Paris

14 July

Fall of the Bastille

15 July

King received at Hôtel de Ville and adopts tricolour cockade

16 July

Recall of Necker

1789

July – August

The Great Fear

4 August

Renunciation of feudal rights in National Assembly

26 August

Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen

5 October

March of women to Versailles

6 October

Royal Family brought to Paris followed by National Assembly

10 October

Louis XVI decreed King of the French

29 October

‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ citizens distinguished by decree

2 November

Church property nationalized

7 November

Decree excluding deputies from Ministry

14–22 December

Local government reorganized

19 December

Assignats issued

1790

4 February

King speaks to Assembly

13 February

Religious orders, except those engaged in teaching or charitable work, suppressed

19 June

Titles of hereditary nobility abolished

12 July

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

14 July

First Fête de la fédération

4 September

Resignation of Necker

27 November

Decree imposing civic oath on clergy

26 December

King sanctions clerical oath

1791

9 February

Election of first bishops of constitutional church

20 February

King’s aunts move to Rome

10 March

Pope condemns Civil Constitution of the Clergy

2 April

Mirabeau dies

20 June

Flight to Varennes

25 June

King suspended from his functions on being brought back to Paris

17 July

The ‘Massacre of the Champ de Mars’

17 August

Frenchmen abroad summoned to return within one month

27 August

Declaration of Pillnitz

14 September

King accepts Constitution and is restored to functions

1 October

Legislative Assembly meets

1791

9 November

Decree ordering return to France of émigrés suspected of conspiracy against nation

12 November

King vetos decree against the émigrés

19 November

King vetos decree against non-juring priests

29 November

Assembly passes decree against non-juring priests

1792

9 February

Property of émigrés decreed forfeit to nation

10 March

Assembly brings about resignation of Ministry; administration sympathetic to Girondins takes its place

20 April

War declared

29 April

General Dillon murdered by his troops

12 June

Ministry dismissed by King

19 June

King vetos proposed military camp near Paris

20 June

Mob invades Tuileries

28 June

Lafayette returns to Paris

11 July

Decree of ‘La patrie en danger’

25 July

Brunswick Manifesto

25–30 July

Arrival of fédérés from Brest and Marseilles

3 August

All but one of the Paris sections petition for deposition of King

9 August

Insurrectionary commune formed in Paris

17 August

Storming of the Tuileries. King suspended from functions. Ministers dismissed in June reappointed

19 August

Lafayette defects to Austrians. Brunswick crosses frontier

23 August

Longwy falls to Prussians

25 August

Redemption charges for seigneurial dues abolished

2 September

Verdun surrenders to Prussians

2–6 September

Prison massacres

8 September

Brunswick enters Argonne Forest

20 September

Battle of Valmy. Convention constituted

21 September

Convention abolishes monarchy

22 September

Convention decrees that all acts from now on are to be dated from Year One of the Republic

29 September

French army occupies Nice

6 November

Battle of Jemappes. French army advances into Belgium

1792

19 November

Decree of Fraternitéet secours