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ANCIEN REGIME IN TURMOIL?

Commerce, Politics and Society in France, c.1682-1793

The Gazette Manuscrite, 1775-1793, and related sources from the John Rylands University Library of Manchester

Chronology, 1682-1793

1682 La Salle claims Louisiana territory for France and takes possession of Mississippi Valley. The French Court moves to Versailles. Various scandals at Court including the “Messes Noires” in which Madame de Montespan was implicated. Pierre Bayle publishes Pensées diverses sur la comète de 1680.

1683 Death of Colbert. He is succeeded by Le Pelletier. Death of Queen Marie-Thérèse.

1684 Lois XIV marries Madame de Maintenon. Truce of Ratisbon.

1685 Edict of Fontainebleau. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

1686 League of Augsburg formed against Louis XIV.

1687 Death of Lully. Fénelon publishes Traité de l’education des filles.

1688 War of the League of Augsberg. French invade the Palatinate. Fontenelle publishes Digressions sur les anciens et modernes. Also La Bruyère publishes Les Caractères.

1689 Locke publishes Lettres sur la tolérance. Racine publishes Esther.

1689 Locke publishes his two Treatises of Government.

1691 Racine publishes Athalie. Death of the Marquis de Louvois.

1692 Battle of La Hogue. French defeated by the English fleet.

1693 Louis XIV reconciled with the Vatican.

1695 Fall of Namur.

1696 Death of Madame de Sévigné. Publication by Pierre Bayle of Dictionnaire historique et critique.

1697 Peace of Ryswick.

1700 Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, presses claim to the Spanish throne. Question of the Spanish Succession.

1701 Start of the War of the Spanish Succession. Jesuits publish the Journal de Trévoux.

1702 England declares war on France. Marlborough leads forces of the Grand Alliance in Europe.

1704 Battle of Blenheim.

1706 Vauban publishes Projet d’une dîme royale. Battle of Ramillies.

1707 Alain René Lesage publishes Le Diable Boiteux.

1708 Battle of Oudenarde.

1709 Battle of Malplaquet.

1710 Death of Louise de La Vallière. Madame de Lambert opens “un salon d’opposition”. The Gazette d’Utrecht is first published in Holland.

1711 Death of Le Grand Dauphin.

1712 Further deaths at French Court. The future Louis XV, only aged 2, remains as the heir to Louis XIV.

1713 Peace of Utrecht.

1714 Death of the Duc de Berry. Peace of Rastadt between France and the Holy Roman Empire.

1715 Death of Louis XIV. Louis XV, aged 5, succeeds under the Regency of the Duc d’Orleans.

1716 Foundation of the Banque générale de France.

1718 Quadruple Alliance signed by France, the Empire, England and the Dutch.

1719 France declares war on Spain.

1720 Failure of the Mississippi Company leads to French national bankruptcy.

1721 Montesquieu publishes Lettres persanes.

1722 Hyacinthe Rigaud publishes his Grand Tour.

1723 Louis XV reaches majority.

1725 Louis XV marries Maria Leszczynska of Poland.

1726 Cardinal Fleury becomes Chief Minister in France. Voltaire banished from France.

1729 Treaty of Seville.

1733 France again embroiled in military conflict. France declares war against the Emperor Charles VI.

1734 Madame de Lambert in her Avis d’une Mère à sa Fille recommends university education for women.

1740 Duc de Saint-Simon publishes his Mémoires.

1741 French troops occupy Prague.

1744 France declares war on England.

1748 Peace of Aix-La-Chapelle. Marie-Thérèse Geoffrin opens salon as meeting place for Parisian men of letters.

1749 Diderot publishes Lettre sur les aveugles à l’usage de ceux qui voient.

1751 Publication of the French Encyclopédie.

1754 Anglo-French conflict in North America; discussions about boundaries. Rousseau publishes L’Inégalité par les hommes: discours.

1755 Voltaire publishes La Pucelle d’Orléans. Death of Montesquieu.

1756 Britain declares war on France. Voltaire publishes Désastre de Lisbonne and finishes his Siècle de Louis XIV, begun in 1735.

1759 British gain Quebec from the French. Voltaire publishes Candide.

1761 Collected works of Voltaire translated by Smollett. First French veterinary school founded at Lyons. Duc de Choiseul appointed Secretary for War.

1762 Sorbonne Library opened in Paris. Rousseau publishes Du Contrat social, ou principes du droit politique.

1763 Peace of Paris ends Seven Years’ War. Voltaire publishes his treatise on tolerance. Duc de Choiseul becomes Secretary for Marine.

1764 Literary salons founded in Paris by Mme. Necker and Mile. de Lespinasse. Voltaire completes his Philosophical Dictionary.

1765 Death of the Dauphin. Louis Augustus, the future Louis XVI, becomes heir to the French throne. Sedaine completes Philosophe sans le savoir.

1768 René Nicholas de Maupeou becomes Chancellor.

1769 Madame du Barry becomes mistress to Louis XV. William Robertson completes work on History of Charles V.

1770 Dauphin of France marries Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Duc de Choiseul retires from office, his departure hastened by the influence of Madame du Barry. Attempts at Reform by Maupeou. Publication of Abbé Raynal’s Philosophical History.

1771 William Robertson completes his History of America. Duc D’Aiguillon forced to resign as Governor of Brittany. He becomes Secretary for Foreign Affairs and forms the triumverate with the Chancellor Maupeou and Abbé Terray as Controller-General which rules France under the auspices of Madame du Barry for the last 4 years of Louis’s reign. Suppression of the Parlement of Paris and the Cour des Aides, Parlements in Rouen and Douai also suppressed, others reformed. Increasing discontent with financial policies. Bread riots in Paris.

1772 Inquisition abolished in France. Mirabeau publishes Essai sur le despotisme.

1774 Louis XV of France succeeded by Louis XVI. Turgot replaces Terray, De Miromesnil replaces Maupeou as Keeper of the Seals, D’Aiguillon’s post at Foreign Affairs is taken by the Comte de Vergennes, Chrétien Guillaume de Malesherbes takes control of Home Affairs. Maurepas is appointed Chief Minister. In August the Parlements are recalled. More Bread Riots. Restoration of free internal circulation of corn. Cattle plague.

1775 Beaumarchais completes The Barber of Seville. Turgot continues with a series of reforms. Abolition of the corvée royale. Major outbreak of riots and peasant unrest.

1776 Six Edicts passed by Turgot but opposition mounts. Turgot dismissed. Malesherbes resigns. Turgot's reforms of the gilds and the corvée royale reversed.
Many of the old abuses restored Jacques Necker becomes Minister of Finance in France. Edward Gibbon completes Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

1777 Lafayette’s French volunteers arrive in America and participate in American Revolution. First issue of the Journal de Paris published.

1778 Death of Rousseau. Death of Voltaire. American Colonies sign treaties with the French and Dutch.

1781 Publication of Rousseau’s Confessions. Necker recommends, in a Memoir to the King, that the Parlements should be restricted to their judicial functions. Necker publishes his Compte Rendu but his figures on this balance sheet are dangerously incorrect. His policy of financing the American War by extensive borrowing leads to mounting debt. In May, Necker resigns.

1782 Peace talks between Britain, represented by Thomas Grenville, and America, represented by Benjamin Franklin, in Paris.

1783 Peace of Versailles. Britain recognizes American Independence.

1784 Beaumarchais completes The Marriage of Figaro.

1786 Foundation of the Société Philanthropique. Calonne estimates the deficit at 112 million livres. Decision to call Assembly of Notables rather than Parlement of Paris.

1787 Parlement of Paris demands summoning of States-General. Louis XVI declares that they will not be summoned before July 1792. Beaumarchais finishes his comedy Tarare. Lavoisier completes Méthode de nomenclature chimique.

1788 Disastrous financial policies of Calonne lead to complete bankruptcy. Brienne replaces Calonne. Parlement of Paris presents list of grievances. Louis XVI decides to call a States-General for May 1789 and recalls Jacques Necker as Minister of Finance. Bread Riots.

1789 Sieyès publishes Qu’est-ce que le Tiers Etat? States-General meet at Versailles. The Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly. It decides to remain at Versailles until a Constitution is drawn up. Mirabeau emerges as a national figure. The Three Estates unite. The King dismisses Necker. The Paris mob storm the Bastille. Lafayette becomes commander of the National Guard. Abolition of the French Feudal System. Declaration of the Rights of Man. The King and Court move from Versailles to Paris. French Royalists begin to emigrate. The National Assembly nationalizes church property and forbids any member to accept office under Louis XVI. Issue of paper money.

1790 Festival of Champ de Mars. Louis XVI accepts the Constitution drawn up by the National Assembly. Edmund Burke writes Reflections on the Revolution in France. André de Chénier publishes Avis au peuple français.

1791 Mirabeau elected President of the French Assembly. Louise XVI, trying to escape from France with his family, is caught at Varennes and returned to Paris. Massacre of the Champs de Mars. French National Assembly dissolved. Thomas Paine completes his The Rights of Man, Part 1 (in defence of the French Revolution).

1792 The Girondists form a Ministry in France. The mob invades Les Tuileries. The Revolutionary Commune is established and the Legislative Assembly suspended. The Royal Family is imprisoned and the French Republic proclaimed on September 22. Revolutionary calendar comes into force. The Jacobins under Danton seize power. Trials of Louis XVI. The first guillotine in Paris. Thomas Paine finishes Part 2 of his Rights of Man.

1793 Louis XVI executed. Committee of Public Safety established in France with Danton as its head. Reign of Terror begins. Robespierre and St. Just join Committee of Public Safety. Roman Catholicism banned in France. Marie Antoinette and Duc d’Orléans executed. Napoleon takes Toulon. First Coalition against France formed. Holy Roman Empire declares war on France. French troops driven out of Germany. Marquis de Sade publishes La philosophie dans le boudoir. Compulsory education from the age of six introduced in France. Executions and Reign of Terror continue. Condorcet writes Esquisse d’un tableau historique de progrès de l’esprit humain. The Louvre in Paris becomes a national art gallery.

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