|
1638 |
|
|
1643 |
Accession of Louis XIV |
|
1648 |
Outbreak of the Fronde; Peace of Westphalia concludes Thirty Years War |
|
1649–52 |
Fronde of the Princes |
|
1651 |
Majority of Louis XIV |
|
1654 |
Coronation of Louis XIV |
|
1659 |
Peace of the Pyrenees; Spain cedes Artois and Roussillon |
|
1661 |
Death of Mazarin; Louis XIV assumes personal rule; arrest of Fouquet |
|
1661–4 |
Chamber of Justice |
|
1663 |
New France becomes a royal colony |
|
1664 |
Creation of East and West Indies companies |
|
1667–8 |
War of Devolution |
|
1669 |
Peace of the Church temporarily resolves Jansenist quarrels |
|
1672–8 |
Dutch war |
|
1673 |
Parlements lose the right to remonstrate before registration of new laws |
|
1675 |
Stamped Paper revolts in Brittany and Bordeaux |
|
1676 |
Factory established at Pondicherry (India) |
|
1678 |
Peace of Nijmegen: Spain cedes Franche Comté |
|
1679–81 |
Chambers of Reunion |
|
1681 |
Strasbourg annexed |
|
1682 |
Four Gallican Articles adopted; Court moves to Versailles |
|
1683 |
Death of Colbert |
|
1684 |
Louis XIV marries Mme de Maintenon; truce of Regensburg |
|
1685 |
Revocation of the edict of Nantes; Code Noir published |
|
1688–97 |
War of the League of Augsburg |
|
1693–4 |
Economic crisis; around 2 million die |
|
1695 |
Capitation introduced |
|
1697 |
Peace of Ryswick: Spain cedes Saint-Domingue to France. |
|
1698–1700 |
Partition treaties on Spanish empire; Charles II of Spain dies |
|
1699 |
First French settlement in Louisiana |
|
1701–13 |
War of the Spanish Succession |
|
1704 |
French defeat at Blenheim |
|
1709–10 |
Economic crisis: ‘the great winter’, worst of the century |
|
1709 |
Closure of Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal; indecisive battle of Malplaquet |
|
1710 |
Introduction of tenth (dixième) |
|
1711 |
French victory at Denain |
|
1711–12 |
Most heirs to throne die; legitimation of royal bastards |
|
1713 |
Peace of Utrecht: France loses peninsular Acadia and Newfoundland; bull Unigenitus promulgated |
|
1715 |
Death of Louis XIV; accession of Louis XV; full right of remonstrance restored to parlements |
|
1715–23 |
Regency of Philippe d’Orléans |
|
1716 |
John Law establishes bank; chamber of justice |
|
1717 |
Jansenist appeal against Unigenitus |
|
1718 |
Abolition of conciliar government (polysynodie); New Orleans founded |
|
1720 |
Louisbourg founded; collapse of Law’s ‘System’ |
|
1721 |
Montesquieu, Persian Letters |
|
1723 |
Death of the regent d’Orléans |
|
1726 |
Livre tournois stabilized; ministry of Fleury begins |
|
1730 |
Unigenitus declared a law of church and state |
|
1732 |
Convulsions of Saint-Médard |
|
1733–8 |
War of the Polish Succession |
|
1734 |
Voltaire, Philosophical Letters |
|
1738 |
Forced labour on roads (corvée) introduced; Peace of Vienna: France guaranteed succession to Lorraine |
|
1740 |
Poor harvest and floods |
|
1740–8 |
War of the Austrian Succession |
|
1743 |
Death of Fleury |
|
1744 |
Louis XV’s illness at Metz: proclaimed ‘well-beloved’ |
|
1745 |
Victory of Fontenoy; presentation of Mme de Pompadour |
|
1748 |
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle; Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws |
|
1749 |
Establishment of twentieth (vingtième); refusal of sacraments to Jansenists |
|
1751 |
Encyclopédie begins publication |
|
1753–4 |
Exile of parlement of Paris |
|
1754 |
Law of silence on religious disputes |
|
1755 |
Hostilities in North America; deportation of Acadians |
|
1756 |
Diplomatic revolution brings France and Austria into alliance |
|
1756–63 |
Seven Years War |
|
1757 |
(Jan.) Damiens stabs Louis XV; |
|
(Nov.) Prussians defeat French at Rosbach |
|
|
1759 |
Fall of Quebec |
|
1761 |
Attack on Jesuits in parlement of Paris begins |
|
1762 |
Rousseau, Social Contract ; Emile; Calas case in Toulouse |
|
1763 |
Peace of Paris: loss of Canada |
|
1764 |
Death of Pompadour; expulsion of Jesuits; First relaxation of restrictions on grain trade. |
|
1765 |
Brittany affair |
|
1766 |
Lorraine becomes French on death of king-duke Stanislas; ‘Flagellation’ session in parlement of Paris |
|
1767–70 |
Series of poor harvests followed by bread riots |
|
1768 |
Annexation of Corsica |
|
1770 |
Partial bankruptcy of Terray; future Louis XVI marries Marie-Antoinette of Austria |
|
1771 |
Maupeou remodels the parlements |
|
1774 |
Death of Louis XV; accession of Louis XVI; fall of Maupeou and Terray |
|
1775 |
‘Flour War’ |
|
1776 |
Fall of Turgot; military venality abolished |
|
1778–83 |
French participation in American War of Independence |
|
1778 |
Necker’s ‘provincial administrations’; death of Voltaireand Rousseau |
|
1781 |
Compte rendu of Necker; resignation of Necker; death of Maurepas; Ségur ordinance requiring nobility of army officers; Franco-American victory at Yorktown |
|
1783 |
Peace of Paris; committee of .nance established; Calonne joins ministry |
|
1785–6 |
Diamond necklace affair |
|
1785 |
Beaumarchais’s Marriage of Figaro first performed |
|
1786 |
Commercial treaty with Great Britain; (20 Aug.) |
|
Calonne presents reform plans to Louis XVI |
|
|
1787 |
(Feb.–May) Assembly of Notables; fall of Calonne; |
|
(Sept.) Prussians invade Holland; |
|
|
(Nov.) disastrous royal session in parlement of Paris |
|
|
1788 |
(May) Lamoignon attempts reform of parlements; |
|
(13 July) harvest destroyed; |
|
|
(16 Aug.) payments from treasury suspended; fall of Brienne, recall of Necker. |