REVOLUTIONARY CALENDAR.
| Vendémiaire | Sept. | Oct. |
| Brumaire | Oct. | Nov. |
| Frimaire | Nov. | Dec. |
| Nivose | Dec. | Jan. |
| Pluviose | Jan. | Feb. |
| Ventose | Feb. | March |
| Germinal | Mar. | April |
| Floréal | April | May |
| Prairial | May | June |
| Messidor | June | July |
| Thermidor | July | Aug. |
| Fructidor | Aug. | Sept. |
LEADING DATES IN THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Dates relating to military or foreign affairs are given in italics in order that the attention of the reader may be drawn to the relation between them and the domestic occurrences.
| 1774 | |
| Accession of Louis XVI.—Ministry of Turgot. | |
| 1776 | |
| Dismissal of Turgot—Ministry of Necker—American Declaration of Independence. | |
| 1778 | |
| France allies itself with America. | |
| 1781 | |
| Resignation of Necker. | |
| 1783 | |
| Calonne’s Ministry. | |
| 1787 | |
| The Assembly of Notables—Brienne’s Ministry. | |
| 1788 | |
| Necker’s Second Ministry. | |
| 1789 | |
| May 5. | Meeting of the States General. |
| June 17. | Adoption of the title of National Assembly. |
| June 20. | The Tennis Court Oath. |
| June 23. | The King comes to the Assembly to command the separation of the Orders. |
| July 14. | Capture of the Bastille. |
| Aug. 4. | Abolition of feudal rights. |
| Oct. 6. | The King brought to Paris. |
| 1790 | |
| July 14. | Feast of the Federation. |
| Nov. 27. | Oath imposed on the Clergy. |
| 1791 | |
| April 2. | Death of Mirabeau. |
| June 20. | The Flight to Varennes. |
| July 17. | The Massacre of the Champ de Mars |
| Aug. 27. | Declaration of Pilnitz. |
| Sept. 30. | End of the Constituent Assembly. |
| Oct. 1. | Meeting of the Legislative Assembly. |
| 1792 | |
| April 20. | Declaration of War against the King of Hungary and Bohemia, entailing also a War with Prussia. |
| June 13. | Dismissal of the Girondist Ministers. |
| June 20. | The King mobbed in the Tuileries. |
| July 26. | The Duke of Brunswick’s Manifesto. |
| Aug. 10. | Overthrow of the Monarchy. |
| Aug. 24. | Surrender of Longwy. |
| Sept. 2–7. | The September Massacres. |
| Sept. 20. | The Cannonade of Valmy. |
| Sept. 21. | Meeting of the Convention. |
| Sept. 22. | Proclamation of the Republic. |
| Nov. 6. | Victory of Jemmapes, followed by the occupation of Belgium, Savoy, Nice, and Mainz. |
| Nov. 19. | The Convention offers assistance to all Peoples desirous of freedom. |
| Dec. 2. | The French driven out of Frankfort. |
| Dec. 15. | The Convention orders its Generals to revolutionise the Foreign Countries in which they are. |
| 1793 | |
| Jan. 21. | Execution of the King. |
| Feb. 1. | Declaration of War against England and Holland. |
| Mar. 3. | Miranda driven from Maestricht. |
| Mar. 9. | Establishment of the Revolutionary Court. |
| Mar. 18. | Defeat of Neerwinden, followed by the loss of Belgium. |
| April 6. | Constitution of the Committee of Public Safety. |
| June 2. | Expulsion of the Girondists. |
| July 3. | Assassination of Marat. |
| July 8. | Surrender of Mainz, Condé, and Valenciennes. |
| Aug. 23. | The Levy of all men capable of bearing arms decreed. |
| Sept. 8. | Victory of Hondschoote. |
| Sept. 17. | The great Maximum Law and the Law against Suspected Persons. |
| Oct. 7. | Capture of Lyons. |
| Oct. 16. | Execution of the Queen. |
| Oct. 16. | Victory of Wattignies. |
| Oct. 31. | Execution of the Girondists. |
| Nov. 10. | Worship of Reason at Notre Dame. |
| Dec. 10. | Capture of Toulon. |
| Dec. 12. | Destruction of the Vendean Army at Le Mans. |
| 1794 | |
| Mar. 24. | Execution of the Hébertists. |
| April 5. | Execution of the Dantonists. |
| April. | Insurrection in Poland. |
| April 18. | Victory of Turcoing. |
| June 1. | Battle of June 1. |
| June 8. | Feast in honour of the Supreme Being. |
| June 26. | Victory of Fleurus, followed by the evacuation of Belgium by the Allies. |
| July 28. | Execution of the Robespierrists. |
| Nov. 12. | Jacobin Club closed. |
| Dec. 8. | Seventy-three Deputies of the Right readmitted into the Convention. |
| Dec. 24. | Repeal of Maximum Laws. |
| 1795 | |
| Jan. | Invasion of Holland. |
| Mar. 8. | Readmission to the Convention of survivors of Girondist Deputies proscribed on June 2, 1793. |
| April 1. | (Germinal 12) Insurrection of Lower Classes against the Convention. |
| Feb. 22. | Public exercise of all forms of worship permitted by the Convention. |
| May 20. | (Prairial 1) Second insurrection by Lower Classes against the Convention. |
| April 5. | Treaty of Peace made at Basel between France and Prussia. |
| June 8. | Death of the Dauphin. |
| July 12. | Treaty of Peace between France and Spain. |
| July 21. | Defeat of Emigrants at Quiberon. |
| Sept. 23. | Proclamation of the Constitution of the Year III. (1795). |
| Oct. 5. | (Vendémiaire 13) Insurrection of the Middle Classes against the Convention. |
| Oct. 26. | (Brumaire 4) Meeting of the New Legislature. |
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
FEUDALISM AND THE MONARCHY.
The Monarchy in France.
Like the rest of Western Europe, France, in the Middle Ages, was ruled by a feudal nobility, holding their lands of the king. Nowhere in Western Europe in the tenth century was the power of the king less, or the power of the nobles greater. The weight of their authority, therefore, fell heavily upon the peasants on their estates, and upon the inhabitants of the little towns scattered over the country. A feudal noble, if he were a seigneur, answering to our lord of the manor, ruled all dwellers on his estate. Their claims to property were heard in his courts, and they were amenable to his jurisdiction for crimes committed, or alleged to have been committed, by them. The seigneur may not have been a worse tyrant than many kings and princes of whom we read in history; but he was always close at hand, whilst Nero or Ivan the Terrible was far off from the mass of his subjects. He knew all his subjects by sight, had his own passions to gratify amongst them, and his vengeance to wreak upon those whom he personally disliked. To be free from this domination must have been the one thought of thousands of miserable wretches.