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.
APPENDIX 3
Table of principal events
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
27 November
Savoy becomes 84th French département
15 December
December Decree of Guerre aux châteaux
1793
14–17 January
Convention debates the fate of the King
21 January
The King is executed
1 February
War declared against England and Holland
14 February
Monaco annexed
7 March
War declared against Spain
9 March
Convention authorizes representatives en mission. Levy of 300,000 men authorized
10 March
Revolutionary Tribunal established
11 March
Revolt in La Vendée begins
18 March
Battle of Neerwinden
21 March
Comités de surveillance established in every commune
26 March
Committee of Public Safety established
4 April
General Dumouriez deserts to Austrians
6 April
Committee of Public Safety reduced to nine members.
13 April
Marat arraigned before Revolutionary Tribunal
4 May
First maximum
May – October