Timeline of French history

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This is a timeline of French history. To read about the background to these events, see History of France. See also the list of Frankish kings, French monarchs, and presidents of the French Republic and the list of years in France.

This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.

[edit] 3rd century

Year	Date	Event
297		The Salian Franks were allowed to settle on the territory of the Batavians.

[edit] 5th century

Year	Date	Event
426		Clodio, the earliest recorded king of the Salian Franks, began his reign.
448		Clodio died. He was succeeded by Merovech.
457		Merovech died. His son Childeric I succeeded him as king.
481		Childeric died. His son Clovis I succeeded him.
486		Battle of Soissons (486): A Frankish army under Clovis I defeated Syagrius and conquered the Domain of Soissons.

[edit] 6th century

Year	Date	Event
507		Battle of Vouillé: Clovis defeated a Visigoth army under Alaric II, and conquered Gallia Aquitania.
511	November 27	Clovis died. His kingdom was divided among his four sons; the territory with its seat at Paris went to Childebert I.
524	June 25	Battle of Vézeronce: The united armies of Clovis' sons inflicted a serious defeat on the Burgundian king Godomar. Chlodomer, the king of Orléans, was killed in battle.
		Clothar I, the Old, the king of Neustria, had two of Chlodomer's sons killed and forced the third into hiding.
558	December 13	Childebert died. His brother Chlothar inherited his territory.

[edit] 7th century

Year	Date	Event
613		Sigebert II, the king of Burgundy and Austrasia, was executed by Chlothar II, who inherited his kingdoms.
623		Clothar gave Austrasia its independence under the kingship of his son, Dagobert I.
629		Clothar died. Under an agreement forged after his death, Dagobert succeeded him as king of Neustria but ceded what would become Aquitaine to his brother, Charibert II.
632	April 8	Charibert died, possibly in an assassination ordered by his brother Dagobert. His infant son Chilperic succeeded him as king of Aquitaine.
		Chilperic was also killed. Dagobert reacquired Aquitaine.

[edit] 8th century

Year	Date	Event
711	April 23	Childebert died. He was succeeded by his son Dagobert III.
715		Dagobert died. He was succeeded by Chilperic II, the youngest son of Childeric II.
721	February 13	Chilperic died. He was succeeded by Theuderic IV, Dagobert III's son.
732	October 10	Battle of Tours: Frankish and Burgundian soldiers under the Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel inflicted a significant defeat on the invading armies of the Umayyad Caliphate.
737		Theuderic died. Charles Martel prevented succession.

[edit] 9th century

Year	Date	Event
814	January 28	Charlemagne died of pleurisy. His son Louis the Pious succeeded him as emperor and king of the Franks.
840	June 20	Louis died, igniting a civil war among his sons for division of the empire.
843		Louis' three surviving sons signed the Treaty of Verdun, under whose terms the Frankish Empire was divided into three states: Middle Francia, to Lothair; Eastern Francia, to Louis the German; and Western Francia, to Charles the Bald. Louis the Pious' grandson Pepin II became the king of Aquitaine, a vassal state of Western Francia.
855	September 23	Lothair died. Middle Francia was divided among his three sons into the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Burgundy, and Lotharingia, which went to his second son, Lothair II.
869	August 8	Lothair II died, leaving no legitimate children.

[edit] 10th century

Year	Date	Event
911		Charles signed the Treaty of Saint Clair-sur-Epte with Rollo, the king of the Vikings, allowing their settlement in what would become the Duchy of Normandy.
922		Charles was overthrown by a noble revolt and replaced by Robert I, Odo's brother.
923	June 15	Battle of Soissons (923): Robert was killed. Charles was captured by Rudolph, the duke of Burgundy.
		Rudolph was elected king of France by an assembly of nobles. He left the Duchy of Burgundy to his brother.
936	January 15	Rudolph died. He was succeeded by Louis IV, a son of Charles the Simple.

[edit] 11th century

Year	Date	Event
1004		Robert annexed the Duchy of Burgundy.
1031	July 20	Robert died in a civil war against his sons. His second son, Henry I, succeeded him; his third, Robert I Capet, disputed the succession and led a new revolt.
1032		Henry bought peace by reversing the annexation of the Duchy of Burgundy and giving it to his brother.
1060	August 4	Henry died. The throne passed to his seven-year-old son, Philip I, with his wife Anne of Kiev acting as regent.
1066		Philip entered his majority.

[edit] 12th century

Year	Date	Event
1108	July 29	Philip died. He was succeeded by his son Louis VI, the Fat.
1131	October 25	Louis' son, the future Louis VII, the Young, was crowned the junior king and heir to the throne.
1137	July 22	Louis the Young became duke of Aquitaine by marriage to the duchess Eleanor.
	August 1	Louis the Fat died. Louis the Young became king.
1152	March 21	The marriage of Louis and Eleanor was annulled.

[edit] 13th century

Year	Date	Event
1214	July 27	Battle of Bouvines: The French army defeated a combined English-Flemish force, enabling the kingdom to consolidate its control over Anjou, Brittany, Maine, Normandy and the Touraine.
1223	July 14	Philip died. He was succeeded by his son Louis VIII, the Lion.
1226	November 8	Louis died. He was succeeded by his son Louis IX.
1241	June	Louis IX announced that the County of Poitiers would go to his brother Alphonse - offending Isabella of Angoulême, whose son would have inherited the territory had the English won the Battle of Bouvines.
1242	May 20	Saintonge War: Henry III of England arrived with an army in support of Isabella's claim to Poitiers.

[edit] 14th century

Year	Date	Event
1302	May 18	Bruges Matins: The exiled citizens of Bruges, in Flanders, returned to their hometown and killed every Frenchman.
	July 11	Battle of the Golden Spurs: Flemish insurrectionists soundly defeated a French occupation force.
1314	November 29	Philip died. He was succeeded by his eldest son Louis X, the Headstrong.
1316	June 5	Louis died, possibly of poisoning. His wife was pregnant with their first child; his brother Philip was appointed regent.
	November 15	Louis' son was born John I, the Posthumous.
1357		The States-General passed Étienne Marcel's Great Ordinance in an attempt to impose limits on the monarchy, in particular in fiscal and monetary matters.

[edit] 15th century

Year	Date	Event
1415	August 13	Hundred Years' War (1415-1429): An English army under King Henry V landed in the north of France.
1418	May 30	The army of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, captured Paris. The dauphin, the future Charles VII, fled.
1419	September 20	John the Fearless was assassinated by companions of the dauphin. He was succeeded by his son Philip the Good, who would ally himself with the English against the French crown.
1420		The Burgundians compelled Charles VI to sign the Treaty of Troyes, under which the throne was to pass to Henry V.
1422	August 14	Henry V died. He was succeeded as King of England by his infant son Henry VI.

[edit] 16th century

Year	Date	Event
1508	December 10	War of the League of Cambrai: Representatives of the Papacy, France, and the Holy Roman Empire and Ferdinand I of Spain established the League of Cambrai, whose purpose was to defeat Venice and partition its territory.
1514	May 18	Claude, the duchess of Brittany, was married to Francis of Angouleme, the heir to the French throne.
1515	January 1	Louis died. Francis of Angouleme succeeded him as Francis I.
1524	July 20	Claude died. Her eldest son Francis, Dauphin of France, became Duke of Brittany.
1532		Francis I issued an edict incorporating Brittany into the kingdom of France.

[edit] 17th century

Year	Date	Event
1610	May 14	King Henry IV died, possibly at the hands of his Florentine wife Marie de' Medici. He was succeeded by his eldest son Louis XIII, with de' Medici ruling as regent.
1617		16-year old Louis exiled his mother and took control of the government.
1624	August	Louis took Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, as his chief minister.
1643	May 14	Louis died. His five-year-old son Louis XIV succeeded him. Jules Cardinal Mazarin became regent.
1648	August	Fronde: Mazarin ordered the arrest of the leaders of the parlement of Paris, which provoked widespread rioting.

[edit] 18th century

Year	Date	Event
1701	July 9	Battle of Carpi: Austrian invaders encountered the French army at Carpi, and defeated them.
1713	April 11	War of the Spanish Succession: France and England signed the Treaty of Utrecht, under which Philip renounced for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne. Similarly, possible heirs to the French crown renounced all rights to the rulership of Spain.
1714	March 7	War of the Spanish Succession: The Treaty of Rastatt ended hostilities between France and Austria.
1715	September 1	Louis XIV died of gangrene. His five-year-old great-grandson Louis XV succeeded him, with his nephew Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, acting as regent.
1723	February 15	Louis XV entered his majority.
1789	July 14	The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille.

[edit] 19th century

Year	Date	Event
1801	February 9	War of the Second Coalition: The Treaty of Lunéville ended the conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire. The French border was extended to the Rhine, and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany became a French possession.
1802	March 25	War of the Second Coalition: The Treaty of Amiens established a peace between France and the United Kingdom.
1803	November 18	Battle of Vertières: The viscount of Rochambeau was defeated and forced to surrender to the revolutionary army of Jean-Jacques Dessalines.
1804	January 1	Haitian Revolution: Dessalines declared the independence of Haiti.
	May 18	Napoleon was declared Emperor by the Senate, marking the beginning of the First French Empire.
1870		"Franco-Prussian War" France's loss marked the downfall of Napoleon III and led to the end of the Second French Empire. The Third Republic was subsequently declared.

[edit] 20th century

Year	Date	Event
1905	December 9	The 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State ended government funding of religious groups.
1914	June 28	Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip of the Bosnian separatist group Young Bosnia.
	July 23	World War I: Austria-Hungary issued the July Ultimatum to Serbia, demanding, among other things, the right to participate in the investigation into the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which Serbia refused.
	July 28	World War I: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
	July 30	World War I: Russia mobilized its army to defend Serbia.
	August 3	World War I: Germany declared war on France.

[edit] 21st century

Year	Date	Event
2002	April 21	French presidential election, 2002: President Jacques Chirac went into a runoff against Jean-Marie Le Pen.
	May 5	French presidential election, 2002: Chirac won reelection with eighty-two percent of the runoff vote.
2005	May 29	French European Constitution referendum, 2005: Fifty-five percent of French voters rejected the adoption of the proposed Constitution of the European Union.
	October 27	2005 civil unrest in France: Hundreds began rioting after the accidental deaths of two teenagers in Clichy-sous-Bois.
	November 8	2005 civil unrest in France: President Chirac declared a state of emergency.