Historical Timeline 0f France

Major historical dates and events in French history, with wars and battles; the reigns of the kings, queens and political figures.

You can also test and improve your general knowledge with the French trivia quiz

Historical dates

A list of important dates and periods in French history:

10 000 BC Paleolithic age
5000 - 2500 BC Neolithic age
51 BC - 486 AD Gaule
52 - The Battle of Alesia
486 - 751 Complete time-line about the Merovingiens period
- 481 - 511 Clovis, the first king of the Franks
- 629 - 638 Dagobert I
- 721 - 737 Thierry IV
751 - 987 Carolingiens period
751 - 768 King Pepin le Bref
768 - 814 Charlemagne,
843 - 877 Charles II
877 - 879 Louis II
879 - 882 Louis III
898 - 923 Charles III
936 - 954 Louis IV
996 - 987 Louis V
987 - Capetiens period
987 - 996 Hugues I
996 - 1031 Robert II le Pieux
1031 - 1060 Henri I
1060 - 1108 Philippe I
1096 - Construction of the Basilica Vézelay
1108 - 1137 Louis VI
1130 - Construction of the Abbey of Fontenay
1137 - 1180 Louis VII
1180 - 1223 Philippe II
1223 - 1226 Louis VIII
1226 - 1270 Louis IX
1270 - 1285 Philippe le Hardi III
1285 - 1314 Philippe le Bel IV
1309 - The Pope moves to Avignon
1314 - 1316 Louis IX
1316 - Jean I ( died after only four days )
1316 - 1322 Philippe V
1322 - 1328 Charles IV
1328 - Valois Period
1346 - The Battle of Crecy
1350 - 1364 Jean II le bon
1364 - 1380 Charles V
1380 - 1422 Charles VI
1422 - 1461 Charles VII
1431 - Jeanne d'Arc is burnt to death in the city of Reims
1461 - 1483 Louis XI
End of the Middle Ages 1486
1483 - 1498 Charles VIII
1483 - 1595 Renaissance period
1498 - 1515 Louis XII
1539 - King Francois I declares French as the official language of France
1534 - Jacques Cartier begins to explore what is now Canada
1559 - 1560 Francois II, end of the war with Italy
1562 - 1598 The War of Religions, events and time line
1589 - 1610 Henry IV (murdered by Ravaillac)
1610 - 1643 Louis XIII
1643 - 1715 Louis XIV Roi Soleil, the longest reign of a French king
1661 - Louis XIV begins the construction of Versailles
1715 - 1774 Louis XV
1769 The birth of Napoléon Bonaparte August 15th at Ajaccio, Corsica
1774 - 1792 Louis XVI
1778 The American Colonies and France signed a military treaty on 6th February.
1783 The Treaty of Paris is signed to end the American Revolutionary War
1789 The French Revolution
- Prise de la Bastille the 14th July
- The declaration of "Droits de l'homme" 26th August
- The wealth of church is given to the nation 2nd November
1792 1st Republic
1793 Louis XVI is guillotined 21st January
1793 Marie Antoinette executed the 16th October
1795 France adopts the metric system
1796 Napoleon named as general of the army of Italy
1799 Creation of the Bank of France
1809 Napoleon takes Moscow
1809 Louis Braille is born on January 4th
1810 Chopin is born
1814 - 1824 Louis XVIII
1814 The Restoration, where the monarchy regains powers.
1816 Napoleon defeated at the Battle of Waterloo
1821 Death of Napoleon I on the island of Saint Helene
1822 Louis Pasteur is born December 27th in the town of Dole
1824 - 1830 Charles X
1830 Les Trois Glorieuses, 3 days of Parisian revolution.
1830 - 1848 Louis-Philippe I, declared king of the French and King of France.
1840 - 1917 Auguste Rodin, the sculptor
1841 - 1919 Auguste Renoir born in Limoges
1844 The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
1848 The 2nd Republic
1849 Chopin dies in Paris
1852 - 1870 2nd Empire Napoleon III ( he dies in England in 1873)
1858 The vision of Bernadette Soubrious at Lourdes
1862
- Victor Hugo writes "Les Miserables"
- Debussy is born near Paris
1870 The battle of Sedan, Napoleon III surrenders to Prussian and France loses the Alsace and Lorraine regions
1871 The 3rd Republic
1880 Offenbach dies in Paris
1887 - 1894 Sadi Carnot
1894 The affair Dreyfus, accused of treason
1889 World Expo at Paris with the Eiffel Tower
1895 Louis Pasteur September 28th
1898 J'accuse by Emile Zola
1899 Renault begin to construct automobiles
1905 The law separates the state from the church
1906 - 1913 Clemenceau
1914 - 1918 World War I
- Detailed dates and timeline for World War I
- ANZAC
1926 Death Claude Monet
1936 Holiday pay begins
1936-1945 Second World War
- Detailed dates and time-line for World War II
- Petain 1940 - 1944
- D-Day June 6 1944
- World war II, all in French, but excellent site
1938 Jean-Paul Sartre publishes La Nausée
1942 Albert Camus publishes L'Etranger
1944 - 1946 Charles De Gaulle
1944 April 21st, France finally gives women the right to vote.
1946 - 1947 Léon Blum
1947 The 4th Republic
1947-1954 Vincent Henrauriol
1954-1959 René Coty
1957 France joins the EEC
1959 The 5th Republic
1959-1969 Charles de Gaulle is president of France
1960 Albert Camus dies
1962 End of the war in Algeria
1968 - May student riots
1969 - 1974 President Pompidou
1969 The first flight of the Anglo-French built super sonic aircraft "Concorde"
1970 Death of Charles De Gaulle
1972 Maurice Chevalier dies on the 1st of January
1974 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing elected President
1981 François Mitterrand elected President
1981 France abolishes the Death penalty.
1988 François Mitterrand re-elected President
1991 Edith Cresson, the first woman French Prime Minister
1992 The French singer composer Michel Berger dies
1995 Jacques Chirac elected President
1996 François Mitterrand dies, 8th January
2001 Constitution is changed, the President is elected for 5 years (7 years before)
2002 Jacques Chirac re-elected President
2007 Nicolas Sarkozy elected as the 6th President of the 5^th French Repulic
2012 Francois Hollande elected as the 7th President of the 5^th French Repulic
2017 May 7^th Emmanuel Macron elected as the 8th President of the 5^th French Repulic

Author: Alister Aldridge (University of Besançon)