|
|
Bronze Age, Iron Age and Dark
Ages - The
ancient culture of the Celts had settled in many
European countries including France
|
|
768 |
768-814 - Charlemagne rules as
King of the Franks and is crowned as Holy Roman
Emperor |
|
987 |
Hugh Capet founds the Capetian
dynasty |
|
1066 |
William, Duke of Normandy,
invades England and wins the Battle of Hastings
defeating King Harold |
|
1099 |
First Crusade ( The People's
Crusade). Jerusalem is
re-taken from the Muslims on the urging of Pope
Urban II. 1st Crusade led by Count Raymond IV of
Toulouse and proclaimed by many wandering preachers,
notably Peter the Hermit
|
|
1118 |
The Knights Templar founded to
protect Jerusalem and European pilgrims on their
journey to the city |
|
1147 |
Second Crusade led by Holy
Roman Emperor Conrad III and by King Louis VII of
France |
|
1190 |
Third Crusade 3rd Crusade led
by Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip II of
France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Saladin manages
to unite the Muslim world and recapture Jerusalem,
sparking the fourth Crusade
|
|
1200 |
Fourth Crusade and the
French/Flemish advanced on Constantinople but the
Christians fail to recapture Jerusalem
|
|
1212 |
The Children's Crusade led by
a French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes |
|
1270 |
Other crusades follow
including the eighth crusade led by Louis IX of
France - but the armies still fail to capture
Jerusalem
|
|
1337 |
1337 - 1443 - Hundred Years'
War with England |
|
1337 |
1337 - 1443 - Hundred Years'
War with England |
|
1346 |
The French are defeated at the Battle of Crecy |
|
1348 |
The Black Death ravages Europe
for the first of many times. An estimated one third
of the population is thought to have perished within
the first year
|
|
1356 |
The French are defeated at the Battle of Poitiers |
|
1415 |
Battle of Agincourt |
|
1429 |
Joan of Arc lifts the siege of
Orleans for the Dauphin of France, enabling him to
eventually be crowned at Reims
|
|
1430 |
Capture, trial, and execution
of Joan of Arc |
|
1434 |
The Medici family rises to
prominence in Florence |
|
1453 |
The Hundred Years War ends.
Calais is the only English possession on Continental
Europe |
|
1494 |
1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars-
France and Austria fight over Italian lands |
|
1515 |
François I crowned French King |
|
1534 |
Jacques Cartier discovers the Great Lakes and
the the St. Lawrence River |
|
1547 |
1547 - 1559: Reign of Henry II
|
|
1572 |
Massacre of Protestants in
Paris on St. Bartholomew's Eve by Catholics. 200,000
Huguenots fled France
|
|
1589 |
1589 - 1593 - Henri IV becomes
1st French Catholic Bourbon King |
|
1603 |
March 15:
Samuel de Champlain set sail for Quebec from
Honfleur, France following in the path of Jacques
Cartier to the St Lawrence River and Tadoussac
|
|
1605 |
Samuel de Champlain
establishes the first successful New France Colony
at Port Royal |
|
1608 |
Founding of Quebec |
|
1672 |
New France expansion into
Canada under Louis de Frontenac |
|
1758 |
French power in Canada
declines as the British capture Ft. Louisburg |
|
1617 |
Louis XIII crowned at the age
of 17 |
|
1624 |
Cardinal Richelieu becomes
French principal minister |
|
1643 |
1643 - 1715 - Louis XIV
becomes king
Mazarin becomes French Prime Minister
|
|
1715 |
Louis XV accedes the throne on
5 May 1789 King Louis XVI called a meeting of the
Estates-General at Versailles to obtain support for
new taxes sewing the seeds of the French Revolution
as the nobles and church were not subject to taxes
|
|
1789 |
June 1789 The commoners
declared themselves a National Assembly giving
themselves the power to write a new French
constitution
|
|
1789 |
14 July: The Bastille stormed
by the people of Paris |
|
1792 |
King Louis and Queen
Marie-Antoinette are executed and a republic set up
in France |
|
1793 |
Napoleon Bonaparte promoted to
general during the war with Prussia and Austria |
|
1799 |
1799 - 1814: Napoleon seizes
control of France and begins building a French
empire |
|
1815 |
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
by the British and exiled. The Bourbons were
returned to the French throne
|
|
1824 |
Charles X becomes king |
|
1830 |
July: Charles X overthrown
during the July Revolution of 1830 |
|
1848 |
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a
nephew of Napoleon, was elected to a four-year term
as French president
|
|
1815 |
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
seizes power |
|
1852 |
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
declares himself Emperor Napoleon III of France |
|
1870 |
France declares war on Prussia
and Emperor Napoleon III is overthrown |
|
1914 |
1914-1918 World War I -
Germany invades France |
|
1939 |
3 September: France and the
United Kingdom declare war on Germany starting World
War II |
|
1940 |
14 June: German troops enter
Paris |
|
1944 |
25 August: Allied troops
regain Paris and Charles De Gaulle becomes head of a
provisional French government
|
|
1945 |
August: The United States
dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki |
|
1956 |
Morocco and Tunisia granted
their independence from France |
|
1962 |
3 July: Algeria becomes
independent. |
