1791 in France

← 1790 1789 1788 1787 1786 1791 in France → 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796
Decades:	1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s 1810s
See also:	Other events of 1791 History of France  • Timeline  • Years

Events from the year 1791 in France .

Incumbents

• Monarch: Louis XVI
• The Legislative Assembly (after 1 October)

Events

Funeral of Comte de Mirabeau in the Church of St Eustache, April 4, 1791, (Musée de la Révolution française).

January

• 28 January – Robespierre discusses the organisation of the National Guard in the Assembly; ^[1] for three years a hot topic in French newspapers.

February

• 28 February – Day of Daggers; a confrontation between the guards and nobles.

March

• 2 March – Claude Chappe and his brothers first demonstrate the optical telegraph.
• Early March – Provincial militias are abolished and the Département de Paris is placed above the Paris Commune (1789-1795) in all matters of general order and security.
• March – The National Constituent Assembly accepts the recommendation of its Commission of Weights and Measures that the nation should adopt the metric system.

May

• 9 May – The Assembly discusses the right to petition. ^[2]
• 15 May – The Constituent Assembly declares full and equal citizenship for all free people of color.
• 16–18 May – Elections begin; Robespierre proposes and carries the motion that no deputy who sat in the Constituent assembly can sit in the succeeding Legislative assembly. ^[3]
• 28 May – Robespierre proposes all Frenchmen should be declared active citizens and eligible to vote. ^[4]
• 30 May – Robespierre delivers a speech on the abolition of the death penalty but without success. ^[5]

June

• 14 June – The abolition of the guild system is sealed; the Le Chapelier Law 1791 passes, which prohibits any kind of workers' coalition or assembly.
• 20–21 June – During the Flight to Varennes, Louis XVI and his family attempt to escape Paris, but are instead arrested at Varennes.

July

Translation of Voltaire

Champ de Mars massacre

• 11 July – The ashes of Voltaire are transferred to the Panthéon. An estimated million people attend the procession.
• 13–15 July – The Assembly debates the restoration of the king and his constitutional rights. ^[6]
• 17 July – The Champ de Mars massacre occurs in Paris. Jean Sylvain Bailly and Marquis de LaFayette declare a ban on gathering followed by martial law. ^{[7] [8]}
• 19 July – The King is restored to his functions.

August

Declaration of Pillnitz

• 21 August – Haitian Revolution: A slave rebellion breaks out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
• 27 August
  • Declaration of Pillnitz: A proclamation by Frederick William II of Prussia and the Habsburg Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, affirms their wish to "put the King of France in a state to strengthen the bases of monarchic government."
  • Third Anglo-Mysore War: Battle of Tellicherry: Off the south-west coast of India: a British Royal Navy patrol forces a French convoy bound for Mysore to surrender.
• 29 August–5 September – 1791 French legislative election.

September

• 3 September – The French Constitution of 1791 is accepted.
• 4 September – Louis XVI receives the title of King of the French.
• 13 September – Louis XVI accepts the final version of the completed constitution.
• 14 September – The Papal States lose Avignon to France.
• 28 September – Law on Jewish emancipation is promulgated, the first such legislation in modern Europe.
• 29 September – On the day before the dissolution of the Assembly, Robespierre opposes Jean Le Chapelier, who wants to proclaim an end to the revolution and restrict the freedom of the clubs.

October

• 1 October – The Legislative Assembly convenes.
• 6 October – The French Penal Code of 1791 is adopted.
• 14 October – A law is passed to reorganize the Garde Nationale in cantons and districts; officers and sub-officers are to be elected for one year only.
• 16–17 October – Massacres of La Glacière.
• 28 October – The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen is published.

November

• 16 November – Pétion de Villeneuve is elected mayor of Paris in a contest against Lafayette.

Undated

• Camembert cheese reputedly first made by Marie Harel, a farmer from Normandy. ^[9]

Births

• 28 January – Ferdinand Hérold, composer
• 26 May – Jean Vatout, poet and historian
• 30 June – Félix Savart, physicist
• 19 July – Odilon Barrot, politician
• 26 September – Théodore Géricault, painter
• 17 November – Louis-Étienne de Thouvenin, general
• 24 December – Eugène Scribe, dramatist and librettist

Deaths

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

• 2 April – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, revolutionary leader
• 10 June – Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, admiral
• 9 July – Jacques-Nicolas Tardieu, engraver
• 26 November – Nicolas Bricaire de la Dixmerie, man of letters
• 12 December – Etteilla, occult cartomancer
• 13 December – Mathieu Tillet, botanist

References

1. Walter, G. (1961) Robespierre à la tribune, p. 220, 223. In: Robespierre, vol. II. L’œuvre, part IV. Gallimard.
2. O'Brien 1837, pp. 422–438.
3. O'Brien 1837, pp. 439–446.
4. Edelstein, Melvin (9 March 2016). The French Revolution and the Birth of Electoral Democracy. Routledge. p. 48. ISBN   9781317031277 – via Google Books.
5. The Choices of Maximilien Robespierre by Marisa Linton
6. Mémoires authentiques de Maximilien Robespierre, p. 527
7. Discours de Danton, p. 152
8. Israel 2014, p. 206.
9. "The Invention of Marie Harel". Camembert de Normandie. Archived from the original on 2010-01-04. Retrieved 2020-12-06.

Sources

• Israel, Jonathan (2014). Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution from The Rights of Man to Robespierre. Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-1400849994.
• O'Brien, James Bronterre (1837). The Life and Character of Maximilian Robespierre. Proving ... that that Much Calumniated Person was One of the Greatest Men ...