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1610 |
Accession of nine-year-old Louis XIII as King of France following the assassination of his father, Henri IV. Regency of his mother, Marie de Médicis. |
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1615 |
Double royal marriage: Louis XIII weds Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III of Spain; his sister, Elisabeth, weds Anne's brother, who accedes as Philip IV of Spain in 1621. |
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1617 |
Louis XIII assumes power, after countenancing murder of his mothers's unpopular favourite, Concini. |
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1618 |
Thirty Years War begins in Prague with a Protestant revolt against the anti-national Catholic policy of the Habsburg Emperor in Vienna. In 1621 the war spreads to the Rhineland Palatinate and gradually involves all Europe. |
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1624 |
Cardinal Richelieu becomes King's chief minister. Over the next eighteen years his ruthless policies impose the autocratic authority of a centralised monarchy, destroying the last fortified strongholds of the French Protestant Huguenots and curbing the rights of the nobility. In foreign affairs he challenges Habsburg hegemony on France's eastern and southern frontiers. |
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1625 |
Charles I ascends the English throne; marries Louis XIII's sister Henrietta Maria. |
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1626 |
Richelieu subsidises Protestant Sweden's entry into Thirty Years War against the Emperor and Spain. He authorises the Company of the Hundred Associates to control New France and develop trade along the St Lawrence valley and regions explored by Champlain (who founded Quebec in 1608). |
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1635 |
France enters the Thirty Years War, grouped with Sweden, Savoy and the Dutch against the Spanish and Austrians. |
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1638 |
Birth of Dauphin Louis, future Louis XIV. |
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1640 |
Birth of his brother Philippe, to be known as Monsieur. |
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1642 |
Richelieu dies: the Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin, a favourite of Anne of Austria, succeeds him as chief minister. Start of English Civil War. |
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1643 |
Death of Louis XIII: accession of Louis XIV under Regency of Anne of Austria. French, led by future Prince de Condé (aged 22), defeat Spanish at Rocroi. |
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1648 |
Peace of Westphalia ends Thirty Years War: France gains southern Alsace and eastern frontier fortresses including Verdun, Toul and Metz but remains at war with Spain. The first Fronde: mob rioters (frondeurs = stone slingers) support protest of the Parlement de Paris (supreme court) against taxation and force royal family and Mazarin to flee Paris for eight months. |
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1649 |
Execution of Charles I; accession of Charles II (in exile). Second Fronde begins in Paris, primarily a conflict between rival nobles. |
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1650 |
Condé, his brother the Prince de Conti and brother-in-law Duc de Longueville, leading Frondeur nobles, arrested by Mazarin. |
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1651 |
Under threat of mob revolt in Paris, Anne of Austria releases Frondeur princes. Mazarin goes into temporary exile at Cologne. Louis XIV comes of age officially but Anne of Austria remains his chief counsellor. Condé leads Frondeur army in two years of civil war; opposed by Marshal Turenne, loyal to Louis. |
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1653 |
Mazarin returns. End of Fronde; Condé flees to Spanish Netherlands (pardoned by Louis XIV in 1659 and commands armies in later campaigns). Fouquet becomes finance minister; building up a fortune through peculation. Cromwellian Protectorate in England. |
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1658 |
Alliance between France and Cromwell's England; joint armies defeat Spanish at battle of the Dunes (June). Cromwell acquires Dunkirk but dies (September). |
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1659 |
Peace of Pyrenees ends war between France and Spain. France gains foothold on border of Spanish Netherlands and in Roussillon, on the eastern Pyrenees. |
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1660 |
Louis XIV marries Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Philip IV of Spain and his first cousin. Restoration of Charles II in England. |
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1661 |
Mazarin dies. Louis XIV takes power, never again appointing a chief minister. The corrupt Fouquet is replaced by Colbert, who reforms the financial system and undertakes a vigorous public works programme, later also becoming Minister of Marine and creating a navy. Marriage of Monsieur to Charles II's sister, Henriette-Anne. |
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1662 |
French defensive alliance with the Dutch, promising support if they are attacked by another country. Charles II sells Dunkirk to France. |
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1663 |
Colbert organises New France as a crown colony, with Quebec as capital. |
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1664 |
Colbert promotes trade by abolishing internal tariff duties. |
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1665 |
Philip IV of Spain dies; succeeded by Carlos II, son by his second marriage (to Maria Anna of Austria), half-brother to Queen Marie-Thérèse. |
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1666 |
Louis XIV declares war on England in support of the Dutch but no fighting ensues. Louvois appointed Minister of War. Anne of Austria dies. |
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1667 |
War of Devolution. Louis XIV claims that legally Spanish Netherlands ‘devolved' on Marie-Thérèse at Philip IV's death; he sends Turenne's army into Flanders to enforce his claim. |
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1668 |
(January) English, Dutch and Swedes make alliance to compel Louis to end War of Devolution; peace comes in May with Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle giving France twelve towns in Flanders and Artois, including Lille, but Louis does not withdraw claim to Spanish Netherlands. |
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1669 |
Colbert encourages founding of first French trading port in India. |
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1670 |
Secret Treaty of Dover made by Charles II and his sister Henriette-Anne: Louis XIV promises Charles subsidies: Charles agrees to declare himself a Catholic at a suitable moment and to support France if Louis attacks Holland. Henriette-Anne dies thirty-nine days after making the treaty. |
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1671 |
Widowed Monsieur marries Liselotte, possible heiress to the Palatinate. |
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1672 |
England and France declare war on the Dutch. Louis invades Holland but meets strong resistance from newly elected Dutch Stadtholder William of Orange, son of Charles II's sister Mary. Frontenac begins ten-year term as Governor of New France establishing forts as far south as Lake Ontario. |
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1673–5 |
Successful campaigns by Louis's armies in the Palatinate and Flanders. |
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1677 |
William of Orange marries his cousin Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York and second in line of succession to English and Scottish crown. |
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1678 |
Peace of Nijmegen ends French war with Dutch and Spanish. Louis XIV gains fourteen towns in Spanish Netherlands, enabling Vauban to build fortresses eventually running from Dunkirk on the coast to Dinant on the river Meuse. |
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1679 |
Louis XIV sets up a Chambre Ardente (‘Burning Chamber'), a special commission to investigate accusations of murder, witchcraft and Black Masses in the ‘Affair of the Poisons'. Several leading personages in the kingdom implicated. In next three years Chambre conducts more than 200 interrogations: at least twenty-four executed; several more die under torture; others sent to the galleys or imprisoned. |
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1680 |
Highest council of Paris Parlement formally gives Louis XIV title of ‘the Great'. ‘Chambers of Reunion' set up in which jurists support Louis XIV's claims to Upper and Lower Alsace. Olympe, Comtesse de Soissons, Mistress of the Robes, flees France to avoid summons to Chambre Ardente. Her son, Prince Eugene of Savoy, refused military commission by Louis XIV, offers his services to Emperor Leopold I. |
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1681 |
Dragonnades, soldiers billeted by Louvois in Huguenot communities to enforce conversions to Catholicism. Mass migration of Huguenot craftsmen begins. Canal du Midi completed, enabling barges to convey goods from Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean. |
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1682 |
(April) Louis XIV abruptly closes Chambre Ardente with 100 cases still pending. (May) He moves the Court and government to Versailles. La Salle leads expedition down Mississippi, claims the region for France and names it Louisiana. |
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1683 |
Marie-Thérèse and Colbert die. Emperor Leopold I and Carlos II join Dutch and Swedes in anti-French coalition. Vienna besieged by Turks. |
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1684 |
Turkish threat induces Emperor to conclude Truce of Ratisbon with Louis XIV allowing France to retain all towns assigned by Chambers of Reunion. |
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1685 |
Charles II dies, succeeded by Catholic brother, James (II) Duke of York. Louis XIV revokes Edict of Nantes, finally denying Huguenots religious and civil rights guaranteed them by Henri IV. Dragonnades brutally enforce conversion to Catholicism. Several hundred Huguenot officers join the migration and enlist in Protestant armies abroad. |
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1686 |
Emperor Leopold and rulers of Spain, Sweden, Saxony, the Palatinate and Brandenburg form League of Augsburg, an alliance to check further French expansion. |
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1687 |
Fort Niagara built to prevent English colonists encroaching on New France. |
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1688 |
War of League of Augsburg begins: Louis XIV invades Palatinate supporting claim of Liselotte as successor to her brother, opposed by League alliance, now joined by Duke of Saxony. William of Orange accepts invitation from Whig lords to save English Protestantism, lands in Torbay and marches on London; James II escapes to France on Christmas Day. |
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1689 |
William of Orange and his wife proclaimed joint rulers as William III and Mary II in London. Mary Beatrice, wife of James II, settles at St Germain with her son James Edward (born June 1688). England and Holland join League of Augsburg, now known as the Grand Alliance. France declares war on England. James II crosses to Ireland to rally Catholics against William and Mary. |
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1690 |
Battle of the Boyne: William III defeats James, who returns to St Germain. |
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1691 |
Many Irish Catholics flee to France and enter Louis XIV's army. |
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1692 |
English naval victory at La Hogue removes threat of French invasion. |
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1693 |
Louis XIV fails to capture Liége and never again joins his troops in the field. |
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1694 |
Mary II dies, leaving William III as sole ruler. French invade Spain. |
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1695 |
William III captures Namur. |
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1696 |
Treaty of Turin: Duke of Savoy abandons Grand Alliance and changes sides in the war; his daughter Adelaide betrothed to the Duc de Bourgogne, Louis's grandson. |
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1697 |
Peace of Ryswick ends War of the League of Augsburg. Louis XIV implicitly recognises William III as king in England, Scotland and Ireland, with his niece Anne as heiress presumptive. Mutual restoraton of all conquests since Peace of Nijmegen (1678), France surrendering right bank of the Rhine and Lorraine. Louis agrees that Dutch shall garrison chief fortresses in Spanish Netherlands. |
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1698 |
English, French and Dutch diplomats meet in London to discuss partition of Spain, seeking to prevent war when Carlos II dies. |
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1699 |
English and Dutch sign partition treaty with France but it is subsequently rejected by Emperor in Vienna and by Carlos II. |
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1700 |
Carlos II dies, having declared Duc d'Anjou (Louis's grandson and third in line of succession to French throne) as his heir; he accedes as Philip V. |
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1701 |
War of Spanish Succession begins: French troops enter Spanish Netherlands on behalf of Philip V. England, Holland and Empire (fearing future dual kingdom of France and Spain) form Grand Alliance against Louis, recognising Austrian archduke as Charles III of Spain. James II dies; Louis XIV acknowledges his son James Edward (‘Old Pretender') as James III. |
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New France: Antoine Cadillac founds Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit on the straits of Lake Erie. |
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1702 |
William III dies; Anne, daughter of James II, accedes; England and Holland cease to have common ruler. |
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1703 |
Savoy and Portugal join Grand Alliance against France. |
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1704 |
Duke of Marlborough leads army 250 miles from lower Rhine to upper Danube, linking up with Emperor's troops under Prince Eugene to win major victory over French and Bavarians at Blenheim in Bavaria. |
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1705 |
English navy takes Barcelona and Austrian ‘Charles III' is recognised as King in Catalonia and Aragon. |
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1706 |
Marlborough defeats French at Ramillies and occupies Brussels and Antwerp. Eugene defeats French outside Turin and drives them from northern Italy. |
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1707 |
Act of Union unites England and Scotland as Great Britain. |
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1708 |
Marlborough and Eugene jointly defeat French at Oudenarde under Vendôme and capture Ghent and Bruges. Winter of 1708–9 is coldest on record in France. |
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1709 |
Malplaquet: final joint victory of Marlborough and Eugene but with heavy casualties: 24,000 dead or wounded, twice as many as French. |
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1711 |
Emperor Joseph I dies; succeeded in Vienna by his brother ‘Charles III' who becomes Emperor Charles VI. |
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1713 |
Peace of Utrecht ends War of Spanish Succession: Spain and France never to be united under one ruler. Philip V recognised as King of Spain. Louis XIV accepts Protestant Succession in Britain and requires Pretender James Edward to leave France. French make concessions in North America, ceding Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Holland occupies Spanish Netherlands, which are to be ceded to Emperor once Dutch have established barrier fortresses to prevent a French return. |
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1714 |
Queen Anne dies: succeeded by her cousin George I, Elector of Hanover. Peace of Rastatt concludes Utrecht negotiations, finally ends conflict with France, taking possession from the Dutch of Austrian Netherlands. |
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1715 |
Louis XIV dies. Accession of his five-year-old great-grandson as Louis XV, under the regency of his nephew Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, son of Monsieur and Liselotte. |