French history timeline

This chart puts 17 French kingdoms, empires and republics on one timeline in order, from Roman Gaul (50 BCE to 486 CE) to French Fifth Republic (1958 CE to the present). On these dates, Kingdom of France (Capetian) lasted longest, about 341 years.

See it on the interactive chart

Latin and Romance
Germanic

Every bar links to a page listing the sources its dates were checked against.

In order

Roman Gaul

50 BCE to 486 CE. about 535 years. capital Lugdunum, later Trier and Arles. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Caesar's conquest made Gaul a set of Roman provinces whose cities, roads and Latin speech outlasted the empire. Clovis took the last Roman enclave in 486.

Merovingian Kingdom

481 to 751 CE. about 270 years. capital Paris, Soissons, Metz. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Clovis united the Franks, became a Catholic and conquered most of Gaul. Real power passed to the mayors of the palace, and Pepin the Short deposed the last Merovingian king in 751.

Carolingian Empire

751 to 843 CE. about 92 years. capital Aachen. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Pepin the Short's dynasty. His son Charlemagne conquered Saxony, Lombardy and Bavaria and was crowned emperor in Rome in 800. His grandsons divided the empire at Verdun in 843.

West Francia

843 to 987 CE. about 144 years. capital Laon. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The western Carolingian kingdom, whose kings could not stop the Viking raids that led to the Norse settlement of Normandy from 911. The election of Hugh Capet in 987 ended Carolingian rule.

Kingdom of France (Capetian)

987 to 1328 CE. about 341 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Hugh Capet's descendants built royal power outward from Paris. Philip II conquered Normandy and Anjou, and Louis IX spent heavily on crusades. The direct line died out in 1328.

Kingdom of France (Valois)

1328 to 1589 CE. about 261 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The Valois kings fought the Hundred Years' War with England, turned by Joan of Arc in 1429. They then fought the Habsburgs in Italy and faced the Wars of Religion.

Kingdom of France (Bourbon)

1589 to 1792 CE. about 203 years. capital Paris, then Versailles (1682 to 1789). France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Henry IV ended the Wars of Religion. Louis XIV made France the dominant power in Europe from Versailles, and under the debt-burdened Louis XVI the Revolution broke out in 1789.

First French Republic

1792 to 1804 CE. about 12 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Proclaimed after the fall of the monarchy, it executed Louis XVI, went through the Terror and the Directory and fought most of Europe. Napoleon took power as First Consul in 1799.

First French Empire

1804 to 1815 CE. about 11 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Napoleon was proclaimed emperor in 1804 and dominated the continent from Spain to Poland after Austerlitz. The Russian disaster of 1812 and Waterloo in 1815 ended it.

Bourbon Restoration

1815 to 1830 CE. about 15 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Louis XVIII and Charles X ruled under a charter after Napoleon's fall. The July Revolution of 1830 ended the restoration.

July Monarchy

1830 to 1848 CE. about 18 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

The liberal monarchy of Louis-Philippe of Orleans, which extended the conquest of Algeria. The February Revolution of 1848 overthrew it.

Second French Republic

1848 to 1852 CE. about 4 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

It restored universal male suffrage and abolished slavery in the colonies. Its elected president, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, seized power in 1851.

Second French Empire

1852 to 1870 CE. about 18 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Napoleon III rebuilt Paris and expanded French rule in Africa and Indochina. The empire ended in 1870 after he was captured at Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War.

French Third Republic

1870 to 1940 CE. about 70 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

France's longest-lasting system of government since 1789. It separated church and state in 1905, greatly expanded the colonial empire and fought on the winning side in the First World War, then ended after the German victory of 1940.

Vichy France

1940 to 1944 CE. about 4 years. capital Vichy. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Marshal Petain's collaborationist state, which handed Jews over for deportation to Nazi camps. Germany occupied all of France in 1942, and the regime collapsed after the Allied landings of 1944.

French Fourth Republic

1946 to 1958 CE. about 12 years. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

A parliamentary republic of unstable coalitions that rebuilt France and co-founded the EEC, fought in Indochina and collapsed in the Algerian crisis of 1958.

French Fifth Republic

1958 CE to the present. about 67 years so far. capital Paris. France and the Low Countries, Europe.

Set up by Charles de Gaulle in 1958 as a semi-presidential system with a strong president. Algeria became independent in 1962. France is a nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a founding member of the EU.

Major events

451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. A coalition under the Roman general Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I fights Attila's Huns and their vassals in Gaul. It is one of the Western Roman Empire's last major operations, and its strategic significance is disputed. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of the Catalaunian Plains
732 Battle of Tours. Charles Martel's Franks defeat an Umayyad army from al-Andalus between Tours and Poitiers, checking Muslim raids deep into Gaul. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Tours
800 Charlemagne crowned emperor. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Romans in Saint Peter's on Christmas Day, reviving the imperial title in the west. Source: Wikipedia: Charlemagne
843 Treaty of Verdun. Agreed on 10 August 843, the treaty ends the Carolingian civil war and divides the empire among Lothair I, Louis II and Charles II. It is the first in a series of partitions contributing to the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire. Source: Wikipedia: Treaty of Verdun
1095 First Crusade proclaimed. At Clermont, Pope Urban II calls on western knights to aid Byzantium and take Jerusalem, which the crusaders capture in 1099. Source: Wikipedia: First Crusade
1337 Hundred Years' War begins. Philip VI of France moves to take back the English-held duchy of Aquitaine, and Edward III answers by claiming the French throne. Conflict between England and France continues, with truces, until 1453. Source: Wikipedia: Hundred Years' War
1429 Joan of Arc at Orléans. Joan, claiming divine guidance, reaches besieged Orléans in April and the English withdraw on 8 May. Charles VII is crowned at Reims. Captured by Burgundian troops in 1430, she is tried for heresy and burned at the stake in 1431. Source: Wikipedia: Joan of Arc
1789 French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille on 14 July begins the revolution that abolishes feudal privileges and, in 1792, the monarchy. Source: Wikipedia: French Revolution
1815 Battle of Waterloo. A British-led allied army under Wellington and Blucher's Prussians defeat Napoleon near Waterloo, in present-day Belgium, on 18 June. It is his last battle. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Waterloo
1848 Revolutions of 1848. Uprisings begin in Sicily in January and spread across Europe after the revolution in France in February, affecting over fifty countries with little coordination. Austria and Prussia eliminate feudalism by 1850. Source: Wikipedia: Revolutions of 1848
1919 Treaty of Versailles. Signed on 28 June, the treaty ends the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. Germany, barred from the negotiations, must disarm, make territorial concessions and pay reparations. Source: Wikipedia: Treaty of Versailles
1944 D-Day landings in Normandy. Allied forces land in Normandy on 6 June in the largest seaborne invasion in history, beginning the liberation of France and western Europe. Allied casualties on the day are at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Source: Wikipedia: Normandy landings
1957 Treaty of Rome. France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux countries found the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union. Source: Wikipedia: Treaty of Rome

Questions

What is the order of French kingdoms, empires and republics?

By start date: Roman Gaul, Merovingian Kingdom, Carolingian Empire, West Francia, Kingdom of France (Capetian), Kingdom of France (Valois), Kingdom of France (Bourbon), First French Republic, First French Empire, Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy, Second French Republic, Second French Empire, French Third Republic, Vichy France, French Fourth Republic and French Fifth Republic.

Which of the French kingdoms, empires and republics lasted longest?

On this timeline, Kingdom of France (Capetian), at about 341 years (987 to 1328 CE).

How many French kingdoms, empires and republics were there?

This timeline shows 17. Other lists count differently, depending on how they treat rival states and periods of division.

Which came first?

Roman Gaul, 50 BCE to 486 CE, is the earliest on this timeline.

Where do these dates come from?

Each row's dates were checked against the sources listed on that row's own page, mostly English Wikipedia articles, which cite the underlying scholarship. Dates that are uncertain are marked c.