1791 in France

Events from the year 1791 in France.

Incumbents

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

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.

9 May – The Assembly discusses the right to petition.
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.
28 May – Robespierre proposes all Frenchmen should be declared active citizens and eligible to vote.
30 May – Robespierre delivers a speech on the abolition of the death penalty but without success.

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.

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.
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.
19 July – The King is restored to his functions.

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.

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.

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.

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