Glossary of the French Revolution

This glossary of the French Revolution generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations; those can be found in List of people associated with the French Revolution.

The terminology routinely used in discussing the

The estates of the realm in ancien régime France were:

• First Estate (Premièr État, le clergé ) – The clergy, both high (generally siding with the nobility, and it often was recruited amongst its younger sons) and low.
• Second Estate (Second État, la noblesse ) – The nobility. Technically, but not usually of much relevance, the Second Estate also included the Royal Family.
• Third Estate (Tiers État) – Everyone not included in the First or Second Estate. At times this term refers specifically to the bourgeoisie, the middle class, but the Third Estate also included the sans-culottes, the labouring class. Also included in the Third Estate were lawyers, merchants, and government officials.

Fourth Estate is a term with two relevant meanings: on the one hand, the generally unrepresented poor, nominally part of the Third Estate; on the other, the press, as a fourth powerful entity in addition to the three estates of the realm.

Social classes

• Royalty – House of Bourbon. Later House of Bonaparte after the Empire was established.
• Nobility (noblesse) – Those with explicit noble title. These are traditionally divided into
  • noblesse d'épée ("nobility of the sword"), the hereditary gentry and nobility who originally had to perform military service in exchange for their titles.
  • noblesse de robe ("nobility of the gown"), the magisterial class that administered royal justice and civil government, often referring to those who earned a title of nobility through generations of long periods of public service (bureaucrats and civil servants) or bought it (rich merchants).
  • noblesse de cloche ("nobility of the bell"), mayors and aldermen of certain cities under royal charter were considered gentry. Some mayors and aldermen held a noble title for life after a long period of service in office.
  • Noblesse de race, ("Nobility through breeding"), The "old" nobility, who inherited their titles from time immemorial.
  • Noblesse d’extraction, Nobility of seize-quartiers ("sixteen Quarterings"); having pure noble or gentle ancestry for four generations.
  • Noblesse de lettres ("Nobility through letters patent"), The "new" nobility, from after circa 1400 AD.
• Ci-devant nobility (literally "from before"): nobility of the ancien régime (the Bourbon kingdom) after it had lost its titles and privileges.
• Bourgeoisie (literally "Suburbanites") – Roughly, the non-noble wealthy and the middle classes: typically merchants, investors, and professionals such as doctors and lawyers. The dwellers in the small bourgs ("walled towns and communities") outside the city.

Constitutions

• Liberal monarchical constitution – Adopted 6 October 1789, accepted by the King 14 July 1790.
• The
  Legislative Assembly
  .
• The Constitution of 1793, Constitution of 24 June 1793 (Acte constitutionnel du 24 juin 1793, or Montagnard Constitution (Constitution montagnarde) – Ratified, but never applied, due to the suspension of all ordinary legality 10 October 1793.
• The Constitution of the Year III, Constitution of 22 August 1795, Constitution of the Year III, or Constitution of 5 Fructidor – Establishes the Directory.
• The Constitution of the Year VIII – Adopted 24 December 1799, establishes the Consulate.
• The Constitution of the Year X – Establishes a revised Consulate, with Napoleon as First Consul for Life.
• The Constitution of the Year XII – Establishes Bonaparte's First Empire.

Governmental structures

In roughly chronological order:

• The
  Estates-General
  on 5 May 1789, and the liberal monarchical constitution of 6 October 1789.
• Parlements – Royal Law courts in Paris and most provinces under the ancien régime.
• The
  Estates-General of 1789 is one of the events that led to the French Revolution. The Estates General, as such, met 5–6 May 1789, but reached an impasse because the Third Estate
  refused to continue to participate in this structure. The other two estates continued to meet in this form for several more weeks.
• The Communes – The body formed 11 May 1789, by the Third Estate after seceding from the Estates General. On 12 June 1789, the Communes invited the other orders to join them: some clergy did so the following day.
• The National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) – Declared 17 June 1789, by the Communes. The clergy joined them June 19. This was soon reconstituted as...
• The National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante); also loosely referred to as the National Assembly – From 9 July 1789 to 30 September 1791, this was both the governing and the constitution–drafting body of France. It dissolved itself in favour of:
• The
  Legislative Assembly (Assemblée Legislative) – From 1 October 1791, to September 1792, the Legislative Assembly, elected by voters with property qualifications, governed France under a constitutional monarchy
  , but with the removal of the king's veto power on 11 July 1792, was a republic in all but name, and became even more so after the subsequent arrest of the Royal Family.
• The
  Paris Commune
  – During the waning days of the Legislative Assembly and the fall of the Monarchy, the municipal government of Paris functioned, at times, in the capacity of a national government, as a rival, a goad, or a bully to the Legislative Assembly.
  • Further, the Sections were directly democratic mass assemblies in Paris during the first four years of the Revolution.
• The Provisional Executive Committee – Headed by Georges Danton, this also functioned in August–September 1792 as a rival claimant to national power.
• The National Convention, or simply The convention – First met 20 September 1792; two days later, declared a republic. The National Convention after the fall of the Montagnards (27 July 1794) is sometimes referred to as the "Thermidorian Convention". Three committees of the National Convention are particularly worthy of note:
  • The Committee of Public Safety (Comité de salut public) – During the Reign of Terror, this committee was effectively the government of France. After the fall of the Montagnards, the committee continued, but with reduced powers.
  • The Committee of General Security (Comité de sûreté générale) – Coordinated the War effort.
  • The Committee of Education (Comité de l'instruction)
  • The Revolutionary Tribunal (Tribunal révolutionaire) instituted in March–October 1793 to prosecute all threats to the revolutionary republic, was the effective agent of the Comité de Salut Public's reign of terror in Paris until its dissolution on 31 May 1795.
• The
  18 Brumaire
  ), the date that is generally counted as the end of the French Revolution. The Directory itself was the highest executive organ, comprising five Directors, chosen by the Ancients out of a list elected by the Five Hundred; its legislative was bicameral, consisting of:
  • The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), or simply the Five Hundred.
  • The Council of Ancients (Conseil des Anciens), or simply the Ancients or the Senate.
• The
  plebiscite made Bonaparte First Consul for Life. In May 1804 the Empire
  was declared, bringing the Revolutionary era to a yet more definitive end.
• The
  Orateurs in the presence of the Corps législatif
  ; abolished in 1807