- 1643: At age 5, Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, becomes king of France. His reign introduces a period of major prosperity-- not to mention decadence. The King builds Versailles in 1623, displacing the center of power from the Palais Royal in central Paris to the countryside.
- 1774: Louis XVI ascends to the throne.
Known for his political and social ineptitude and his curious fixation with locks and clocks
he is married to Marie Antoinette, the adolescent daughter of powerful Austrian empress Maria Theresa.
- July 14, 1789: The Bastille prison in Paris is stormed and burned to rubble, marking the beginning of the French Revolution.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are widely accused of rampant
decadence and indifference to the plight of the people.
- 1792: Fall of the monarchy and declaration of the first French republic.
In 1793, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are guillotined.
- 1793-1799: The Revolutionary "reign of terror" leads to thousands of executions and general chaos, and Paris is the center of it.
Religion is banned and a new calendar is established.
