# 1870 in France

Events from the year 1870 in France.

## Incumbents

* Monarch – Napoleon III (abdicates 4 September, monarchy abolished)

## Events

* February - Denis Vrain-Lucas is sentenced to 2 years in prison for multiple forgery, in Paris.
* 20 April - Constitutional referendum reaffirms the status of the Second French Empire.
* 14 July - Ems Dispatch published, serving as a casus belli for war between France and Prussia.
* 15 July - French army mobilizes.
* 16 July - Corps législatif votes to declare war on Prussia.
* 19 July - France declares war on Prussia: opening of the Franco-Prussian War.
* 4 August - Battle of Wissembourg: Prussian forces overwhelm the French garrison at Wissembourg.
* 6 August
** Battle of Spicheren, near Saarbrücken: Prussian victory.
** Battle of Wörth: decisive Prussian victory.
* 14 August - Battle of Borny-Colombey: Prussian victory; French retreat upon Metz.
* 15 August - Siege of Strasbourg begins.
* 16 August - Battle of Mars-la-Tour: Prussian victory.
* 18 August - Battle of Gravelotte: Prussian victory.
* 30 August - Battle of Beaumont: Prussian victory.
* 31 August - Battle of Noiseville: Prussian victory.
* 1–2 September - Battle of Sedan: decisive Prussian victory. Napoleon III surrenders himself and the entire Army of Châlons and declares the Second Empire dissolved.
* 3 September - Siege of Metz begins with French forces besieged.
* 4 September - Third Republic declared in Paris. Government of National Defense established. Empress Eugenie flees to England with her son.
* 19 September - Siege of Paris begins.
* 27–30 September - Battle of Le Bourget, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
* 28 September - Siege of Strasbourg ends with French surrender.
* 30 September - Battle of Chevilly, part of the siege of Paris: Prussian victory.
* 8 October - Leon Michel Gambetta escapes besieged Paris in a hot-air balloon.
* 18 October - Battle of Bellevue, near Metz: Prussian victory.
* 23 October - Siege of Metz ends with French surrender.
* 3 November - Siege of Belfort begins with French troops besieged.
* 9 November - Battle of Coulmiers: French victory over Bavarian forces.
* 11 November - French retake Orléans.
* 27 November - Battle of Amiens: Prussian victory.
* 28 November - Battle of Beaune-la-Rolande: Prussian victory.
* 29 November - Battle of Villiers, largest of the French sorties from besieged Paris, begins.
* 2 December - Battle of Loigny-Poupry, Prussian victory.
* 3 December - Battle of Villiers ends with Prussian victory.
* 3–4 December - Second Battle of Orléans: Prussians recapture Orléans.
* 23–24 December - Battle of Hallue results in stalemate.

## Arts and literature

* February - Sculptor Aimé Millet is appointed professor at the École des Arts décoratifs.
* 25 May - Léo Delibes' ballet Coppélia debuts at the Théâtre Impérial de l'Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris.
* 28 June - Claude Monet marries his mistress and model Camille Doncieux in Paris; Gustave Courbet is a witness.

## Births

* 25 January - Henry Bordeaux, writer and lawyer (died 1963)
* 28 April - Frédéric Justin Collet, pathologist and otolaryngologist (died 1966)
* 20 June - Georges Dufrénoy, post-impressionist painter (died 1943)
* 27 July - Hilaire Belloc, French-born English man of letters (died 1953 in the United Kingdom)
* 24 September - Georges Claude, engineer, chemist and inventor (died 1960)
* 30 September - Jean Baptiste Perrin, physicist and Nobel laureate (died 1942)
* 8 October - Louis Vierne, organist and composer (died 1937)
* 10 December - Mary Bonaparte, eldest daughter of Prince Napoléon Bonaparte of Canino (died 1947)

## Deaths
### January to June

* 19 January - Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, spree killer, executed (born 1849)
* 1 February - Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, Marshal of France (born 1794)
* 19 February - Nathaniel de Rothschild, founder of the wine-making branch of the Rothschild family (born 1812)
* 20 June - Jules de Goncourt, writer (born 1830)

### July to December

* 15 August - Ardant du Picq, Colonel and military theorist (born 1819)
* 2 September - Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, general and statesman (born 1785)
* 23 September - Prosper Mérimée, dramatist, historian and archaeologist (born 1803)
* 25 October - Etienne-Michel Faillon, Roman Catholic historian (born 1800)
* 28 October - Jean-Pierre Falret, psychiatrist (born 1794)
* 29 October - Jules Baroche, statesman and Minister (born 1802)
* 24 November - Comte de Lautréamont, poet (born 1846 in Uruguay)
* 28 November - Frédéric Bazille, painter, killed in action (born 1841)
* 5 December - Alexandre Dumas, père, writer (born 1802)
* 26 December - Marie Dominique Bouix, Jesuit canon lawyer (born 1808)

### Full date unknown

* Jacques-François Ochard, painter (born 1800)