The short-lived French Constitution of 1791, adopted by the National Constituent Assembly during the period now known as the French Revolution, went into effect in September 1791 but, due to a series of constitutional crises, had effectively ceased to function as a national constitution by August 1792.

The constitution attempted to establish a liberal bourgeois constitutional monarchy, under which the unicameral Legislative Assembly would pass legislation but the king of France -- in this case, Louis XVI -- would retain a veto. With war beginning and with increasingly radical -- and ultimately republican -- forces coming to the fore in the Assembly, this proved entirely unworkable. The August 10th insurrection was the effective end of the monarchy.

The constitution dissolved in a chaos of forces, with the radical and even occasionally terroristic Paris Commune, the municipal government of Paris, holding the balance of power in the country until the beginning of the Convention on October 1, 1792.

See also

• The Legislative Assembly and the fall of the French monarchy
• For provisions of this constitution, see the discussions of constitutional issues in French Revolution from the abolition of feudalism to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and French Revolution from the summer of 1790 to the establishment of the Legislative Assembly.

1791 in lawDefunct constitutionsConstitutions of France

Constitución francesa de 1791 | Constitution de 1791 | 1791年憲法 | 1791 m. Prancūzijos Konstitucija