Everything about Louis Xvi Of France totally explained
Revolutionary constitutional reign, 1789–1792
On
5 October 1789, an angry mob of women from the Parisian underclass who had been incited by revolutionaries
marched on the
Palace of Versailles, where the royal family lived. During the night, they infiltrated the palace and attempted to kill the queen, who was associated with a frivolous lifestyle that symbolized much that was despised about the Ancient Regime. After the situation had been defused, the king and his family were brought back by the crowd to Paris to live in the
Tuileries Palace. The reasoning behind this forced departure from Versailles was the opinion the king would be more accountable to the people if he lived among them in Paris where he and his family could be better monitored.
Initially, after the removal of the royal family to Paris, Louis maintained a certain level of popularity by acquiescing to many of the social, political, and economic reforms of the revolutionaries. Unbeknownst to the public, however, recent scholarship has concluded that Louis began to suffer at the time from severe bouts of
clinical depression, which left him prone to paralyzing indecisiveness. During these indecisive moments, his wife, the unpopular queen, was essentially forced into assuming the role of decision-maker for the Crown.
The revolution's principles of popular sovereignty, though central to democratic principles of later eras, marked a decisive break from the absolute monarchical principle of throne and altar that was at the heart of traditional French government. As a result, the revolution was opposed by many of the rural people of France and by practically all the governments of France's neighbors. As the revolution became more radical and the masses became more uncontrollable, several leading figures in the initial formation of the revolution began to doubt its benefits. Some like
Honoré Mirabeau secretly plotted with the Crown to restore its power in a new constitutional form.
However, Mirabeau's sudden death, and Louis's indecision, fatally weakened negotiations between the Crown and moderate politicians. On one hand, Louis was nowhere near as reactionary as his right-wing brothers, the
Comte de Provence and the
Comte d'Artois, and he repeatedly sent messages to them requesting a halt to their attempts to launch counter-coups. This was often done through his secretly nominated regent, the
Cardinal Loménie de Brienne. On the other hand, Louis was alienated from the new democratic government both by its negative reaction to the traditional role of the monarch and in its treatment of him and his family. He was particularly irked by being kept essentially as a prisoner in the Tuileries, where his wife was being humiliatedly forced to have revolutionary soldiers in her private bedroom watching her as she slept, and by the refusal of the new regime to allow him to have confessors and priests of his choice rather than 'constitutional priests' pledged to the state and not the
Roman Catholic Church.
On
21 June 1791, Louis attempted to
secretly flee with his family from Paris to the royalist fortress town of
Montmédy on the northeastern border of France in the hope of forcing a more moderate swing in the Revolution than was deemed possible in radical Paris. However, flaws in the escape plan caused enough delays to enable the royal refugees to be recognized and captured along the way at
Varennes. Supposedly Louis was captured while trying to make a purchase at a store, where the clerk recognized him. According to the legend, Louis was recognized because the coin used as payment featured an accurate portrait of him. He was returned to Paris, where he and his immediate family were viewed suspiciously as traitors. As a result, they were place under tight
house arrest upon their return to the
Tuileries.
The other
monarchies of Europe looked with concern upon the developments in France, and considered whether they should intervene, either in support of Louis or to take advantage of the chaos in France. The key figure was Marie Antoinette's brother, the Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II. Initially, he'd looked on the revolution with equanimity. However, he became more and more disturbed as it became more and more radical. Despite this, he still hoped to avoid war.
On
27 August, Leopold and King
Frederick William II of
Prussia, in consultation with
émigré French nobles, issued the
Declaration of Pilnitz, which declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe in the well-being of Louis and his family, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Although Leopold saw the Pillnitz Declaration as an easy way to appear concerned about the developments in France without committing any soldiers or finances to change them, the revolutionary leaders in Paris viewed it fearfully as a dangerous foreign attempt to undermine France's sovereignty .
In addition to the ideological differences between France and the monarchical powers of Europe, there were continuing disputes over the status of Austrian estates in
Alsace, and the concern of members of the
National Constituent Assembly about the agitation of emigré nobles abroad, especially in the
Austrian Netherlands and the minor states of
Germany.
In the end, the
Legislative Assembly, supported by Louis, declared war on the Holy Roman Empire first, voting for war on
20 April 1792, after a long list of grievances were presented to it by the foreign minister,
Charles François Dumouriez. Dumouriez prepared an immediate invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, where he expected the local population to rise against Austrian rule. However, the revolution had thoroughly disorganized the army, and the forces raised were insufficient for the invasion. The soldiers fled at the first sign of battle, deserting
en masse and in one case, murdering their general.
While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganized its armies, a mostly Prussian allied army under
Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at
Coblenz on the Rhine. In July, the invasion commenced, with Brunswick's army easily taking the fortresses of
Longwy and
Verdun. The duke then issued on
25 July a proclamation called the
Brunswick Manifesto, written by Louis' émigré cousin, the
Prince de Condé, declaring the intent of the Austrians and Prussians to restore the king to his full powers and to treat any person or town who opposed them as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law.
Contrary to its intended purpose of strengthening the position of the king against the revolutionaries, the
Brunswick Manifesto had the opposite effect of greatly undermining Louis' already highly tenuous position in Paris. It was taken by many to be the final proof of a collusion between Louis and foreign powers in a conspiracy against his own country. The anger of the populace boiled over on
10 August when a mob — with the backing of a new municipal government of
Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary"
Paris Commune —
besieged the Tuileries Palace. The king and the royal family took shelter with the
Legislative Assembly.
Arrest and execution, 1792-1793
Louis was officially arrested on
13 August and sent to the
Temple, an ancient Paris fortress used as a prison. On
21 September, the
National Convention declared France to be a republic and abolished the monarchy.
The
Girondins were partial to keeping the deposed king under arrest, both as a hostage and a guarantee for the future. The more radical members -- mainly the Commune and Parisian deputies who would soon be known as
the Mountain-- argued for Louis' immediate execution. The legal background of many of the deputies made it difficult for a great number of them to accept an execution without due process of some sort, and it was voted that the deposed monarch should be tried before the National Convention, the organ that housed the representatives of the sovereign people.
On the
11 December, among crowded and silent streets, the deposed king was brought from the Temple to stand before the Convention and hear his
indictment, an accusation of High Treason and Crimes against the State. On the 26th, his counsel,
Raymond de Sèze, delivered Louis' response to the charges, with the assistance of
François Tronchet and
Malesherbes.
On the
15 January of 1793 the Convention, composed of 721 deputies, voted out the verdict. Amid hard evidence of Louis' treason, the verdict was a foregone conclusion--693 voted guilty, and none voted for acquittal. The next day, a voting roll-call was carried out in order to decide upon the fate of the king, and the result was, for such a dramatic decision, uncomfortably close. 288 deputies voted against death and for some other alternative, mainly some means of imprisonment or exile. 72 deputies voted for the death penalty, but subject to a number of delaying conditions and reservations. 361 deputies voted for Louis' immediate execution.
Louis was informed by Malesherbes of the Convention's decision on the 17 of January. The next day, a motion to grant Louis reprieve from the death sentence was voted down; 310 deputies requested mercy, 380 voted for the carrying out of the execution. This decision would be final. On Monday,
21 January 1793, stripped of all titles and honorifics by the republican government,
Citoyen Louis Capet was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd in what today is the
Place de la Concorde. The executioner,
Charles Henri Sanson, testified that the former King had bravely met his fate .
As Louis XVI mounted the scaffold he appeared dignified and resigned. He attempted a speech in which he reasserted his innocence and pardoned those responsible for his execution. He declared himself willing to die and prayed that the people of France would be spared a similar fate. He seemed about to say more when
Antoine-Joseph Santerre, a general in the
Garde Nationale, cut Louis off by ordering a drum roll. The former king was then quickly executed.
Accounts of Louis’s beheading indicate that the blade didn't sever his neck entirely the first time. There are also accounts of a blood curdling scream issuing from Louis after the blade fell but this is unlikely as the blade would have severed Louis’s spine. It is agreed however that, as Louis' blood dripped to the ground, many in the crowd ran forward to dip their handkerchiefs in it.
Legacy
Louisville, Kentucky is named for Louis XVI. In 1780, the Virginia General Assembly bestowed this name in honor of the French king, whose soldiers at the time were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War.
Ancestors
In fiction
In the American supernatural television drama Moonlight, Louis XVI is the fictional father of a vampiric bloodline in which discovered a temporary cure for vampirism.Further Information
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