Louis XVI of France



King of France and Navarre (1774-1791) King of the French (1791-1792)

full name Louis-Auguste de France also called Duc de Berry (until 1765) byname Citizen Capet

Born: August 23, 1754, Palace of Versailles, France Died: January 21, 1793, Paris, France

Last Buorbon king of France before the French Revolution. Louis XVI became a constitutional monarch from 1791 until the abolition of the monarchy. Louis XVI became a constitutional monarch from 1791 until the abolition of the monarchy. In 1793, he was put on trial of treason and beheaded by the guillotine. He was the only king of France to be executed.

Early Life and Marriage
Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title of duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. He was the third son of the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, heir to the throne and son of the ruling Louis XV of France. Louis-Auguste had a difficult childhood because his parents ignored him in favor of his bright and handsome elder brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne, who die at the age of 10. A healthy boy, although very shy, he excelled in his studies and had a strong taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy.

When his father died of tuberculosis on December 20, 1765, Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. At the age of 15, he was married to Marie Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria. The marriage is a political union between Austria’s royal family, the Hapsburg and his own, the Bourbon. Only four years after the marriage, Louis' grandfather died of smallpox and he was crowned as King Louis XVI. Louis inherited the debts and loss of territories in North America and India caused by the disastrous wars led by his grandfather. The king was successful in supporting the American War of Independence in 1776, managing to expel the British and obtain recognition of American independence.

In the seven years since Louis’ marriage, he and Marie have not yet produced a child. Louis is then diagnosed of a very painful but treatable condition called phimosis. After a simple surgery, the couple has been able to produce their first child, Marie Therese. By 1787, he and Marie had four children.

Failure of Reform
Toward the beginning of Louis XVI’s reign, France’s financial condition became critical. His predecessor, Louis XV, emptied the treasury by his extravagance and poor government. Queen Marie Antoinette and the extravagant court, and assistance to the United States in the Revolutionary War drained France's resources further. Louis XVI needed money, but the common people were already taxed to the limit and the land-owning aristocracy was exempted from taxes. The economy in ruin, Louis was forced to hire Jacques Necker as the new Director-General of Finance. Necker urged the king to reduce court spending, and improve internal trade by abolishing tariffs that made trade costly. However, when Necker proposed taxing the clergy and the nobility, the nobles forced the king to dismiss the would-be reformer.

As the crisis deepened, Louis called a meeting of the Estates-General, representative from all three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the peasantry which had not met since 1614, at Versailles in May 1789. The king hoped that by convening the Estates General he could gain approval for his plan to raise taxes. In preparation, Louis had all three estates prepare cahiers or notebooks listing their grievances. Many cahiers called for reforms such as fairer taxes, freedom of the press, or regular meetings of the Estates General.

The Revolution
Although everyone agreed that the country's financial system must be reorganized, the third estate hoped for other reforms as well. It suggested that each deputy have a vote, knowing that it would have a majority. Marie Antoinette insisted that the king oppose this suggestion. The delegates of the third estate withdrew to a nearby tennis court where they took the so-called Tennis Court Oath and vowed to write a constitution for France. They later proclaimed themselves the National Assembly, the true representatives of the people of France. Outraged, Louis closed down the meeting. When some reform-minded clergy and nobles joined the National Assembly, the king was forced to recognize the group as the successor to the Estates-General. At the same time, he ordered troops around Paris. Rumors held that the king would use the troops against the assembly, destroying their chance for a voice in government. They began to riot and seized a supply of arms. The king, who had brought back Necker, again dismissed the popular minister. When news of Necker’s dismissal spread to Paris, the working people stormed the Bastille, a hated prison-fortress, in July 14, 1789. During the storming of Bastille, Louis returned from a hunting lodge. In his diary under the date July 14, he writes “Nothing,” a note to his unsuccessful hunt. When told of the attack, Louis XVI asked, “Is it a revolt?” “No sire,” replied a noble, “It is a revolution.”

Louis XVI acknowledged the power of the people, visiting the Paris's new mayor and reinstating a popular minister he had dismissed. But rumors that he was plotting against the people caused a Paris mob to march to Versailles on October 5, 1789. A group of rough-spoken market women burst into the Palace of Versailles demanding the king to return with them to Paris. Not too happily, the king agreed. Crowds along the way to Paris cheered the king, who now wore the revolutionary tricolor. The royal family moved into the Tuileries palace. For the next three years, Louis was a virtual prisoner in his own capital.

Constitutional Reign
After moving to Paris, Louis XVI accepted the new constitution limiting his own authority. At critical moments, he was distracted by the illness and death of his eldest son, the dauphin in June 4, 1789. Marie Antoinette, whose brother was the Holy Roman Emperor and the ruler of Austria, urged Louis to leave France and seek foreign assistance. Honoré Mirabeau, however, advised the king to remain and support the revolution. Mirabeau's sudden death fatally weakened negotiations between the royal crown and politicians.



In June 21, 1791, Louis XVI with his family, dressed as servants, attempted to secretly flee from Paris to the royalist fortress town of Montédy on the northeastern border of France in order to conduct a struggle to overthrow the National Assembly. However, the royal family was arrested at Verennes-en-Argonne and brought back to Paris. The Assembly imprisoned Louis and his family and suspended the king from his duty.

Downfall of the Monarchy
When the constitution was completed, Louis XVI was put back on the throne and came to take his oath to it. He wrote, “I engage to maintain it at home, to defend it from all attacks from abroad, and to cause its execution by all the means it places at my disposal.” The National Assembly was dissolved, and was replaced by a new body, the Legislative Assembly, which convened in October. Although Louis XVI had accepted the revolutionaries' actions, foreign rulers considered him a helpless victim of the revolution. Prussia allied with Austria against the revolutionary government and the Prussian commander, Duke of Brunswick, threatened the destruction of Paris if the king and queen were harmed. The Paris mob, led by Georges Danton, reacted angrily to the Prussian threat and stormed the Tuileries and Louis XVI and his family was taken as prisoner. In September, 1792, the National Convention met and voted to abolish the monarchy and declare the French Republic.

Condemnation to Death


In January 1793, the National Convention voted and found Citizen Capet, as he then called, guilty of “conspiracy against the public liberty and the general safety.” Despite the last-minute efforts of the Girondins to save him, he was found guilty and condemned to death on January 19, 1793, by 380 votes to 310. On that evening, Louis was briefly reunited with his family promising to return the next morning, even though he would not. On January 21, 1793, Louis mounted a scaffold in the Place de la Révolution (formerly Place Louis XV). He tried to give a speech “I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people but I fear for France that she may suffer the anger of the lord,” but his words were drowned out by a roll of drums. At 10:22 AM, the king was beheaded. Nine months later his wife met the same fate. Today, historians and French people in general have a more respectable view of Louis XVI, who is seen as well-intentioned, but was probably unfit for the task of reforming the monarchy.

Dkess 06:49, December 17, 2009 (UTC)

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