Lawsuit of Louis XVI

Meeting of December 11th, 1792

It is Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac which chairs the national Convention the énonciatif act of charge written by Robert Lindet and issues the interrogation of Louis XVI.

Louis XVI fact his entry in the room of national Convention. The majority of the deputies cannot retain a movement of compassion. It is not an overcome king whom they have in front of them but a man going to the torment, without hope, pride. This painful simplicity the gene and worries them.

- “Louis, known as Barère de Vieuzac, the nation shows you, the National Assembly issued on December 3rd that you will be judged by it; December 6th, it decided that you would be led to the bar. One will read you the énonciatif act of the offenses which are charged to you… You can sit down.

11 counts of indictment

1 to have tried to prevent the meeting of the General states, and by to have made an attempt there on freedom.

2 to have gathered an army against the citizens of Paris to have moved away it only after the Storming of the Bastille .

3 not to have held its promises with the constituent Assembly, to have eluded the abolition of feudality and to have let trample the tricolor Rosette causing thus days of the October 5th and 6th 1789.

4 to have lent oath at the time of the festival of the Federation to then try to corrupt the constituent Assembly in particular via Mirabeau.

5 to have misled the constituent Assembly by addressing to him copy of a letter addressed to the diplomatic agents indicating that it had accepted the Constitution freely, while lavishing the money of the people to prepare the escape of the royal family.

6 Convention passed between Léopold II and the king of Prussia to restore French monarchy.

7 to have sent considerable sums to the marquis de Bouillé and to the emigrants.

8 to have had a share in the insurrection of the August 10th, 1792.

9 to have ordered the storage of grains, Sugar and Coffee.

10 to have put its veto at the decree envisaging the formation of a camp of 20.000 federate.

11 to be responsible for the Shooting of Field-of-March the July 17th 1791.

Louis XVI listened to the 11 counts of indictment sitting in the armchair where it had accepted the Constitution. After the secretary read out énonciatif act to him of charge, president Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac takes again then each article of the charge and questions Louis XVI.

Answers of Louis XVI to the 11 counts of indictment

1 There do not exist laws which prevented me.

2 He was the Master to make go of the troops in this time; but I never intended to spread blood.

3 Louis XVI is restricted to deny the facts, in particular the business of the rosette.

4 It does not remember what occurred in this time; but the whole is former to the acceptance which I made of the Constitution.

5 Louis XVI declares that he is unaware of all on the convention passed between the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia, he states to have informed the Parliament of it as soon as he was informed of it.

7 It denies to have made pass from the considerable sums to the marquis de Bouillé and to the emigrants. He even affirms to have repudiated the initiatives of his brothers of Artois and Provence abroad.

8 Louis XVI denies to have had an unspecified share with the insurrection of August 10th 1792.

9 Louis XVI denies to have ordered the storage of grains, sugar and coffee, charge ridiculous and even moved in a lawsuit of this nature.

10 the Constitution gives me free sanction of the decrees and, as of this time, I requested the meeting of a camp from Soissons.

11 Louis XVI answers his ignorance of the facts.

The interrogation is finished. “Louis do you have something to add? ”, asks him Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac. “I ask for communication of the charges that I have just heard and of the parts which there are united and the facility to choose a council to defend me”. One presents to him the parts produced in support of the énonciatif act of charge. Louis XVI known as: “I do not recognize them”. He more does not recognize his signature and his seal with the weapons of France to the bottom of one letter to the bishop of Clermont. Louis XVI is unaware of the existence of “the Armoire of iron” to Tileries. The audience is finished.

National Convention grants defenders to Louis XVI

The December 12th 1792, the Convention grants defenders to Louis XVI: François Denis Tronchet, Christian-Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, Guy-Jean-Baptist Target, Raymond de Sèze.

Second meeting

Romain de Sèze makes his pleading in favor of Louis XVI the December 26th 1792

“Citizens representatives of the Nation, started it, it thus finally arrived this moment when Louis shown in the name of French people, can be made hear in the middle of these people himself! It arrived this moment when surrounded of the councils that humanity and the law gave him, it can present to the Nation a defense and develop in front of it the intentions which always animated it! Citizens I will speak to you with the frankness from a free man: I seek among you judges, and I see only indicters there! You want to pronounce on the fate of Louis, and it is you same who show it! You want and you already expressed your wish! You want pronounce on the fate of Louis and your opinions traverse Europe! Louis will be thus the only French for whom there does not exist any law, nor no form! He will enjoy neither his old condition nor of the news! What a strange and inconceivable destiny! French the revolution which regenerates you developed in you great virtues; but fear, that it did not weaken in your hearts the feeling of the humanity, without which it can have only the false ones there! Hear in advance the History, which will repeat with the famous one: " Louis was assembled on the throne at twenty years, and to twenty years it gave the example of manners: it carried no guilty weakness there nor no corrupting passion; it was sparing, right and severe; it always showed there the constant friend of the people. The people wished the destruction of a disastrous tax which weighed on him, it destroyed it; the people asked for the abolition of the constraint, it started by abolishing it itself in his fields; the people requested reforms in the criminal legislation for the softening of the fate of the defendants, it made these reforms; the people wanted that thousands of French that the rigor of our uses had deprived hitherto of the rights which belongs to the citizens, acquired these rights or recovered them, it made them enjoy by its laws. The people wanted freedom, it gave it to him! He came even to the front from him by his sacrifices, and however it is in the name of these same people as one asks today… Citizens, I do not complete… I STOP IN FRONT OF the HISTORY: think that she will judge your judgment and that his will be to it that of the siècles". Into coming to the refutation from the counts of indictment, Romain de Sèze divided them skilfully: holding for null those which were former to the Constitution or which had been amnistés by it, and those which were posterior for him but whose ministers assumed legally, the responsibility, he denied the call abroad and declared Louis XVI irresponsible of the negociations carried out by his/her brothers with Austria. He pareillement denied the sending of subsidies to the emigrants, the charge missing to tell the truth formal evidences. It was the least solid part of defense, which was essential besides rather little, the deputies of Convention having the conviction that Louis XVI had made a pact with the enemy. ”

Declaration of Louis XVI for his defense on December 26th, 1792

- “One has just exposed you my means of defense, known as Louis XVI, I would not name them! While perhaps speaking to you for the last time, I declare you that my conscience does not reproach me anything, and that my defenders told you only the truth. I never have fears that my control was examined publicly, but my heart is torn to find in the bill of indictment, the impression to have wanted to spread the blood of the people, and especially that misfortunes of August 10th are allotted to me. I acknowledge that the multiplied evidence which I had given in all times of my love for the people, and the way in which I had always acted appeared me to have to be able that I did not fear to expose to me to save his blood, and to move away forever from me a similar impression. ”

Jacques Defermon of the Hatters asked Louis XVI if he recognized the bunches of keys of Tileries, Louis XVI did not recognize them.

See too

Internal bonds

Result, by departments, of the poll on the four questions put at the time of the lawsuit of Louis XVI
Execution of Louis XVI

External bond

Report/ratio relating to the judgment of Louis XVI Text.

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