Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI , king de France and of Navarre (1774 - 1789) then King of the French (1789 - 1792), born the August 23rd 1754 with Versailles and guillotine the January 21st 1793 on the place of the Revolution (old place Louis XV, today Place of the Harmony) with Paris.

Biography

Louis XVI is the last king of the absolute monarchy in France. After the death of Louis XVI the French Republic was installed.

A preserving childhood

Louis Auguste is born on August 23rd, 1754, with Versailles. He is the son of the Dolphin Louis de France and of his second wife Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, which had eight another children:

Louis Auguste carries initially the title of Duc of Berry . After the death of his two older brothers - the duke of Burgundy and the duke of Aquitaine - and of his father Louis de France, wire of the king Louis XV of France, on December 20th, 1765, it is presented in the form of a single heir to the throne to France and becomes the Dauphin .

It is high in a strict religious education and is formed with preserving principles under the supervision of the duke of Vauguyon. Studious pupil, it impassions himself for several scientific disciplines and reveals in his times of leisures a talent hidden for the iron work.

The May 16th 1770, the future Louis XVI married the Archiduchesse Marie-Antoinette of Austria, girl junior by the emperor François I {{er}} of Lorraine and his wife the archduchess Marie-Therese de Habsbourg. This union is the concretization of an alliance aiming at improving the relations between the kingdom of France and the Austria. The husbands being then old of 15 and 16 years, the marriage will be consumed only seven years later. From their union will be born four children:

The last monarch of the Old Mode

Following the death of Louis XV of France, Louis Auguste, his grandson, becomes king de France the May 10th 1774 and is crowned with Rheims the June 11th 1775.

The reign

The reign of Louis XVI is marked by many attempts at economic reforms and institutional. The equality in front of the tax is a reform which it continues with perseverance but it always runs up against the opposition of the Noblesse and of part of the Clergé. However Louis XVI is a legalist and he never intends to exceed the capacities that the fundamental laws of the kingdom give him. He must thus make endorse his reforms. The convocation of the General states, where he hopes to be able to make fold in all legality both orders which blocks it is the last episode of this felted confrontation.

Under its reign torture is abolished, in 1780. Many public works are launched in particular as regards drainings of marsh. France plays a dominating geopolitical part in Europe. The king equips the army with a marine which competes for the first time of the History with that of England, in particular at the time of the Guerre of independence of the United States where it helps the insurrectionists militarily.

He continues the French traditional policy to support catholic missions in the Middle East. Vis-a-vis the vacuum created by the prohibition of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), it chooses the Lazaristes to replace them in the missions in Othoman territory. The Pope Pie VI accepted this change, symbolized by the assumption of responsibility of the center of the catholic missions in the East, the Lycée Saint-Beno4it cheese with Istanbul, by the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent of Paul, the July 19th 1783. He will recognize like valid the marriage, birth certificates, death between Protestants in 1788 (Edict of Tolerance)

Following the first attempt at unification of the weights and measures of the Kingdom of France of King Philippe Length with the General states of Orleans, in 1321, as well as the following ones until that of the King Louis XV in 1770, Louis XVI will concretize these long series of attempts by signing on May 8th, 1790 the project of unification of the weights and measures of the Kingdom of France, proposed by Talleyrand. Following the report/ratio of March 19th, 1791 of the Academy of Science, and proposal from the Knight Jean-Charles of Bordered, the “Mètre” of Burattini, defined better, is adopted like unit of length. As of on March 26th, 1791, the proposal of Jean-Charles of Bordered is forwarded by Condorcet to the Parliament. Tasks distributed between the scientists: Bordered, Cassini, Lavoisier, and Hauj will lead to the determination of the meter, the second and the kilogram, bases of the metric system which today is called international Système of units (IF), applied in all the countries of the World except for the United States, Liberia and Myanmar.

If the systematic blocking of the reforms by the nobility and the clergy is the major political problem of its reign, the increasing deficit is the principal economic problem. However there too the king thinks that it can be reabsorbed only by great reforms chipping certain privileges. The General states, convened by the Prime Minister to try to conclude successfully them most peacefully possible, escape its control rather quickly.

A simple king and scholar

Louis XVI was a long time caricatured like a king a little simpleton, was handled by his advisers, little with the fact of the questions of being able, with crazes like the iron work and a passion invading for hunting.

This image is partly due to its attitude towards the court. In addition, the “thoughtless” character which was sometimes allotted to him explains partly by a strong myopia which isolated it from the world, and which in particular enabled him only with difficulty to recognize its interlocutors.

Louis XVI was a studious prince and scholar. Except its passion known for the Iron work, it was set on history, geography, navy and sciences. It made marine a priority of her foreign politics, anxious to thwart the English projections overseas, and to take the revenge of the disastrous treaty of Paris. This powerful navy strongly contributed to the success of the American freedom fighters. It had moreover a theoretical knowledge of the navy so pointed that it was rained, when it saw for the first time the sea, to make remarks whose relevance astounded its interlocutors.

On the scientific level, he elected Jean-François of Perugia to carry out the round the world tour and to chart it. He will ask his news until on the scaffold. Louis XVI also supported the establishment in France of the culture of the Potato, making it cultivate near Versailles.

Since Louis XIV, the nobility “was mainly domesticated” by the system of court. The label governed the life of the court by making of the king the center of a very strict and complex ceremonial. This construction of Louis XIV aimed at giving a role to a nobility which had been until there often rebel and always threatening for the royal capacity: the Fronde had deeply marked it whereas he was child.

Within the court, the nobility saw its participation in the life of the nation organized in isolation in a subtle system of dependences, hierarchy and rewards and its inclinations of autonomy with respect to the royal authority definitely reduced. Louis XVI inherited this system. The nobility was with the service of the king and expected rewards and honors from them. Even if crushing it majority of the nobility did not have the means of living at the court, the texts show well the attachment of noble of province to the role of the court, and the importance which the “presentation” with the king could take.

Like Louis XV, Louis XVI had the greatest sorrows to enter this system. It was not for lack of education: he was the first French monarch with speaking usually English; nourished philosophical of the Lights, he aspired to slice with the image “Louis-quatorzienne” of the king in constant representation. This image of the simple king joined that of the “enlightened despots” of Europe, like Frederic II of Prussia.

The refusal to enter the big game of the label explains the very bad reputation which the nobility at court will make him. By depriving it of the ceremonial, the king deprived it of his social role. By doing this, it was also protected. So at the origin the court was used to control the nobility, the situation very quickly became different: the king was in his turn captive of the system.

Bad management by Louis XV then per Louis XVI of this court, the refusal by the Parliaments (political place of expression of the nobility and part of the upper middle classes) of any political reform as well as the often disastrous and capricious image of the queen will degrade little by little her image: many lampoons ridiculing it come from part of the nobility which supports the risk badly to lose its particular place, describing it not as the simple king that it was, but like a king simpleton.

King under the Revolution

The constitutional monarch

After the Storming of the Bastille , the king goes full sound liking with Paris, the July 17th, where it is accommodated by the mayor of the new municipality, Bailly. The king accepts the rosette blue and red (with the colors of the town of Paris) which offers to him Bailly and the place on his cover-chief decorated with white. By this visit and this gesture, the king thus ratifies the consequences of the revolutionary day of the July 14th. Consequently, the Abolition of the privileges was voted in the Nuit of August 4th, and the August 26th the Déclaration of the Human rights and the Citizen is adopted. However, it is only the October 5th which the king agrees to sign the decrees devoting the decisions taken in August. Following what, the people of come Paris with Versailles require the transfer of the royal family to the Palais of Tileries.
The National Assembly issued the October 10th 1789, during the discussion on the mode of promulgation of the laws, that the formula would be: Louis, by the grace of God, and the constitutional law of the State, King of the French at all present and to come, hello . For some, the new title of the Head of the State would be thus king of the French starting from this date. Nothing however abnormal that starting from the November 6th 1789, it made begin its instruments (letters patent, laws, etc) with the formula Louis, the grace of God, and the constitutional Law of the State, King of the French , since it conformed to the formula of promulgation which had been issued the October 10th by the constituent Assembly. New the royal Seal, used as from February 1790, carried the inscription: Louis XVI by the grace of God and the constitutional loy of the State Roy of François . The July 14th 1790, at the time of the festival of the Federation, on the Field-of-March, the king, Fayette and populates it Paris (: 260000 Parisian and: 14000 Federate) lend oath “to be forever faithful to the nation, with the law and with the king” and the October 21st of the same year, the Tricolor replaces the white flag, which was the color of the royal standard.

The king of the French

For others, he would have been declared king of the French only by the Constitution of September 3rd, 1791 (full text) (chapter II, article 2: “the only title of the king is King of the French ”), “accepted” by the king the September 13rd 1791. The capacities of the king there are indeed limited and specified. Louis XVI is not any more king by the grace of God, but king of the French, i.e. either a sovereign of divine right, but to some extent the chief, the first representative of French people. He preserves the totality of the executive powers, which he exerts under the terms of the human law. This constitution maintained moreover the change of the title of the dolphin in royal prince (which had taken place the August 14th 1791).

The September 14th 1791, Louis XVI swears fidelity with the aforementioned constitution.

See also: Escape of Louis XVI and arrest in Varennes

The episode of the escape of the king and his arrest with Varennes is famous. A plan of escape had been studied by the queen with the end of the year 1790. In April 1791, the events involve its realization. A demonstration physically prevents it from going to the Château of Saint-Cloud. The revolutionists oppose indeed so that it makes its Easter with a refractory Prêtre with the civil constitution of the clergy. The king then decides to leave the town of Paris the June 20th with his wife, his sister and his two children, Marie-Therese and Louis-Charles. He is stopped with Varennes-in-Argonne the June 21st in spite of the presence of 60 hussards of Lauzun. A declaration which it had left in Paris by leaving the city, stigmatizing the Jacobins and their increasing influence on the French company, was blocked by the Parliament and was never diffused in its entirety. The revolutionary caricaturists were given some to heart joy.

An important movement among the revolutionists starts to claim the departure of the king. The Cordeliers write several petitions against him, supported by newspapers like the Republican. The Jacobins decide to follow the Cordeliers, which creates a rupture in their center. Part of their members created the Club of Breaking into leaf the. It is in this context that the constitution of the September 13rd 1791, evoked above, is proclaimed.

The extremely complex political game of the year which follows leads to the forfeiture of the king. The country undergoes very strong tensions. In the campaigns, harvests are good, but the liberal policy led by the Parliament involves a food stress and many riots, in spite of often surplus reserves. In addition to these social strains, the war is the independent factor of the difficulties of monarchy. The defeats of the French Army involve the vote of more radical decrees at which the king puts his Veto. The debates which follow and the riots organized by the revolutionists push the legislative Parliament to issue the suspension of the king.

Louis XVI is thus suspended by the Parliament the August 10th 1792, and is détrôné at the time of the first meeting of the national Convention which issues, the September 21st 1792 that “the royalty is abolished in France” and that “Year I of the French Republic” will leave the September 21st 1792.

The lawsuit of the former king and his execution

The lawsuit

See also: Lawsuit of Louis XVI

He is declared guilty of “conspiracy against public freedom and the general security of the State” by national Convention (car-instituted in court) at the time of a first votes the January 15th 1793, by 707 votes for 718 voters.

Then, with a narrow majority, condemned to died to the horse-gear of the castle of the Tileries, following the “permanent meeting of Wednesday 16 and Thursday January 17th 1793” and of the rectifying poll of the 18. A nominal vote, followed by a justification of the voters to the platform, which gives 387 votes for the capital punishment, including 26 asking a possible deferment. The necessary majority being of 361 votes, the king is condemned for a single vote. This last poll did not suffer however from disputes because of its nominal nature.

One starts to call it “Louis the last”.

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

The execution (January 21st, 1793)

See also: Execution of Louis XVI

The torturers wanted to strip Louis XVI of his clothes. He pushed back them proudly, stripped itself and demolished the collar of his shirt. They wanted to bind the hands to him. This last humiliation revolted it:

“That do you claim? ”, he asked.
“to bind You”, it was answered to him.
Louis XVI began again:
“to bind Me? Not, I will never agree to it. Made what is ordered to you, but you will not bind me; give up this project. ”
“With a handkerchief, Lord” required the Sanson torturer with respect, showing a piece of silk.
Louis XVI, who had not been called “Lord” since good any more a long time, showed the blow. He hesitated when he turned to his confessor. The torturers went the empoigner when the abbot Henri Edgeworth de Firmont says to him:
“Lord, in this new insult I see only one last feature of resemblance between Your Majesty and God who will be your reward. ”
Louis XVI raised the eyes to the sky:
“Undoubtedly, says it, one does not need anything less than its example so that I subject myself to such an affront. ”
And turning to the torturers:
“Made what you will want; I will drink the chalice to the dregs. ”
It was consequently let bind the hands and cut the hair. Being pressed on the abbot Henri Edgeworth de Firmont it calmly assembled the steps which led to the scaffold. The abbot Henri Edgeworth de Firmont feared that started it to miss courage, and he added, moved:
“Wire of Saint Louis, go up to the Sky! ”
But, arrived at the foot of the guillotine, Louis XVI, placid, considered one moment the instruments of its torment and asked whether the drums would stop beating. It advanced to say:
“ I die innocent of the crimes that me am charged. I forgive the authors of my death, and I request God who blood that you will pour will not fall down on France ”.

He wanted to continue but the drums covered its last words. One shouted with the torturers to make their office. The deposed king became again quiet, and did not oppose any more any resistance to the execution.

It was guillotine the January 21st 1793 in Paris, places Revolution (current Place of the Harmony). The chopper whistled at 10 a.m. 22, under the eyes of five Ministers for the provisional executive council and of some other people, invited by the Minister for the Navy in his office, to attend the execution.

It was buried with the Cimetière of the Madeleine, street of Anjou-Saint-Honore. On January 18th and 19th 1815, Louis XVIII will make exhume his remainders and those of Marie-Antoinette to make them bury with the Basilique Saint-Denis on January 21st.

The May 3rd 1826 Place of the Harmony, Charles X poses the first stone of the monument to the memory of Louis XVI. But the statue in fact will never be built. Its base will be used as a basis for the Obélisque of Louxor drawn up in 1836. The current bridge of the Harmony bore the name of Louis XVI before the revolution.

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