Louis XVI of France (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the Insurrection of 10 August 1792, he was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be executed.
Although Louis was beloved at first, his indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to eventually view him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the Ancien Régime. After the abolition of the monarchy in 1792, the new republican government gave him the surname Capet, a reference to the nickname of Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian dynasty, which the revolutionaries wrongly interpreted as a family name. He was also informally nicknamed Louis le Dernier (Louis the Last), a derisive use of the traditional nicknaming of French kings. Today, historians and French people in general have a more nuanced view of Louis XVI, who is seen as an honest man with good intentions, but who was probably unfit for the herculean task of reforming the monarchy, and who was used as a scapegoat by the revolutionaries.[1]
Childhood
Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title of duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles in France. Out of eight children, he was the third son of the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, and thus the grandson of Louis XV of France and of his consort, Maria Leszczyńska. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.
Louis-Auguste had a difficult childhood because his parents neglected him in favor of his bright and handsome older brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne, who died at the age of ten in 1761. A strong and healthy boy, although very shy, he excelled in his studies and had a strong taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy, and became fluent in Italian and English. He enjoyed manual activities, such as working on locks, and also hunting with his grandfather, Louis XV, and rough-playing with his younger brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence, and Charles-Philippe, comte d'Artois.
Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother, who had never recovered from the loss of her husband, died on 13 March 1767, also from tuberculosis.[2] The strict and conservative education he received from the duc de La Vauguyon, "gouverneur des Enfants de France" (governor of the Children of France) from 1760 until his marriage in 1770 did not prepare him for the throne he was to inherit in 1774 at the death of his grandfather.
Family life
Princess Sophie Hélène Béatrix of France
On 16 May 1770, at the age of sixteen, Louis-Auguste married the fourteen-year-old Habsburg Archduchess Marie Antonia of Austria (better known by the French form of her name, Marie Antoinette), the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife, the formidable Empress Maria Theresa. The marriage was initially amiable but distant — Louis-Auguste's shyness meant that he failed to consummate the union, much to his wife's distress, whilst his fear of being manipulated by her for Imperial purposes caused him to behave coldly towards her in public.[3] Over time, the couple (who were second cousins once removed) became closer, and the marriage was consummated in July 1773.[4]
Nonetheless, they failed to produce children for several years after that, placing strain upon the marriage,[5] whilst the situation was worsened by the publication of obscene pamphlets (libelles) which mocked the infertility of the pair. One questioned, "Can the King do it? Can't the King do it?"[6]
The reasons behind the couple's initial failure to have children were vigorously debated even at the time, and have continued to be so since. One suggestion is that Louis-Auguste suffered from a sexual dysfunction,[7] perhaps phimosis (a tightness of the foreskin that inhibits erection and ejaculation in sufferers), a suggestion first made in late 1772 by the royal doctors.[8] Historians adhering to this view suggest that he was circumcised (the common cure for phimosis) to relieve the condition seven years after the marriage.[9]
Louis XVI at the age of 20
Historical evidence, however, is against this. The Dauphine's doctor, Jean-Marie Lassonne, examining the Dauphin in 1773, found him 'well made', and judged that the problem was one of 'clumsiness and ignorance'.[8] This incident was followed several months later by the above-mentioned consummation of July 1773.[4] Nor were Louis's doctors in favor of it—the operation was delicate and traumatic, and capable of doing "as much harm as good" to an adult male. As late as 1777, the Prussian envoy, Baron Goltz, reported that the King had definitely declined to be operated upon.
Nor is there any record of the king being operated upon, or of him spending several weeks convalescing, as would be necessary; the fact that his hunting journals show no such break, despite the impossibility of sitting in a saddle for several weeks after such an operation, strongly suggests that he did not in fact have it.[10]
The true cause of the couple's infertility is revealed in a letter written by Marie-Antoinette's brother, Joseph II, to another brother, Leopold II. Joseph in April 1777 visited Louis and Marie-Antoinette in France, and had a frank talk with both of them regarding sexual matters; from this, he discovered that the King slept with his wife for duty rather than pleasure. There was no problem with the King's sexual organs: Joseph wrote, "he has strong perfectly satisfactory erections", and "he sometimes has night-time emissions"; the problem was that when the King and Queen slept together, "he introduces the member, stays there without moving for about two minutes, withdraws without ejaculating but still erect, and bids goodnight...when he is inside and going at it...[ejaculation] never happens." In the Emperor's opinion, the pair were "two complete blunderers", who had nothing wrong with them aside from lack of sexual knowledge and desire (Lassonne had already opined in 1773 that the lack of consummation was down to "clumsiness and ignorance").[11]
Joseph, it would appear, remedied the couple's ignorance during his 'talks' with the pair; by August, the marriage was finally consummated, and the pair had thanked him for his advice, to which they attributed the consummation.[12]
Subsequently, the Royal couple had four children:
Absolute monarch of France, 1774-1789
Louis XVI by Antoine-François Callet, 1786
When Louis XVI succeeded to the throne in 1774, he was 20. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment towards 'despotic' monarchy was on the rise. Louis also felt woefully unqualified for the job. He aimed to earn the love of his people by reinstating the parlements. While none doubted Louis' intellectual ability to rule France, it was quite clear that, although raised as the Dauphin since 1765, he was indecisive and not firm enough to rule.[13] Louis therefore appointed an experienced advisor, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas who, until his death in 1781, would take charge on many important ministerial decisions.
Radical financial reforms by Turgot and Malesherbes angered the nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So in 1776, Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned, to be replaced by Jacques Necker. Necker supported the American Revolution, and proceeded with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. When this policy failed miserably, Louis dismissed him, and replaced him in 1783 with Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who increased public spending to 'buy' the country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were told the extent of the debt, they were shocked into rejecting the plan. This negative turn of events signaled to Louis that he had lost the ability to rule as an absolute monarch, and he fell into depression[citation needed].
As power drifted from him, there were increasingly loud calls for him to convoke the Estates-General, and in May 1789 he did so, summoning it for the first time since 1614 in a last-ditch attempt to get new monetary reforms approved. This convocation was one of the events that transformed the general economic and political malaise of the country into the French Revolution, which began in June 1789, when the Third Estate unilaterally declared itself the National Assembly. Louis's attempts to control it resulted in the Tennis Court Oath (serment du jeu de paume, 20 June), and the declaration of the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July. Within three short months, the majority of the king's executive authority had been transferred to the elected representatives of the people's nation. The storming of the Bastille on 14 July served to reinforce and emphasize this radical change in the mind of the masses.
Foreign policy
Louis XVI receives the ambassadors of
Tippu Sultan in 1788, Voyer after Emile Wattier, 19th century.
French involvement in the Seven Years War had left Louis XVI a disastrous inheritance. Britain's victories had seen them capture most of France's colonial territories. While some were returned to France at the 1763 Treaty of Paris a vast swathe of North America was ceded to the British.
This had led to a strategy amongst the French leadership of seeking to rebuild the French military in order to fight a war of revenge against Britain, in which it was hoped the lost colonies could be recovered. France still maintained a strong influence in the West Indies, and in India maintained five trading posts, leaving opportunities for disputes and power-play with Great Britain.[14]
When the American War of Independence broke out in 1775, France initially remained neutral. In 1778 they concluded a Treaty of Alliance and sent forces to assist the American rebels, managing to help them expel the British and obtain recognition of American independence through the intervention of Rochambeau, La Fayette, de Grasse, or Suffren. The British surrendered to American and French forces at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.
Louis XVI wished to expel the British from India as well.[14] In 1782, Louis XVI sealed an alliance with the Peshwa Madhu Rao Narayan. As a consequence Bussy moved his troops to Ile de France (Mauritius) and later contributed to the French effort in India in 1783.[14][15] Suffren became the ally of Hyder Ali in the Second Anglo-Mysore War against British rule in India, in 1782-1783, fighting the British fleet on the coasts of India and Ceylon.[16].[17]
France also intervened in Vietnam following Mgr Pigneau de Behaine's intervention to obtain military aid. A France-Vietnam alliance was signed through the 1787 Treaty of Versailles, between Louis XVI and Prince Nguyen Anh. As the French regime was under considerable strain at the eve of the French Revolution, France was unable to follow through with the application of the Treaty, but Mgr Pigneau de Behaine persisted in his efforts and with the support of French individuals and traders mounted a force of French soldiers and officers that would contribute to the modernization of the armies of Nguyen Anh, contributing to his victory and his reconquest of the totality of Vietnam by 1802.
Louis XVI also encouraged major voyages of exploration. In 1785, he appointed La Pérouse to lead an expedition around the world.
Revolutionary constitutional reign, 1789–1792
| Silver Ecu of Louis XVI, struck 1785 |
 |
| Obverse: (Latin) LUD[OVICVS] XVI D[EI] G[RATIA] FR[ANCIA] ET NA[VARRE] RE[X] or in English, "Louis XVI, By the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre." |
Reverse: (Latin) SIT NOMEN DOMINI BENEDICTUM 1785, or in English, "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord, 1785." |
On 5 October 1789, an angry mob of poor Parisian women were incited by revolutionaries and 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.
Tinted etching of Louis XVI, 1792. The caption refers to the date of the
Tennis Court Oath and concludes "The same Louis XVI who bravely waits until his fellow citizens return to their hearths to plan a secret war and exact his revenge."
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
The revolution's principles of popular sovereignty, though central to democratic principles of later eras, marked a decisive break from the absolute monarchical principle 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 brothers, the Comte de Provence[citation needed] 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 humiliatingly 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 order to conduct a struggle to overthrow the Legislative Assembly.[18] However, flaws in its plan and lack of rapidity were responsible for the failure of the escape. The royal family was arrested at Varennes-en-Argonne shortly after Jean-Baptiste Drouet, postmaster of the town of Sainte-Menehould, had recognised the king from his profile on a golden écu, and had given the alert. Louis XVI and his family were brought back to Paris where they arrived on 25 June. Viewed suspiciously as traitors, they were placed under tight house arrest upon their return to the Tuileries.
The return of the royal family to Paris on 25 June 1791, colored copperplate after a drawing of Jean-Louis Prieur
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 had 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 émigrés 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 émigrés 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 was 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 disorganised 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 reorganised 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's 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's 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 group of Parisians — 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 XVI imprisoned at the
Tour du Temple, by Jean-François Garneray (1755-1837).
His cousin, the Duke of Orleans was the one responsible for spreading rumors about Louis' wife which caused people to get very angry. 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 Assembly 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's 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 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 26 December, his counsel, Raymond de Sèze, delivered Louis's response to the charges, with the assistance of François Tronchet and Malesherbes.
Execution of Louis XVI in the
Place de la Révolution. The empty pedestal in front of him had supported a statue of his grandfather,
Louis XV, torn down during one of the many revolutionary riots.
On 15 January 1793, the Convention, composed of 721 deputies, voted out the verdict, which 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's immediate death.
The next day, a motion to grant Louis reprieve from the death sentence was voted down; 310 deputies requested mercy, 380 voted for the execution of the death penalty. 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.[19]
As Louis mounted the scaffold he appeared dignified and resigned. He attempted a speech in which he reasserted his innocence and pardoned those responsible for his death. 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 National Guard (France), cut Louis off by ordering a drum roll. The former king was then quickly beheaded.
Accounts of Louis’s beheading indicate that the blade did not 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 severed Louis’s spine. It is agreed however that, as Louis's blood dripped to the ground, many in the crowd ran forward to dip their handkerchiefs in it.[20]
Legacy
In films and literature
Louis XVI has been portrayed in numerous films depicting the French Revolution. In Marie Antoinette (1938), he was played by Robert Morley. In Sacha Guitry's Si Versailles m'était conté, he was portrayed by one of the film's producers, Gilbert Bokanowski (using the alias Gilbert Boka), who arguably resembled him. Several portrayals have upheld the image of a bumbling, almost foolish King, such as that by Jacques Morel in the 1956 French film Marie-Antoinette reine de France and that by Terence Budd in the Lady Oscar live action film. In Start the Revolution Without Me, Louis XVI is portrayed by Hugh Griffith as a laughable cuckold. Mel Brooks played a comic version of Louis the XVI in The History of the World Part 1, who was portrayed as a libertine who had such a distaste for the peasantry he used them as targets in skeet-shooting.
In the two-part film La Révolution française, Jean-François Balmer gave a critically-acclaimed performance as Louis XVI, whom he portrayed as an insecure, shy, yet decent and intelligent man. In Ridicule, the king was played by Urbain Cancelier. In Jefferson in Paris, Louis XVI was played by Michael Lonsdale who, at 64 years old, greatly exceeded the King's actual age. In Marie Antoinette (2006), he was played by Jason Schwartzman, in a movie known not to be historically accurate because the historical Louis was quite tall and is known to have gained a great deal of weight towards the end of his life. In the 1997 movie Titanic, a necklace called the Heart of the Ocean held a precious, heart-shaped blue diamond, supposedly fashioned from Louis XVI's crown, which disappeared after his execution. The history of the necklace was inspired by that of the Hope Diamond.
In the American supernatural television drama Moonlight, Louis XVI is mentioned as the progenitor of a vampiric bloodline which discovered a temporary cure for vampirism.
Ancestors
|
Ancestors of Louis XVI of France |
|
|
.
References
- ^ Pouvait-on réformer la monarchie?
- ^ Lever, Évelyne, Louis XVI, Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris, 1985
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, pp.100-102
- ^ a b Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.127
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, pp.166-167
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.164
- ^ Francine du Plessix Gray (2000-08-07). "The New Yorker From the Archive Books". The Child Queen. http://www.newyorker.com/printables/archive/021007fr_archive01. Retrieved 2006-10-17.
- ^ a b Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.122
- ^ "Dictionary of World Biography". Author: Barry Jones. Published in 1994.
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.122, pp.185-186
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.122, pp.186-187
- ^ Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, p.187
- ^ Andress, David,(2005) The Terror, pp.13
- ^ a b c The National Galleries of Scotland
- ^ The influence of sea power upon history, 1660-1783 by Alfred Thayer Mahan p.461 [1]
- ^ The History Project, University of California
- ^ Britain as a military power, 1688-1815 by Jeremy Black, p
- ^ http://www.brad.ac.uk/admin/pr/february2003/french.php
- ^ Alberge, Dalya. What the King said to the executioner..., The Times, 8 April 2006. Accessed 26 June 2008.
- ^ Andress, David, The Terror, 2005, p. 147.
- Doyle, William (2002). The Oxford History of the French Revolution. UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199252985. Pages 194-196 deal with the trial of Louis XVI.
External links
|
Dauphins of France and their Dauphine |
|
| The generations indicate descent form Henry IV of France, founder of the Royal Bourbon line in France. |
|
| 1st Generation |
none
|
 |
|
| 2nd Generation |
|
|
| 3rd Generation |
|
|
| 4th Generation |
|
|
| 5th Generation |
|
|
| 6th Generation |
|
|
| 7th Generation |
|
|
| 8th Generation |
|
|
| 9th Generation |
|
|
*later succeeded as King of France and Navarre
|
|
|
Princes of France |
|
| The first generation are the children of Henri IV; these males held the rank of Son of France or Grand son of France; |
|
| 1st Generation |
|
 |
|
| 2nd Generation |
|
|
| 3rd Generation |
|
|
| 4th Generation |
|
|
| 5th Generation |
|
|
| 6th Generation |
|
|
| 7th Generation |
|
|
| 8th Generation |
|
|
| *died without surviving issue |
|
|
House of Bourbon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Louis XIII of France |
|
|
Spouse(s)
|
|
|
|
Children
|
|
|
|
Grandchildren
|
Louis, Dauphin of France · Princess Anne Élisabeth · Princess Marie Anne · Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale · Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou · Louis François, Duke of Anjou · Marie Louise, Queen of Spain · Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois · Anne Marie, Queen of Sardinia · Alexandre Louis, Duke of Valois · Philippe Charles, Duke of Orléans · Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine
|
|
|
Great
grandchildren
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Louis XVI |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Louis-Auguste |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
French monarch |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
23 August 1754 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Palace of Versailles, France |
| DATE OF DEATH |
21 January 1793 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Paris, France |
.svg){kind=small}
When justice has spoken, humanity must have its turn.
