The Death of the Last King

King Louis XVI

King Louis XVI was born on the 23rd of August, 1754, in the Palace of Versailles, France. He was the last King of France before the abolishment of the Crown during the French Revolution. During the first part of his reign, he tried to reform the French government by abolishing the death penalty for Army deserters, the abolition of serfdom, land tax, and more tolerance to non-Catholic citizens. This got some frustration and anger from the clergy and nobility

and the King was forced to back down. He was married to 14 year old Austrian Archduchess, Marie Antonia, or Marie Antoinette in the French form.

In 1776, he actively supported the Americans during the American Revolution by sending supplies, men, and financial aid. He also declared war on Britain, who was the conqueror of America. At the end however, the Americans gained independence but didn’t pay anything back to France to thank them for their lend-lease. Now, France plunged into more economic debt. Bread prices skyrocketed.

So, to solve this, his advisors proposed to increase the tax rates. This had a huge impact on the Third Estate, or the working class. The working class was made up of peasants, the poor, and the bourgeoisie (the bourgeoisie is equivalent to Second Class civilians of today). They were forced to give nearly all their hard labor to the tax collectors. Those who didn’t comply were arrested and their properties taken. This slightly solved the economy, but that improvement was spent on lavish parties for the clergy, the nobility, and the Crown. This enraged the peasants, not because they were taxed harshly, but the fact that the clergy and nobility paid little to no tax at all. All their money was spent on parties instead of paying off the debt that weighed France down.

Seeing that no progress was made on paying off the economic debt, King Louis XVI called in the Estates General in 1789. The goal was to propose an economic solution for a recovery to happen. However, he made an error. Since the Third Estate made up more than 80% of the population, the nobility and the clergy made up 6-15%. This meant that there were more representatives for the Third Estate than the Second (nobility) and First Estates (clergy).

The King decided that any vote taking place was to begin “in order”. This meant that if a vote was casted by an Estate, it counts as one vote, regardless of how many people represented that estate. This means that the Third Estate, although with their 578 representatives, do not get extra votes because of superior numbers. The Estates General failed to propose a solution and decided to go about their own meetings.

Fearing that the Third Estate will revolt, King Louis XVI locked them out of their usual meeting place. So, the Third Estate representatives produced the Tennis Court Oath, promising to meet until a reform was made by the French government. Then, Jacques Necker was sacked by King Louis XVI. Jacques Necker was a popular French Finance Minister and tried to make financial reforms himself. This was the match that lit the fire.

The people finally revolted against Louis XVI. They stormed the Bastille with mutinied troops on the 14th of July, 1789. After freeing the prisoners, they murdered the prison’s chief and stuck his head on a pike while marching in front of the King. This was an act of open rebellion and Louis XVI moved to Versailles after stationing troops in and around Paris.

This stage was the Great Fear, where rumors flew about that the military will take action against any open rebellion and stage mass arrests. Fear leads to open rebellion

On the 5th of October, 1789, women marched to Versailles to protest against the skyrocketing bread and shortages of food. As they near Versailles, men started to join in, and by the time they reached their destination, it was taunting, jeering, and insults for the King.

The King was ‘captured’ and forced back to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. There, he became a puppet of the French people. He didn’t want to support the cause of what looked in his eyes as rebels. However, for the safety of him and his wife, he was willing to do so. In 1791, both Prussia and Austria expressed their sympathy for King Louis XVI. Louis thought it’d be a good idea to flee to Prussia, seeing that his wife, Marie, is Austrian. The couple disguised themselves as servants and fled the Tuileries.

They were caught at Varennes, near the French border with Prussia, and were sent to Paris. They arrived at a scene full of taunting and jeering. The people thought the King and Queen were abandoning them. At this point, nobody trusted them anymore. Instead of keeping them in the Tuileries, the King and Queen were moved to the Bastille.

In 1792, fearful that French citizens from the clergy and nobility class who fled France might form counterrevolutionary alliances with other countries, France decided to wage war against Prussia and Austria. They did the same to England and the Netherlands in 1793.

Meanwhile, King Louis XVI was brought to trial. His charges were high treason and conspiracy with foreign powers, both of which he was condemned guilty of. On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI was beheaded by guillotine. On October 16th, the same fate happened to his wife, Marie Antoinette. That ended the Crown as King Louis XVI had no male heir during his reign, making him the last King of France.

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Works Cited

“Marie Antoinette.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 Sept. 2019, www.biography.com/royalty/marie-antoinette.

“Taxation in Pre-Revolutionary France - History Dictionary.” History for the Relaxed Historian, www.emersonkent.com/history_dictionary/taxation_in_pre_revolutionary_france.htm.

“French Revolutionaries Storm the Bastille.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/french-revolutionaries-storm-bastille.

“Woman's March to Versailles.” Women's March to Versailles HistoryWiz French Revolution, www.historywiz.org/womensmarch.htm.

“French Revolutionary Wars.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Nov. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolutionary_Wars.

“Louis XVI.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-XVI.

“Louis XVI.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XVI.