Ludwig XVI.

Louis XVI was born Louis-Auguste de France on 23 August 1754 at the Palace of Versailles. He was the fourth son of Louis de France, the dauphin, and his second wife, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony. After the death of his older brother, the Duke of Burgundy, in 1761, he moved up in the line of succession. When his father died in 1765, he became Dauphin of France at the age of eleven. His mother died in 1767 and his grandmother the following year, leaving his childhood marked by profound losses. Louis-Auguste received a demanding education under the Duke of La Vauguyon. He was regarded as shy and reserved, but also conscientious, learned, and broadly curious. He studied Latin, German, Italian, and English, as well as history, geography, natural sciences, law, mathematics, and religion. He was particularly fascinated by the navy, technology, watchmaking, and locksmithing. His education combined religious convictions with ideas associated with the Enlightenment. He came to believe that a king had to act morally and accept responsibility for injustices, although he was not systematically prepared to govern. On 16 May 1770, the fifteen-year-old Dauphin married the fourteen-year-old Austrian archduchess Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. The marriage was intended to strengthen the alliance between the French Bourbon dynasty and the Habsburg-Lorraine family. Their relationship soon became a matter of state because the succession depended on their producing heirs. The marriage was not fully consummated until 1777. The couple had four children: Marie-Thérèse, Louis-Joseph, Louis-Charles, and Sophie-Béatrice. Louis-Joseph died as a child in 1789, while Louis-Charles was later recognized by monarchists as Louis XVII but died in captivity in 1795 without ever reigning. After the death of his grandfather Louis XV on 10 May 1774, Louis XVI ascended the throne at the age of nineteen. He inherited a financially weakened kingdom whose treasury had been burdened by earlier wars and the monarchy’s high expenses. At the beginning of his reign, he reduced court spending, supported those in need, and had the royal family inoculated against smallpox. He successively appointed experienced politicians such as Maurepas, Vergennes, Turgot, Necker, Calonne, and Brienne as advisers and ministers. Several of these ministers attempted to reform the state’s finances and society. Turgot sought, among other measures, to abolish forced labor, guilds, and tax privileges, and to introduce more equal taxation. Necker relied on loans, lotteries, and greater transparency in public finances. Calonne proposed a general land tax that would eliminate the traditional privileges of the nobility and clergy, along with new elected assemblies. These initiatives failed because of resistance from the parlements, the clergy, the nobility, and the court. Louis XVI himself oscillated between a willingness to reform and a desire to preserve traditional structures of power. In 1774 he restored the parlements, even though they later obstructed his reforms significantly. His foreign policy initially brought France considerable success. Louis XVI supported the rebellious Thirteen Colonies in North America against Great Britain with weapons, money, troops, and ships. In 1778 France concluded an alliance with the United States, and French support contributed substantially to the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The success strengthened the king’s reputation but also deepened France’s debt. In addition, American ideas of liberty, popular sovereignty, and the separation of powers spread through France and later turned against the monarchy. Louis XVI also promoted the French navy and ordered the development of the port of Cherbourg. An around-the-world expedition led by Jean-François de La Pérouse and supported by the king began in 1785, but news of the expedition later ceased. The economic crisis worsened during the 1780s. Poor harvests, high bread prices, unemployment, and growing state debt destabilized the country. In 1787, Calonne’s reform program failed before the Assembly of Notables. The conflict between the Crown and the parlements produced increasing political unrest, and in August 1788 Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General for May 1789. This marked the immediate path toward the French Revolution. The Estates-General opened at Versailles on 5 May 1789. On 17 June, deputies of the Third Estate declared themselves the National Assembly and, through the Tennis Court Oath, pledged to create a constitution. Louis XVI initially tried to preserve the traditional order and separate voting by the three estates. After the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, however, he recognized the National Assembly and ordered the troops around Paris to withdraw. In October 1789, he and his family were forced to move from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. The king eventually accepted a constitutional monarchy. At the Festival of the Federation in 1790, he swore an oath to the new political order, but he remained deeply distrustful of the reorganization of the Church and the restriction of his powers. His reputation declined further, especially after he attempted to flee Paris with his family in June 1791. Their journey toward Montmédy ended with their discovery and arrest at Varennes. The failed escape destroyed much of the remaining trust in the king and accelerated the movement toward a republic. Nevertheless, on 14 September 1791 Louis XVI swore allegiance to the new constitution and was thereafter styled King of the French. Tensions intensified in 1792. Louis XVI vetoed several revolutionary measures while also accepting, under pressure from the National Assembly, the declaration of war on Austria. Many revolutionaries suspected him of secretly hoping for a French defeat and assistance from foreign monarchies. On 10 August 1792, insurgents stormed the Tuileries. The king and his family sought refuge with the National Assembly; he was suspended from office and subsequently imprisoned in the Temple. On 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and referred to him as Louis Capet. His trial began in December 1792. The Convention found him guilty of conspiring against the freedom and security of the state. After several votes, immediate execution was approved by a narrow majority. Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793 in Paris on the Place de la Révolution. His wife, Marie-Antoinette, and his sister Élisabeth were later executed as well. After his death, Louis XVI was initially viewed either as a traitor or as a martyr. Later historians developed a more nuanced picture, presenting him at once as an educated, reform-minded, and religious ruler and as a hesitant monarch overwhelmed by political circumstances. Many agree that his character and decisions were unequal to the extraordinary challenges of the revolutionary period. His brothers later ruled France during the Restoration as Louis XVIII and Charles X. In 1815, Louis XVIII ordered the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette to be transferred to the Basilica of Saint-Denis.