The Death of Royalty

“I die perfectly innocent of the so-called crimes of which I am accused. I pardon those who are the cause of my misfortunes.” — Louis XVI

Louis XVI is one of the most famous Kings of France, but for reasons he would have much rather avoided. Coming of age in the wake of the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and his father, Louis XV, Louis XVI initially intended to be one of France’s most enlightened Kings. Instead, he was destined to be the only French King ever executed. Indeed, it is his death and his role in fomenting the French Revolution (along with his infamous Queen, Marie Antoinette) that continue to play the central role in Louis XVI’s legacy.

The abrupt demise of Louis XVI and his reign capped a tumultuous but important historical period for both France and the rest of the world. It was Louis XVI’s wish to reform France in the mold of the Enlightenment and his failure to push those reforms against a reluctant aristocracy that emboldened and spurred those who would rebel against him. At the same time, his support for the American cause during the American Revolution in the 1770s was integral in securing that nation’s freedom and further adding to France’s financial woes. Ironically, France’s role in assuring the success of the American Revolution provided a hopeful example for those who would overthrow him less than 15 years later.

The same cautious conservatism that marred his reign in the eyes of so many ultimately led to the chain of events that made him a victim of the guillotine. With French society in open revolt by the late 1780s, the King appeared indecisive at a number of crucial moments, including during a famous attempted escape that was thwarted at Vergennes, and he had to literally run for his life when a mob stormed the royal palace at Tuileries. Soon after, he was stripped of his dignity and his royal name, convicted of high treason in a sham trial as Citizen Louis Capet. Ironically, in death, some historians have asserted that his execution and the sympathy it engendered helped bring about the Restoration a generation later.

Throughout history, a countless number of historical figures have had their lives overshadowed by the myths and legends that surround them to the extent that their legacy comes to define them. In French history, this is truer of Marie Antoinette than just about everyone else. Nearly 220 years after she was put to the guillotine, Marie Antoinette is more famous than ever, fairly or unfairly coming to epitomize royalty and everything that was wrong with it.

As France slid toward its own Revolution, rumors and innuendo against the queen took hold, and she was accused of being promiscuous and even defrauding a jeweler in what became known as the “Diamond Necklace Affair”. Though the rumors had no basis in truth, they were widely accepted and eventually used as partial justification for her execution. By 1792, with the Revolution in full swing, the Royal Family’s attempt to escape Paris was thwarted, and in January 1793, Louis XVI lost his head at the hands of the Jacobins. With her own health failing, the Queen herself was tried the following October, accused of sexually abusing the sickly Dauphin. Given that she had spent the last few years of her life carefully doting on her children at the expense of almost everything else, it was a particularly heinous accusation. On October 16, 1793, Antoinette herself was executed at the guillotine.

Since her death, Marie Antoinette has been the subject of sharp historical debate over whether she was actually a catalyst in the French Revolution or simply an insignificant scapegoat who was unfairly made a target. At the same time, the one thing everybody associates with Antoinette is the phrase “Let them eat cake”, a spoiled and ignorant comment supposedly made in response to being informed that the peasants had no bread.