General Notes

Louis XVI (1754-93), king of France (1774-92), who lost his throne in the
French Revolution and was later beheaded by the revolutionary regime.
Louis was born at Versailles on August 23, 1754, the grandson of Louis XV. The
deaths of his two elder brothers and of his father, only son of Louis XV, made
the young prince the Dauphin of France in 1765. In 1770 he married Marie
Antoinette, youngest daughter of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria. On
Louis's accession, France was impoverished and burdened with debts, and heavy
taxation had resulted in widespread misery among the French people.
Immediately after he was crowned, aided by such capable statesmen as Finance
Minister Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, baron de l'Aulne, Interior Minister
Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, and Foreign Minister Charles
Gravier, comte de Vergennes, Louis remitted some of the most oppressive taxes
and instituted financial and judicial reforms. Greater reforms were prevented,
however, by the opposition of the upper classes and the court. So strong was
this opposition that in 1776 Turgot was forced to resign and was replaced by
financier Jacques Necker.
After Louis granted financial aid (1778-81) to the American colonies revolting
against Great Britain in the New World, Necker proposed drastic taxes on the
nobility. He was forced to resign in 1781, and statesman Charles Alexandre de
Calonne, appointed finance minister in 1783, borrowed money for the court
until 1786, when the borrowing limit was reached. The anger of the French
people against taxes and the lavish spending of the court resulted in 1788 in
the recall of Necker, who, however, could not prevent the bankruptcy of the
government. In 1788 Louis was forced to call for a meeting of the
representative governmental body called the Estates-General, the first
gathering of that assembly in 175 years. Once in session, the Estates-General
assumed the powers of government. On July 14, 1789, the Parisian populace
razed the Bastille, and a short time later imprisoned the king and royal
family in the palace of the Tuileries. In 1791 the royal family attempted to
escape to Austria, but they were caught and brought back to Paris. Louis swore
obedience to the new French constitution in 1791, but continued secretly to
work against the revolution and to plot intrigues with France's enemies. In
1792, when the National Convention, the assembly of elected French deputies,
declared France a republic, the king was tried as a traitor and condemned to
death. Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, in the Place de la
Révolution (now Place de la Concorde) in Paris.
Historians consider Louis XVI a victim of circumstances rather than a despot
similar to the former French kings Louis XIV and Louis XV. He was weak and
incapable as king and not overly intelligent. He preferred to spend his time
at hobbies, such as hunting and making locks, rather than at his duties of
state, and he permitted his wife to influence him unduly.