Execution of Louis XVI
Louis XVI was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution on 21 January 1793 after a trial in which his judges were also his prosecutors. The Convention had abolished the monarchy in September 1792 and had then to decide what to do with the man. The legal difficulty was that the constitution of 1791, which he had accepted, made the king inviolable. Saint-Just cut through it in his maiden speech by arguing that Louis was not a citizen to be tried but an enemy to be defeated, and that one cannot reign innocently. The evidence was supplied by an iron chest found in a wall of the Tuileries containing his correspondence with émigrés and foreign courts. The votes were taken by roll call over several days in January. Guilt was unanimous among those voting; the sentence of death carried by 387 to 334, with his own cousin among the majority; and a proposal for reprieve was defeated by a similar margin. He was allowed to see his family, refused to see them again the next morning, and slept. He attempted to address the crowd from the scaffold and was cut off by a drum roll ordered by an officer. His executioner sold locks of the hair. Europe's monarchies formed the First Coalition within weeks, Britain expelled the French ambassador, and the Vendée rose in March. The Convention had made a return to the old order impossible, which was largely the point. His last words from the scaffold, as recorded by the priest attending him, were that he died innocent and forgave those responsible. The remains were put in quicklime at the Madeleine cemetery and were exhumed and reburied at Saint-Denis by his brother in 1815.
- Year: 1793 CE
- Category: Political
