Flight to Varennes
Louis XVI left the Tuileries in disguise on the night of 20 June 1791 and was recognised at Varennes twenty-four hours later. The plan was to reach the fortress of Montmédy near the eastern frontier, where a loyal general had troops, and from there to negotiate with the Assembly from a position of safety — or, if necessary, to leave the country. He left behind a written declaration repudiating everything he had agreed to since 1789, which is the document that made the flight unforgivable. The execution was hopeless. The family travelled together in an enormous and conspicuous berline built for the purpose, ran hours behind schedule, and the cavalry detachments posted along the route gave up waiting and withdrew. The king put his head out of the window at a post house at Sainte-Menehould and was recognised by the postmaster, Drouet, who rode ahead and had the party stopped at Varennes. They were escorted back to Paris in silence, with the crowds along the road ordered not to cheer and not to insult them; hats stayed on. The Assembly maintained the fiction that he had been abducted, because the alternative was to depose him and nobody was ready. The Champ de Mars petition demanding a republic was fired on in July with about fifty killed. The monarchy fell thirteen months later, and the flight was the principal evidence at his trial. Drouet, the postmaster who recognised him, was elected to the Convention the following year and voted for the king's death. He was later captured by the Austrians and exchanged for the king's own daughter.
- Year: 1791 CE
- Category: Political
