Louis XVI
Louis XVI was the last king of France before the Revolution and was guillotined by its citizens. Born at Versailles in 1754, he became heir when his father died in 1765, married the fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette of Austria in 1770, and acceded in 1774 at nineteen. He was intelligent, well read in history and geography, interested in geography and locksmithing, physically strong and painfully indecisive. He sponsored the La Pérouse expedition and abolished judicial torture. His central problem was inherited. The state was close to bankrupt from the Seven Years' War, and he made it worse by funding the American revolution — a strategic success that cost more than a billion livres and left interest consuming half of revenue. His ministers — Turgot, Necker, Calonne — each proposed taxing the nobility and clergy, and each was blocked by the parlements and dismissed. When Calonne convened an Assembly of Notables in 1787 it refused, and the crown was forced to summon the Estates-General in May 1789 for the first time in 175 years. He then hesitated at every point. He half-accepted the National Assembly and concentrated troops around Paris; he accepted the constitution and then attempted to flee to the frontier in June 1791, being stopped at Varennes — which destroyed any remaining trust. France declared war on Austria in 1792, the Tuileries was stormed in August, and the monarchy was abolished in September. An iron chest of correspondence proved he had been negotiating with foreign powers. He was convicted of conspiracy, and executed on 21 January 1793.
- Lived: 1754 CE – 1793 CE
- Nationality: French
- Roles: king
