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Allegheny College Department of History
Journal of History


Written by: Albrando Lorenzo Lucino Jr.



Throughout the history of European nation states, never has there been such great tragedy as to the fall of an actual government, particularly a system of rule which has been in existence since the reign of King Charlemagne the Great. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe has always had monarchies that sat on the thrones of multiple regions of Europe, ranging from the Kings of Spain, and Portugal, the Kings of England and France, the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and even to far flung reaches of Eastern Europe, there sat the Czar of Muscovy. The importance of the Royal Majesties of Europe was pivotal to the development of culture, religious doctrine, economic expansion in the form of colonial establishments, as well as military modernization. Indicative of Royal institutions was the concept of Absolute Monarchy, in which the King had complete autocratic rule over the Kingdom; in all reality he was the pillar of the kingdom, the very foundation of that particular nation state as he was unyielding, unchallenged and supreme .    

The Kings of France, in particular championed themselves as those chosen by God to rule and guide France, in particular would have been King Louis XIII, King Louis XIV the Sun King and King Louis XV. The last absolute ruler of France, King Louis XVI, was a man who was not ready to take the throne of France in the mid late 18th century. His Majesty King Louis XVI, by the grace of God, King of France, was brought up to become King with the sole idea of him being the absolute primarch of the Kingdom, as was his grandfather and great grandfather before him. However, there were multiple factors that prevented Louis XVI from successfully maintaining full control of France, and these factors would in turn lead to great revolutionary consequences on the King’s part. Such factors that will be discussed in this paper is the issue of the Great Enlightenment and the core concepts that were shared and procreated throughout France and the world; another factor that would lead to Louis XVI’s demise would be his inadequacy in politics, his lazy nature that preferred court life rather than national matters. Another pivotal factor that would lead to his demise would be the rumors and actions of Queen Marie Antoinette of France; lastly a major factor that would eventually lead to the King’s downfall would be the failed attempt to escape Paris and the Revolution .

For one to properly understand the magnamity of the fall of King Louis XVI, the King of France and Navarre, one has to comprehend that throughout his lifetime he was schooled and readied to be an absolute ruler of a nation that was already undergoing philosophical revolution as an effect of the Great Enlightenment minds such as Voltaire, Montesquieu and the like.  Louis XVI was born in 1754, the third but eldest surviving son of the dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, who was the only son of King Louis XV, who along with his wife, Marie-Joseph, died in the early 1760s . Much like his predecessors, Louis XIV and Louis XV, he was instilled with the respect of traditional values of orthodox Catholicism and a distrust of the new intellectual movement of the Great Enlightenment, which stressed importance of philosophical reasoning and science over the traditional values of religion.

But unlike his predecessor, King Louis XIV, who expanded the territories of France to the border of Navarre, parts of Belgium and territories in the new world, as well as basking in strategic initiatives, which allowed the nation state of France to prosper definitely. One account of his brilliance was noted in his interest in the arts and culture of society; he was a long standing royal patron for artists; subsidizing writers such as Corneille, Racine, La Rochefoucauld, de La Bruyere and de La Fontaine, who were considered classical French writers. Besides artisan relations, the Sun King also invested heavily in the scientific revolution, which he thought enforced Royal Authority . These similar policies, which embodied efficiency, were also carried on under the rule of King Louis XV. France under these two men experienced economic expansion, particularly the rise of entrepreneurial activity.

During this political epoch, France participated in dramatic economic expansion that took hold of Western Europe at the time, France enjoyed a sustained period of peace from 1726-1741, with economic expansion continuing into the 1770s. European commerce jumped 400 percent and the trade with French Colonies jumped at 1000 percent. The brilliance of King Louis XV in terms of military strategy was great observed when he presided himself as the King of France, as his armies marched to war during the War of Austrian Succession in 1741-1748, which resulted in a victory with the conquest of Belgium, Nice and Savoy . The strategic brilliance of King Louis XV was also observed when he decided to break the power of the parlement and revamp the tax structure. He also chose new ministers such as Maupeou, Terray, the Duke of Aiguillon, who all abolished the parlements in 1771.
 
However, after the death of King Louis XV in 1774 of small pox, the newly crowned King of France, King Louis XVI showed minimal strategic planning or initiative as his predecessors because his actions would lead to his own demise. As an illustration of his inadequacy as king, he dismissed the minister Maupeou and recalled the parlements, which would later oppose the Monarchy’s attempts to revamp the tax system . Such is an example of the lack of efficacy within the court of France, but such actions stem back to the childhood of Louis XVI. There are multiple accounts on the mundane characteristics of the future King, one that exemplifies the situation was by Monsieur Furet, “There were few innovations in the subject matter: the basis of the lessons and the discussions drawn up for the instruction of the future king remained a mixture of religion, morality and the humanities. As far as the pupil is concerned, his works manifests a docile and unimaginative way of thinking, reflecting only what he was being taught. His style, sometimes, elegant, is more interesting than his thoughts, which are always banal; in these pastorals on paternal monarchy, superficial commentaries on Fenelon and Bossuet, the future king learned neither to conduct a reasoned argument nor to govern a state .” This nature of indecisiveness and the failure in rule was a trait that was observed early in his childhood, and would later affect France disastrously when he sat on the throne.

 There are multiple examples of King Louis XVI’s political ineptitude that can be taken into account, and one of these is his failure to take supreme control of the court when he allowed the parlements to return after the dismissal of Maupeou, the very same body that would prevent Louis’ administration to make sufficient tax reforms to solve the ever growing large debit incurred by the wars of the Seven Years War and the War for American Independence in 1776, in which France provided financial and military support against the British . This incurring debt from the American Revolutionary War would continue to haunt Louis XVI in that it would eventually force him to make financial revamping in taxation, but his proposals of increased taxes would be opposed by the very same parlement that he re-convened after it was abolished by the late Louis XV.   Another political mishap that Louis XVI would make was that as soon as he gained the throne, his perception of the world was that he sought submission rather than blind obedience from what were increasingly thought as citizens instead of subjects that he uplifted the censorship of the press in 1774 an d1776 and all his major edicts were replaced as preambles . This very act would haunt Louis XVI in the future in that it would be the same press that would spread rumors about the same King and Queen of France when economic depression occurred in France, and would be the very same press that would spread the words of the French Revolution to the people. The doom of Louis XVI was already set in motion.

One major reason for Louis XVI’s faulty political precedent was probably his nonchalant attitude and the fact that he paid very little attention to the domestic issues that were ravaging France, such as the economic downturn of France in turn caused by the debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War, the expeditions to Senegal, the agricultural catastrophe during the 1780s, which resulted in inefficient amount of food to the booming population of France, which reached 28.6 million in the 1770s . The increased mouths to feed and the failing agricultural industry and the countless thousands of Frenchmen without employment grew tense and blamed His Majesty King Louis XVI for the current situation in France, which was strikingly different to the situation in France when King Louis XIV ruled France in that under his rule, economic expansion was observed, granaries were filled and the national debt was not as staggering as compared to the situation in Pre-Revolutionary France.

The nonchalant attitude of Louis was expressed by reports that claimed that Louis would rather spend time on court life rather than the matters of state. The King would take time to hunt on horseback and take strolls around Versailles rather than convene with parlement or with his ministers when it came to it . This characteristic trait was illustrated when one of Louis XVI’s aides told him about the Parisian storming of the Bastille in July 14, 1789 when the King reacted with a question, “Is this a revolt?” and was answered by, “No, your majesty, it is a revolution.”  The greatest of his political flaws was observed when the King called in the Estates General in May 1789, for the first time since 1614. Brienne resigned on 25 August 1788, and his predecessor Necker again took charge of the nation's finances. He used his position not to propose new reforms, but only to prepare for the meeting of the nation's representatives. The calling of the Estates-General led to growing concern on the part of the opposition that the government would attempt to gerrymander an assembly to its liking. In order to avoid this, the Parlement of Paris, having returned in triumph to the city, proclaimed that the Estates-General would have to meet according to the forms observed at its last meeting. The end result of the meeting was an enraged third estate, which was made up of middle class citizens and peasants, when the King refused to bar them entry in the next meeting, they made the Tennis Court Oath in June 20th, 1789 that declared that the Third Estate was the National Assembly and thus began the French Revolution and the beginning of the demise of the French Monarchy . The latter dismissal of Monsieur Neckers, who was popular with the French citizens at the time later angered the Parisian crowd, or better known to many historians as The People, in that Neckers was one of the only men in the French Court that spoke for the people. Such actions by King Louis XVI are what characterized his reign as that of unpreparedness, inability to rule France during her time of philosophical and political transition and unfittness to be King.

One major important factor that led to the demise of the French Monarchy was the invebitible and supreme power of the Great Enlightenment period, which would later manifest itself in the form of the French Revolution. The Enlightenment was pivotal in that it affected all corners of French society from the lowly peasant, to the middle class artisan, to the royal beaurocrat, to the French soldier, to the French nobles and to the very pillar of French society itself, the Royal Monarchy. Looking at the demographics of French society during the 18th century, one notes that after 1750 there was an increased in literary and philosophical movenet that aimed to diffuse the epirical and critical method of the natural sciences to the study and transformation of political, economic, and social institutions; this was called the Great Enlightenment. So great was the Enlightenment period in that by the 1780s, over 65 percent of the male population in France could read and so to was the increased literacy of women . One thing that was in effect that shook the very pillar in which the King of France and his predecessors bequethed was the shift in readings from religious and devotional works, to novels and pamphlets that focused on philosophy, politics and science. Such popular writers were Voltaire, Jean-Jacque Rousseau as well as Montesaquieu. What is rather interesting is that the Kings of the past such as Louis XIV, Louis XV focused and invested heavily on sciences as to increase royal technology and military prowess, however, the same science was also applied to natural laws and the philosophical ideals.

The same Enlightenment that the past kings once embraced as a manifestation of monarchical presence produced the notion of a strong public opinion but als articulated an alternative theory of the good and orderly society based not on divine right monarchies such as those in France, Spain, Russia, Prussia, and the Austrian Empire, but on critical reason and popular sovereignty; such as the government in the fledgling United States of America; ironically the same player that the French monarchy of Louis XVI supported in 1776  . The Great Enlightenement also led to the ise or secular, rational and republican ideas that became powerful and diffused in society with the rise of Enlightenment-based organizations, academies, masonic lodges and clubs, which became the bastion of Enlightenment thought to the very core of Parisian population. An example of this would be Pierre Agustin Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro, in which a domestic servant outwits his aristocratic lord  . The most important concept that took hold of most Frenchmen in Paris was concepts of Voltaire such as defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial and the belief in social reform in which the people had a saying in government. It is this very same enlightenment that would lead to the rise of multiple pamphlets and articles declaring the illegitimacy of the Royal Monarchy during the French Revolution, the very same enlightenment that allowed the spread of rumors of Louis XVI’s traitorous stance towards France when Prussia and Austria issued the Brunswick Manifesto and entered the war against France .

One factor that led to the unpopularity of Louis XVI was the image of Queen Marie Antoinette, who was unfortunately targetted by unhealthy gossip in the court of Versaille, which resulted in the unpopularity of the Queen and as a result affected the very image of the King. One particular issue was the fact that despite the fact that both King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were married in 1770 was unable to produce a male heire to the throne until 1781. In one particular example of the unpopularity of Marie Antoinette by the masses of French citizens was the rumor that spread that she would dress up to go to plays and meet sexual partners. Such rumors ruined the very image of the French Monarchy and leveled it to a laughint stock by the people who produced pamphlets that mocked the King and Queen and their overspending nature . Most famous would be one incident in which an article was spread throughout France citing the Queen saying, “Let them have cake,” when she was addressed about the issue of the starving French citizens during the late 1780s . Another event which involved Queen Marie Antoinette, was the Diamond Necklace Affair; When the Diamond Necklace Affair was exposed, public opinion was much excited by the trial. Marie Antoinette was relatively blameless in the matter, that Rohan was an innocent dupe, and that the Comtesse de la Motte deceived both for her own gain. At the time, however, most people in France believed that Marie Antoinette had used the Comtesse as an instrument to satisfy her hatred of the Cardinal de Rohan, which unfortunately affected the very image of King Louis XVI in that it showed him as a helpless ruler, one who could not even control the dramatics of the court, and the matters of the state. The last major factor that led to the demise of King Louis XVI was the failed attempt to escape France to what is now present day Belgium, which at that time was part of the Austrian Empire.

 The reasons for this attempt was that during the height of the French Revolution, the sense of national unity was quickly fractured not only by class distinctions but by religious affairs. In July 1790, the National Assembly passed the Civil Constituiton of the Clergy  , which was a measure that divided the nation. This act nationalized the church and required the catholic priests into civil servants and required them to swear an oth of allegiance to the nation. Such were concerns that King Louis XVI, who was a devout Roman Catholic to the end, took into great consideration. These fissures forced him to flee the country with his family for the region Montmédy, a royalist stronghold in the east of France. There they would gather their supporters and any foreign assistance they could from Emperor Leopold II, Catherine II of Russia, the King of Sweden and the King of Prussia, however was prevented when they were caught in Varennes . However, the foolish escape attempt by King Louis XVI was seen as nothing more than as act of treason because that same year, King Louis XVI signed  the constituiton into law, in which identified the king as the constitutional monarch of New France. However, his recent escape attempt was most un-kingly for a man who tried to flee the same country he was king of and to garner support from the rulers of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Sweden to crush the very same country he recognized as his own and thereby betray the very same country whose constitution he signed and recognized . The King was seen by many revolutionaries as a traitor of France, and thereby undermined the power and authority of the National Assembly.

The fate of King Louis XVI, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre was set in motion as he was eventually used as a scapegoate by the revoluitonary forces as a traitor of France and the Revolution. The history and aftermath of the French Revolution would not have been without the factors and characterstics of King Louis XVI, who is seen in modern history as a man unfit for the throne of France. Though Louis XVI was a man schooled in the arts of traditional paternal rule, he was incapable to unite France and keep the forces of the Enlightenment, which had already molded the people of Paris to the point of revolution at bay. The person of King Louis XVI may well have been a religious man, a conservative man, yet his inability to percieve the political waves that were befalling the Kingdom of France, his inability to make appropriate decisions as well as his relations to the court and Queen Marie Antoinette and his latter subvertist action in escaping his own country undermined any credibility he had as King. Men are defined by the actions they do in life and so are rightfully remembered by history accordingly; the same is true for King Louis XVI or better known in the proverbial French revolutionary taunt as les Louis durent or “Louis the last”. The death of Louis XVI was in essence the baptism and legitimization of the French Republic and the birth of New France.

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