Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

[Draggingtree]

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

 

Louis XVI of France

 

On September 14, 2011, in French History, by Dean Swift

 

Louis (1754 – 1793) was the last (Capet) King of France. He reigned, not well but to the best of his limited capabilities, from 1774 – 92. He joins the list of European monarchs judicially murdered by his own countrymen for political reasons: others on the list are Alexander II and Nicholas II of Russia, Charles I of England and Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

Most historians of the eighteenth century agree that Louis, who ascended the throne of France at only twenty, was a weak character, vacillating and easily persuaded. Sadly, he shared the same characteristics as Charles I of England, in that both thought they were king because of divine right and the blood of their ancestors, and were quite blind to the stirrings of anti-monarchical revolution.

Louis married an Austrian girl of firm will and good intentions, Marie Antoinette, though this name was adopted in order to sound more French. He immediately came under the influence of his infinitely stronger wife, and that influence was not always for the good of France. For instance he could neither avoid the imminent revolution by backing the economic and social reforms proposed among others by the faithful Necker; nor could he become a popular monarch, loved by his people, because he hardly knew of their existence, such was his upbringing. He did know however that ‘out there beyond the palace gates’, was a seething mass of millions of French people who were supposed to worship and obey him because he was King. Such a man was bound to come to a bad end.

He assembled the Assembly of Notables (almost entirely aristocratic) in 1787, which managed to achieve nothing at all, and then the more democratic but creaking States-General, which had not been called for nearly two hundred years. Thus the French Revolution (qv.) started. Read More http://general-history.com/louis-xvi-and-marie-antoinette/