Louis XVI

Louis XVI en 1786

Louis XVI, (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir-apparent of King Louis XV), and Maria Josepha of Saxony, Louis became the new Dauphin when his father died in 1765. In 1770, he married Marie Antoinette. He became King of France and Navarre on his grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, and reigned until the abolition of the monarchy on 21 September 1792.

Louis was tried by the National Convention (self-instituted as a tribunal for the occasion), found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Louis XVI's death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy.

Quotes

• Frenchmen, and you above all, Parisians, inhabitants of the city that His Majesty's ancestors were pleased to call the good city of Paris, beware of the suggestions and lies of your false friends; return to your king; he will always be your father, your best friend: what joy he will have in forgetting all the personal insults he has suffered, and in seeing himself once more in your midst, when a Constitution - freely accepted by him - ensures that our holy religion is respected, that the government is established on a stable footing, and that, through its actions, the property and status of each individual will no longer be threatened, that the laws will no longer be broken with impunity, and that, finally, liberty will be established on firm and unshakeable foundations.
  • in Déclaration du Roi adressée à tous les Français, à sa sortie de Paris

• You can always rely on my affection... I am most satisfied, I agree to the establishment of the citizens' guard... Monsieur Bailly, I am very glad that you should be Mayor and M. de La Fayette commander-in-chief.
  • Louis XVI's stumbling impromptu remarks at the Hôtel de Ville, The Taking of the Bastille: July 14th, 1789, ch. X