King Louis XVI and the French Revolution | French Revolution | France
 
King Louis XVI and the French Revolution
The French Revolution is remembered with different opinions. It is agreed, however,that the years from 1789 to 1799 was a reign of terror. It was a time in French and Europehistory where the monarchy government underwent a lot changes and in the end wasoverthrown by the French citizens. Reasons for this strong and violent rebellion were the toohigh and unfair taxes, which only the third estate had to pay, and the lack of participation inruling that King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette showed. When the French people didn’twant to deal with the mess anymore, they went and overthrew the government and guillotinedfirst the King and later also the Queen, which lead to a different, more responsiblegovernment and the end of the absolute monarchy.Louis XVI was born on August 23
rd
1754 at Versailles in Paris. When he was only 16years old married Marie-Antoinette through an arranged marriage and they became king andqueen in 1774. A couple of years later they had their first daughter, Marie-Therese, followed by two sons and another daughter. Their last child died quickly after her birth and the two boys died during the French revolution. Since both Louis and Marie-Antoinette preferred their hobbies and living in luxury to ruling the country, they did everything to get more and moremoney, not regarding the needs of others. They increased the taxes for the third estate andused it all for their own good. Eventually this caused an incredible hatred in the Frenchcitizens and soon they stormed the Palace of Versailles and imprisoned the royal family. Theytried to escape, but did not succeed and we’re sentenced to death only a short while after.King Louis was guillotined on January 21
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1793.King Louis didn’t see the French Revolution coming. However, when he did realizethat it was there, he maintained different personal and political goals. At first his goal was to
 
stop the revolution. His attempt at this failed though because since he hadn’t paid attention tohow to rule a country earlier, he had no idea what to do against the revolution. When herealized that he had caused this trouble and that people were out to kill him and his family heall of a sudden had a different goal in front of his eyes. All he wanted to do was stay alive. Toachieve this goal, he hid behind as many other people as necessary and didn’t care about their well-being. This shows his selfishness and his disrespect toward his guards.Another goal that King Louis XVI had during the French Revolution was to stay Kingand keep France a monarchy. He noticed that his position of King was in danger when he wasdescribed quite negatively in the papers and also when his wife was drawn as a harpy, an evil,ferocious monster. Louis knew no one liked him, but he didn’t want to believe in it. That isthe reason why he didn’t do anything to change the revolution. He could have ended therevolution by giving in and asking the peasant what they wanted and needed, by making fairer taxes and giving people the freedom of opinion and speech.To get away from all the people that wanted to see him dead, King Louis decided toescape with his family near Austria, where they would be safe enough from attacks on thePalace. By making this decision, Louis set up another goal, which was to get away safe,secure, and secretly, without anyone noticing. Unfortunately, for him and his family, a post-master in a little village recognized their faces from coins and drawings and reported themimmediately. When the royal family was arrested and brought back to Paris, they were lookedat with even more disgust. The French citizens imprisoned Louis and his family. Now therewas no longer anything special about them; they were just ordinary poor prisoners withragged old clothes. The failed escape brought King Louis XVI to an even more dangerous position than the one he had been in before his attempted escape.
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