His Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI of France was executed 217 years ago today by guillotine at the hands of the fanatical revolutionary government. Louis was a good, decent, and pious man. However he had an incredible lack of confidence and had not been prepared to rule as he had been a younger son. The death of his father and older brother thrust him into the direct line of succession. France under his grandfather, Louis XV had been bankrupted by excessive spending and the loss of the Seven Years' War to Great Britian.
It is difficult to see how anyone could have effectively and peacefully led France out of its economic and social troubles. For all his goodness, Louis XVI was not the man for his time. The intense unpopularity of his misunderstood wife, Marie Antoinette of Austria, contributed to a decline in popularity of the monarchy. When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, Louis lacked the backbone to take control of the situation and restore order and put his kingdom's affairs in order.
Brought to Paris as a virtual prisoner, Louis was forced to accede to a British-style constitutional monarchy in 1791. However the revolution only became more violent, and following a disastrous escape attempt, Louis and his family were placed under arrest. The revolutionary leaders stripped him of his title and declared France to be a republic. Louis was placed on trial for his alleged "crimes" and was unsurprisingly found guilty. Louis was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. His last words were:
I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.
The spiritual power attributed to anointed kings was still very much in evidence, however, as the crowd surged towards the scaffold to attempt to bathe their handkerchiefs in the consecrated blood of their dead monarch.
Tomb of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Saint Denis Cathedral in Paris.
Death and Funeral Music for Louis XVI by Paul Wranitzky
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