The Children of Adam and Eve

Louis XVI (1754-93), king of France (1774-92), who lost his throne in the
French Revolution and was later beheaded by the revolutionary regime.

Louis was born at Versailles on August 23, 1754, the grandson of Louis XV.
The Deaths of his two elder Brothers and of his father, only son of Louis
XV, made the Young prince the Dauphin of France in 1765. In 1770 he
married Marie Antoinette, Youngest daughter of Archduchess Maria Theresa
of Austria. On Louis's accession, France was impoverished and burdened
with debts, and heavy taxation had resulted in widespread misery among the
French people. Immediately after he was crowned, aided by such capable
statesmen as Finance Minister Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, baron de
l'Aulne, Interior Minister Chr?en Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes
(1721-94), and Foreign Minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes
(1717-87), Louis remitted some of the most oppressive taxes and instituted
financial and judicial reforms. Greater reforms were prevented, however,
by the opposition of the upper classes and the court. So strong was this
opposition that in 1776 Turgot was forced to resign and was replaced by
financier Jacques Necker.

After Louis granted financial aid (1778-81) to the American colonies
revolting against Great Britain in the New World, Necker proposed drastic
taxes on the nobility. He was forced to resign in 1781, and statesman
Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802), appointed finance minister in
1783, borrowed money for the court until 1786, when the borrowing limit
was reached. The anger of the French people against taxes and the lavish
spending of the court resulted in 1788 in the recall of Necker, who,
however, could not prevent the bankruptcy of the government. In 1788 Louis
was forced to call for a meeting of the representative governmental body
called the Estates-General, the first gathering of that assembly in 175
years. Once in session, the Estates-General assumed the powers of
government. On July 14, 1789, the Parisian populace razed the Bastille,
and a short time later imprisoned the king and royal family in the palace
of the Tuileries. In 1791 the royal family attempted to escape to Austria,
but they were caught and Brought back to Paris. Louis swore obEdience to
the new French constitution in 1791, but continued secretly to work
against the revolution and to plot intrigues with France's enemies. In
1792, when the National Convention, the assembly of elected French
deputies, declared France a republic, the king was tried as a traitor and
condemned to Death. Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793, in the
Place de la R?lution (now Place de la Concorde) in Paris.

Historians consider Louis XVI a victim of circumstances rather than a
despot similar to the former French kings Louis XIV and Louis XV. He was
weak and incapable as king and not overly intelligent. He preferred to
spend his time at hobbies, such as hunting and making locks, rather than
at his duties of state, and he permitted his wife to influence him unduly.