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Louis XVI

Louis XVI
Government and administration French monarchy France France 1754–1793 ✕ Executed

French king deposed and tried during the Revolution

The National Convention ruled on 3 December 1792 that it would try Louis XVI itself; convicted of high treason by vote, he was guillotined on 21 January 1793.

King of France from 1774, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General in 1789 amid a fiscal crisis. He accepted the Constitution of 1791, but the Flight to Varennes and foreign war deepened distrust of the crown. The monarchy was suspended in 1792; the National Convention convicted him and he was executed in January 1793.

Career timeline
  • 1774–1792King of France from 1774 until the monarchy was abolished in September 1792.
  • 1789Summoned the Estates-General amid fiscal crisis and, after the storming of the Bastille, recognized the National Assembly’s legislative authority.
  • 1791His flight to Varennes failed in June; he accepted the constitution, and a constitutional monarchy was declared in September.
  • 1792Arrested in the insurrection of 10 August and held in the Temple; on 21 September the National Convention abolished the monarchy.
  • 1792–1793The National Convention ruled on 3 December that it would try him; trial opened on 11 December and he was convicted of high treason.
  • 1793Executed by guillotine on 21 January at the Place de la Révolution in Paris.

Charles X

Charles Philippe, comte d’Artois
Government and administration French monarchy France France 1757–1836 ○ Died in exile

Count of Artois who led émigré royalism during the Revolution

At his 1825 coronation at Reims he tried to revive the royal touch, asserting the sacredness of monarchy; in July 1830 his ordinances dissolved the chamber and censored the press, and the Paris rising forced his abdication on 2 August.

Louis XVI’s younger brother, the Count of Artois left France soon after the fall of the Bastille in 1789. Abroad he promoted Bourbon restoration and became a political centre of émigré royalism. He succeeded as Charles X in 1824 and was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830.

Career timeline
  • 1765Death of his father, the Dauphin Louis
  • 1773Married Marie Thérèse of Savoy
  • 1789Left France on 17 July, three days after the storming of the Bastille
  • 1791–1792Set up a court-in-exile in the Electorate of Trier and prepared a counter-revolutionary invasion
  • 1814Acted as Lieutenant General of the realm during the Bourbon Restoration
  • 1824–1830King of France; crowned at Reims in 1825
  • 1830Issued the July Ordinances; abdicated on 2 August