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.
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
A conqueror who rose from revolutionary general to emperor
In the coup of 9–10 November 1799 (18 Brumaire), he conspired with Talleyrand and Sieyès and used troops with fixed bayonets to disperse the Council of Five Hundred and overturn the Directory, then took effective power as First Consul.
Born into an Italian-descended Corsican family, he was commissioned in the French royal artillery in 1785, supported the Revolution of 1789, and rose through his victories over royalists at Toulon in 1793 and Vendémiaire in 1795. The Italian campaign of 1796 made him a national hero, and in November 1799 the Brumaire coup overthrew the Directory and made him First Consul; in 1804 he became emperor of the First Empire. He won at Austerlitz in 1805 but was ruined by the Russian campaign of 1812 and Leipzig in 1813, was exiled to Elba in 1814, and after the Hundred Days lost at Waterloo and died on Saint Helena in 1821. His reforms such as the Napoleonic Code and public education endure, while the plunder of occupied lands, suppression of the press and deportation or imprisonment of critics, and the restoration of slavery in the colonies make him a contested figure.
Career timeline
1785Commissioned as an artillery second lieutenant in the French royal army.
1793Led the recapture of Toulon and was promoted to brigadier general.
1795Suppressed the royalist rising of Vendémiaire.
1796–1797Commanded the Army of Italy, defeating Austrian forces.
1798–1799Commanded the Egyptian and Syrian expedition.
1799Overthrew the Directory in the Brumaire coup and became First Consul.
1804–1814Ruled as emperor of the French First Empire.
1815Returned to power for the Hundred Days and was finally defeated at Waterloo.
