LOUIS XVI, king of France: b. Ver sailles, 23 Aug. 1754; d. Paris, 21 Jan. 1793. He was the third son of Louis and of Marie Josepha, daughter of Frederic Augustus, king of Poland and Elector of Saxony. During the lifetime of Louis XV he bore the title of Duke of Berri. Amid the corruptions of the French court he kept aloof from licentiousness, was reserved and taciturn, and took most delight in practising some mechanical art, such as lock making or printing. In 1770 he married Marie Antoinette, archduchess of Austria, and four years later became king by the death of his grandfather. He began his reign with many popular measures tending to alleviate the finan cial distress under which the country labored, and his appointment of Turgot (1775) as Min ister of Finance, gave general satisfaction. The people were moreover pleased to see the par liaments again convened (1774), and the king set an example of national economy and re trenchment by the simplicity of his personal life, and the reduction of his retinue. The war of the American Revolution had sent Franklin and Deane to Paris to ask help for the young republic. Louis XVI was weak enough to take sides with the English colonists against their mother country, and the French and English war cost France an amount of treasure that almost plunged her into bank ruptcy. At the same time French enthusiasm, roused in favor of republicanism, caused a feel ing to prevail which threatened to endanger the stabilit4 the monarchy. Necker, who had becom ntroller-General in 1776, by his at tempts at reform and economy in order that the privileged orders should bear their share of taxation, so offended the nobility that he was compelled to resign (1781) and was suc ceeded by the reckless and wasteful Calonne. The queen was meanwhile very unpopular, and the affair of the "Diamond Necklace)) in 1785 (q.v.) was made to aggravate public disaffec tion toward the throne. The notables main 1787, but rejected a measure for universal tax ation which would comprise the notables and clergy of the realm. Calonne, the finance min ister, resigned, bankruptcy menaced the nation and Necker was recalled (1778), and suggested the convening of the States-General. The assembly met amid great popular excitement in May 1789, at Versailles; a series of reforms in public expenditure was begun, and the country was filled with enthusiasm. Necker sought to reproduce on French soil the limited monarchy of Great Britain. Louis proposed concessions, which were coldly greeted, and when he dis solved the assembly, Mirabeau, who sat in the Third Estate, defied the royal power, and re fused, in the name of the people, to obey the mandate of dissolution. So great meanwhile
was the excitement and anxiety which reigned in Paris that a national guard was formed with Lafayette for a commander. The king vacil lated, dismissed Necker, surrounded Paris with his army and the people rose in a burst of frenzy and sacked the Bastile. The king or dered the approach of the troops on Paris, but to conciliate the people appeared at Hotel de Ville wearing the tricolor. Meanwhile the princes of the blood and the nobles were leav ing the country, Necker was recalled, and the king returned to Versailles, but on 5 October the mob took possession of the royal palace there, and compelled the king and the royal family to return with them to Paris, where they were kept strictly guarded in the Tuileries. There they were confined as prisoners till the following year (1790). Necker had fled to Switzerland; Mirabeau, the one hope of the monarchy, had died. The king made an at tempt to visit Saint Cloud (1791) but was pre vented by the mob. He then escaped unnoticed from the Tuileries, but was stopped at Va rennes, 150 miles from Paris. The invasion of France by the Prussians and Austrians roused the Parisians to fury. They stormed the Tui leries and massacred the Swiss guard; the royal family were imprisoned in the ancient fortress known as the Temple. The national conven tion met on 20 September; in December they brought the king to trial on a charge of con spiring to overthrow the constitution and re store the ancient order of things. He was condemned to death by an absolute majority of one vote in a house that contained 749 mem bers (5 Jan. 1793) and was guillotined. A feeble but well-meaning ruler, he suffered for the sins of his house. His elder son had died in 1789; his younger son (Louis XVII) became the Dauphin, and his daughter was known as the Duchess of Angouleme. Consult Beau court, (Captivite et derniers momento de Louis XVI) (Paris 1892); Bouvet, 'Histoire de Louis XVI) (ib. 1825); Courian, 'Louis XVI et la (ib. 1893); Haggard, A. C. P., 'Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette) (London 1909) ; Jobez, 'La France sous Louis XVI' (Paris 1877-93) ; Lavisse, 'Histoire de France) (Vol. IX, ib. 1910); Saint-Amand, 'Marie An toinette and the Downfall of Royalty' (Eng. trans. by E. G. Martin, New York 1898).