Louis XVI

Biography

Louis-Auguste was born at Versailles in 1754, a grandson of Louis XV, and became heir to the throne when his father died in 1765. He married the Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette in 1770 and succeeded his grandfather as King of France in 1774, at the age of nineteen.

His early reign tried reforms inspired by the Enlightenment. Ministers such as Turgot and Necker tried to put the state's finances in order, but the nobility and the parlements blocked new taxes. He backed the American revolutionaries with the 1778 alliance and a costly war against Britain, and in 1787 the Edict of Versailles gave civil and legal status to non-Catholics. With the crown close to bankruptcy, he summoned the Estates General, whose meeting in May 1789 opened the French Revolution.

Forced to accept a constitutional monarchy, he lost much public trust after his failed flight to Varennes in June 1791. He was arrested after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, and the monarchy was abolished the following month. The National Convention tried him for high treason, and he was guillotined in Paris on 21 January 1793.