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The trial and execution of Louis XVI

The trial and execution of Louis XVI. Part of a broader political struggle.

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The trial and execution of Louis XVI

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  1. The trial and execution of Louis XVI

  2. Part of a broader political struggle • Struggle between Jacobins/Montagnards and Girondins in the new (21 September 1792) National Convention (elected on full franchise after the king is deposed on 10 August 1792, thus rendering the constitution of 1791 unworkable – why?) • Jacobins/Montagnards – more radical, have the support of the Sans Culottes – want king tried and executed • Girondins – at this stage, in power – radical (agitated for war), but appear moderate next to the Jacobins – resist this move

  3. The trial • December 1792 – Louis XVI (now ‘Citizen Louis Capet’) charged with treason. Convicted 26 December 1792 • Question of what to do with him • Girondins – want national referendum on his fate – some suggest exile • Jacobins and Cordeliers want immediate execution • 14 January 1793 – narrowly passes decree to execute (387 to 334) • Executed 21 January 1793 – guillotine blade fails to cut head off the first time, has to be reset and dropped again!

  4. Why was he executed? • San-Just – a leading Jacobin:‘…he was executed not for what he had done but for what he was: a menace to the Republic’. • OR executed because his actions were treasonous? (eg. the Iron Chest, found after the attack on the Tuileries Palace, which contained counter-revolutionary documents/correspondence with Austria)

  5. One significant outcome: • (aside from regicide and providing the trigger for an escalation of the international war raging at the time) • Jacobins/Montagnards gain the ascendancy in the Convention. • They manage to brand their Girondin opponents as royalists and counter-revolutionaries (even though inaccurate and unfair). • Girondins are alienated from the people of Paris • Propaganda victory that assists the Jacobin/Montagnard ascension to power.

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