Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI of France (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, after which he was subsequently King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before his deposition and execution during the French Revolution.
Biography
With the death of his father and his two older brothers in 1765 as well as the death of his grandfather, Louis XV in 1774, he ascended to the throne. His 19-year reign would become increasingly agitated since the Court was incapable of reform. Louis XV had merely covered up the nation's problems without actually resolving anything.
What decisions he actually managed to make turned against him. He was a great supporter of the American Revolutionary War which, by 1789, resulted in the kingdom turning to ruin as the debt-ridden France had reached a state of bankruptcy. This situation was exacerbated by the trade treaty with London, who were way ahead of the French technologically, inundated France with their industrial products, spelling ruin for French artisans. Some of the products would even be used in the revolutionary riots.
In summer of 1791, with the revolution heating up, Louis secretly fled to supposedly loyal troops in the East. When the grounds of the Tuileries were invaded, Louis took refuge in the National Assembly where he was arrested soon after and was stripped of his power and sent to the Temple.
Those who testified on Louis' behalf were killed in two instances while documents that could have proven his innocence were not passed on to his defenders. Louis was thereby executed on January 21, 1793 at the Place de la Concorde in Paris France.
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