What was louis xvi like

This lack of preparation was compounded by the fact that he was only the third royal son and did not become heir apparent until after the death of his two elder brothers. Upon taking the throne Louis XVI decided to dispense with the political team assembled by his grandfather, Louis XV, and replaced them with ministers such as Turgot , Necker and Calonne. The French Revolution was underway. Together they had four children.

Only the eldest, Madame Royale , born in , and the Second Dauphin , born in , survived to see the outbreak of the French Revolution. Louis XVI indulged his interest in the applied sciences and the latest technical and mechanical curiosities in the special cabinets and laboratories he had installed near his private chambers. They included workshops devoted to physics, mechanics, chemistry, woodworking, watchmaking and lock-making, along with a working forge and a room for experiments involving electricity.

The king also took a keen interest in maritime exploration and the discovery of new lands. Throughout the eighteenth century, the kings of France devoted more and more time to their personal lives at the expense of their ceremonial lives, i. On certain evenings the King did hold semi-official suppers in his private apartment , with around 60 guests including the Queen, other members of the royal family, ministers and courtiers.

But the King was indecisive and reluctant to ratify the texts proclaiming the abolition of privileges and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, promulgated shortly after the storming of the Bastille on 14 July Therefore, he called the Assembly of Notables in , to which he presented his plan and the deficit in the treasury.

All the proposed measures failed because of the powerlessness of the crown to impose them. As a last resort, Calonne proposed to the king the suppression of internal customs duties and argued in favor of the taxation of the property of nobles and clergy. Calonne soon afterwards left for Great Britain, and during his residence there kept up a polemical correspondence with Necker.

Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. The French Revolution. Search for:. Louis XVI Louis XVI, although highly educated and intellectually gifted, was seen by his contemporaries and is largely remembered as an individual of unimaginative and indecisive personality. Considered brighter and more handsome than his little brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne died at the age of nine in A strong and healthy but very shy Louis-Auguste was an intellectually curious and gifted student.

Upon the death of his father, he became the new Dauphin. The strict and conservative education he received from the Duc de La Vauguyon, however, did not prepare him for the throne that he was to inherit in The French public was hostile towards the marriage that confirmed the Franco-Austrian alliance. Over time the couple became closer, although their marriage was not consummated until The created a strain upon their marriage and the failure to produce children alerted the French public.

In addition to the extreme lack of decisiveness demonstrated by his decisions regarding both domestic and foreign policies, he has been described as quiet and shy but also conventional and unimaginative.

Key Terms Dauphin : The title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from to and to It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire, spanning five continents and affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines.

The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by Great Britain on one side and France on the other. They were not legislative bodies but rather the court of final appeal of the judicial system.

They typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, particularly taxation. Laws and edicts issued by the Crown were not official in their respective jurisdictions until assent was given by publication. The members were aristocrats who had bought or inherited their offices and were independent of the King. Her family connections made her the primary candidate for the wife of the Dauphin of France at the time of the Franco-Austrian alliance.

By the time that Louis and Marie Antoinette were married, the French were generally critical of the Austrian alliance, and many saw Marie Antoinette as an unwelcome foreigner. At the outset of the reign of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette had limited political influence with her husband although she played an important role in introducing French meditation in the process of ending the War of Bavarian Succession. She played a key role in supporting the American Revolution and influenced nominations for critical state positions.

Maria Theresa died in and Marie Antoinette feared that the death of her mother would jeopardize the Franco-Austrian alliance as well as, ultimately, herself , but her brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, assured her that he had no intention of breaking the alliance. War of the Bavarian Succession : A — conflict between a Saxon-Prussian alliance and Austria to prevent the Habsburgs from acquiring the Electorate of Bavaria.

Although the war consisted of only a few minor skirmishes, thousands of soldiers died from disease and starvation, earning the conflict the name Kartoffelkrieg Potato War in Prussia and Saxony. Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France. Prussia became an ally of Britain. It was part of efforts to preserve or upset the European balance of power. Key Takeaways Key Points Although nearly all royal marriages in Europe were traditionally arranged around the political interests of involved families, the marriage of Louis-Auguste and Maria Antonia provoked very strong and ambiguous reactions in France.

It aimed to strengthen the union between France and Austria, but the French public was highly critical of the political alliance.

She spent heavily on fashion, luxuries, and gambling. The wealth and lavish lifestyle that the royal couple provided for their favorites outraged most aristocratic families, who resented the influence of the selected few, and also fueled the increasing popular disapprobation toward Marie Antoinette, mostly in Paris.

Its name relates to the fact that the only shot fired hit a soup kettle. Nonetheless, against a background of military defeat by Austria and Prussia, the revolutionary leadership was becoming increasingly radicalised. In September , the new National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared France a republic. Louis was found guilty of treason and executed at the guillotine on 21 January Marie Antoinette was executed nine months later. Search term:. Read more. A frustrated populace soon blamed the king and the nobility for inaction and revolutionary attitudes began to foment.

Much of this character assassination was simply invented. Although Marie Antoinette was guilty of sins against decorum and exhibited a certain insensitivity to the value of money, she was a person who liked people and bore little resemblance to the cold villain portrayed by her detractors. Marie was especially fond of children, possibly because she had been childless for so long, and she adopted a number of children during her reign.

Similarly, when an usher and his wife died suddenly, Marie adopted the three children, paying for two girls to enter a convent while the third became a companion for her son Louis-Charles. Most strikingly, she baptized and took into her care a Senegalese boy presented to her as a gift, who normally would have been pressed into service. Other examples of her kindness abound. Out for a carriage ride, one of her attendants accidentally ran over a winegrower in the field.

Marie Antoinette flew out of the carriage to attend personally to the hurt man. She paid for his care and supported his family until he was able to work again. Together with Louis, Marie gave liberally to charity. She established a home for unwed mothers; patronized the Maison Philanthropique, a society for the aged, widowed, and blind; and made frequent visits to poor families, giving them food and money.

During the famine of , she sold the royal flatware to provide grain for struggling families, and the royal family ate cheaper grain so there would be more food to go around. All of this is not to say that Marie Antoinette was not a spendthrift who wasted millions of dollars on unnecessary luxuries, but she was also capable of a Christian kindness that her enemies chose to ignore. Although he was generally a fair and gentle man, Louis XVI did bear some hatred in his heart for one particular race of creatures: cats.

Affection was an absent commodity between Louis and his grandfather, and he was unlikely to share enthusiasm for anything that his grandfather loved. Furthermore, Louis XV had allowed his cats to breed indiscriminately, and they overran the grounds at Versailles.

There are stories that Louis-Auguste may have been scratched by one of these cats as a child. When not pursuing animals in the field, he would often hunt and shoot the cats overrunning the Versailles grounds.

He apologized profusely and bought the woman a new one. For centuries, cats had been regarded as somewhat evil creatures in Europe, and during religious times of the year, they were regularly rounded up, tortured, and killed.

Luckily, his wife preferred dogs. Marie Antoinette, adorned with a necklace of her children, mourns the death of her husband. Always somewhat unpopular in France owing to her provenance the French and Austrians had disliked each other for hundreds of years , Marie Antoinette was one of the most attacked public figures in the history of France.

Often, the attacks on her took on a very unwholesome hue. The childlessness of the royal couple was no doubt responsible for the initial attacks, which focused just as frequently on Louis.