Theme Of Execution At The Guillotine By Louis Capet

In Timothy Tackett’s When the King Took Flight, it’s explained how Louis XVI’s flight to Varennes resulted in escalating events to happen in the French Revolution that changed and shaped the history of France. In his flight to escape the revolution and upon his capture, he unintentionally created a domino effect that rippled throughout France with consequences that were far from his original plans when attempting to escape the country. This essay will explain how the flight to Varennes radicalized the revolution by further weakening the monarchy and its authority along with its image, that the most significant reaction was that it opened ideas to new forms of government, and that the seeds for this radicalism was already present.

On the morning of January 21, 1793, an innocent man was executed in front of his entire country, by means of the guillotine. That man was King Louis XVI. King Louis XVI, who was married to Queen Marie Antoinette, was the King of France during the beginning stages of the French Revolution. Which took place throughout 1788, and up until King Louis XVI was charged with treason, in 1792. Before the French Revolution really started, France was divided by a strict class system and there were three estates. The third estate were restless and angry with the government. To do something about their complaints, they soon created the National Assembly at the Tennis Court Oath and the well known, violent, events of the French Revolution soon came to being. King Louis XVI was innocent of committing treason against France, because he showed throughout his rulership of the country

The radical turning point of the revolution, marked by the Reign of Terror, was an atmosphere of mass executions and imposed paranoia, with more than ten thousand “counterrevolutionaries” (vaguely defined, which at the end turned out to be anyone with dissent) sent to death under the Law of Suspects. Robespierre himself states that “Terror is nothing but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore an emanation of virtue… The government of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny”. “Severe and inflexible”, as justified by Robespierre, the revolution needed a push in order to reach its goals. France under the committee's total control sent anyone with dissent to the guillotine because they were considered to be a threat to the new government, which ironically named itself “for the people”. An anonymous eyewitness during the reign commented on the Reign of Terror collection of authentic narratives that “It seemed as if their blind fury was particularly directed against the weakest and most amiable.The loveliest, the youngest, and the most interesting females, were dragged in crowds into this receptacle of misery, whence they were led, by dozens, to inundate the scaffold” (325). The sickening extent of human toll

In 1793 and 1794, were conditions in France serious enough to require such a violent response by the revolutionary government.The Reign of Terror lasted less than two years, from the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 to late July 1794.During those eighteen months, more than 20,000 French people were put to death by guillotine.The behavior by the revolutionary French government was not justified because Any society that invents the machine to publicly cut off people’s heads is off base. The action is unjustified because it is barbaric.The reign of terror was not justified because Robespierre’s s Desperate times required desperate measures not justified In a government that says it values liberty, passing a law like the levee en mass is unjust because it requires people to do things they do not want to do wrong in a government that says it values freedom and liberty. The revolutionary government made too many demands on individuals who were right to rebel against the oppressive revolutionary government. speech sounds rational, but he is out of touch. When a government has to “smother” its own citizens in order to eliminate individuals who challenge it, the government is not promoting freedom.To lay the foundations of democracy and the rule of law, rulers need to follow democracy and the rule of law, not the blade of terror. Any society that invents the machine to publicly cut off people’s heads is off base. The action is unjustified because it is barbaric.Nine people

The execution of Louis XVI marked the beginning of an 18 month period in France known as the Reign Of Terror. The Reign Of Terror happened during the French Revolution from September 5, 1793 to July 27, 1794. The French were fighting enemies of the revolution, like normal civilians. During the terror, the government had control of almost everything, like the economy, religion, and rules or laws. This drove many people to revolt against the government, causing the Reign Of Terror. From the evidence and the documents provided, the Reign Of Terror was not justified because the acts from the government taking action against the fighters of the revolution like death, the churches being closed by the government, and the rights taken from the people of France during this time.

Do know in the late 1700s if someone disobeyed you they head got chopped off.the french revolution began in 1789 as an attempt to form a new government in france.it was a revolution that did not follow a simple path .one broadside from the time read ”unity ,indivisibility of republican liberty equality fraternity or death” .it is the last word of course that is troubling. The reign of terror was justified because the the threats to them, the method for punishment and the reasons behind the revolution The reign of terror was unjustified because of all the threats they received from inside and outside enemies. In document c it speaks of all the outside threats. ”in august 1792 an 80,000-man army marched into france.nearly half the force was prussian ,and the other half austria.austria and prussia were

During the French Revolution, the revolutionaries wanted to make a new government that would give the citizens more freedom, liberty, and equality. The Reign of Terror, led by Robespierre, was a period of the French Revolution during which many people were ruthlessly executed by the new government. This period of murder and blood shed started from the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 to late July 1794 called the Reign of Terror. During those eighteen months, more than 20,000 French people were put to death by guillotine. The behavior by the revolutionaries in the French government was not justified for these three reasons: internal and external threats were not serious, the manipulation of the Committee of Public Safety and Maximilien Robespierre wasn’t for the benefit of the all the French citizen, and the uses of the death machine, the guillotine, was inhumane.

King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette were two people that should not have been ruling a country. King Louis was always gone on hunting trips and Marie Antionette spent every dime of French money. Once the Monarchy ran out money, they started to tax the Third, and poorest, estate. The third estate took up 97% of the population. 97% of the population was starving and the royal family kept spending large amounts of money until the people revolted. The people of France tried to reason with King Louis, but he refused to change his ways and kept taxing the third estate. When the people revolted, they stormed the Bastille and took all of the weapons they could. The people then went to the King’s palace and demanded he fix the way he was ruling before they killed him. The King didn’t listen and was executed along with his wife. Of the three kids that Marie Antionette had, the two boys died of Tuberculosis in jail and the daughter was sent to live the remainder of her life in exile in Austria. It may seem as though the people of France had successfully overgrown their monarchy and could begin a life of freedom, however this is not the case. The French had rushed into combat too fast and did not have a plan for what to do after they had killed their rulers. The right of Terror begins where Maximilian Robespierre beheads 40,000 people in the span of ten months for speaking against the revolution. In the end, Robespierre ends up getting

During the French revolution, French citizens went against absolute monarchy and the feudal system that was antiquated. They were influenced by Enlightenment ideas such as inalienable rights and popular sovereignty. Louis XVI was the ruler at the time; he believed that his power was given to him by God, thus making him think his ruling was right despite people’s opinion. The citizens of France especially the 3rd estate disliked the king for treating them poorly. Eventually the Jacobins convicted Louis XVI to death by a guillotine for treason after finding a large iron box holding Louis XVI’s secret correspondence with foreign monarchs. The beheading of King Louis XVI was justified because he took people’s rights away and made people follow his inadequate rules and biased judgments based on status. Furthermore, if he were to be left alive it would have posed a threat to the security and stability of France.

France was experience a great amount of change in the summer of 1793, when the Jacobins succeeded the moderates in the National Convention. With the radical Jacobins in power, the country was in tumult, and a Reign of Terror ensued due to a law of suspects that legalized local revolutionary committees. Because of this, thousands of people were killed by guillotine or other methods. Throughout the summer of 1793, the radical Jacobins’ control of the Committee of Public Safety instituted the Terror which was advantageous in it’s intended purpose, yet it was disadvantageous because of the enemies it created.

Timothy Tackett’s book When the King Took Flight focuses on arguably the most consequential event in the French Revolution. King Louis XVI and his family’s attempt to escape France would influence an atmosphere of violence that would only continue to worsen. King Louis XVI regretted signing and accepting the Civil Constitution of the Clergy earlier in July 1790. Deciding to flee the country he assumed that through foreign intervention or negotiating he could change parts of the constitution he disagreed with. However he would be recognized and captured in Varennes. The king underestimated the true meaning and appeal of the revolution (87). His misunderstanding of the revolution led the way for the destruction of kingship and the monarchy itself. This decision had given power to the sans-culottes and the idea of a republic. While the kings flight to Varennes had many unintended consequences it serves as a crucial turning point for the revolution.

The Guillotine The dark shadow casted over the French revolution that cured everyone headaches: the guillotine, a new and common form of execution during the French revolution. It terminated thousands of lives, including Marie - Antoinette and King Louis XVI. Prior to the French Revolution the guillotine was not used as punishment, but then used as a horrific form of entertainment and then ultimately abolished in the early eighties. The guillotine today is known as an inhumane, gruesome form of punishment.

France had become a nation run by it’s people more so than before, and although the governing structure was more in line with popular vision, there were some problems they were still struggling to deal with. To start, France was fighting wars against countries such as Britain and Holland (1), as well as fighting a civil war against former nobility and clergy who had preferred the old system of government. As well as fighting for their ideals to be considered “right” across Europe, France was also dealing with national debt and hunger (2), and to add on to the chaos that France was forced to deal with, in 1793 King Louis XVI was executed (3). The law of suspects was passed at this time, which allowed the government to “to take harsh measures against those suspected of being enemies of the Revolution”(5). Although this stage of the revolution was a violent time, documents such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from the Constitution of the Year I (1793) and the Constitution of 1793 were created, expanding the social and political rights of peasants (4).

The Royal Family of France’s attempted escape on June 20th, 1791 made many people very unhappy with the King. The mob, ever ready to exercise the uncontrolled Rights of Men, made a mock parade of the King’s Arms in the market places, and, dashing them and the figure of a crown to the ground, they trampled upon them, crying out, “Since the King has abandoned what he owed to his high situation, let us trample upon the ensigns of royalty” (Ascherson 48)! The Royal Family not only lost many of its followers through their attempted escape, but also because King Louis XVI kept making bad decisions, ones that had no benefit to France or its people. The people wanted someone who would lead them into a revolution and change France for the better, not because they wanted the power, but because they believed in France and wanted it to become a great nation. That man was Robespierre, who after the flight of the King followed the Jacobin club in its move toward republicanism. He called for universal male suffrage and the end of property qualifications for voting and office holding (Blumberg 290). Robespierre wanted to make France a republic, a government for the people and by the people, a country where everyone had the freedoms and rights they deserved. In January of 1793, Robespierre voted on whether or not he thought that King Louis should be executed for his actions. At the Convention on the trial

In the span of his life, from 1749-1827, Laplace experienced much of the turmoil that the French faced encircling their country, from the revolution to the Terror. The time period represented a time of incredible turmoil with intense revolutionary fervor and political upheaval. From the storming of the Bastille to the use of the guillotine for countless executions of high-powered individuals in the current establishment, the time period was riddled with strife for the French. For the most part, especially during his early life, Pierre Laplace tried to remain fairly absent from politics and these issues. During the violence of the Reign of Terror, Laplace went as far as to withdraw himself from the confines of Paris, allowing him to survive the conflicts that ensued.