When The King Took Flight

A common phrase is “History is written by the victors”. Perhaps that is the reason why King George III of England is remembered as being the mad king who lost the American colonies. However, there is more to the king than what the rebel colonists made him out to be. King George’s reign of nearly 60 years was full of hardships and setbacks, yet he was a hard worker who was kind and looked out for the welfare of his empire.

In June 1791, King Louis XVI and his family snuck out of Paris during the night, hoping to escape from the French Revolution and its violence. He planned to escape the country and return with foreign assistance to reclaim control of France, but the people of Varennes stopped and detained him until authorities arrived and sent him back to Paris. Louis’ attempted escape, in addition to the letter he left behind denouncing the Revolution, “profoundly influenced the political and social climate of France” (223). His escape outraged many people and left the administration in shambles, and this caused tensions to break out. To control the situation, the people of France quickly organized

While even prior to King Louis XVI flight, the monarchy’s power was already waning. However, upon being forcibly sent back to Paris after the flight, this action further damaged the monarchy by losing the trust and respect of the populace and many factions within the National Assembly. After the knowledge that Louis XVI had willing fled by his own accord had spread through the newspaper presses, many people expressed a severe revulsion and disgust for the monarch and many began to vilify his name, including removing artistic depictions of him from homes and public shops—many of which these images were tossed into the gutter (Tackett, 104). The degree to which the people loss faith and trust in their fatherly monarch figure weakened the image and

After the end of the civil war, officers of the New Model Army, formed by Cromwell, decided to put Charles on trial. Parliament voted to negotiate with the King in order to come to a peace agreement, but that was met with a fierce rebuke from Cromwell and his army. In order to kill any hope for the King and to prevent any kind of compromise between the King and Parliament, one hundred and eighty members of Parliament were excluded, and forty five were imprisoned for showing resistance. This act of purging was described simply as a coup d'état. (23 Laughland) If the king is truly guilty and hated by his people, Cromwell wouldn’t have needed to perform this despicable action of arresting and barring Parliament members from their seats. At this point, the authority of Parliament that was supported by the Roundheads, over the King’s, has lost all its legality. Parliament became a military tool in the hand of Cromwell and his army. In addition to this, Cromwell’s son-in-law, Henry Ireton, was the one who submitted a request to prosecute the King, which was naturally accepted by the one third of the Parliament left. A court with the name of ‘High Court of Justice’ was formed to be responsible for the King’s trial. (103-104 TURCHETTI)

The extent the ideas and objectives of men and women who participated in the French Revolution changed dramatically over time. People's thoughts were greed, anger, and the pridefulness they got when they created a new France. Especially because at this time they were recovering from the revolution which meant the people were more important than ever before, and it also meant that many new changes had to come. People were also prouder of the things they had done in the revolution and were also determined to make sure they got the equality they deserved as well as make sure they had no enemies to threaten all they had accomplished.

The French revolution was a very rough patch of history where people had a struggle to live because of the struggle to find food. Louis the sixteenths note described France as, “authority ignored, personal property violated, people’s safety everywhere in danger, crimes remaining unpunished, and a complete anarchy established above the law”. King louis did his very best to make the peoples actions seem absurd in order to hopefully make them reconsider what they had done, however, it would have very little effect on their actions. Finally, the note concludes by King louis the sixteenth offering himself back to the people as a king. The note quotes, “Come back to your king; he will always be your father, your best friend.”

Alfred the Great was born in the royal village of Want age. He was born in the year 846 A.D... He was born into a family that supposedly could trace their roots all the way back to Adam. His father was king Ethelwulf and his mother was Oostburg noble both by birth and nature. He grew up being loved by everybody around him, his family, friends and even all the people. He was more loved by the people than his older brothers. He was well educated by the court. But even though he was well educated he never got to learn what he wanted to learn the most: liberal arts. He couldn't learn this because there were no good teachers in the kingdom of the West-Saxons.

When the King Took Flight, by Timothy Tackett, describes the events leading up to and directly following Louis XVI’s attempt to flee the country. During the time of the Revolution and the implementation of the Constitution by the National Assembly, Louis XVI and the royal family are convinced to flee the country to Austria and from there work on bringing power back to the Monarchy of France. It took years of planning to successfully determine how the royal family was going to complete the impossible task of leaving Paris, France without being detected. When the royal family did make the attempt to flee they were halted by the people and sent back to Paris. The decision to send the royal family back was based upon the creation of the National Assembly, the oath to the Constitution, and the calling of the National Guards, showing who the people of France were loyal to. The loyalty to the National Assembly and sending the royal family back to Paris posed the question of how Louis XVI and the royal family should be charged, creating long-term ramifications of doubt toward the Monarchy and France.

King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their first of kin unsuccessfully tried to flee Paris in order to begin a counter-revolution. They escaped only as far as the quaint town of Varennes, where they were arrested for treason after being recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould

Ideally, a king has an old look, a great amount of power, and naturally rules his domain with an iron fist in literature. In the two works, Le Morte d'Arthur and First Knight see two different versions of how king Arthur is portrayed. Yet the honor and respect that a king should have remains undisturbed, much like how both are products of their time. First Knight is told as a modern retelling of the legend and Le Morte d'Arthur is a minorly altered, much older work. While the depictions of king Arthur are seen as the paramount backbone for arthurian times, these two works have also proven to exhibit differences and similarities, illustrate Arthur’s figure in character, and serve as preservation of the time period.

After reading this book I understand a lot more about the French Revolution. Most of the problems that occurred dealt with the idea of change. Some people like things the way they are, some are afraid of change, and others would like to see something new. Louis XVI wanted things the way they were and be treated as a king is supposed to be treated, and

The published letter of the king’s reasoning for departure also served the public with rage, and, “equally significant for the future of the Revolution was the dramatic change in attitude toward the king…everything was transformed by the king’s flight.” (Tackett, 101) People in the streets of Paris were throwing out their portraits of the royal family and were seeing the king, the one they praised a week ago, as a deserter and conspirator to their newly-formed and praised government. The use of rumor and newspapers by members of The Cordelier Club also helped spread certain radical ideals in which prompted the idea of turning France into a republic, and of dissembling the monarchy and the king altogether. It was this power in the streets of Paris that would soon grow with every day after the king fled, as, “Outside the Legislative Assembly, however, the more radical revolutionaries had managed to hold the loyalty of most of the provincial club network, giving them a powerful propaganda tool.” (Popkin, 58) The National Assembly was still strong in its number of members favorable of this new constitutional monarchy, but it was in the streets and with the people that the actual aspect of the Revolution was shifting. Members of the National Assembly were getting restless

On the night 20/21st June 1791 Louis attempted to flee from the Tuileries Palace in Paris for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons that Louis wanted to flee was because he felt as if he was being kept as a prisoner there which led him to fear for his own safety. Since the October days when the crowd stormed the Versailles palace and brought the royal family into Paris Louis had felt like he was a prisoner of the crowds as his freedom did become reduced. Furthermore, in Easter of 1791 Louis and his family had been prevented from leaving Paris in order to visit Saint Cloud, a visit that they took annually. This prevention made Louis feel like even more of a prisoner as he was being held against his will, which highlighted the power that the sans-culottes crowd had as they had stopped him, and the power that he was losing as he

Louis XIV became the king and ruler of France, and believed in the divine right of kings. He ruled in royal absolutism by commanding that the secretaries and ministers would do all favors for him, not to sign anything without him, they had to keep themselves accountable to him personally every day, and be subservient to him. Louis ruled his kingdom through several counsels of state, and took a personal role in many of the counsel’s decisions. He was alone in command when it came to the clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Intended Purpose: Follow Louis XVI on his escape to Versailles and the monarchy he left behind.