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KF5JRV > TODAY 21.01.19 13:39l 47 Lines 2338 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 29775_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 21
Path: IZ3LSV<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<F1OYP<ON0AR<VE2PKT<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190121/1233Z 29775@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and
sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is
executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.
Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was
unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he had
inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In 1789, in a last-ditch
attempt to resolve his country’s financial crisis, Louis assembled the
States-General, a national assembly that represented the three “estatesö
of the French people–the nobles, the clergy, and the commons. The
States-General had not been assembled since 1614, and the third
estate–the commons–used the opportunity to declare itself the National
Assembly, igniting the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, violence
erupted when Parisians stormed the Bastille–a state prison where they
believed ammunition was stored.
Although outwardly accepting the revolution, Louis resisted the advice
of constitutional monarchists who sought to reform the monarchy in order
to save it; he also permitted the reactionary plotting of his unpopular
queen, Marie Antoinette. In October 1789, a mob marched on Versailles
and forced the royal couple to move to Tuileries; in June 1791,
opposition to the royal pair had become so fierce that the two were
forced to flee to Austria. During their trip, Marie and Louis were
apprehended at Varennes, France, and carried back to Paris. There, Louis
was forced to accept the constitution of 1791, which reduced him to a
mere figurehead.
In August 1792, the royal couple was arrested by the sans-cullottes and
imprisoned, and in September the monarchy was abolished by the National
Convention (which had replaced the National Assembly). In November,
evidence of Louis XVI’s counterrevolutionary intrigues with Austria and
other foreign nations was discovered, and he was put on trial for
treason by the National Convention.
The next January, Louis was convicted and condemned to death by a narrow
majority. On January 21, he walked steadfastly to the guillotine and was
executed. Nine months later, Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason
by a tribunal, and on October 16 she followed her husband to the
guillotine.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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