Drabble, Margaret, editor. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 1985.
Louis XVI, King of France
Standard Name: Louis XVI,, King of France
Used Form: Lewis the Sixteenth
Connections
| Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Cultural formation | Germaine de Staël | She was born into the wealthy and powerful bourgeoisie and was just eight years old when Louis XVI
succeeded to the French throne. Her parents were both Swiss, but had settled in France. Owing to... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Honoré de Balzac | For many years HB
was romantically linked to Madame de Berny
, a god-daughter of Louis XVI
and Marie-Antionette
. He was devastated by her death in 1836. |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Frances Burney | |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Grace Elliott | GE
's relationship with the duc d'Orléans
is known to her readers only from her account of him in the days when he had moved on to other women and was increasingly showing a sympathy... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Mary Harcourt | He was the opposite of his wife in one respect. In 1770 his father had said of him (in connection with letters): so great is his aversion to writing that without an absolute necessity he... |
| Friends, Associates | Ellis Cornelia Knight | Wherever they went the Knights always met, and always admired, members of the relevant royal family. On a visit to the Palace of Versailles during their time in Paris, they were able to see Louis XVI |
| Leisure and Society | Anna Margaretta Larpent | On 17 April 1790 AML
went to Mary Champion de Crespigny
's private theatre and saw a performance of Mariana Starke
's tragedy The British Orphans. She was at the theatre (a public one... |
| Literary Setting | Catherine Gore | The title-page quotes Shakespeare
's Richard II about the deposing of a king. The novel opens with precision: at five o'clock on 22 June 1791, with aristocrats fearful for their fate in the aftermath of... |
| Material Conditions of Writing | Anne Grant | After the guilloting of the French king Louis XVI
, AG
formulated an explicit statement of the political nature of female virtue, as she asserted the responsibility of (upper-class) women for the Revolution. I... |
| Material Conditions of Writing | Elizabeth Inchbald | Every One Has His Fault, a comedy by EI
, opened at Covent Garden
, after being postponed for a week for fear of coinciding with the guillotining of Louis XVI of France
. The London Stage 1660-1800. Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. 5: 1516-17 O’Quinn, Daniel. “Bread: The Eruption and Interruption of Politics in Elizabeth Inchbald’s Every One Has His Fault”. European Romantic Review, No. 2, pp. 149 - 57. O'Quinn 149 |
| politics | Germaine de Staël | Habitués of her salon included Lafayette
, Condorcet
, Narbonne
, Talleyrand
, and Thomas Jefferson
. Kobak, Annette. “Mme de Staël and Fanny Burney”. The Burney Journal, pp. 12 -35. 21 |
| politics | Grace Elliott | She smuggled the duc d'Orléans to his house by giving her name instead of his to those who challenged them. She went home on foot, then, hearing that many thought the duc would lead a... |
| politics | Eglinton Wallace | She was, she wrote later, ignorant enough to flatter myself, that I was most materially serving my country, by making these proposals. She found, however, that the ministers were confident they knew better; Wallace, Eglinton. The Conduct of the King of Prussia and General Dumouriez. J. Debrett, 1793. 116 |
| politics | Ann Jebb | Her obituarist wrote that her zeal in the cause of civil and religious liberty was unabated by her husband's death. Meadley, George William. “Memoir of Mrs. Jebb”. The Monthly Repository, pp. 597 - 604, 661. 661 |
| Publishing | Anna Seward | The month after Louis XVI
was guillotined, AS
expressed her outrage at the developing Terror in France with an impassioned letter printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, urging her friend Helen Maria Williams
to come home. Ashmun, Margaret. The Singing Swan. Yale University Press; H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1931. 200-1 |
Timeline
19 January 1771
French parlements
, the sovereign court of Justice in Paris and thirteen other centres, were abolished by Louis XV
.
20 March 1778
Louis XVI
of France received American commissioners Benjamin Franklin
, Silas Deane
, and Arthur Lee
.
20 August 1786
Calonne
, French Finance Minister, informed Louis XVI
that the state was in financial crisis and submitted proposals for economic reforms to him.
27 December 1788
Louis XVI
consented to public demands and overuled the Parlement
of Paris to double the size of the Third Estate.
January 1789
In FranceEmmanuel Sieyès
published an immensely influential pamphlet, whose title in English is What is the Third Estate?
5 May 1789
The Estates-General
met at Versailles for the first time since 1614.
27 June 1789
Louis XVI
ordered the First and Second Estates (nobility and clergy) to sit with the Third Estate in the French National Assembly.
11 July 1789
Louis XVI
dismissed Necker
from the post of Director of Finances and Minister of State.
5-6 October 1789
French market women marched on Versailles to demand that the king
put an end to bread shortages and relocate to Paris, closer to his people.
20-25 June 1791
Louis XVI
fled with Marie-Antoinette
and their family, intending to leave France and raise a counter-revolution; they were captured at Varennes near Vichy, and brought back to Paris.
14 September 1791
Louis XVI
accepted the new French constitution.
10 August 1792
The Palace of the Tuileries in Paris was invaded (for the second time), and Louis XVI
was removed from his throne.
11 December 1792
21 January 1793