Editing Louis XVI (section)

==Imprisonment, execution and burial (1792–1793)==
{{See also|Trial of Louis XVI| Votes on the death of Louis XVI|Execution of Louis XVI}}
[[File:Garneray - Louis XVI au Temple - P2813 - Musée Carnavalet (cropped).jpg|thumb|Posthumous portrait of Louis XVI imprisoned at the [[Tour du Temple]] (by [[Jean-François Garneray]], 1814)]]
[[File:Louis le dernier3.jpg|thumb|Tinted etching of Louis XVI, 1792. The caption refers to the date of the [[Tennis Court Oath]] and concludes, "The same Louis XVI who bravely waits until his fellow citizens return to their hearths to plan a secret war and exact his revenge."]]
Louis was officially arrested on 13 August 1792 and sent to the [[Temple (Paris)|Temple]], an ancient fortress in Paris that was used as a prison. On 21 September, the National Assembly declared France to be a republic, and [[Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy|abolished the monarchy]]. Louis was stripped of all of his titles and honors, and from this date was known as ''Citoyen Louis Capet.''

The [[Girondins]] were partial to keeping the deposed king under arrest, both as a hostage and a guarantee for the future. Members of the Commune and the most radical deputies, who would soon form the group known as [[the Mountain]], argued for Louis's immediate execution. The legal background of many of the deputies made it difficult for a great number of them to accept an execution without the [[due process of law]], and it was voted that the deposed monarch be tried before the National Convention, the organ that housed the representatives of the sovereign people. In many ways, the former king's trial represented the trial of the monarchy by the Revolution. It was seen as if with the death of one came the life of the other. The historian [[Jules Michelet]] later argued that the death of the former king led to the acceptance of violence as a tool for happiness. He said, "If we accept the proposition that one person can be sacrificed for the happiness of the many, it will soon be demonstrated that two or three or more could also be sacrificed for the happiness of the many. Little by little, we will find reasons for sacrificing the many for the happiness of the many, and we will think it was a bargain."<ref>Dunn, Susan, ''The Deaths of Louis XVI: Regicide and the French Political Imagination'', Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 72–76.</ref>

Two events led up to the trial for Louis XVI. First, after the [[Battle of Valmy]] on 22 September 1792, General Dumouriez negotiated with the Prussians who evacuated France. Louis could no longer be considered a hostage or as leverage in negotiations with the invading forces.<ref name="Hardman 2000 157–158">{{cite book|last=Hardman|first=John|title=Louis XVI: The Silent King|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press Inc.|pages=157–158}}</ref> Second, in November 1792, the ''[[armoire de fer]]'' (iron chest) incident took place at the [[Tuileries Palace]], when the existence of the hidden safe in the king's bedroom containing compromising documents and correspondence, was revealed by François Gamain, the Versailles locksmith who had installed it. Gamain went to Paris on 20 November and told [[Jean-Marie Roland]], [[Girondins|Girondin]] Minister of the Interior, who ordered it opened.<ref>G. Lenotre, ''Vieilles maisons, vieux papiers'', Librairie académique Perrin, Paris, 1903, pp. 321–338 (in French)</ref> The resulting scandal served to discredit the King. Following these two events the Girondins could no longer keep the King from trial.<ref name="Hardman 2000 157–158"/>

On 11 December, among crowded and silent streets, the deposed king was brought from the Temple to stand before the [[National Convention]] and hear his indictment, an accusation of [[high treason]] and crimes against the State. On 26 December, his counsel, [[Raymond Desèze]], delivered Louis's response to the charges, with the assistance of [[François Tronchet]] and [[Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes]]. Before the trial started and Louis mounted his defense to the convention, he told his lawyers that he knew he would be found guilty and be killed, but to prepare and act as though they could win. He was resigned to and accepted his fate before the verdict was determined, but he was willing to fight to be remembered as a good king for his people.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fay|first=Bernard|title=Louis XVI or The End of a World|year=1968|publisher=Henry Regnery Company|pages=392}}</ref>

The convention would be voting on three questions: first, is Louis guilty; second, whatever the decision, should there be an appeal to the people; and third, if found guilty, what punishment should Louis suffer? The order of the voting on each question was a compromise within the [[Jacobins|Jacobin]] movement between the Girondins and [[the Mountain]]; neither were satisfied but both accepted.<ref name="Jordan 1979 166">{{cite book|last=Jordan|first=David|title=The King's Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI|url=https://archive.org/details/kingstrial00davi|url-access=registration|year=1979|publisher=Berkeley: University of California Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingstrial00davi/page/166 166]|isbn=9780520036840}}</ref>

[[File:Execution of Louis XVI.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Execution of Louis XVI in the [[Place de la Révolution]]. The empty pedestal in front of him had supported an equestrian statue of his grandfather, [[Louis XV]]. When the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792, the statue was torn down and sent to be melted.]]

On 15 January 1793, the convention, composed of 721 deputies, voted on the verdict. Given the overwhelming evidence of Louis's collusion with the invaders, the verdict was a foregone conclusion – with 693 deputies voting guilty, none for acquittal, with 23 abstaining.<ref>{{cite book|last=von Guttner|first=Darius|title=The French Revolution|year=2015|publisher=Nelson Cengage|pages=225}}</ref> The next day, a roll-call vote was carried out to decide upon the fate of the former king, and the result was uncomfortably close for such a dramatic decision. 288 of the deputies voted against death and for some other alternative, mainly some means of imprisonment or exile. 72 of the deputies voted for the death penalty, but subject to several delaying conditions and reservations. The voting took a total of 36 hours.<ref name="Jordan 1979 166"/> 361 of the deputies voted for Louis's immediate execution. Louis was condemned to death by a majority of one vote. [[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Philippe Égalité]], formerly the Duke of Orléans and Louis' cousin, voted for Louis's execution, a cause of much future bitterness among French monarchists; he would himself be guillotined on the same scaffold, ''[[Place de la Concorde|Place de la Révolution]]'', before the end of the same year, on 6 November 1793.<ref>von Guttner, Darius. [https://www.academia.edu/9869783/The_French_Revolution The French Revolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160208035851/https://www.academia.edu/9869783/The_French_Revolution |date=8 February 2016 }}, 2015.</ref>

The next day, a motion to grant Louis XVI reprieve from the death sentence was voted down: 310 of the deputies requested mercy, but 380 voted for the immediate execution of the death penalty. This decision would be final. Malesherbes wanted to break the news to Louis and bitterly lamented the verdict, but Louis told him he would see him again in a happier life and he would regret leaving a friend like Malesherbes behind. The last thing Louis said to him was that he needed to control his tears because all eyes would be upon him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardman|first=John|title=Louis XVI: The Silent King|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press Inc.|page=230}}</ref>

{{Listen|filename=PWranitzkySymphOp31TheRevolutionOrLaPaixFuneralMarchForTheDeathofLouisXVI.OGG|title=Paul Wranitzky: "Funeral March for the Death of King Louis XVI" from the Symphony Op. 31 "The Revolution" or "La Paix", Mov. 2 Pt. 2.|description=Porticodoro / SmartCGArt Media Productions – Classical Orchestra.|format=[[Ogg]]}}

On 21 January 1793, Louis XVI, at age 38, was beheaded by [[guillotine]] on the [[Place de la Concorde|''Place de la Révolution'']]. As Louis XVI mounted the scaffold, he appeared dignified and resigned. He delivered a short speech in which he pardoned "...those who are the cause of my death.... ".<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardman|first=John|title=Louis XVI|year=1992|publisher=Yale University Press|pages=232}}</ref> He then declared himself innocent of the crimes of which he was accused, praying that his blood would not fall back on France.<ref>Louis XVI's last words heard before the drums covered his voice: ''Je meurs innocent de tous les crimes qu'on m'impute; je pardonne aux auteurs de ma mort; je prie Dieu que le sang que vous allez répandre ne retombe pas sur la France.''</ref> Many accounts suggest Louis XVI's desire to say more, but [[Antoine Joseph Santerre]], a general in the [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]], halted the speech by ordering a drum roll. The former king was then quickly beheaded.<ref>Hardman 1992, p. 232.</ref> Some accounts of Louis's beheading indicate that the blade did not sever his neck entirely the first time. There are also accounts of a blood-curdling scream issuing from Louis after the blade fell but this is unlikely, since the blade severed Louis' spine. The executioner, [[Charles-Henri Sanson]], testified that the former king had bravely met his fate.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The King's Trial: The French Revolution vs. Louis XVI|last=Jordan|first=David P.|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=2004|location=Los Angeles, California|isbn=978-0520236974|pages=219}}</ref>

Immediately after his execution, Louis XVI's corpse was transported in a cart to the nearby [[Madeleine cemetery]], located ''rue d'Anjou'', where those guillotined at the ''Place de la Révolution'' were buried in mass graves. Before his burial, a short religious service was held in the Madeleine church (destroyed in 1799) by two priests who had sworn allegiance to the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]]. Afterward, Louis XVI, his severed head placed between his feet, was buried in an unmarked grave, with [[Calcium oxide|quicklime]] spread over his body.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}} The Madeleine cemetery was closed in 1794. In 1815, [[Louis XVIII]] had the remains of his brother Louis XVI and of his sister-in-law Marie Antoinette transferred and buried in the [[Basilica of St Denis]], the Royal necropolis of the Kings and Queens of France. Between 1816 and 1826, a commemorative monument, the ''[[Chapelle expiatoire]]'', was erected at the location of the former cemetery and church.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

While Louis's blood dripped to the ground, several onlookers ran forward to dip their handkerchiefs in it.<ref>Andress, David, ''The Terror'', 2005, p. 147.</ref> This account was proven true in 2012 after a DNA comparison linked blood thought to be from Louis XVI's beheading to DNA taken from tissue samples originating from what was long thought to be the mummified head of his ancestor, [[Henry IV of France]]. The blood sample was taken from a squash gourd carved to commemorate the heroes of the French Revolution that had, according to legend, been used to house one of the handkerchiefs dipped in Louis's blood.<ref>{{cite news|title=Blood of Louis XVI 'found in gourd container'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20882305|work=[[BBC News]]|date=1 January 2013}}</ref>