Louis XVI, born August 23, 1754 in Versailles under the name of Louis-Auguste de France and died guillotined on January 21, 1793 in Paris, was king of France and Navarre from May 10, 1774 to November 6, 1789, then king of the French until 'to September 21, 1792. He is the last king of France of the period known as the Ancien Régime.

Son of the dauphin Louis of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, he became dauphin on the death of his father. Married in 1770 to Marie-Antoinette of Austria, he ascended the throne in 1774, at the age of nineteen, on the death of his grandfather Louis XV.

Inheriting a kingdom on the verge of bankruptcy, he launched several financial reforms, notably carried out by ministers Turgot, Calonne and Necker, such as the project of an egalitarian direct tax, but which all failed in the face of the blockage of parliaments and the clergy. , of the nobility and the court. He changed personal law (abolition of torture, serfdom, etc.) and won a great military victory against England, through his active support for American independence fighters. But French intervention in America ultimately ruined the kingdom.

Louis XVI is best known for his role in the French Revolution. This began in 1789 after the convening of the Estates General to refinance the State. The deputies of the Third Party, who claim the support of the people, proclaim themselves the “National Assembly” and de facto put an end to the absolute monarchy by divine right. Initially, Louis XVI had to leave the Palace of Versailles – he remained the last monarch to have lived there – for Paris, and seemed to agree to become a constitutional monarch. But before the promulgation of the Constitution of 1791, the royal family left the capital and was arrested in Varennes. The failure of this escape had a significant impact on public opinion, until then not very hostile to the sovereign, and marked a divide between conventionalists.

Having become a constitutional king, Louis XVI appointed and governed with several ministries, Feuillant then Girondin. He actively contributed to the outbreak of a war between absolute monarchies and revolutionaries in April 1792. The progression of foreign and monarchist armies towards Paris caused, on the day of August 10, 1792, its overthrow by the republican sections, then the abolition of the monarchy the following month. Imprisoned then judged guilty of intelligence with the enemy, the man who was called by the revolutionaries “Louis Capet” was condemned to death and guillotined on the Place de la Révolution in Paris. The queen and King Elizabeth's sister suffered the same fate a few months later.

However, royalty did not disappear with him: after going into exile, his two younger brothers reigned over France under the names of Louis XVIII and Charles X, between 1814 and 1830. The son of Louis XVI, imprisoned in the Temple prison, had been recognized as king of France under the name “Louis XVII” by the monarchists, before dying in his jail in 1795, without ever having reigned.

After first considering him either as a traitor to the country or as a martyr, French historians generally adopt a nuanced view of the personality and role of Louis XVI, generally agreeing on the fact that his character was not was not up to the exceptional circumstances of the revolutionary period.
Birth, waving and baptism

Louis-Augustec of France was born at the Palace of Versailles on August 23, 1754 at 6:24 a.m. 1.

He is the fifth child and third son of the dauphin Louis de France (1729-1765), the fourth with his second wife Marie-Josèphe de Saxe. From the union of this couple were born a total of eight children:

    Marie-Zéphyrine of France (1750-1755);
    Louis de France (1751-1761), Duke of Burgundy;
    Xavier de France (1753-1754), Duke of Aquitaine;
    Louis-Auguste de France, Duke of Berry, future Louis XVI;
    Louis Stanislas Xavier of France (1755-1824), Count of Provence, who became king under the name of Louis XVIII in 1814 (recognized as such upon the death of Louis XVII in 1795 by certain European powers);
    Charles Philippe of France (1757-1836), Count of Artois, who became king under the name of Charles X on the death of the previous one;
    Clotilde of France (1759-1802), queen of Sardinia from 1796 to 1802 through her marriage to King Charles-Emmanuel IV of Sardinia;
    Élisabeth of France (1764-1794), she shared the fate of the royal family until her last moments. She is guillotined.

From a first marriage to Marie-Thérèse of Spain, Louis had a daughter Marie-Thérèse of France (1746-1748).

Many people are there to witness the arrival of the newborn: the royal family's midwife Jard; the chancellor Guillaume de Lamavoine de Blancmesnil, the keeper of the seals Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville and the general controller of finances Jean Moreau de Séchelles, porters, bodyguards and the sentry. The dolphin, in his dressing gown, welcomes everyone by saying: “Come in, my friend, come in quickly, to see my wife give birth. »

Shortly before the birth, Binet, the dauphin's first valet, sent a picker from the Petite Écurie to Louis XV, the grandfather of the future baby, to announce the imminent birth while the king had taken up his quarters. summer at the Château de Choisy-le-Roi. Just after the birth, the dauphin sent one of his squires, Mr. de Montfaucon, this time to announce the news of the birth itself. On the road, Montfaucon came across the picker who, having fallen from his horse and then died shortly after, had been unable to carry the first message. The squire therefore brought the two messages to the king simultaneously: that of the upcoming birth and that of the birth that had occurred. Thus informed, Louis XV gave 10 louis to the piqueur and 1,000 livres to the squire before immediately going to Versailles.

Immediately after his birth, the baby was buried at the Notre-Dame de Versailles church7 by Sylvain-Léonard de Chabannes (1718-1812)8, chaplain to the king.

When the king entered the room, he seized the newborn and named him Louis-Auguste before immediately naming him Duke of Berry. The baby was immediately entrusted to the Countess of Marsan, governess of the children of France, before being taken to her apartment by Louis François Anne de Neufville de Villeroy, Duke of Villeroy and captain of the king's bodyguards 2

The news of the birth was announced to the sovereigns of Europe allied to the crown as well as to Pope Benedict XIV. Around 1 p.m., the King and Queen Marie Leszczyńska attend a Te Deum in the castle chapel. The bells of the churches of Paris began to ring and, in the evening, a fireworks display was set off from the parade ground and lit by the hand of the king using a “running rocket” from his balcony9.
Youth and preparation for power (1754-1774)
In the shadow of the Duke of Burgundy
Louis-Auguste, Duke of Berry by Jean-Martial Fredou, between 1760 and 1762.

The newborn suffers from fairly fragile health during the first months of his life. He is said to have a “weak and weak temperament”10. His nurse, who is also the mistress of the Marquis de La Vrillière, does not give enough milk. At the insistence of the dauphine, she is replaced by Madame Mallarda 3. From May 17 to September 27, 1756, the Duke of Berry and his older brother, the Duke of Burgundy, were sent to the Château de Bellevue on the advice of the Geneva doctor Théodore Tronchin, in order to breathe healthier air there than at Versailles. 4.

Like his brothers, the Duke of Berry's governess is the Countess de Marsan, governess of the royal children. The latter favors, on the one hand, the Duke of Burgundy as heir to the throne, and on the other hand the Count of Provence, whom she prefers to his brothers. Feeling neglected, the Duke of Berry never really held her in his heart and, once crowned king, he always refused to attend the parties she organized for the royal familya 5. The governess is notably responsible for teaching the children reading, writing and holy history. Their parents closely monitor this education, the dauphine teaching them the history of religions and the dauphin languages ​​and morality. He teaches them in particular that “all men are equal by right of nature and in the eyes of God who created them”11.

As the king's grandson, the Duke of Berry, like his brothers, was bound by a certain number of obligations and rituals: they attended both royal funerals (which were not lacking between 1759 and 1768) and weddings of important figures of the court and had to welcome foreign sovereigns and men of the Church in particular, despite their young age. Thus in May 1756, three new cardinals visited them: “Burgundy (aged 5 years) received them, listened to their speeches and harangued them, while Berry (22 months) and Provence (6 months), seriously seated on armchairs, with their dress and their little cap, imitated the gestures of their elders”12.

As they grow up, the king's grandsons must pass from the petticoats of their governess into the hands of a governor responsible for all educational activities. After thinking of the Count of Mirabeau (father of the future revolutionary), the dauphin chose for his children in 1758 a man closer to monarchical ideas: the Duke of La Vauguyon, Prince of Carency and peer of France. The latter called his students the “Four Fs”: the Fin (Duke of Burgundy), the Weak (Duke of Berry), the False (Count of Provence) and the Frank (Count of Artois)13. La Vauguyon is assisted by four deputies: Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet (preceptor), André-Louis-Esprit de Sinéty de Puylon (deputy governor), Claude-François Lizarde de Radonvilliers (sub-preceptor) and Jean-Baptiste du Plessis d 'Argentré (reader). The dauphin asks La Vauguyon to rely on the Holy Scriptures and the model of Idomeneus, hero of Fénelon's Télémaque: "You will find there everything suitable for the direction of a king who wants to fulfill perfectly all the duties of royalty”13. This last aspect is privileged because the future Louis XVI (and his younger brothers), not being destined to gird the crown, is kept away from business, he is not taught to govern14.
The Duke of Burgundy, heir to the crown and big brother of the Duke of Berry, died in 1761, by Jean-Martial Frédou.

The custom of the court was for royal children to pass from their governess to the governor at the age of 7. This is how the Duke of Burgundy was handed over to the Duke of La Vauguyon on May 1, 1758, shortly before his seventh birthday, thus leaving children's dresses for men's clothes. This separation from his governess is difficult for her as for him, and the Duke of Berry is also saddened by this sudden heartbreak. The Duke of Burgundy is admired by his parents and by the court. Intelligent and self-confident, he nonetheless remains capricious and convinced of his superiority. One day he questions his loved ones by saying to them “Why wasn’t I born God15? » Everything seems to show that he will be a great king.

However, a trivial event changed the destiny of the royal family: in the spring of 1760, the Duke of Burgundy fell from the top of a cardboard horse that had been given to him some time earlier. He begins to limp and doctors discover a lump in his hip. The operation he underwent did nothing. The prince is then condemned to stay in his room and his studies are interrupted. To be consoled, he wishes to find his little brother, the Duke of Berry. This is how, from 1760, the future king exceptionally passed into the hands of the governor before reaching the age of 7. La Vauguyon recruits a second sub-preceptor 6 for him. The two brothers were then educated together, the Duke of Burgundy distracting himself by collaborating in the education of his younger brother, and the latter being more interested in geography and the mechanical arts. The Duke of Burgundy's health nevertheless worsened and he was diagnosed in November 1760 with double tuberculosis (pulmonary and bone). The court must face the facts: the prince's death is as imminent as it is inevitable. His parents found themselves in “an overwhelm of pain that we cannot imagine16. » In an emergency, the child was baptized on November 29, 1760, made his first communion the next day and received extreme unction on Mars 16, 1761 before dying in the odor of holiness the following Mars 22, in the absence of his little brother, also bedridden with a high fever.
Heir to the crown of France

The death of the Duke of Burgundy is experienced as a tragedy for the dauphin and the dauphine. The latter declared: “nothing can remove from my heart the pain that is engraved there forever”17. The Duke of Berry is installed in the apartments of his late big brother.

On October 18, 1761, the same day as his brother Louis Stanislas Xavier, Louis Auguste was baptized by Archbishop Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon in the royal chapel of the Château de Versailles, in the presence of Jean-François Allart (1712-1775). ), priest of the Notre-Dame de Versailles church. His godfather is his grandfather Auguste III of Poland, represented by Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and his godmother is Marie Adélaïde of France18.
Louis de France (by Anne-Baptiste Nivelon, 1764), dauphin and father of the future Louis XVI; died in 1765.

Louis-Auguste was already distinguished by his great shyness; some see it as a lack of character, like the Duke of Croÿ in 1762: “We noticed that of the three Children of France, there was only Monsieur de Provence who showed wit and a resolute tone. Monsieur de Berry, who was the eldest and the only one in the hands of the men, seemed very tired19. » He nevertheless sometimes appears at ease in front of the historians and philosophers presenting themselves at court. He also shows humor and wit21. La Vauguyonf and the preacher Charles Frey de Neuville23 even noticed in the young man qualities great enough to make him a good king.

Intellectually, Berry is a gifted and conscientious student. He excels in the following subjects: geography, physics, writing, morality, public law, history, dance, drawing, fencing, religion and mathematics. He learned several languages ​​(Latin, German, Italian and English) and enjoyed some great literary classics such as Jerusalem Delivered, Robinson Crusoe and Athalie by Jean Racinea 7. His father nevertheless showed himself to be intransigent and sometimes deprived him of hunting at the slightest relaxation24. A studious student, he is passionate about several scientific disciplines. According to the French historian Ran Halévi25: “Louis XVI received the education of a “prince of the Enlightenment” — He was an enlightened monarch.” History professors Philippe Bleuzé and Muriel Rzeszutek specify that: “Louis XVI knew Latin, German, Spanish, mastered English perfectly, practiced logic, grammar, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy . He had an indisputable historical and geographical culture and skills in economics.” They believe that “he was very influenced by Montesquieu, who inspired him with a modern conception of monarchy detached from divine right”26.

The destiny of the Duke of Berry was once again going to be turned upside down by a trivial event. On August 11, 1765, the dauphin his father made a visit to the abbey of Royallieu and returned to Versailles in the rain. Already in precarious health and afflicted with a cold, he was taken by a violent fever. He manages to have the court transported to the Château de Fontainebleau for a change of scenery, but nothing helps and his condition worsens as the months go by. After an agony of 35 days, the dauphin died on December 20, 1765 at the age of 3627.

On the death of his father, the Duke of Berry therefore became dauphin of France. He is 11 years old and is intended to immediately succeed the king, his grandfather, who is 56.
Dolphin of France
End of education

Louis-Auguste is now dauphin, but this change in status does not exempt him from continuing his education, quite the contrary. La Vauguyon recruits an additional assistant to teach the dauphin morality and public law: Father Guillaume François Berthier. The governor encourages the Duke of Berry to think for himself by applying the method of free examination. To do this, he asks him to write eighteen moral and political maxims; the dauphin works efficiently and manages to advocate free trade, the reward of citizens and even the moral example that the king must display (a barely veiled allusion to the escapades of Louis XV). The work was rewarded by La Vauguyon, who even had it printed28. The dauphin even wrote a work in which the ideas inspired by his governor were recounted: Reflections on my Interviews with Mr. the Duke of La Vauguyon; In particular, he forged his vision of the monarchy by stating, for example, that the kings themselves “are responsible for all the injustices that they were unable to prevent”29. His mother tempered this liberal impulse by instilling in him even more the precepts of the Catholic religion; this is how the dauphin received the sacrament of confirmation on December 21, 1766 and made his first communion the following December 24. As Berry grew older, he began to go out more and took up horseback riding. He also began to develop a passion for watchmaking and locksmithing, two hobbies that would never leave him30. Father Jacques-Antoine Soldini reinforced the young man's religious education.
Pastel of Marie-Antoinette made by Joseph Ducreux in 1769 for the Dauphin so that he could get to know his future wife.

The actual education of the dolphin will end with his “establishment”, that is to say his marriage. This will be celebrated in Versailles on May 16, 1770 with the young Marie-Antoinette of Austria. On this occasion, Father Soldini sent the dauphin a long letter of advice and recommendations for his future life, and in particular on the “bad readings” to avoid and the attention to be paid to his diet. Finally, he exhorts him to always remain punctual, kind, affable, frank, open but careful in his wordsa 8. Soldini would later become the confessor of the dauphin who became king.
Marriage to Marie Antoinette of Austria
Plan of the dinner of the wedding day of Mr. the Dauphin to the Archduchess Marie-Antoinette celebrated on May 16, 1770. National Archives. K/147/14/2.

The marriage of the dauphin was planned in 1766 by Étienne-François de Choiseul when the future king was only 12 years old. The Kingdom of France having emerged weakened from the Seven Years' War, the Secretary of State found the idea of ​​allying with Austria against the powerful Kingdom of Great Britain judicious. The king was convinced of the project, and on May 24, 1766, the Austrian ambassador in Paris wrote to Archduchess Marie-Thérèse that she “can from this moment consider the marriage of the dauphin and the 'Archduchess Marie-Antoinette'31. The dauphin's mother nevertheless had the project suspended in order to keep the court of Vienna in suspense, “between fear and hope”31. “Hanging” is the appropriate term, since she died a few months later, on Mars 13, 1767. The marriage plan is then put back on the table.

Shortly after the death of Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, the Marquis de Durfort was sent on a mission to Vienna to convince the Archduchess and her son of the political benefits of this union. The negotiations lasted several years, and the image given by the dauphin was not always rosy: Florimond de Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian ambassador in Paris, informed him in particular that “nature seems to have refused any gift to Monsieur the Dauphin, […], by his countenance and his words this prince only announces a very limited sense, a lot of disgrace and no sensitivity”32. Despite these opinions, and despite the young age of those involved (15 years for Louis-Auguste and 14 for Marie-Antoinette), the Empress saw the interest of her country in this marriage and gave her agreement. On April 17, 1770, Marie Antoinette officially renounced the succession to the Austrian throne, and on April 19, a nuptial ceremony was celebrated in Vienna, with the Marquis de Durfort signing the marriage certificate on behalf of the dauphin.
Engraving of the marriage of Archduchess Marie-Antoinette with the dauphin, future Louis XVI, on May 16, 1770.

Marie-Antoinette left for France on April 21, 1770 during a journey that lasted more than 20 days accompanied by a procession of around forty vehicles33. The procession arrives in Strasbourg on May 7. The “handover of the bride” ceremony will take place in the middle of the Rhine, equidistant between the two banks, on Île aux Épis. In a pavilion built on this islet, the young woman exchanges her Austrian clothes for French clothes, before going out across the Rhine, towards a French procession and next to the Countess of Noailles, her new lady-in-waiting34. The meeting between the dauphin and his future wife took place on May 14, 1770, at the Berne bridge, in the Compiègne forest. The king, the dauphin and the court are there to welcome the procession. When she alights from the carriage, the future dauphine curtsies to the king and is presented by him to the Duke of Berry, who gives her a discreet kiss on the cheek. The royal carriage then takes the king, the dauphin and his future wife to the Château de Compiègne, where an official reception is organized the same evening to present the future dauphine to the principal members of the court. The next day, the procession stopped at the Carmel of Saint-Denis where Madame Louise had retired for several months, then he went to the Château de la Muette to present his future wife to the Count of Provence and the Count of Artois, and where she meets the king's new and latest favorite, the Countess du Barry.
Inset profile of the dauphine Marie-Antoinette in 1770, presented at her wedding.

The official marriage was celebrated the next day, May 16, 1770, at the chapel of the Palace of Versailles, in the presence of 5,000 guests. There, Marie-Antoinette crosses the hall of mirrors in the company of the king and her future husband to the chapel. The marriage was blessed by Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon, archbishop of Reims. The dolphin, girded with the blue cord of the order of the Holy Spirit, places the ring on his wife's finger and obtains from the king the ritual sign of assenta 9. Then, the spouses and witnesses sign the parish registers. In the afternoon, the Parisians who came in large numbers to attend the wedding were allowed to walk in the castle park where the water games were in operation. The fireworks planned for the same evening were canceled due to a violent storm. The dinner is organized in the castle’s brand new auditorium; the meal is accompanied by 24 musicians dressed in Turkish style. The spouses eat very little 10. Shortly after midnight, they are accompanied to the bridal chamber. The archbishop blesses the bed, the dauphin receives his nuptial shirt from the hands of the king and the dauphine from the hands of Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Chartres, the highest-ranking married woman at court. The audience watches the couple go to bed, the king throws out some ribald remarks and the bride and groom are left to their own devicesa 11. The marriage was not consummated that night, but seven years later.

The weddings continue to be celebrated on the following days: the spouses attend operas (Persée by Lully), plays (Athalie, Tancrède and Sémiramis). They opened the ball organized in their honor on May 19. The festivities end on May 30 when fireworks are planned to be set off from Place Louis XV (where a few years later King Louis XVI and his wife would be guillotined). Only the dauphine made the trip, the king having wanted to stay in Versailles and the dauphin having become tired of these festivities. As Marie-Antoinette and Mesdames emerge onto the Cours la Reine, they are asked to turn back. It was not until the next day that the dauphine learned what had happened: during the fireworks, a fire broke out on rue Royale, creating a panic; many passers-by were run over by cars and trampled by horses. The official toll shows 132 dead and hundreds injured. The young couple are devastated. The dauphin immediately wrote to Lieutenant General of Police Antoine de Sartine: “I have learned of the misfortunes that happened to me; I am penetrated by it. They are bringing me at the moment what the King gives me every month for my small pleasures. I can only dispose of this. I send it to you: help the most unfortunate”31. The letter is accompanied by a sum of 6,000 pounds.
Delicate subject of consummation of marriage
The Dolphin by Louis-Michel van Loo (1769).

The consummation of the dauphin's marriage, far from being a private affair, will quickly become a state affair: through his descendants, it is not only his family but the entire monarchy that the future king must perpetuate. But this consummation will not be effective until August 18, 1777, more than 7 years after the dauphin's marriage.

Why such a wait? According to writer Stefan Zweig, Louis-Auguste is solely responsible. Victim of a malformation of the genitals, he tried every night to fulfill his marital duty, in vain. These daily failures carry over into court life, with the dauphin-turned-king unable to make important decisions and the queen compensating for her misfortune in balls and parties. The author even argues that the king is “incapable of virility” and that it is therefore impossible for him “to behave like a king”35. Then, according to the author, the couple's life returned to normal the day Louis XVI finally deigned to accept surgery. However, according to Simone Bertière36, one of Marie-Antoinette's biographers, this physical infirmity was not the cause of the spouses' long abstinence, since the dauphin did not suffer from any infirmity of this type. Certainly, from July 1770 (only two months after the marriage), King Louis XV took advantage of the dauphin's momentary absence to summon Germain Pichault de La Martinière, a surgeon then renowned. He asks him two very specific medical questions: “Does the young prince suffer from phimosis and is it necessary to circumcise him? Are his erections hampered by a frenulum that is too short or too resistant that a simple stroke of the lancet could release? ". The surgeon is clear: “the dolphin has no natural defect which opposes the consummation of the marriage. » The same surgeon would repeat it two years later, saying that “no physical obstacle stands in the way of consumption”37. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria took up the subject, refusing to believe that her daughter could be the cause of this failure, saying “I cannot convince myself that it is on her part that this is lacking”37. In December 1774, having become king, Louis XVI was examined again, this time by Joseph-Marie-François de Lassone, court physician; and in January 1776, it was Doctor Moreau, surgeon at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris, who was given the task of examining the sovereign again. The two doctors are categorical: the operation is not necessary, the king has no malformation.

Doctors Lassone and Moreau nevertheless put forward several reasons for this marital delay, the first speaking of a “natural shyness” of the monarch and the second of a fragile body which nevertheless seems “to take on more substance”37. Other authors, such as the biographer Bernard Vincent38, denounce the customs of the court which, added to the timidity of the king and the fragility of his body, could only delay the supreme moment. In fact, the spouses live in separate apartments, and only the king has the right to visit his wife when it comes to fulfilling marital duty. Once he became king, Louis XVI lived in apartments even further from those of his wife than before, and the comings and goings towards his wife were always under the gaze of curious courtiers, notably by crossing the salon of the Bull's-eye. The author adds that the prudish and prudish education of the two young spouses, at the time when they were each educated in their own country, did not dispose them to abandon themselves overnight to the daring of marital relations. Because the adolescents, by being required to spend their first night together, were suddenly confronted with adult life without having been previously prepared for it. And neither their education nor their barely pubescent body could help them overcome this stage. Not very confident[What?] and not very romantic, Louis XVI found refuge in one of his favorite activities: hunting.
Marie-Louise-Adélaïde Boizot, Portrait of Louis XVI, 1775

Months and years pass without any real progress being seen, the delphinal and then royal couple beginning to get used to this situation. Marie-Antoinette saw in this period an opportunity to “enjoy a little the time of youth”, she explained to Mercy-Argenteau37. A semblance of consummation occurred in July 1773 when the dauphine confided to her mother: “I believe the marriage is consummated but not in the case of being pregnant”37. The dauphin rushes to the king to tell him the news. It seems in truth that the dolphin was only able to deflower his wife without going all the way. The wait was rewarded on August 18, 1777. The following August 30, the princess wrote to her mother: “I am in the most essential happiness for my entire life. It has already been more than eight days since my marriage was consummated; the test was repeated, and again yesterday evening more completely than the first time [...]. I don't think I'm fat yet but at least I have the hope of being able to be from one moment to the next”37. The fulfillment of marital duty would bear fruit four times since the royal couple would have as many children, not counting a miscarriage in November 1780: Marie-Thérèse Charlotte (born in 1778), Louis-Joseph (born in 1781), Louis-Charles (born in 1785) and Marie-Sophie-Béatrice (born in 1786). After these four births, the spouses will no longer maintain marital relations. These failures and this new abstinence will give the king the image of a king subject to the wishes of his wife. The long road to consumption has tarnished the couple's image over time. And the writer Simone Bertière asserts: “voluntary chastity, respectful of the marital sacrament, could have been credited to him [that of Louis XVI] after his grandfather's libertinism. But the ridicule of the barren years will stick to his image, while that of the queen will not recover from her imprudent pursuit of adulterated pleasures”39.
Four years of life of the dolphin couple

Between the dauphin's marriage and his coronation four years passed, during which Louis-Auguste remained voluntarily removed from power by the king, as the latter had previously done with his own son. He therefore uses his time for official ceremonies, hunting (with hounds or guns), making keys and locks and ladies' salons. It is in these that the dolphin meets his aunts and brothers, accompanied when the time comes by their wives. Games, entertainment and plays from the French repertoire occupy an important place. Each participant often plays the role, including the runner-up; the dolphin is reluctant to do so.

The couple willingly appears in public, notably by providing a few moments of comfort to the poorest. The historian Pierre Lafue writes that “popular without having sought it, the two spouses quivered with joy as they listened to the acclamations rise towards them, as soon as they appeared in public”13. Their first official visit to Paris and the Parisian people took place on June 8, 1773. During this day, the couple received a warm welcome and the large crowd continued to cheer them. On the program for this long day, Louis-Auguste and his wife were received at Notre-Dame, went up to pray in front of the shrine of Saint Geneviève in the abbey of the same name before ending with a walk in the Tuileries, open to all for the occasion at 12. The Mercy ambassador summed up the day by affirming that “this entry is of great consequence in establishing public opinion”40. The couple took a liking to these triumphant welcomes and did not hesitate, in the following weeks, to go out to the Opera, the Comédie-Française or even the Comédie-Italienne.
Death of Louis XV
Guide us, protect us, my God, we reign too young! (engraving by Audibran)
Louis XV in 1774, by Armand-Vincent de Montpetit.

Louis XV died in Versailles on May 10, 1774 at the age of 64, of smallpox.

The first symptoms of the disease appeared on April 27. That day, the king was in Trianon and planned to go hunting with his grandson, the Duke of Berry. Feeling feverish, the monarch follows the hunt in a carriage. A few hours later, his condition worsened and La Martinière ordered him to return to Versailles. He underwent bleeding there but it produced no effect; two days later, on April 29, doctors announced that the king had contracted smallpox, like several members of his family before (notably Hugues Capet and the Grand Dauphin). To avoid contagion, the dolphin and his two brothers are kept away from the royal bedroom. The king's face is covered with pustules on April 30. No longer having any illusions about his state of health, he called for his confessor, Father Louis Maudoux, on the night of May 7. Extreme Unction was administered to him on the evening of May 9.

Around 4 p.m. the next day, the king breathed his last. The Duke of Bouillon, Grand Chamberlain of France, then descended into the salon of the Œil-de-bœuf to shout the famous formula: “The king is dead, long live the king!” » Hearing this from the other end of the castle, the brand new monarch uttered a loud cry37 and saw the courtiers who had come to greet him running towards him; among them the Countess of Noailles, who will be the first to award him the title of Majesty. The king exclaims: “What a burden! And I haven't been taught anything! It seems to me that the universe is going to fall on me13! » Queen Marie-Antoinette would have sighed: “My God! protect us, we reign too young”37.
King of France and Navarre (1774-1791)
Accession to the throne and first decisions

Immediately after the death of Louis It was on this occasion that the new king made one of his first decisions: that of inoculating the entire royal family against smallpox 14. The aim of this operation is to administer contaminated substances at very low doses into the human body, the subject subsequently becoming immune for life. However, the risk is real since too high a dose can cause the patient to contract the disease and thereby cause the patient's death. On June 18, 1774, the king therefore received five injections and his brothers only two each. The first symptoms of smallpox quickly appeared in the king: he suffered from pain in his armpits on June 22, suffered from fever and nausea on the 24th; a few pimples appear on the 27th and a slight suppuration occurs on the 30th. But the fever subsided on July 1 and the king was definitely out of danger. The operation was therefore a success, both for him and for his two brothers in whom the symptoms were almost imperceptiblea 15.
Commemorative medal of the Coronation at Reims of Louis XVI on June 11, 1775

Among the first notable decisions of the new monarch, we can note three others: he had Madame du Barryi locked up and took the name of Louis XVI and not that of Louis-Auguste I as logic would have it, in order to place himself in the lineage of his predecessors. Finally, he summoned all the ministers in place, provincial intendants and commanders of the armed forces nine days later. For now, he isolates himself in his office to work, correspond with ministers, read reports and write letters to European monarchs.
Louis XVI with the knights of the order of the Holy Spirit after his coronation.

The economy of the Kingdom of France had been in recession since 1770. Thus, Louis XVI immediately began to reduce court expenses: he reduced “food costs” and wardrobe costs, the department of Menus-Plaisirs, hunting crews such as those of the deer and wild boar, the Petite Écurie (thus increasing the contingent from 6,000 to 1,800 horses), and finally the number of musketeers and gendarmes assigned to the protection of Roia 16. His brother the Count of Artois suspects him of avarice by calling him “King of France and miser”13. The king made the poorest benefit from these savings by distributing 100,000 books to particularly deprived Parisians13. In addition, his first edict, dated May 30, exempted his subjects from the "gift of joyful advent", a tax collected upon the accession to the throne of a new king, the amount of which amounted to twenty-four million books42. According to Metra, “Louis XVI seems to promise the nation the gentlest and most fortunate reign”43.
Ministers and new government

The new king decides to govern alone and does not plan to delegate this task to a head of government. However, he needs a man of confidence and experience to advise him in the important decisions he will have to make. This is the job of the man informally known as the “Chief Minister of State”. Louis XVI will successively name seven during his reign:

    Jean Frédéric Phélypeaux de Maurepas (1774-1781);
    Charles Gravier de Vergennes (1781-1787): he exercises this power de facto because officially the king does without a principal minister during this period;
    Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne (1787-1788);
    Jacques Necker (1788-1789);
    Louis Auguste Le Cooper de Breteuil (1789);
    Jacques Necker again (1789-1790);
    and finally Armand Marc de Montmorin Saint-Hérem (1790-1791).

The function ends with the promulgation of the Constitution of 1791.

Marie-Antoinette suggested to the king to appoint the Duke of Choiseul, a former minister of Louis XV who fell into disgrace in 1770, to this position. The king refused to appoint him as principal minister of state but still agreed to reinstate him at court. He attended the interview between him and the queen and said as an affront: “You have lost your hair, you are becoming bald, your toupee is poorly furnished”44.

According to the historian Jean de Viguerie in his work entitled Louis XVI, the Beneficent King, the two ministers who would have the most influence with King Louis XVI during most of his reign were, initially, the Count of Maurepas, then on the death of the latter in 1781, the Count of Vergennes45.
Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas, by Louis-Michel van Loo (around 1725-1730).

Failing to follow the advice of his wife, the king chose to opt for the Count of Maurepas, on the advice of his auntsa 17. This experienced man, disgraced by Louis XV in 1747, had a brother-in-law Louis Phélypeaux de Saint-Florentin and a cousin René Nicolas de Maupeou. On May 11, 1774, the day after the death of the monarch, Louis XVI wrote the following letter to Maurepas:

“Sir, in the just pain which overwhelms me and which I share with the whole Kingdom, I nevertheless have duties to fulfill. I am King: this single word contains many obligations, but I am only twenty years old. I don't think I have acquired all the necessary knowledge. Moreover, I cannot see any minister, having all been shut up with the King in his illness. I have always heard of your probity and of the reputation that your profound knowledge of business has so rightly acquired for you. This is what prompts me to ask you to help me with your advice and your enlightenment. I will be obliged to you, Sir, to come as soon as you can to Choisy, where I will see you with the greatest pleasure”44.

Two days later, on May 13, 1774, the Count of Maurepas came to the king in Choisy to show his gratitude and commit himself to his service. Having a minister of state at his side, all that remains for the king is to convene the first council during which he will have to decide whether or not to keep the ministers already in place. This first council will not take place in Choisy but at the Château de la Muette, the court having had to move again because the ladies are suffering from symptoms of smallpox. The first council was therefore held at the Château de la Muette on May 20, 1774. The new king makes no decision, limiting himself to getting to know the ministers in place better and giving them the course of action that should be theirs: “As I only want to concern myself with the glory of the kingdom and for the happiness of my peoples, it is only by conforming to these principles that your work will have my approval”44.

The king carries out a gradual reshuffle of ministers. The change began on June 2, 1774 with the resignation of the Duke of Aiguillon, Secretary of State for War and Foreign Affairs. Far from exiling him as custom requires, the king allocated him the sum of 500,000 francs. D'Aiguillon was replaced at Foreign Affairs by the Count of Vergennes, a diplomat renowned for being competent and hardworking, "the wisest minister that France had met for a long time, and the most skillful to be found in affairs in Europe" according to the historian Albert Sorel46.

Residing at the Château de Compiègne for the summer, the king, advised by Maurepas, undertook to replace a few ministers in positions where great competence was necessary. This is how Pierre Étienne Bourgeois de Boynes was replaced by Turgot at the Navy, the first being dismissed for obvious incompetence and thoughtlessness, the second appointed to this post above all for his efficient administration as intendant of the generality of Limogesa 18. Turgot was nevertheless very quickly withdrawn from the Navy to become Controller General of Finances, replacing Joseph Marie Terray; he is replaced in his previous position by Antoine de Sartine, former lieutenant general of police. The Justice portfolio passes from Maupeou to Miromesnil. The Duke of La Vrillière remained at the Maison du Roi while the Secretary of State for War was entrusted to the Count of Muy, replacing Aiguillon. Muy died a year later and was then replaced by the Count of Saint-Germain.

On August 24, 1774, the date on which the new government was fully formed, the ministers in place were therefore as follows:

    Principal Minister of State: the Count of Maurepas;
    General Controller of Finance: Turgot;
    Keeper of the Seals: Armand Thomas Hue de Miromesnil;
    Secretary of State for War: Louis Nicolas Victor de Félix d'Ollières, Count of Muy;
    Secretary of State for the Navy: Antoine de Sartine;
    Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: Charles Gravier de Vergennes;
    Secretary of State at the Household of the King: Louis Phélypeaux de Saint-Florentin, Duke of la Vrillière.

The announcement of the new government was widely welcomed and the people danced in crowds in the streets44.
Coronation ceremony
Related article: Coronation of the kings of France.
Coronation of King Louis XVI.

On June 11, 1775, in Reims Cathedral, he was consecrated according to the tradition dating back to Pepin the Short. The last coronation, that of Louis XV, took place on October 25, 1722; since then, the very principle of this ceremony has been widely criticized by the Enlightenment movement: The Encyclopedia and philosophers criticize the ritual, seeing in it only an exacerbation of the power of God and a comedy intended to keep people in the 'obedience47. The controller general of finances, Turgot, blamed the monarch for this costly ceremony estimated at 760,000 pounds; shortly before, Nicolas de Condorcet wrote to Turgot to ask him to ignore “the most useless and ridiculous of all expenses” of the monarchy. Turgot then thought of holding a sort of lighter coronation, probably near the capital, in Saint-Denis or Notre-Dame, to reduce costs47. However, pious and very attached to the work of his predecessors, even if he was determined to redress the ailing economic situation, the king did not back down on this and maintained the ceremony with as much pomp as expected.
Louis XVI in coronation costume, oil on canvas by Joseph Duplessis (1777).

Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral, an emblematic place for the coronations of the kings of France, is transformed for the festivities, a real building being constructed inside, with balustrade, columns, chandeliers, faux marble... It is also the first time since Louis XIII that the king is married at the time of his coronation, which makes the coronation of his consort wife possible. But the last coronation of a queen, that of Marie de Medici on May 13, 1610 at the Saint-Denis basilica, took place like a dark omen, Henry IV having been assassinated the next day; moreover, the queen, in the absolutist construction of power, had seen her political importance diminish. The decision was finally made not to crown Marie-Antoinette. She attended the ceremony from the largest gallery, with the important women of the Court47.

The ceremony is presided over by the Archbishop of Reims Charles Antoine de La Roche-Aymon, the same person who baptized and married the dauphin. The ceremony lasts almost six hours - a box allowing spectators to rest has been set up behind the queen's stand47; all the stages take place, the raising of the king, the entry, the oath, the ritual of chivalry, the anointings, the presentation of the insignia, the coronation, the enthronement, the high mass, the homage of the peers, the low mass and exit. According to tradition, the prelate pronounces the following formula while placing the crown of Charlemagne on the head of the sovereign: “May God crown you with glory and justice, and you will arrive at the eternal crown”44. In accordance with the ritual, the king then went to the city park to cure the scrofula of some 2,400 scrofulous people who had come for the occasion, addressing each of them with the ceremonial formula: “The king touches you, God heals you”.

The royal couple will keep very fond memories of the ceremony and the subsequent festivities. Marie-Antoinette wrote to her mother that “the coronation was perfect [...]. The Church ceremonies [were] interrupted at the moment of the coronation by the most touching acclamations. I couldn't hold it, my tears flowed in spite of myself, and I was grateful [...]. It is an astonishing thing and very happy at the same time to be so well received two months after the revolt, and despite the high cost of bread, which unfortunately continues”48.
Turgot's first economic and financial measures

As soon as the court returned to Versailles on September 1, 1774, the king spoke daily with Turgot to prepare measures for the economic recovery of the country. The former Controller General of Finances, Father Terray, had suggested an official proclamation of France's bankruptcy, given the deficit of 22 million pounds existing at the time of 19. Turgot refuses to propose bankruptcy and suggests a simpler plan: save money. To this end, he said to the monarch: “If the economy does not precede, no reform is possible”44. He therefore encouraged the king to continue the reduction in court expenses that he had already begun.

Turgot is also a supporter of economic liberalism. On September 13, 1774, he had the king's council adopt a text decreeing freedom of internal trade in grain and free importation of foreign grain. The risk of a sudden increase in prices in the event of a poor harvest is nevertheless real. This is what happened in the spring of 1775: a rumor of imminent famine filled the country; prices soared and the bakeries of Paris, Versailles and a few provincial towns were looted; Riots occur but are quickly suppressed. This episode is today known as the “flour war”. This popular revolt of the reign of Louis XVI is considered the first warning of the people in the face of the economic difficulties of the country and the ineffective reforms of the royal power in resolving them 20.
Reminder of parliaments
Bed of justice in the Parliament of Paris, Pierre-Louis Dumesnil, 1715.

From the 14th century until 1771, Parliaments had significant powers in civil, political and judicial matters. Among the 15 parliaments existing at the end of the reign of Louis XV, the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris extended over 75% of the Kingdom of France. Each decision of a parliament had the force of law; moreover, each royal decree could only be applicable if it had previously been registered (i.e. endorsed) by the competent parliament. Over the centuries, the power of parliaments had continued to expand to the point of becoming an autonomous power capable of rivaling royal absolutism. A parliamentary pamphlet from 1732 went far in this direction by specifying that the king "can only enter into contracts with his people within the bosom of parliament, which, as old as the Crown and born with the State, is the representation of the monarchy entirely whole »44. Tired of this increase in the powers of parliaments, Louis The new judiciary, organized into Superior Councils, was confined to dispensing justice free of charge and limited in its right of remonstrance.

Upon his accession, Louis XVI will return to this reform. On October 25, 1774, he summoned all the exiled magistrates to a meeting which he chaired on the following November 12 at the Paris courthouse. In front of the assembled parliamentarians, he addressed them with these words: “I am calling you back today to positions that you should never have left. Feel the price of my kindness and never forget them! [...] I want to bury in oblivion everything that happened, and I would see with the greatest discontent internal divisions disturbing the good order and tranquility of my parliament. Concern yourself only with the care of fulfilling your functions and responding to my views for the happiness of my subjects which will always be my sole object”44. The same evening, fireworks were launched at the Pont Neuf and the Palais de Justice to salute this return on 21st.

Faced with such a change of heart, it is necessary to question the motives which pushed Louis XVI to recall and reestablish the parliaments. It may indeed seem strange that the king himself chose to weaken his power. Dauphin, he had written on several occasions his opposition to the extended power of parliaments, asserting in particular that they "are not representatives of the nation", that they "have never been and can never be the organ of the Nation vis-à-vis the King, nor the sovereign body vis-à-vis the Nation", and that their members are "simple depositaries of a part" of the royal authority49. One of the reasons may lie in the popularity that exiled parliaments had at the time. Indeed, despite their lack of representativeness of the people, they were supported by them 22. They publicly displayed their support for new ideas and the need to respect natural rights: the king should therefore no longer be a simple agent of the people and not an absolute sovereign. The king, in his youth and in the inexperience characterizing his early reign, would therefore have partly acted to garner significant popular support; This is, let us remember, what happened in the streets of Paris immediately after the announcement of the recall of parliaments. The other reason would lie in attentive and continued listening to the advice of Count de Maurepas, who believed that “without parliament, no monarchy13!” »

Attentive to his image among the people and trusting in the advice of Maurepas in the face of the complexity of the subject, Louis XVI therefore returned to privileges that Maupeou described at the time of his dismissal as a “trial which had lasted for three hundred years”13 and which he had made the king win. This recall of the parliaments will make illusory the attempts at profound reforms that the king will consider undertaking in the following years, which will contribute to fueling the revolutionary climate which is already brewing. Madame Campan, Marie-Antoinette's maid, later wrote that “the century would not end without some great shock coming to shake France and change the course of its destiny”13.
Reforms and disgrace of Turgot
Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (French school, Palace of Versailles).

To ensure the future of the kingdom, Turgot will undertake a profusion of reforms aimed at unlocking the free political, economic and social functioning of society, and bringing parliaments into line.

As the historian Victor Duruy explained in 1854: “These were very great novelties; Turgot planned other, more formidable ones: abolition of corvées which weighed on the poor; establishment of a territorial tax on the nobility and clergy; but improvement in the lot of parish priests and vicars, who had only the smallest portion of the Church's income, and suppression of most of the monasteries; equal participation of tax by creation of a land registry; freedom of conscience and recall of Protestants; redemption of feudal rents; a single code: the same system of weights and measures for the entire kingdom; suppression of the jurands and masteries which chained the industry; thought as free as industry and commerce; finally, as Turgot dealt with moral needs as well as material needs, a vast plan of public education to spread the Enlightenment everywhere”50.

Turgot indeed wishes to abolish several practices that had until then been well established: suppression of jurands and corporations, suppression of certain customs prohibiting, for example, apprentices from marrying or excluding women from embroidery worka 23. Abolition also of serfdom and royal corvée. In Turgot's plan, the corvée would be replaced by a single tax on all landowners, which would extend tax payment to members of the clergy and nobility.

Turgot also tackled a “revolutionary” project of setting up a pyramid of elected assemblies across the kingdom: municipalities of communes, district then province and a kingdom municipality. The aim of the said assemblies is to distribute direct tax, manage questions of police, assistance and public works.

This vast reform project does not fail to encounter a certain number of detractors, starting with parliamentarians. Turgot can count on the support of the king, who does not fail on several occasions to practice the “bed of justice” to apply his decisions. Based on a remark from a worker at his forge, he said again in Mars 1776: “I see clearly that it is only Monsieur Turgot and I who loved the people”51. The support of the king is seen as crucial for the minister, who will say to the sovereign: “Either you will support me, or I will perish”13. The opponents are becoming more and more numerous and over time go beyond the circle of parliamentarians. A coalition was formed against Turgot and brought together, in the words of Condorcet, “the priesthood, the routine parliaments and the rabble of financiers”13. Certainly, the people and the peasants welcomed with open arms the edicts abolishing masteries, jurandes and the royal corvée; troubles break out even as a result of excess enthusiasm 24. Nevertheless, the king began to receive letters of remonstrance from parliaments, and to face criticism from the court. Louis XVI tempered and reminded parliaments that the reforms undertaken were not intended to “confuse conditions”13 (clergy, nobility, third estate).

The minister begins to decline in the esteem of the king, who does not hesitate to say that “Mr. Turgot wants to be me, and I do not want him to be me”52. Disgrace becomes inevitable when Turgot takes part in the vote aimed at dismissing from office the Count of Guines, ambassador to London, accused of practicing diplomacy aimed at bringing France into the war. De Guines is a friend of Marie-Antoinette and the latter asks the king to punish the two ministers who requested the resignation of the count, namely Malesherbes and Turgot. Disgusted by this request, Malesherbes resigned from the government in April 1776. The king distances himself from Turgot and condemns all of his reforms: “We must not undertake dangerous undertakings if we cannot see the end of them. », affirms Louis XVI40. On May 12, 1776, double news broke: Turgot was dismissed, and the Count of Guines was made duke. Turgot refused the pension offered to him, stating that he must “not give the example of being a burden to the State”53.

Some historiansa25 refute the idea that the king had simply given in to his wife. The decision to dismiss Turgot (and especially to raise de Guines) would be more of a "purchase" of the silence of the count, who would have been aware of many things about French diplomacy that risked embarrassing the king. Another reason for the dismissal would also lie in Turgot's refusal to finance France's intervention in the American War of Independence, the poor state of the Kingdom's finances not allowing it. Whatever the case, this episode will be for historians the perfect illustration of the queen's ascendancy over her husband, and will constitute the beginnings of the king's state of weakness vis-à-vis his wife; the historian Simone Bertière writes that with each victory of the queen, “the prestige of the king is undermined, his authority decreases as much as his credit increases. This is only appearance [but] authority, too, feeds on appearance. »37 Turgot himself, in a letter written to Louis XVI on April 30, 1776 which the latter sent back to him without even opening it, issued this warning to the king: “Never forget, Sire, that it is weakness who put the head of Charles I on a block”44.

Turgot is replaced by Jean Étienne Bernard Clugny de Nuits, who hastens to return to the main reforms of his predecessor, notably reestablishing the jurandes and corvées, affirming that he can “overthrow on one side what Mr. Turgot has overturned on the other”13. But the minister quickly showed himself to be incompetent, and the king declared “I think we were wrong again”13. Louis XVI did not have time to dismiss him from his position, Clugny de Nuits dying suddenly on October 18, 1776 at the age of 47.
Reforms and resignation of Necker
Portrait of Jacques Necker, by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis.

In October 1776, Louis XVI needed a finance minister capable of undertaking reforms but not destroying everything; he confided to Maurepas: “Don’t talk to me anymore about these masons who want to demolish the house first”13. He then thought of Jacques Necker, a banker from Switzerland renowned for his art of handling money and his concern for economy. A triple revolution: he is a commoner banker, a foreigner (Genevois) and, what's more, a Protestant. The king first named him "director of the Treasury" (the position of general financial controller was nominally assigned to Louis Gabriel Taboureau des Réaux) because Necker, a Protestant, could not access the King's Council attached to the position of general controller. Nevertheless, the king appointed him "director general of finances" (the name was changed to give it more importance) on June 29, 1777, without admitting the minister to the Council.

Necker and Louis XVI brought back the most essential reforms of the kingdom, the ambition of the minister being to replenish the state coffers without crushing taxpayers or irritating the rich and owners. Necker understands that the ordinary expenses of the kingdom are financed by taxes; On the other hand, we must find a way to finance exceptional expenses such as those generated by the American War of Independence. Necker then created two lucrative systems with immediate returns: the loan and the lottery. Both systems are very popular with the people. However, these measures only show their effectiveness in the short term, because funds must be borrowed to pay lenders their life annuity and pay the prizes to the winners. In the long term, the debt would increase more and more and a way had to be found again to establish real structural reform.

For the time being, Necker proposed to the king to abolish the provincial parliaments and intendants, and to replace them with provincial assemblies recruited, on the king's proposal, from the clergy, the nobility and the third estate; the king committing to favoring the nobility of the sword and not the nobility of the dress. This institutional reform project, already put on the table under Turgot, aims to ultimately ensure that all assemblies are directly elected. Although experimented in Bourges and Montauban, this reform was unanimously condemned by the intendants, the princes and the parliamentarians. The reform is therefore doomed to failure and will ultimately not see the light of day.

At the same time, Necker undertook a series of popular measures. He first freed the last serfs of the royal domain by an order of August 8, 177954. Refusing the indiscriminate abolition of personal servitude, he nevertheless abolished the "droit de suite" throughout the kingdom, and freed all the "main mortables [the serfs] of the king's domains", as well as the "corps men". ”, the “mortaillables” and the “tailables” [from which the expression “cuttable and corvéable at mercy” comes]54. This order was favored by the intervention of Voltaire, who in 1778 had pleaded the cause of the serfs of the abbey of Saint-Claude du Mont-Jura54. It also authorizes “contractors who believe themselves wronged” by this reform to hand over the areas concerned to the king in exchange for financial compensation54. In order to encourage the imitation of its royal act of emancipation of serfs in the royal domains, the ordinance specifies that "considering these emancipations much less as an alienation, than as a return to natural law, we have exempted these kinds of acts [of freedom] from the formalities and taxes to which the ancient severity of feudal maxims had subjected them”54. However, the ordinance was hardly applied54, and serfdom persisted locally until the Revolution which abolished it with privileges on the famous night of August 4, 1789. On August 8, 1779, an edict authorized married women, minors and religious people to receive pensions without authorization (in particular that of the husband in the case of married women)55. He also abolished the preparatory question, imposed on suspects, and reestablished the institution of the pawnshop.

To this series of “republican” reforms and the unfortunate experimentation of the provincial assemblies will be added a political error by the minister which will be fatal. In February 1781, he sent the king a report on the state of finances intended to be published. It reveals for the first time to the general public the detailed use of public expenditure and reveals, in the interest of transparency, all the advantages enjoyed by the privileged at court. The latter disavow the minister and in return denounce, with the support of financial experts, the misleading assessment that the minister makes of his action, hiding the debt of 46 million pounds left by war spending , and emphasizing on the contrary a surplus of 10 milliona 26. “The war which had been so successful against Turgot began again under his successor,” explains Victor Duruy.

Louis XVI and Necker could not hold out for long in the face of opposition from the privileged. The minister ended up losing the confidence of the king, the latter having said, commenting on the minister's assessment: “But it's Turgot and even worse13! » Necker asks the king to join the Council but, faced with the sovereign's refusal, he submits his resignation which will be accepted on May 21, 178156. According to historian Jean-Louis Giraud-Soulavie, the resignation letter was almost insulting since it was written on a simple “piece of paper three and a half inches long by two and a half wide”57.
Main changes during the ministry

    In 1775, the Duke de la Vrillière resigned from the ministry of the Household of the King and was replaced in this position by Malesherbes.
    Malesherbes left the government in April 1776, he was replaced by Antoine-Jean Amelot de Chaillou.
    Turgot was dismissed from his post as controller general of finances on May 12, 1776, and was replaced a few months later by Jacques Necker, after the two short-lived Clugny de Nuits and Taboureau des Réaux.
    On October 13, 1780, the Secretary of State for the Navy by de Sartine to the Marquis de Castries.
    Philippe Henri de Ségur was appointed Secretary of State for War on December 23, 1780.
    Necker resigned on May 19, 1781 and was replaced by Jean-François Joly de Fleury.

Ministry Vergennes

Maurepas died of gangrene on November 21, 1781. Louis XVI then decided to do without a principal minister in order to be able to experience a period of “personal reign”58. As the most important minister after Maurepas was then Vergennes, the latter unofficially played a role of advisor to the king although he did not have official recognition. This situation lasted until 1787 when Loménie de Brienne officially took over the post of Maurepas.
Reform project and dismissal of Calonne
Louis XVI in 1786.
Portrait of Calonne in 1787 by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

After Necker's resignation, the position of general financial controller was successively occupied by Joly de Fleury and d'Ormesson. On November 3, 1783, on the advice of Vergennes, Louis XVI appointed Charles Alexandre de Calonne to this portfolio, an intelligent man with a gift for communicationa 27, who had previously demonstrated remarkable success as