The debate on the trial and the condemnation of Louis XVI during the 18th century and their consequences
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SummaryAt first the king seemed inclined to work with the revolution and to try to solve the problems. But the influence of the queen and of the courtiers were too strong. He was encouraged by them to disregard all promises he had made and sought to flee from France in order to obtain aid against the revolution from Austria.
It led to the storming of the royal palace of the Tuileries on Aug. 10, 1792. The king and his family escaped before the mob arrived and took refuge in the hall of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly declared that the king was suspended from office and ordered that he and his family should be imprisoned. They then called a new assembly, the Convention, to decide whether France should continue to be a monarchy.
On 20-21 September, on Abbé Grégoire’s motion, the Conventionnels steeled themselves to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. By December, even advocating the restoration of the monarchy was punishable by death. Then one of the Assembly’s most pressing task was to decide what to do with the person of the ex-ruler, Louis “Capet”.
So a debate started in the Convention, opposing the Jacobins and the Girondins, about whether yes or not the king would be judged.
Firstly, it was not easy to clothe the revolt of the country against the king in the forms of law, for the country as a body had no legal standing under the old regime. There were no conventionally specifiable legal rules or moral principles by which a king could be judged, and there was no one who could judge him, that’s to say exercise authority over him . Moreover, it was a legal maxim in both England and France that the king could not do wrong. This principle the revolutionaries were committed to deny, and their denial was a large part of the revolution they made.
It led to the storming of the royal palace of the Tuileries on Aug. 10, 1792. The king and his family escaped before the mob arrived and took refuge in the hall of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly declared that the king was suspended from office and ordered that he and his family should be imprisoned. They then called a new assembly, the Convention, to decide whether France should continue to be a monarchy.
On 20-21 September, on Abbé Grégoire’s motion, the Conventionnels steeled themselves to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. By December, even advocating the restoration of the monarchy was punishable by death. Then one of the Assembly’s most pressing task was to decide what to do with the person of the ex-ruler, Louis “Capet”.
So a debate started in the Convention, opposing the Jacobins and the Girondins, about whether yes or not the king would be judged.
Firstly, it was not easy to clothe the revolt of the country against the king in the forms of law, for the country as a body had no legal standing under the old regime. There were no conventionally specifiable legal rules or moral principles by which a king could be judged, and there was no one who could judge him, that’s to say exercise authority over him . Moreover, it was a legal maxim in both England and France that the king could not do wrong. This principle the revolutionaries were committed to deny, and their denial was a large part of the revolution they made.
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