This Day in History

January 17, 1793

:  

Louis XVI Condemned 

The following account comes from our text, Light to the Nations II: The Making of the Modern World. For ordering information on Light to the Nations II and our other books, please click here.

The Jacobins in the Convention feared Louis XVI. As long as the king was alive, he could be the focal point around which a counterrevolution could form. This threat had to be gotten rid of, and the revolutionaries of the Mountain were determined to get rid of it.

A French revolutionary infantry flag.
The words on the flag read
(from upper left corner, clockwise):
King, Nation, Law, Liberty

Accusations against the king were easy to find. Chiefly, he was charged with conspiring with foreign enemies against the republic. Agents of the Convention examined the king's papers in the palace of the Tuileries and discovered evidence that he had been corresponding with the Prussians and the Austrians. On November 3, 1792, the Jacobins presented their allegations of the king's "treason" to the Convention deputies. The Mountain pushed for a trial, but the Girondins resisted them. Did the Convention have the legal authority to try a man who had formerly been head of state, asked the Girondin deputies? But such bland, legal arguments could not triumph over the desire for revenge. Popular anger, stirred up by the Jacobins, won the day. The trial of Louis XVI was set for early December 1792.

On December 10, a committee presented its indictment of the king before the Convention. The next day, Louis himself and his three lawyers appeared before the Convention. For the next two weeks, the deputies debated; Girondin members sought to save the king, and the Jacobins pushed for his condemnation.

Louis XVI

On Christmas Day, Louis made his will, for he knew what the Convention would decide. The next day he appeared before the deputies, and his lawyers made one last defense. On January 4, 1793, the Girondins made a final appeal to save the king. They said the people of France themselves, not the deputies, should decide whether the king was guilty of treason. The Convention voted this motion down, and on January 15 declared its decision. Many of the deputies were absent, but those who were present voted unanimously that Louis XVI "had been guilty of conspiracy against public liberty" and of "attempting the general safety of the State."

Though they had resisted the condemnation of the king, the Girondins could do nothing to stop it. The Jacobins represented Paris, and many in Paris thirsted for Louis's blood. People in the streets had been clamoring for the king's condemnation. Throughout the trial, angry mobs - many of them armed - had filled the galleries of the assembly hall. Confusion filled the city as those who pitied the king battled with those who wanted only his death.

Robespierre

The confusion and violence continued when the deputies met on the evening of January 16 to decide on the king's punishment. Over 700 deputies were present. Each deputy was to stand before the entire Convention and declare his vote and, if he wished, explain the reasons for his decision. Among the first was Maximilien Robespierre. Though he had resigned his judgeship in Arras because he had opposed the death penalty, he now demanded death. "I remain compassionate for the oppressed," he told the deputies. But, "I know nothing of that humanity which is forever sacrificing whole peoples and protecting tyrants . . . I vote for death."

Danton had just arrived from Belgium. He had returned to Paris to find his beloved wife in danger of death, and had sat  with her through the night. Now he stood before the Convention, his body exhausted, his voice harsh, and his manner cruel. "I am no politician," he declared in strident tones. "I vote for death." Other votes followed, some for banishing the king, others for imprisonment, but most for his execution. For 24 hours the voting continued without respite. Finally, near midnight of January 17, 1793, the votes were tallied. The Girondin leader Vergniaud stood up to read the sentence. "It is with profound sadness," he said, "that I declare to you the penalty incurred by Louis Capet to be, by the vote of the majority of this assembly, that of death."

Danton addressing
the National Convention

For the next two days, the king's lawyer, Lamoignon de Malesherbes, pleaded that the king could not be condemned except by two-thirds of the judges or by the people as a whole. A simple majority in the Convention was not sufficient to condemn a head of state to death, he said. Robespierre rejected the argument, saying that submitting the matter to the people would lead to civil war. But could only a simple majority decide the fate of the king? Danton thought it could and rose up to speak. "You decided the Republic by a mere majority, you changed the whole history of the nation by a mere majority," he told the deputies, "and now you think the life of one man too great for a mere majority; you say such a vote could not be decisive enough to make blood flow. When I was on the frontier the blood flowed decisively enough."

On Sunday, January 20, the question of the king's fate was decided once and for all. The Convention declared that Louis XVI was to suffer death immediately, on the following day.

Next Week: the execution of Louis XVI