UNDERSTANDING LOUIS XVI
Louis Auguste, Duc de Berry, was third in line for the French throne. The thought of being King terrified him, but there was enough distance from the crown that he didn’t worry about it. His father, the Grand Dauphin, was Louis XV’s son and first in line for the throne. He was handsome, strong, popular and educated on how to be a King. Louis, Duc de Bourgogne, was Louis Auguste’s older brother and second in line for the throne. He was his father’s and grandfather’s favorite, enjoyed being the center of attention, and was the darling of the court. His education was superior to that of his three brothers (Duc be Berry, Compte de Provence, Compte d’Artois), but his health was fragile; he had tuberculosis of the hip that caused a constant limp and occasionally some discomfort. Louis Auguste was painfully shy, overweight and clumsy, and never attended the balls and parties at Versailles; he spent his time hidden from sight in the rafters watching the action, his pockets full of snacks. What he liked best was to wrestle and make locks with his favorite servant, Gamin. Berry was of average intelligence but he loved to learn, and was studious and persevering. In fact, after his formal education ended, he taught himself English, Italian and Spanish well enough so that he could read all three with no problem. He was a very religious and spiritual boy. He once wrote a thesis that he was proud of and gave a copy to his grandfather, Louis XV. The subject was “The Science of Kingship” and it read, in part, “…a prince should withhold his confidence and give signs of displeasure and scorn to those who, stifling the voice of religion, shame and decency make a parade of vice, and glory in what should be veiled in shame.” Louis XV didn’t receive it well; neither did his mistress, Madame du Barry. Then one day everything changed.
A smallpox epidemic hit Versailles, and one of the first victims was the Grand Dauphin and his wife; Louis was an orphan. Within the space of one year, the Duc de Bourgogne was dead, as were many members of the court. Louis was now the heir apparent to the throne, the Dauphin. As a result, his education intensified and he excelled in Latin, history, physics and math. His favorite subjects were geography and religion. Another of his writings concerned “Political Theory” and read, in part, “….it is desirable that Kings should be good without being too indulgent, in order that kindness on their part should always be a virtue and never a weakness. From the weakness of Kings stem factions, civil war, the tremors which shake and ruin the state and end by completely overthrowing it.” A frightening portent of things to come. Louis had no close friends at court except Mesdames, his spinster aunts…Adelaide, Victoire and Sophie (a fourth aunt, Louise, was a deformed little person and had entered a convent). Versailles lived on rumors and gossip, most of which began and ended with Mesdames. Usual conversation with their nephew involved the latest court scandals, the latest doings of the detested Madame du Barry, Austria and Prussia, both long time enemies of France. Imagine their surprise (and horror) when Louis XV announced that an alliance had been reached with Austria to curtail the King of Prussia’s expansion attempts; to seal the deal, Louis Auguste was to marry the Austrian Arch Duchess Maria Antonia, the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa. Almost immediately, the Arch Duchess was known at Versailles as “l’Autrichienne”, with an emphasis on the last syllable. It was a play on words: ‘Autrichienne’ is a female from Austria; ‘chienne’ is French for ‘bitch’. So, sight unseen, the Austrian Bitch was born.
The early lives of the Arch Duchess and the Dauphin could not have been more different. Maria Antonia grew up with thirteen sisters and brothers in their own wing of Vienna’s Schonbrun palace. There was always somebody to play with, and a fleet of governesses and nurses made sure that things did not get out of hand. Maria Theresa was an involved but absent mother, her duties as sovereign permitting her to see her children once a week. The Emperor, Francis, took a back seat to his wife, devoted hours to his children, and Antonia was his favorite. She was a pretty child, with ash blond hair, blue eyes, a nicely forming figure, and a vibrant personality. Maria Theresa was willing to let her children be children, but also impressed upon them the proper decorum and demeanor for court functions which they often attended, appearing well behaved and proper. Suddenly Antonia found herself spending more time with her mother, even sleeping in her room at night. All that her mother initially told her was that she had planned ‘something special’ for Antonia. Then, when she turned fourteen, Maria Theresa told her that one day she would be Queen of France. She was thrilled and excited, and a little frightened…not about becoming Queen, but by the thought of leaving her family. This soon faded as she became involved with a tutor from Paris to improve her French, a French hairdresser to improve Antonia’s uneven hairline, a former Ambassador to teach her French history and a dance master to teach her the latest dances at Versailles. Then the day arrived. Saying goodbye was tearful, but excitement took over as she boarded the magnificent coach her new “PapaRoi” (DaddyKing) had sent her.
Louis Auguste’s fragile ego took a major blow when Louis XV announced his betrothal to an Austrian Arch Duchess. That’s all his aunts talked about….an enemy, right here in Versailles! But something else was bothering Louis; something he had kept secret for many years. He was too embarrassed to tell anyone, and too terrified to do anything about it. He suffered from a physical deformity that made sexual arousal extremely painful (this condition today is known as ‘phimosis’). Surgery could fix it, but the thought of a knife in a sensitive area made him wince. In fact, he kept this secret for the first seven years of marriage and only underwent surgery when Maria Antonia’s brother Joseph paid a visit to Versailles, at Maria Theresa’s insistence, to see why they had not conceived children. Once the surgery was completed, Maria Antonia (now known as Marie Antoinette) became pregnant with their first born, a daughter.
From the beginning, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were as different as their upbringing. Louis constantly putting on weight, Antoinette slim; he calm and steady, she quick; he with few close friends, she with many; he awkward and clumsy, she majestic; he always saw the dark side, she the bright; he loved reading, books bored her; he unmusical, she played the harp and clavichord. On a deeper level, however, they had much in common. They were both concerned about those less fortunate than themselves and adored their children. Both had a strong sense of duty and were determined to do their jobs well. In the seven years preceding their marriage their wariness of each other grew into respect, then friendship and, finally, love. They were often seen by the courtiers strolling in the Versailles gardens holding hands. Louis XVI was the only French King not to take a mistress. During the first years of their marriage, Antoinette had a flirtation with a Swedish diplomat, Axel Fersen, but remained faithful to Louis, who also became Fersen’s friend.
It is important to realize that Louis and Antoinette inherited the expansive, luxurious and expensive Versailles lifestyle, they didn’t create it. Louis disliked it because he was uncomfortable with it; Antoinette because she found it ridiculous and stifling. Even the most trivial activity involved a ceremony. For both Louis and Antoinette, getting up in the morning was a major production with many courtiers participating. Called the “levee” it was repeated at night, called the “coucher”. It involved a senior courtier unbuttoning the nightgown, another handing them a washcloth, another holding the wash basin, another folding the nightgown, and so on. Louis began changing and eliminating some of the more outlandish of the ceremonies to the consternation of the court since these rituals had been in place since the time of Louis XIV. Louis XV had left France on the brink of bankruptcy. He had no interest in economics and failed to take action as the French population grew by millions during his reign, leaving countless hungry mouths to be fed by a land that had reached its agricultural limits. Shortly before his death, he uttered, “après moi, le deluge” (after me, disaster).
Part of the ‘deluge’ left by Louis XV was a Cabinet comprised of aged, disinterested Ministers and Secretaries whose responsibilities were now mere status symbols. It took Louis time, but he finally replaced them, thus incurring more wrath from the courtiers for again tampering with tradition. When Louis addressed the area of taxation, he was appalled. Taxes were either non-existent or unfairly imposed. The ‘vingtieme’ particularly caught his attention. This was originally a tax of 5% of the output of an estate and was aimed at the aristocracy; it served to fill the royal coffers. During Louis XV’s reign, the King let the courtiers talk him into making the ‘vingtieme’ a ‘don gratuit’, a voluntary amount paid to the King. Needless to say, most aristocrats did not dig deeply into their pocketbooks for the voluntary amount; many didn’t pay anything. Finances as a result took a nosedive; expenses remained static and were increasing. Louis XVI took immediate action; he reimposed the tax against the estates, and increased it from 5% to 10%. He eliminated the ‘corvee’ a type of tax that required a peasant to spend several months a year working on French roads to repair and improve them. He hoped in the future to reduce the 'gabelle', the salt tax and the 'taille', a head tax imposed on the peasants. Louis received the help of a Swiss aristocrat, Jacques Necker, considered to be a financial genius, and eventually named him Director General of Finance. His two major areas of accomplishment were in gaining public confidence and permitting loans. In l777, he loaned forty million livres that were sold out in a day; sums eventually increased to one hundred million livres. The interest paid on the loans flooded the treasury as did the morale of the citizens who benefited from this plan. He substantially cut staffing in underused departments and even created a national lottery. Next Louis examined the Royal Household much to the chagrin of the courtiers. For example, the Comptess de Brionne protested that some of his cuts affected her son. Louis replied, “Madame, why are you meddling? This has nothing to do with you.” When the Duc de Coigny confronted him about cuts in funding to the Royal Stables, for which Coigny was responsible, Louis rounded on him angrily. “I intend to bring order and economy to every part of my house; those who carp at it I shall break like this glass.” And he let a crystal goblet fall from his hand and shatter on the floor. In total, four hundred and six positions at court were abolished. In the summer of l777, the Queen wished Louis to spend a week at Trianon. Necker pointed out that the visit would cost an unbudgeted fifty thousand livres, so it was cancelled. To his credit, Louis imposed upon himself the same restrictions he placed on everyone else.
Now that finance had been dealt with, Louis now examined humanitarian areas. He started with the main Paris hospital, the Hotel Dieu. It was filthy with patients four to a bed. When patients died sheets were not changed, even if the deceased had a contagious disease. Patients were trundled to cemeteries for burial while still alive. The mortality rate in Paris was one in four. In Edinburgh, by comparison, it was one in twenty-five. Along with Necker as an advisor, Louis insisted that three hundred patients should have a bed to themselves; wards were established for each type of disease, separate wards were established for men and women. To provide extra beds Louis put up extra money for a new hospital at StSulpice where patients were nursed by Sisters of Charity. Louis also looked into prison reform insisting on separation of the sexes, the construction of an infirmary and proper food and clothing for inmates.
Louis and Antoinette founded a school for the training of deaf-mutes, and maintained a school for unwanted girls at St. Cyr in Paris. One of the most far-reaching and innovating changes Louis made involved torture, which was unbelievably cruel. The general feeling of those responsible was that the torture of accused prisoners was essential to get the truth. Louis was more humane, and found torture to be barbaric. In an edict on the topic he wrote in part “….I have always wondered whether, when the question is applied, it is not the strength of a man’s nerves which usually decides whether he is guilty or innocent. On August 20, 1780, with a stroke of his pen, Louis abolished the torture of accused prisoners. Louis won popularity with his reforms, yet every reform engendered hostility somewhere. Even Louis’ brother, the Compte d’Artois, was hostile, referring to Louis as ‘Roi de France et avare’ instead of ‘Roi de France et Navarre’. ‘Avare’ is French for ‘miserly’.
Most of the day Louis spent at his papers and dispatches in his study or in the Council Chamber, and this practice of ‘working at home’ meant that he was surrounded by family and courtly pressures. Louis knew how to distinguish public and domestic issues and resisted these pressures. According to Miromesnil, a trusted deputy: “I have never known anyone whose character was more contradicted by outward appearance than the King. He is good and tender-hearted; you can never speak to him of disasters or accidents without seeing a look of compassion come over his face, yet his tone is brusque, his replies are often hard, his manner unfeeling and in taking decisions he is firm and courageous.” This description of the King’s character is confirmed by the Duc de Croy: the King, he says, was reserved to courtiers, especially the Queen’s friends; He “….took great care not to reveal his intentions to them or even discuss State affairs, especially money matters. He saw clearly and true, and although he had no original ideas, on the whole few Kings of France have ruled as personally as much as he did.” Louis had a definite soft spot for his wife. He found it much easier to dismiss a Minister or exile a courtier than to discuss Antoinette’s gambling debts with her. For her part, the quality in her husband that Antoinette most respected was his ‘droiture’ (straightforwardness). In the autumn after the consummation of their marriage, Louis was seen by Merci (Empress Maria Theresa’s spy at Versailles) to kiss his wife. “Do you love me?” he asked her. “Yes, sincerely,” Antoinette replied. “You can be sure of that. And I respect you still more.” Despite their different temperaments, Antoinette was in love with her husband. The marriage that had begun so unpromisingly was now a source of happiness for her. ‘Bonheur’, ‘plaisir’, ‘tendre’, ‘joie’, ‘contente’ (happiness, pleasure, tenderness, joy, contentment) are the words she used to describe her husband in letters to her mother. In January, 1777, Mercy examined Antoinette’s accounts and found that she had incurred debts, mostly by gambling in the last year, amounting to four hundred eighty-seven thousand livres, which she had no means of repaying. Louis came to the rescue and, since he refused to draw on the National Treasury, he decided to pay the sum via installments out of his privy purse, which by then amounted to one million two hundred thousand livres. “As he is naturally very thrifty”, said Mercy, “this generosity astonished the Queen.”
The Queen’s wardrobe allowance had been fixed in 1725 at one hundred twenty thousand livres per year, an adequate sum for fifty years ago, but insufficient in 1775. Tradition and etiquette required the Queen to wear a morning gown, an afternoon gown and an evening gown of sufficient distinction to demonstrate France’s ‘ leadership in fashion’. As a result she overspent her allowance by over forty thousand livres every year. Louis was careful with his own money, and always personally covered Antoinette’s overages; his brothers and aunts were quite a different story. Mesdames enjoyed taking the waters at Vichy, a ruinously expensive distraction since tradition and etiquette required that they be accompanied by two hundred fifty servants and one hundred sixty horses. The Compte de Provence continued to spend heavily, keeping a string of thoroughbred horses that he never rode, dressed in diamond-studded suits and traveled with an enormous suite. Household expenses continued to be a problem.
What praise or condemnation does Louis deserve? Around the time of his coronation he said, “Praise during my lifetime is suspect. If I deserve it, I’ll be praised after my death.” His reign reflects the character of the man: a hard worker devoted to the happiness of his people. In the fifteen years to 1789, Louis gave France six volumes of new laws. Most of the laws were designed to ease hardship or end injustice, as his foreign policy was designed to secure peace. France under his rule was a far happier place than it was under Louis XIV. Louis’ reign was honest. He kept a close watch on his Ministers, none of whom amassed a fortune as his predecessors’ Ministers had done. “For my peoples’ happiness” was a phrase that opens Louis’ decrees, and the people believed this and were encouraged to think that he would, and could, do even more. It was this humanitarian and benevolent reign that fed the bold demands of the Revolution. Louis’ answer to the budgetary deficit was to cut court spending to the bone, thus alienating the court nobles. He also gave too little attention to the army; in 1788 a British envoy blamed the King for the fact that “….the army of France appears to have been neglected.” For this negligence, Louis paid a heavy price: an army with no allegiance to the King.
Antoinette in many ways complimented her husband. Her laughter covered his silences, her charm softened his gruffness. They survived many attempts to separate them, first during he early years, then during the Revolution when Louis’ freedom of action was hindered by suspicions engulfing his wife. Each was given the chance to leave the other; had they done so, they may have escaped with their lives. When intolerance became the mood of the age, Louis took his stand on tolerance. Antoinette chose to stand beside him. Both had their faults, but from an early age they were obliged to struggle against clever enemies, and it was the will power and self-control learned in Versailles that carried them through their prison and on to the scaffold together. They died bravely. But it is their lives that matter more than the manner of their deaths-the good they did, and the good they tried to do.
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Understanding Louis XVI
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