LOUIS XVI

born Aug. 23, 1754, Versailles, Fr. died Jan. 21, 1793, Paris also called (until 1774) Louis-auguste, Duc (duke) De Berry the last king of France (177492) in the line of Bourbon monarchs preceding the Revolution of 1789. The monarchy was abolished on Sept. 21, 1792; later he and his queen consort, Marie-Antoinette, were guillotined on charges of counterrevolution. Additional reading S.K. Padover, Life and Death of Louis XVI (1939; new ed., 1963), is virtually the only serious biography available in English. J. Droz, Histoire du rgne de Louis XVI, 3 vol. (1858), though old-fashioned and written from an exclusively political angle, is still worth consultation on the attempts of the central government to reform the ancien rgime. It has been superseded in that respect by D. Dakin, Turgot and the Ancien Rgime in France (1939); G. Lefebvre, Quatre-vingt-neuf (1939; The Coming of the French Revolution, 1789, 1947); and J. Egret, La Pr-Rvolution Franaise, 17871788 (1962). The most recent scholarly studies of royal policy after the flight to Varennes are: J. Chaumie, Le Rseau d'Antraigues et la Contre-Rvolution, 17911793 (1965), which throws an entirely new light on the royal web of counterrevolutionary intrigue; A. Soboul, Le Procs de Louis XVI (1966), which gives a succinct analysis of the issues raised by the King's trial and execution, along with documentary material from the French archives; and M. Reinhard, La Chute de la Royaut (1969), which is likely to remain the definitive account of the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy. Vincent Cronin, Louis and Antoinette (1975), is a lively, well-written dual biography that attempts a more favourable than usual assessment of the King's character.