The Life and Loves of Madame Recamier

It's my pleasure to welcome Cheryl Bolen to the salon today to discuss another salon keeper, the famed  Madame Recamier!

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The Life and Loves of Madame Recamier

The Duke of Wellington and Napoleon opposed each other not only on the battlefield but also for the affections of a certain beautiful lady. That lady, Madame Recamier, spurned both of these powerful men. Napoleon was so outraged, he banished her from France and her famed Parisian salon where authors and intellectuals—most of whom despised Napoleon—gathered. 

In an era when, as Lord Egremont said, “Women considered it a stain upon their reputation if they hadn’t taken a lover,” Juliette Recamier (1777-1849) went four decades without knowing a lover—not even the wealthy, much-older banker she had married at age 15.

Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David, 1800

Called a figid coquette, Madame Recamier directed her sensuous flirtations on virtually every man who came to her salon on rue du Mont-Blanc—and most of them became captivated by her beauty and voluptuous charm. Author and political philosopher Benjamin Constant said, “Madame Recamier takes it into her head to make me fall in love with her . . . My life is completely upset.” For the next fourteen months, he was tortured by his unrequited love for her. 

He was one of dozens over the years.

Lady Bessborough,  who was among the English aristocrats who flocked to Paris in 1802 after the signing of the short-lived Treaty of Amiens, gives this interesting account of meeting the beautiful Madame Recamier.

I must tell you [Lady Bessborough wrote to her lover, Granville Leveson Gower] tho’, a nasty and an indelicate story, but how distress’d I was at Mad. Recamier’s. We went there and found her in bed—that beautiful bed you saw prints of—muslin and gold curtains, great looking glasses at the side, incense pots, &c., and muslin sheets trimm’d with lace, and beautiful white shoulders expos’d perfectly uncovered to view—in short, completely undress’d and in bed. The room was full of men.

During her salons, Madame Recamier commonly reposed on a chaise longue—a piece of furniture which would later be named a recamier in her honor. A famed portrait by Jacques Louis David of her on her chaise longue hangs in the Louvre. 

The only child of Marie Julie Matton and Jean Bernard, the king’s counsellor, Juliette was born in Lyon, but the family later moved to Paris. During the Reign of Terror, she married Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, who was 27 years her senior. Mystery surrounds the marriage. There is some credence that Recamier married to pass on his fortune if he should fall to the Terror. It was said he was very close to Juliette’s mother. Some suggested Juliette remained a virgin because Recamier was her natural father, but this has been discounted. 

As she neared the age of thirty, Madame Recamier finally fell victim to Cupid’s arrow when she fell in love with Prince Augustus of Prussia, a nephew of Frederick the Great. They met in the Swiss home of her friend, the famed Madame de Stael, who encouraged the romance. Juliette Recamier wrote to her husband to ask for a divorce, but at the time he was besieged with financial woes (he eventually went bankrupt). His response appealed to her sensibilities while telling her she could not have picked a worse time. He also expressed regret that he had respected her virginal susceptibilities. 

Writing years later about her lover, Madame Recamier said, “We were convinced that we were going to be married, and our relationship was very intimate; even so, there was one thing he failed to obtain.”

Prince Augustus of Prussia
by Franz Krüger, 1817.

Before the two lovers parted, they exchanged written promises. Prince Augustus wrote, “I swear by my honor and by love to preserve in all its purity the sentiment that attaches me to Juliette Recamier, to take all steps that duty allows to unite with her in the bonds of marriage, and to possess no woman as long as there is hope that I may join my destiny with hers. AUGUST, PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.”

Madame Recamier wrote, “I swear by the salvation of my soul to preserve in all its purity the sentiment that attaches me to Prince August of Prussia; to do everything that honor permits to dissolve my marriage, to have no love nor flirtation with any other man, to see him again as soon as possible, and, whatever the future may bring, to entrust my destiny entirely to his honor and his love. J. R.”

The Recamiers did not divorce, and Prince Augustus never married, though two of his long-time mistresses bore him eleven children. Ten years after he fell in love with Juliette Recamier, he had his portrait made standing in front of her portrait. 

Back in Paris, the Recamiers were forceed to sell their house on the rue du Mont Blanc, their silver, and Juliette’s jewelry. She suffered the losses with the same languid serenity that governed her life. By 1809, Recamier was once again in business but on a much smaller scale. 

Even though her circumstances were reduced, Madame Recamier’s salons were as popular as ever. Later she resided in apartments in a former convent, now demolished, at 16 rue de Sèvres in Paris.

It is believe she finally lost her virginity at age 40. Her lover was the 50-year-old author Chateaubriand. 

Her husband died in 1830. She lived another nineteen years before cholera claimed her at age 71. She was buried in the Cimetiere de Montmarte.

Resources

Herold, J. Christopher. Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staël. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1958.

Lady Granville, The Private Correspondence of Lord Granville Leveson Gower, 2 vol., London, John Murray, 1917.

Written content of this post copyright © Cheryl Bolen, 2016.

Jacques-Louis David and the Last Journey of Marie Antoinette

Jacques-Louis David (Paris, France, 30th August 1748 - Brussels, Belgium 29th December 1825)

On this day in 1748, famed artist Jacques-Louis David was born. Initially renowned for his history paintings, David eventually began to develop strong Revolutionary sensibilities and became closely allied to Marat, producing a famed painting depicting his death. He later grew close to Robespierre and enjoyed immense influence over French arts and culture during the Revolution and then the rule of Napoleon. Although known for his grand works and portraits, I have chosen instead to concentrate on a more simple sketch he produced, that of Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine.

Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine by Jacques-Louis David, 1793

When David sketched the doomed queen on 16th October 1793, she was a world away from the grand, glamorous figure memorialised in innumerable works of art. In her thirty seventh year, Marie Antoinette had been incarcerated for some time and David depicts her with an unflinching eye, showing an unremarkable woman, face haggard and toothless, hair shorn and her hands bound as she sits in the tumbrel on its way to the scaffold. One cannot help but notice how straight she sits, though the expression on her face is one of grim sadness.

In this simplest of sketches David shows not a queen, nor the hated figure so vilified by her persecutors, but a simple human in her final minutes. There was nothing remotely Royalist in David's work and yet his honest depiction carries with it a dignity of its own. He might have produced far finer works and laboured long hours over great canvasses but for me, this simple, human sketch is one of David's greatest works; it captures a singular moment in time and one that, as the tumbrel rolled on past the artist's window, was soon gone forever.

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Napoleon Arrives on Elba

We have met Napoleon and members of his illustrious family here at the Guide on a few occasions. The last time we encountered the famed Corsican we witnessed the brokering of a dynastic marriage but today the event is a far less palatable one for the gentleman concerned.

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

In 1814, Napoleon's empire lay in tatters. the War of the Sixth Coalition had ended in his defeat and now, under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainbleu, the former Emperor's rule of France was over and he was bound for exile. Napoleon left France on 20th April 1814 for his new home of Elba. Here he would be Emperor to just 12,000 inhabitants of the small island in the Mediterranean, its shoreline under regular patrol from the British.

The journey of a modern hero, to the island of Elba, 1814

He arrived on Elba on 4th May and, perhaps surprisingly, declared himself at peace with these new surroundings. Here he would live under the watchful eye of guards in relative peace, apparently quite content in his new, drastically reduced role. He instituted government reforms that improved life for the islanders and to all intents and purposes, appeared to have found something approaching satisfaction, even if it was a far cry from the successes he had known.

Napoleon Leaving Elba by Joseph Beaume, 1836

In reality, his true ambitions were to be far, far away from Elba and to this end, Napoleon had no intention of remaining in exile. Just three hundred days after he set foot on Elba, Napoleon stole away from the island headed, once more, to France.

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The Execution of Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins

Georges Danton (Georges Jacques Danton; Arcis-sur-Aube, France, 26th October 1759 - Paris, France, 5th April 1794)

Camille Desmoulins (Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins; Guise, France, 2nd March 1760 – Paris, France, 5th April 1794)

Une Exécution Capitale, Place de la Révolution by Pierre-Antoine Demachy, 1793

It feels like a while since we travelled to Paris and today I had intended to tell the tale of the death of Camille Desmoulins, who makes a cameo appearance in my own yarn, The Star of Marseilles. However, those very same final moments were shared with Georges Danton and the comrades died within minutes of one another so today, both share centre stage here in the salon.

Desmoulins and Danton were vital to the success of the French Revolutionary cause; both were shrewd strategists and moved at the highest levels of the Revolutionary government, though their favoured positions were not to last forever. As the Terror took hold, Danton distanced himself from the Girondins and withdrew from public life, leaving the Convention in late Autumn of 1793 to retire to the country. However, Danton did not stay away long and he soon returned to Paris and resumed his political manoeuvrings, speaking out against extremism in government.

Georges-Jacques Danton by Caron after painting by Jacques-Louis David, 1841

In December 1793, as Danton re-established himself in Paris, Desmoulins published the journal, Le Vieux Cordelier. The journal presented an alternative to radicalism and the first issue was dedicated to Danton and our old friend, Robespierre, a man whom later issues of Le Vieux Cordelier would go on to challenge. Although Robespierre initially encouraged the journal, as the publication began to grow critical of the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal, Robespierre's opinion of his friend turned darker. When Desmoulins publicly spoke out against the controversial Law of Suspects, the Jacobins reached the end of their tether and moved to expel the journalist from the Club.

Even now Robespierre attempted to warn Desmoulins of the possible implications of publishing such critical pieces, but the journalist's refusal to moderate the content of Le Vieux Cordelier meant that Robespierre could not afford to be seen to be indulging him. Once Danton's own reputation was thrown into doubt after his secretary, Fabre d'Églantine, was involved in a fraud case, Robespierre joined the voices asking for Desmoulins to be removed from the Jacobin Club. The stage was set for trouble and Desmoulins and Danton were arrested in the last days of March, along with 13 others.

Camille Desmoulins by Joseph Boze, 1791

A chaotic trial began on 3rd April and Danton spoke furiously and passionately in his own defence. In fact, so concerned were his prosecutors that he might swing the verdict that they introduced a new measure that forbade defendants from addressing the jury or calling witnesses and even went so far as to remove the men from the courtroom. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that all of the accused were found guilty and their executions were scheduled to take place on 5th April.

The reactions of Desmoulins and Danton to their impending deaths could not have been more different. On the appointed date they were taken from the Luxembourg Palace to the tumbrel that would carry them to Place de la Révolution and whilst Danton maintained his composure, Desmoulins was flung into a panic at the news that his wife, Lucile, had also been arrested. It took a dozen men to drag him to the tumbrel and he struggled all the way to the scaffold, tearing his clothes and pleading hysterically and fruitlessly for mercy for Lucile. Scheduled to be the first of the Dantonists to die that die, Danton maintained his grim humour to the end. As he went to the guillotine he commented, “Show my head to the people; it is worth seeing.”

The Marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise

In honour of the birthday of Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, today I thought we would do something just a little different and drop in on the marriage negotiations and numerous wedding ceremonies of Marie Louise and the Emperor Napoleon. We have already met Marie Louise's father and the child she bore her husband so let's gad across to the continent and see where it all began.

Marriage of Napoleon I and Marie Louise by Georges Rouget, 1810

By 1809 Napoleon had been married to Joséphine de Beauharnais for 13 years and could no longer contain his frustration that he had no heir. Seized by the  need to ensure that his dynasty would continue, he began divorce proceedings against Joséphine and began a search for a woman whom he would deem worthy of making an empress. His first thought was that an ideal candidate might be the teenaged Grand Duchess Anna, sister of Tsar Alexander I, yet the Austrians took exception to the implications this might have on their nation, neatly sandwiched as it was between Russia and France. In addition, Alexander seemed lukewarm towards the prospect and as discussions dragged on, Napoleon began to seek his bride elsewhere. 

With his thoughts turning towards the Austrian court, Napoleon was pleased to hear confirmation that Marie Louise, daughter of Francis II, might be an excellent candidate and even better, her father was open to discussions. Negotiations went on for some time but eventually, in early 1810, the deal was struck. As the discussions progressed, the 18 year old Marie Louise remained blissfully aware that her fate was being decided and when she was informed of the forthcoming nuptials in February 1810,  she said simply, "I wish only what my duty commands me to wish."

Empress Marie-Louise by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1810

The marriage took place by proxy on 11th March 1810 at the Augustinian Church, Vienna and though the groom was not present, a huge celebration and ceremony was held to celebrate the nuptials.  Now Empress of the French and Queen of Italy, Marie Louise left her home to travel to France two days later, finally meeting her husband for the first time on 27th March at Compiègne. With a civil wedding following at the Château de Saint-Cloud, the couple had one final ceremony to undertake and another lavish religious ceremony was held in the Louvre on 2nd April.

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques-Louis David, 1812

Marie Louise was unassuming and popular and quickly felt at home in her new surroundings. Her new husband lavished her with gifts and indulgences and it appears that the couple were indeed very fond of one another, whilst the marriage brought peace between the traditionally opposed nations of France and Austria. The Emperor and Empress finally shared the child Napoleon had so longed for and for a time, at least, there was happiness at the French court.

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Love, Loss and a Long Life: Juliette Récamier

Juliette Récamier (Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, Lyon, France, 4th December 1777 – Paris, France, 11th May 1849)

Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David, 1800

We stay in France today though there are no prisons, battlefields or guillotines to hamper our path. Instead we are due an audience with Juliette Récamier, a fellow salon-keeper of considerable renown.

Juliette was born in Lyon to Marie Julie Matton and Jean Bernard, King's Counsellor. She received an exemplary convent education that ended prematurely when her father was promoted to Receiver of Finance and the family moved to Paris. Here the modest young girl continued her education, happy in her surroundings as discontent spread throughout the country. Her peaceful life was shattered when the Terror swept through Paris and her father was imprisoned; although he would survive the revolution due to the intervention of influential friends, he lost his job and much of his wealth.

At the age of 15, Juliette married a 42 year old banker and close friend of her mother, Jacques-Rose Récamier. The wealthy Récamier was immensely fond of Juliette and protective towards her and rumours spread through Paris that he was the girl's true father and had married her to ensure that she could be his heir should he fall victim to the revolutionary guillotine. Indeed, Récamier made no secret of his fondness for Juliette's mother and the marriage was never consummated, leading to speculation that Juliette had a physical confition that made intercourse too painful to attempt.

Juliette Récamier by François Gérard, 1805

In her new role as wife to the influential Récamier, Juliette became a favourite of Paris society and her salons were immensely popular with the literary and political circles of the city. Many of the male attendees to the salon found their hostess enchanting and developed strong, platonic attachments to her. Her greatest champion was François-René de Chateaubriand and he was a constant presence in Juliette's home, as were many former royalists who had survived the Terror. The monarchist flavour of her household brought Juliette to the attention of Napoleon and he watched her gatherings with interest, seeing them as a rallying place for those who would oppose him. Indeed, her closest friends were Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque and , Germaine de Staël, outspoken opponents of the emperor.

Perhaps in an effort to gain or ascertain Juliette's loyalty, on several occasions she was offered the position of  lady-in-waiting to Joséphine de Beauharnais, rejecting the opportunity each time. Finally, Napoleon decided that he could delay no longer and, fearing the type of chatter that might be going on in the salon, he had Constant, de Staël and Juliette exiled from Paris. She travelled Europe before settling first in Italy and then with de Staël in Switzerland, where she met Prince Augustus of Prussia, with whom she fell deeply in love. Desperate to accept the Prince's proposal, Juliette asked Récamier for a divorce but the couple found themselves distracted by the loss of his fortune in a disastrous business deal and the divorce was never pursued. When Augustus returned home, Juliette was plunged into depression, though found some comfort when she and her husband adopted his orphaned niece, to whom both were devoted.

Prince Augustus of Prussia by Franz Krüger, 1817. The Prince stands before the portrait of Madame Récamier.

With her husband attempting to rebuild his financial affairs, Juliette returned to Paris in 1814 to resume her salons in somewhat circumstances. She took up residence at L'Abbaye-aux-Bois, where she continued to host visitors and became the centre of a literary circle of some renown. Récamier fell seriously ill in 1829 and stayed with Juliette until his death the following year, nursed to the end by the woman who had once been his teenage bride. Afflicted by failing eyesight in her later years, Juliette was heartbroken to hear of the death of Augustus in 1843 and she died six years later, a victim of cholera. This remarkable woman was laid to rest in Montmartre beside her parents and husband, her famed salons passing into history.

"My Blood Alone Remains": The Execution of Marie Antoinette

Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (Vienna, Austria, 2nd November 1755 - Paris, France, 16th October 1793)

Marie Antoinette Being Taken to Her Execution by William Hamilton, 1794

In the early hours of 16th October 1793, a famous widow awaited her last sunrise in a dingy cell at La Conciergerie, as hated by some as she was loved by others. Separated from her children and with her husband long since executed, Prisoner 280 had endured a vicious trial, the charges laid before her ranging from incest to treason and through all of it, the outcome was never really in doubt, her fate sealed long ago. The woman in question was, of course, the widow Capet, Queen Consort of France and Navarre, Marie Antoinette.

The small cell was a world away from the splendour she had known, the queen's once vibrant life reduced to a lonely existence of prayer, contemplation and unhappiness. She had never recovered from the death of her husband in January that year, let alone her separation from what remained of her family and now, in the closing hours of her life, she was to know little comfort.

Marie Antoinette's Cell at La Conciergerie

Just a few hours earlier Marie Antoinette had been found guilty of treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal; there was no right of appeal and the lady did not ask for mercy as none would be forthcoming. Instead, she was taken to her cell to await the coming day and her inevitable appointment with the executioner. She was not allowed to see her family again and if her husband had been afforded some measure of dignity in his final hours, this was not to be her fate.

As the night drew on, Marie Antoinette wrote a final, heartfelt letter to Madame Élisabeth, her sister-in-law, imploring her to care for the children who would be left behind. The tear-stained missive was never delivered and within the year Élisabeth too would die on the guillotine. With her letter finished, Marie Antoinette penned a few final lines in her prayer book, which would later be found among the papers of Robespierre:

"My God, have pity on me! My eyes have no more tears to cry for you my poor children; adieu! adieu!"

Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine by Jacques-Louis David, 1793

The sun had not yet risen when Marie Antoinette was joined by her maid, Rosalie Lamorlière, who arrived at the cell of her mistress to carry out her final duties. Rosalie helped Marie Antoinette dress in a simple white cap, kerchief and gown and assisted at her final toilette, all performed in the presence of her jailers. One can only imagine the solemnity and sadness of these final hours before Rosalie took her leave and her mistress returned once more to her prayers.

The morning progressed all-too quickly then and Marie Antoinette received a procession of visitors from prison and court officials to Henri Sanson, the famed revolutionary executioner. With her hair  cut short and hands bound, Marie Antoinette was taken to Cour du Mai where a tumbrel awaited to carry her to her fate. Calmly, she protested that her late husband, Louis XVI, had made his last journey in a carriage and was protected from the crowds who gathered to watch him pass but the officials told her that times had changed since then, she was to face the people of Paris head on.

Accompanied by a sworn priest, Sanson and his assistant, and travelling a route lined with heavy security, Marie Antoinette endured the ride to the scaffold in regal silence. As the mob heckled and jeered she showed no fear, maintaining her dignity until, at the sight of the towering guillotine in Place de la Révolution, she faltered momentarily. With the calls of the crowd ringing in her ears Marie Antoinette gathered herself, stepped down from the tumbrel and calmly climbed the steps to the scaffold.

From that point on Marie Antoinette never faltered in her composure; stepping on Sanson's foot, she apologised to him before saying a final prayer for her family. Just as Louis had faced the guillotine with composed dignity, so too did his queen go to the National Razor without a trace of the fear she must surely have felt. Just after noon the blade finally fell, ending Marie Antoinette's life. Once her head had been displayed to the crowd, her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery and there is would remain until 1815 when both Marie Antoinette and Louis were exhumed and interred at the Basilica of St Denis.

Funerary monuments of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette 

Throughout her life and since her death she has been lionised and demonised, held up as a martyr and a traitor and yet at the last she was simply a bereaved wife terrified for the fate of her soon to be orphaned children. Whether royalist or revolutionary, one cannot deny that Marie Antoinette showed dignity to the end, regal in every sense of the word.

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Jean-Sylvain Bailly: Executed Architect of the French Revolution

Jean-Sylvain Bailly (Paris, France, 15th September 1736 - Paris, France, 12th November 1793) 

Jean-Sylvain Bailly by Jean-Laurent Mosnier, 1789

Well, my old grandmother always said that we Gilflurt girls would get a reputation and it seems that, in some quarters, my reputation is for ending tales with a visit to the National Razor. For those of you who have been missing the shadow of the guillotine for a few weeks here at the Guide, you'll be pleased to know that the fearsome instrument of execution makes another appearance today! We are back in Paris, back on the tennis court and back on the scaffold to learn more about the life of Jean-Sylvain Bailly.

The man who would become one of the architects of the French Revolution was born in the Louvre, the son of Jacques Bailly. Jacques was an artist and supervisor at the Louvre and the son of Nicholas Bailly, a painter at the Bourbon court. With the blood of painters running in his veins, the young Bailly found himself torn between the worlds of art and science but under the tutelage of Nicolas de Lacaille, he eventually developed a fascination with astronomy, a subject in which he was an exemplary student. Passionate about science, Bailly assisted with the construction of the Louvre observatory and was welcomed into the Académie des Sciences in 1763, joining the Swedish Academy 15 years later. Whilst progressing his astronomical research he found time to write on the subjects of literature, history and philosophy and moved in the highest intellectual circles in France.

Bailly was devoted to his academic and scientific career but when the Revolution swept through Paris, he found his life changed. A respected thinker like Bailly was perfect for the new regime and in 1789 he was elected as the Parisian Deputy to the Estates-General, swiftly moving from this office to that of inaugural president of the National Assembly. It was Bailly who presided over the Tennis Court Oath, an event I examined in my post about the ill-fated Louis XVI but to refresh your memory, the relevant snippet follows!

The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David,  1791 (Bailly stands in the middle, arm raised)

Furious at their exclusion from a meeting in the Hôtel des Menus Plaisirs in Versailles, members of the Third Estate held a conference on a nearby tennis court. They believed that they were deliberately refused entry to the meeting and swore an oath of allegiance that they would not disband until a French constitution was written. It has been suggested that the doors of the meeting hall were likely locked as the royal family was in mourning for the King's oldest son, who had been dead barely a fortnight. Nevertheless, the Oath was a turning point as French citizens formally declared their opposition to the monarch. Faced with this vote of no-confidence, Louis attempted to make concessions but the damage was done and the idea of constitution began to take root. Less than a month later there were mobs on the streets of Paris and the Bastille fell. Once again Bailly found his political career on the move after the events at the Bastille and on 15th July 1789, just 24 hours after the mob took the fortress, he became the mayor of Paris.

Bust of Jean-Sylvain Bailly by Louis Pierre Deseine

Two days later, Louis attended the Hôtel de Ville where Bailly presented him with a tricolour cockade, a potent symbol of the revolution. However, he was unpopular with other revolutionaries who saw him as too staid to hold the important office of mayor, a role they hoped to see going to someone more radical. He was keenly aware of the limits of his own authority and pushed them as far as he could, in 1791 repealing taxes placed on Jewish residents and declaring them French citizens, a move that was viewed with suspicion by some. It was not this policy that would cost him his career though, it was instead a fateful decision he took later that same year.

On 17th July 1791 a crowd led by Danton and Desmoulins gathered on the Champ de Mars to deliver a petition calling for the removal of the monarch. With the people growing restless, Bailly sent the marquis de Lafayette and the National Guard to control the situation. Warning shots were fired and were met with a volley of stones and abuse, at which point the National Guard fired on the crowd itself, killing some and wounding others. 

This was to prove a disastrous decision and Bailly's popularity plummeted, the mayor suddenly seen as a traitor to public democracy. Faced with such open dislike from the citizens he retired and moved to Nantes, where he wrote several volumes of autobiography. However, whilst visiting Melun he found himself arrested and brought back to Paris to face the Revolutionary Tribunal to testify against Marie Antoinette. When he refused, Bailly was placed on trial for his life. The trial opened on 10th November 1793 and on 11th November he was sentenced to death, his appointment with the guillotine set for the following day.

For Bailly, the Tribunal made a special recommendation: his scaffold was to be erected on the Champs de Mars, the very site where the National Guard had fired on the crowd. The former mayor of Paris went to his death with dignity and courage, undaunted by the mob that heckled him all the way to the guillotine. Standing in the freezing November rain he awaited his fate apparently without fear, telling the heckling crowd "[If I shiver], it is only the cold"; minutes later, he was dead.

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"I Die Innocent": The Life of Louis XVI

Louis XVI (Versailles, France, 23rd August 1754 – Paris, France, 21st January 1793) 

Louis XVI by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis , 1776

There have been a few too many guillotines around these parts of late and today we're beneath the National Razor again, this time in the company of a king. We've already watched the Bastille fall, witnessed the Insurrection of 10th August and followed the man behind the Reign of Terror  to the guillotine, so let's gad back to Versailles and see where it all began.

Louis Auguste de France, Duc de Berry, was born to Louis, the Dauphin of France, and Maria Josepha of Saxony. Timid and studious, the boy's relationship with his parents was somewhat distant and he threw himself into his studies under the Duc de la Vauguyon, a strict disciplinarian. When his father died, the 11 year old Louis succeeded him as Dauphin; at the death of his mother two years later, the boy immersed himself even further in his education, excelling in his studies as he grew into a quiet young man.

In 1770, Louis was married to the 14 year old Habsburg Archduchess Maria Antonia, better known to history as Marie Antoinette. The daughter of a Holy Roman Emperor, the marriage cemented a powerful dynasty and  marriage took place by proxy on 19th April in the Church of the Augustine Friars, Vienna. The young bride was presented to her new family on 7th May 1770, the wedding ceremony following just over a week later. 

Marie Antoinette and her Three Children, Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1787

Away from the public gaze the marriage was far from passionate. Desperately shy, Louis did not consummate the union for seven years and as an heir became an increasingly distant hope, pamphleteers and balladeers made bawdy sport of the couple. Eventually Louis and Marie would have four children together but by the time the first was born, the country was already rife with rumour that the king was unable to father an heir. 

In 1774 the young man became King Louis XVI; utterly overwhelmed and underprepared by his education, Louis was an indecisive and timid ruler, desperate to be liked by the people even as he allowed himself to be influenced by his ministers and advisers. A series of unpopular policy decisions and poor foreign policies knocked the new King's confidence even further and, with the government descending deeper and deeper into debt, Louis found himself scrutinised by politicians and public alike. 

Louis XVI by Antoine-François Callet, 1786

The royal household was seen as profligate and wasteful both at home and overseas. Whilst the disastrous Seven Years' War and the part played by France in the American War of Independence were ruinously expensive, Louis prevaricated over financial reform and appointed Jacques Necker to sort out the fiscal mess the country was falling into. Hugely popular with the people, Necker's eventual dismissal would play a part in the fall of the Bastille. 

The public weren't only taxed to the limit, they were starving too and famine swept the land in the 1780s. A cloud of dissent swirled as the masses looked to Versailles where they saw opulence and luxury beyond their imagining. They were, they believed, ruled by a King who could not possibly imagine what the lives of his subjects were like. His wife was draped in the latest fashions, his household filled with luxuries available and while the people starved, the court dined on fine foods. His popularity fast waning, Louis struggled to reconcile the wishes of his subjects and his advisors as influential and ambitious nobles and politicians jockeyed to take advantage of his indecisive, quiet nature.

The Tennis Court Oath by Jacques-Louis David, 1791

Bowing to the wishes of his advisors, Louis faltered when it came to matters of reform and summoned the Estates-General for the first time since 1614, intending for this body to make taxation decisions. The decision proved a fateful one and the Third Estate, clamouring for equality, met to take the Tennis Court Oath, a seminal moment in France. 

Furious at their exclusion from a meeting in the Hôtel des Menus Plaisirs in Versailles, members of the Third Estate held a conference on a nearby tennis court. They believed that they were deliberately refused entry to the meeting and swore an oath of allegiance that they would not disband until a French constitution was written. It has been suggested that the doors of the meeting hall were likely locked as the royal family was in mourning for the King's oldest son, who had been dead barely a fortnight. Nevertheless, the Oath was a turning point as French citizens formally declared their opposition to the monarch. Faced with this vote of no-confidence, Louis attempted to make concessions but the damage was done and the idea of constitution began to take root. Less than a month later there were mobs on the streets of Paris and the Bastille fell. 

The Royal Family Return to Paris, by Jean Duplessis-Bertaux, 1791

Even now the events that led to the scaffold were beginning to form and Louis entered into talks with politicians, the family by now under effective house arrest in the Tuileries. Fearing for his future, Louis and his family fled for Montmédy and the protection of Austria; longer-term they hoped to return with a force made up of allies and sympathetic nations and reassert monarchial authority. However, indecision struck Louis again and he postponed the escape multiple times, not quite able to believe that his popularity had diminished to the point of revolution. 

When the family finally did undertake what has become known as the flight to Varennes on the night of 20th June, the plan was doomed to failure. Apparently recognising Louis from his portrait on currency a local man, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, raised the alarm. There would be no further chance to escape and the royal family was returned to the Tuileries and placed under arrest once more.

Looking to his fellow monarchs for support, Louis found himself met by a wall of platitudinous concern but little in the way of action. Declarations were issued, sabres were rattled and fingers were wagged but nobody rode to his rescue. France found now that it had few friends on the continent and one can only imagine how Louis must have felt as he watched his last remaining chances for escape slipping away bit by bit. When the Tuileries was stormed by a mob, the royal family was escorted out of the Palace to the Legislative Assembly, their already restricted world shrinking even further.

The King at The Temple, Jean-François Garneray 

The man who had once sat on the throne of France was arrested on 13th August 1792 and sent to the Temple, a Parisian prison that would be his final home. Just over a month later the National Assembly abolished the Monarchy, declaring France a Republic. Stripped of his titles, the imprisoned King Louis XVI was now known as nothing more grand that Citoyen Louis Capet. As his opponents were now to find, abolishing a monarchy was one thing but there remained the problem of what to do with the monarch when he no longer had a kingdom to rule. Moderate Girondins strongly encouraged the continued imprisonment of Louis whilst their more radical colleagues argued for nothing less than execution. Once more the politicians debated until, on 11th December, Louis and his counsel, Raymond Romain, Comte de Sèze,  appeared before the Convention to hear charges of high treason and crimes against the State.

The Execution of Louis XVI by  Isidore-Stanislas Helman, 1794

The trial lasted just over a month and on 15th January 1793, the verdict of guilty was read out. Among those who decided that the sentence should be death was Louis's own cousin, Philippe Égalité, the former Duc d'Orléans. The prisoner was returned to the Temple to prepare for his fate, his appointed with the executioner scheduled for 21st January 1793.


On the last evening of his life Louis said his farewells to his family; more than anything he wished to spare his children the agony of knowing they would never see their father again and told them that he would see them again in the morning, a meeting that was destined never to happen. At dawn on the day of his execution he celebrated mass and then, all hope of mercy gone, prepared to journey by carriage to the scaffold where a crowd of thousands waited.

Dignified to the last Louis showed no fear as he approached the guillotine and told the hostile citizens, 'I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.'


Minutes later, Louis XVI was dead, his body transported for burial in the churchyard of the Church of the Madeleine. Here he lay until 21st January 1815 when he and Marie Antoinette's remains were retrieved and interred beside the King's ancestors in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, their memories honoured by a monument to their passing.

Funerary monuments of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, Saint Denis Basilica, France

Life in the Georgian Court, true tales of 18th century royalty, is available at the links below.

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