Louis XVI

Why Louis XVI convened the Estates-General in 1789

• There was no alternative to the calling of the Estates-General in several senses.
• There was no other representative body.
• More importantly, in 1789 there was no other way of allowing people to air their grievances in a legal and controlled way.
• Financial reasons explain why Louis was in a mess.
• Calling the Estates-General would surely help Necker resolve the crown’s problems and this is the main reason why it was called.
• The Estates-General met on 4 May 1789.
• Hopes were quickly dashed.
• The government then closed the building so people had to gather on a tennis court.

Why Louis XVI made the ‘Flight to Varennes’

• The whole series of constitutional experiments since 1789 were resisted by Louis and his advisers.
• The unchecked popularity of radicals proposing steps such as the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was the last straw.
• He could see no future for himself or the French monarchy.
• It was assumed by many that Louis had intended to meet up with royalist soldiers or to appeal to Leopold II in Austria.
• He wanted foreign armies and countries to intervene to save his own neck, his family and in his opinion France itself
• In June 1791 Louis escaped from Paris but though disguised was recognised and brought back from Varennes in disgrace.