Today in history: Louis XVI of France

[Ichingcarpenter]

On the 11 December, among crowded and silent streets, the deposed king was brought from the Temple to stand before the Convention and hear his indictment, an accusation of High Treason and Crimes against the State.



On Monday, 21 January 1793 this happened.

[balantz]

1. Tyrants appear to have better protection these days. n/t

[AzNick]

2. Note there are 3 rows of soldiers around

They were installed there to prevent any desperate attempt from the royalists to save Louis.

I am French and believe that Louis XVI's execution was a mistake.

The poor chump did not choose to be king. He was merely a symbol and beheading him was a strong message about the will of the Republic to last, and to demoralize the royalists and their foreign allies. But it was also an act of cowardice and overall poor judgment.

But there are many similitudes between him and Bush: both taking idiotic decisions (for instance to help some obscure colonial insurgency in some North American British Colonies), used as a prop, a front for the true executive, first the object of adulation and love and eventually of ire and ridicule.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. I am part French also

“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.”


Oscar Wilde


Seems you would have been a royalist in America too.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Being against the execution of someone doesn't mean you support them

It is possible to remove someone from power without killing them. Or to punish a murderer without killing them, for example.

[mondo joe]

9. Royalist or the Guillotine? Those are the only two choices?

Really?

[readmoreoften]

13. The Paris Commune ousted the Royalists and destroyed the guillotine as a show of their humanity.

What'd the Royalists do? Conspire with Thiers and the Prussian occupiers to slaughter 30,000 communards including women and children. That's the disaster of pacifism. They should've kept the damn guillotine.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. That's beautiful. n/t

[QC]

6. Where's Robespierre when you need him? n/t

[mondo joe]

7. Robespierre was just another monster.

The Terror resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of ordinary citizens.

[AzNick]

10. Including Robespierre n/t

[Selatius]

8. Given the hard times the US is entering in, French company Chanel is offering this now.

When you positively have to put them down, put them down in style.



Act now, and you get a free Chanel chainsaw when you feel like doing it the messy way!

[readmoreoften]

11. It's GORGEOUS! I LOVE it!

I've just GOT to have it!

[Fumesucker]

12. Is it time yet?