On 21 September 1792, the fall of the monarchy was officially declared and the National Convention became the governing body of the French Republic. The royal family name was downgraded to the non-royal "Capets".
Preparations began for the trial of the king in a court of law.
Charged with undermining the First French Republic, Louis XVI was separated from his family and tried in December. He was found guilty by the Convention, led by the Jacobins who rejected the idea of keeping him as a hostage.
On 15 January 1793, by a majority of one vote, that of Philippe Égalité, he was condemned to death by guillotine and executed on 21 January 1793.
Marie-Antoinette in the Temple
The queen, now called "Widow Capet", plunged into deep mourning. She still hoped her son Louis XVII, whom the exiled comte de Provence, Louis XVI's brother, had recognised as Louis XVI's successor, would one day rule France.
The royalists and the refractory clergy, including those preparing the insurrection in Vendée, supported Marie-Antoinette and the return to the monarchy.
Throughout her imprisonment and up to her execution, Marie-Antoinette could count on the sympathy of conservative factions and social-religious groups which had turned against the Revolution, and also on wealthy individuals ready to bribe republican officials in order to facilitate her escape; however, all plots failed.
Prisoners in the tower of the Temple, Marie-Antoinette, her children and Élisabeth were insulted, some of the guards going as far as blowing smoke in the ex-queen's face.
Strict security measures were taken to assure that Marie-Antoinette was not able to communicate with the outside world. Despite these measures, several of her guards were open to bribery and a line of communication was kept with the outside world.
After Louis' execution, Marie-Antoinette's fate became a central question of the National Convention. While some advocated her death, others proposed exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor.
Thomas Paine advocated exile to America. In April 1793, during the Reign of Terror, a Committee of Public Safety dominated by Robespierre was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert began to call for Marie-Antoinette's trial.
By the end of May, the Girondins had been chased from power. Calls were also made to "retrain" the eight-year old Louis XVII, to make him pliant to revolutionary ideas.
To carry this out, Louis-Charles was separated from his mother on 3 July after a heart wrenching struggle during which his mother fought in vain to retain her son, who was handed over to Antoine Simon, a cobbler and representative of the Paris Commune.
Until her removal from the Temple, Marie-Antoinette spent hours trying to catch a glimpse of her son, who, within weeks, had been made to turn against her, accusing his mother of wrongdoing.
Conciergerie
On the night of 1 August, at 1:00 in the morning, Marie-Antoinette was transferred from the Temple to an isolated cell in the Conciergerie as 'Prisoner n° 280'.
Leaving the tower she bumped her head against the lintel of a door, which prompted one of her guards to ask her if she was hurt, to which she answered, "No! Nothing now can hurt me."
This was the most difficult period of her captivity. She was under constant surveillance, with no privacy.
The "Carnation Plot" (Le complot de l'œillet), an attempt to help her escape at the end of August, was foiled due to the inability to corrupt all the guards.
She was attended by Rosalie Lamorlière, who took care of her as much as she could. At least once she received a visit by a Catholic priest.
Trial and execution (14–16 October 1793)
Marie-Antoinette was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October 1793.
Some historians believe the outcome of the trial had been decided in advance by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered.
She and her lawyers were given less than one day to prepare her defense. Among the accusations, many previously published in the libelles, were: orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, planning the massacre of the gardes françaises (National Guards) in 1792, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and incest, a charge made by her son Louis-Charles, pressured into doing so by the radical elements who controlled him.
This last accusation drew an emotional response from Marie-Antoinette, who refused to respond to this charge, instead appealing to all mothers present in the room; their reaction comforted her, since these women were not otherwise sympathetic to her.
Early on 16 October, Marie-Antoinette was declared guilty of the three main charges against her: depletion of the national treasury, conspiracy against the internal and external security of the State, and High treason because of her intelligence activities in the interest of the enemy; the latter charge alone was enough to condemn her to death.
At worst, she and her lawyers had expected life imprisonment. In the hours left to her, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law (see below), Madame Élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith, and her love and concern for her children.
The letter did not reach Élisabeth. Preparing for her execution, she had to change clothes in front of her guards. She put on a plain white dress, white being the color worn by widowed queens of France.
Her hair was shorn, her hands bound painfully behind her back and she was put on a rope leash. Unlike her husband, who had been taken to his execution in a carriage (carrosse), she had to sit in an open cart (charrette) for the hour it took to convey her from the Conciergerie via the rue Saint-Honoré thoroughfare to reach the guillotine erected in the Place de la Révolution, (the present-day
Place de la Concorde).
She maintained her composure, despite the insults of the jeering crowd. A constitutional priest was assigned to her to hear her final confession. He sat by her in the cart, but she ignored him all the way to the scaffold.
Marie Antoinette was guillotined at 12:15 p.m. on 16 October 1793.
Her last words were "Pardon me, sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing to the scaffold.
Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery located close by in rue d'Anjou. Because its capacity was exhausted the cemetery was closed the following year, on 25 March 1794.
Both Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVI's bodies were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence ascended the newly reestablished throne as Louis XVIII, King of France and of Navarre.
Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French kings at the Basilica of St Denis.
La dernière lettre de Marie-Antoinette, extraits :
À l'annonce de la sentence, Marie-Antoinette rédige une dernière lettre à l'attention de Madame Élisabeth, sœur de feu le roi Louis XVI.
Cette lettre, qui n'est jamais parvenue à sa destinataire, a été conservée par Robespierre, puis récupérée par le conventionnel Courtois, avant d'être saisie par Louis XVIII. Elle est aujourd'hui conservée dans "l'armoire de fer" des Archives nationales et un fac-similé est exposé au Musée des Archives nationales.
Cette lettre, à usage privé, ne contient aucun message d'ordre politique. Marie-Antoinette l'a rédigée dans son cachot de la Conciergerie juste après l'annonce de sa condamnation.
"Ce 16 octobre, 4 heures 1/2 du matin."
"C'est à vous, ma sœur, que j'écris pour la dernière fois ; je viens d'être condamnée non pas à une mort honteuse, elle ne l'est que pour les criminels, mais à aller rejoindre votre frère. Comme lui innocente, j'espère montrer la même fermeté que lui dans ces derniers moments. Je suis calme comme on l'est quand la conscience ne reproche rien ; j'ai un profond regret d'abandonner mes pauvres enfants ; vous savez que je n'existais que pour eux, et vous, ma bonne et tendre sœur, vous qui avez par votre amitié tout sacrifié pour être avec nous, dans quelle position je vous laisse ! J'ai appris par le plaidoyer même du procès que ma fille était séparée de vous. Hélas ! la pauvre enfant, je n'ose pas lui écrire, elle ne recevrait pas ma lettre, je ne sais même pas si celle-ci vous parviendra, recevez pour eux deux ici ma bénédiction. J'espère qu'un jour, lorsqu'ils seront plus grands, ils pourront se réunir avec vous, et jouir en entier de vos tendres soins".
"Je meurs dans la religion catholique, apostolique et romaine, dans celle où j'ai été élevée, et que j'ai toujours professée, n'ayant aucune consolation spirituelle à attendre, ne sachant pas s'il existe encore ici des prêtres de cette religion, et même le lieu où je suis les exposerait trop s'ils y entraient une fois. Adieu, adieu ! Je ne vais plus m'occuper que de mes devoirs spirituels. Comme je ne suis pas libre dans mes actions, on m'amènera peut-être un prêtre, mais je proteste ici que je ne lui dirai pas un mot, et que je le traiterai comme un être absolument étranger".
"Qu'ils pensent tous deux à ce que je n'ai cessé de leur inspirer : que les principes et l'exécution de leurs devoirs sont la première base de la vie ; que leur amitié et leur confiance mutuel en fera le bonheur ; (...) qu'ils sentent enfin tous deux que, dans quelque position où ils pourront se trouver, ils ne seront vraiment heureux que par leur union, qu'ils prennent exemple de nous : combien dans nos malheurs, notre amitié nous a donné de consolations, et dans le bonheur on jouit doublement quand on peut le partager avec un ami ; et où en trouver de plus tendre, de plus cher que dans sa propre famille".
"Que mon fils n'oublie jamais les derniers mots de son père que je lui répète expressément, qu'il ne cherche jamais à venger notre mort".
"Je pardonne à tous mes ennemis le mal qu'ils m'ont fait. Je dis ici adieu à mes tantes et (mots rayés) et à tous mes frères et sœurs".
"Mon Dieu ayez pitié de moi ! Mes yeux n'ont plus de larmes pour pleurer pour vous mes pauvres enfants. Adieu, Adieu !"
Sources: Wikipedia,
Versailles Passion (Facebook), October 16, 2017
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