King Louis XVI was arrested on August 13, 1792 and sent to the Temple, an old French palace used as a prison. He was charged with treason against the revolution.

In September the National Convention got rid of monarchy, declaring France a republic. This meant that Louis lost his title as king. He was known thereafter as Louis Capet.

In November, Louis' guilt was officially confirmed when evidence of his anti-revolution Plots with Austria were discovered. He was officially charged with treason and conspiring with another country.

THE TRIAL BEGINS

On December 11th, the deposed king was brought before the National Convention for his indictment.

Indictment means formal charging

The basis of the charges was High Treason and Crime against the State. This means...

• Destroying freedom to get a tyranny,
• Betrayal of the people,
• Sabotaging the public,
• Failure of leadership

Louis was charged with 33 things including...

Shutting down the Estates General

Sending an army to Paris against the citizens (which only stopped after the Storming of Bastille)

Spending millions on his plan to escape

Louis' defense was given along with his response to the charges on December 26, 1792.

LOUIS' DEFENSE

His lawyers' names were Raymond de Sèze, François Tronchet, and Guillaume Malesherbes.

Louis was very much involved in the planning with his defense team.

He would have the final say on all arguments before they were allowed into court.

He also wouldn’t allow his counsel to try to evoke emotion from the jury. He wanted the precedent of his defense to be that he was the lawful ruler, making the trial illegal.

THE VERDICT

The verdict was given on January 14th and 15th, 1793.

693 of the 721 deputies from the National Convention, serving as the jury, voted guilty.

The rest of the voters abstained; no one voted in Louis' favor.

The next day, National Convention decided how Louis would spend the rest of his life.

Many deputies wanted prison time, but the slight majority voted for execution.

Even Robespierre, who pushed for the outlaw of death penalty, voted for an execution of King Louis XVI. He and the rest of the Jacobins pushed for death, while the Girondins wanted to spare Louis’ life.