Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793

Louis Auguste de France was the third son born to Louis Ferdinand, the Dauphin de France and his wife Duchess Maria Josepha of Saxony. He was never meant to be King of France, but with the death of his two elder brothers and his father, he found himself in the position of Dauphin at the age of eleven. He was well educated and excelled in mathematics, and preferred the sciences, especially cartography, new technologies, and mechanics. He had workshops of his own for making clockworks, locks, electrical and chemical experiments, and his own personal working forge. He married Archduchess Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna de Habsburg-Lorraine on May 16, 1770. In 1774, Louis’s grandfather, Louis XV, died and the young nineteen-year-old king ascended the throne. Though highly intelligent, Louis XVI was considered a weak and indecisive king and this was exacerbated by the debts left behind from the Seven Years’ War and mounting spending by royal elites. By 1789, a Revolution was fully in progress and in 1792, Louis Auguste, now called Louis Capet by his captors, was tried for treason. He was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793.