On this day, Aug. 13, in 1792, the French king who supported the American Revolution 16 years earlier was arrested by a mob of French peasants for treason.
The arrest of Louis XVI came in the midst of the French Revolution in which peasants overthrew the monarchy and created a republic eventually led by Napoleon.
The king was executed by guillotine in January 1793. The guillotine later became a symbol of a string of executions during the Reign of Terror, which started nine months after the king lost his head to the sharp falling blade.
That same type of blade beheaded the king’s wife, Marie Atoinette, in September 1793. Antoinette has become famous for allegedly saying “let them eat cake” to French peasants who could not afford bread. Although historians say Antoinette did not utter the phrase, the legend is symbolic of how the French elite misunderstood the plight of the poor.
— Freeman Klopott
