Convicted of treason by the National Convention, Louis XVI was driven through Paris in a closed carriage and mounted the scaffold in the Place de la Révolution. Drummers drowned out his final words to the crowd. His execution shocked European monarchies and hardened their resolve to crush the Revolution by force, plunging France into years of war.
Louis XVI tried to address the crowd from the scaffold, reportedly beginning 'I die innocent of all the crimes...' before drummers, on orders from below, drowned him out. Executioner Charles-Henri Sanson performed the beheading; witnesses said the crowd initially stood in stunned silence before some surged forward to dip handkerchiefs in the royal blood.
The king's death, following a trial in which the Convention voted 361 to 360 for execution rather than exile, transformed the Revolution from a constitutional experiment into a radical republic under siege. Britain, Spain, and the Dutch Republic soon joined the war against France, and the Terror that followed would consume tens of thousands more lives, including that of Sanson's own colleagues among the condemned.
Key people: Louis XVI, Charles-Henri Sanson