Politics on Trial: Louis XVI vs the People

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

History, News, Society & Culture, Politics, Philosophy

4.7 • 747 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ ? minutes

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Summary

Today’s epoch-making political trial concerns the interrogation, conviction and execution of Louis XVI at the heart of the French Revolution in 1792-3. For many at the time and since this event had powerful echoes of the trial and execution of Charles I - but in fact the trial of Louis was very different in almost every way. Why and how did Louis choose to defend himself? Was he condemned because he was a king or because he was no longer a king? Was the decision to send him to the guillotine really only decided by one vote out of more than seven hundred? And who won in the court of history? Out now on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Alexander Douglas about the pitfalls of the search for identity, from Silicon Valley to ‘impostor syndrome’. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up now to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus For all the information about our autumn season of screenings and live recordings, 'Films of Ideas', and to book tickets, go to our website: https://www.ppfideas.com/events Next time in Politics on Trial: Aaron Burr vs the Constitution w/Gary Gerstle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When something is so unusual we can't quite wrap our heads around it, we say it's not normal.
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0:33.9	The road stretches before you, but there's trouble ahead, stationary cars.
0:35.9	You're faced with the McDonald's side mission.
0:39.0	Do you, A, join the ever-growing Q, or B, take the next exit and treat yourself to a glorious Mackey's?
0:45.3	Detouring to McDonald's. Start your side mission today. Hello, my name's David Rundsenman, and this is past-present future, the History of Ideas podcast.
1:06.4	Today, in politics on trial, I'm going to be talking about the other epoch-making trial of a king
1:13.1	in the middle of a revolution, the one that usually is placed alongside the trial and execution
1:19.9	of Charles I. This is the trial and execution of Louis XVIth in the middle of the French
1:27.4	revolution. It looks like it's a very
1:30.1	similar story. Two kings, a revolution, they lose their heads. It's so different.
1:40.8	It's easy to see why the trial of Louis XVI and the trial of Charles I first get run together, as they often do.
1:48.4	They are the two great regicide trials.
1:51.6	They end the same way, guillotine beheading, but it's death to the king and death to the monarchy.
1:59.0	That was the aim in both cases, that in killing the king, the
2:03.1	republic would be consecrated in blood, and monarchy itself, with all of its trappings, would be
2:10.8	murdered too. Cromwell said, in killing the king, we kill the crown. In both cases,
2:17.1	the execution followed very quickly after the end of
	...

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