page_title: Louis XVI
section_title: Absolute monarch of France, 1774–1789
hierarchical_section_title: Louis XVI / Absolute monarch of France, 1774–1789
caption_attribution_description: English: "Le Couronnement de Louis XVI" (1775) Silver medallion by Pierre Simon Benjamin Duvivier (1730-1819). Signed: "B . DUVIV ." 40mm, 27.3gm (0.962 oz) (Medallion created for the coronation of King Louis XVI of France on June 11, 1775.) Obverse: "Le parlement rendu par le roy aux voeux de la nation." ("The Parliament returned by the King at the wish of the nation.") Reverse: "Prisonniers delivrés par les commerçants de Toulouse." ("Prisoners delivered by the tradesmen of Toulouse.") Source: "The Cooper Collections" (uploader's private collection) See metadata below. DUVIVIER, Pierre Simon Benjamin, graveur-medailleur. Né a Paris en 1730, mort en 1819. Fils de Jean Duvivier, il apprit dans l'atelier de son pére la gravure des medailles. Il recut en 1756 un premier prix de l'Academie de Paris, et fut autorise en 1761 a succéder a son pére au Louvre. En 1774, II fut nomme Graveur General des Monnaies de France. Il créa les monnaies de Louis XVI, de son avénement a Révolution. DUVIVIER, Pierre Simon Benjamin, Medallion engraver. Born in Paris in 1730, died in 1819. Son of Jean Duvivier, he learned the engraving of medallions in the workshop of his father. He received in 1756 the first prize of the l'Academie de Paris, and was allowed in 1761 to succeed his father at the Louvre. In 1774 he was named Engraver General of Currencies of France. He created the currencies of Louis XVI from his advent to the Revolution.
context_page_description: Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as Citizen Louis Capet during the four months just before he was executed by guillotine. In 1765, upon the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, he became the new Dauphin. Upon his grandfather Louis XV's death on 10 May 1774, he assumed the title King of France and Navarre, until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of King of the French until the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792.
  The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform the French government in accordance with Enlightenment ideas. These included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille and the corvée, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics as well as abolish the death penalty for deserters. The French nobility reacted to the proposed reforms with hostility, and successfully opposed their implementation. Louis implemented deregulation of the grain market, advocated by his economic liberal minister Turgot, but it resulted in an increase in bread prices.
context_section_description: When Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, he was nineteen years old. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment of despotic monarchy was on the rise. He himself felt woefully unqualified to resolve the situation.
  As king, Louis XVI focused primarily on religious freedom and foreign policy. While none doubted his intellectual ability to rule France, it was quite clear that, although raised as the Dauphin since 1765, he lacked firmness and decisiveness. His desire to be loved by his people is evident in the prefaces of many of his edicts that would often explain the nature and good intention of his actions as benefiting the people, such as reinstating the parlements. When questioned about his decision, he said, "It may be considered politically unwise, but it seems to me to be the general wish and I want to be loved." In spite of his indecisiveness, Louis XVI was determined to be a good king, stating that he "must always consult public opinion; it is never wrong." He, therefore, appointed an experienced advisor, Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, Comte de Maurepas who, until his death in 1781, would take charge of many important ministerial functions.
  Among the major events of Louis XVI's reign was his signing of the Edict of Versailles, also known as the Edict of Tolerance, on 7 November 1787, which was registered in the parlement on 29 January 1788. Granting non-Roman Catholics – Huguenots and Lutherans, as well as Jews – civil and legal status in France and the legal right to practice their faiths, this edict effectively nullified the Edict of Fontainebleau that had been law for 102 years. The Edict of Versailles did not legally proclaim freedom of religion in France – this took two more years, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 – however, it was an important step in eliminating religious tensions and it officially ended religious persecution within his realm.
  Radical financial reforms by Turgot and Malesherbes angered the nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So, in 1776, Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned, to be replaced by Jacques Necker. Necker supported the American Revolution, and he carried out a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. He attempted to gain public favor in 1781 by publishing of the first ever accounting of the French Crown's expenses and accounts, the Compte-rendu au Roi. This misleading publication led the people of France to believe the kingdom ran a modest surplus. When this policy of hiding and ignoring the kingdom's financial woes failed miserably, Louis dismissed and replaced him in 1783 with Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who increased public spending to "buy" the country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were informed of the true extent of the debt, they were shocked and rejected the plan. 
  After this, Louis XVI and his new Controller-General des finances, Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne, tried to simply force the Parlement de Paris to register the new laws and fiscal reforms. Upon the refusal of the members of the Parlement, Louis XVI tried to use his absolute power to subjugate them by every means: enforcing in many occasions the registration of his reforms (6 August 1787, 19 November 1787, and 8 May 1788), exiling all Parlement magistrates to Troyes as a punishment on 15 August 1787, prohibiting six members from attending parliamentary sessions on 19 November, arresting two very important members of the Parlement, who opposed his reforms, on 6 May 1788, and even dissolving and depriving of all power the "Parlement," replacing it with a plenary court, on 8 May 1788. The failure of these measures and displays of royal power is attributable to three decisive factors. First, the majority of the population stood in favor of the Parlement against the King, and thus c
caption: "Le Couronnement de Louis XVI", by Benjamin Duvivier, honoring the 11 June 1775 coronation of Louis XVI
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