Context: This document was written during the French Revolution. The royal family tried to escape capture by traveling away from Paris with disguises and false passports, but was captured in Varennes. After being captured the King was disgraced and the monarchy as a whole was humiliated. After the attempted escape, things were tense, support for the royal family decreased, and finally the monarchy was abolished in September of 1792. Then, King Louis XVI was tried for treason and indicted on December 11, 1792.
Author: This is a court document, so the author is essentially the members of the National Assembly, the legislative and constitutional assembly in France that sat from September 20, 1792 to October 26, 1795. Clearly, there was some bias because the National Assembly despised all things pertaining to monarchy and therefore severely disliked Louis XVI, as well as his position of "King."
Summary: The French people (National Assembly) accuses Louis XVI of having committed many crimes in order to establish tyranny. Some of his actions include: suspending the assemblies and driving them away through violence, ordering the representatives to separate with military force, forcing an army to march against the citizens of Paris, escaping from Paris with a false passport, claiming to accept the constitution then working to overthrow it, bribery, allowing the French nation to be disgraced, and causing the blood of Frenchmen to flow.
Quotation: "Louis, the French people accuses you of having committed a multitude of crimes in order to establish your tyranny by destroying its liberty."
Good job Caroline! The quote you chose was good but I also found number 33 "you caused the blood of Frechmen to flow" interesting. It takes on both a literal and figurative meaning. It represents the literal blood from the deaths and figurative blood from the effects of the crimes he committed. The summary was short but effective and the context offered nice background information. God job!
ReplyDelete