LOUIS 17 LOUIS and captured Courtray, Menin, and Ypres. On the other hand, the troops of the Duke of Saxony and of the Queen of Hungary ravaged Provence, and the English com- pletely ruined the French commerce at sea, and negotiations were opened which ended in the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. In 1755 a new war broke out between France and England, in which the latter power had Prussia for an ally, while Austria leagued with France. At first the French were successful, taking Port Mahon, defeating the Duke of Cum- berland at Hastenbeck, and forcing the English general and his army to capitu- late at Closter-Seven. The electorate of Hanover was conquered; but in 1757 the French and Austrians were defeated by Frederick the Great at Rossbach; this was followed by other losses, both by land and sea, particularly by the con- quest of Canada by the English, and Louis, humiliated, despised by his sub- jects, and given up to the grossest im- moralities with his mistresses, died in Versailles, France, May 10, 1774. Louis XVL, King of France; born in Versailles, France, Aug. 23, 1754. He was son of Louis the dauphin and Maria Josephine, daughter of Frederic Augus- tus, King of Poland, and immediately created Duke of Berri. On the death of his father, in 1765, he became the heir to the throne; and in 1770 he married Marie Antoinette, an Austrian princess of great beauty and accomplishments. In 1774 he succeeded to the crown. France, at this time, was in a desperate finan- cial and economic condition. Louis chose Turgot and Malesherbes for his first min- isters. In 1774 the Parliament was re- called, and affairs began to assume a favorable aspect. On Feb. 6, 1778, he concluded the treaty of alliance with the United States, which in a few months resulted in the declaration of hostilities between France and Great Britain. The war cost France 1,400,000,000 livres; and besides the irreparable deficit it pro- duced in the already disordered finances, it tended greatly to weaken the monarchy by diffusing republican and revolution- ary ideas. Necker became, by his at- tempts at reform, so obnoxious to the court and the aristocracy that he was obliged to resign in 1781. Louis, at the suggestion of Necker, again in office, con- vened the states-general in May, 1789. The public mind was agitated. Mirabeau was the leader of the popular party. At his voice the people of Paris arose, and on July 14 of that year stormed the Bastille. Revolution had begun; and in October the armed mob, with a prodi- gious number of women, marched to Ver- sailles, forced the palace, murdered the guards, and searched in vain for the queen, who would have shared the same fate had she not escaped. The result of this insurrection was the leading of the king and his family in triumph to Paris, amid the insults of a lawless rabble. In February, 1790, Louis was forced to ac- cept the new constitution; but, notwith- standing all his concessions, finding him- self a mere prisoner at Paris, and ex- posed daily to new injuries, he resolved LOUIS XVI. to escape. Accordingly, on the night of June 21, 1791, he and his family quitted the Tuileries; but at Varennes he was recognized and conducted back to Paris, where he became a prisoner in his own palace. The Legislative Assembly gave way to the National Convention, which brought Louis to trial. His defense was conducted by Malesherbes, Tronchet, and De Seze, and his own deportment was, as it had uniformly been during his confine- ment, firm and modest, dignified and re- signed. On Jan. 17, 1793, he was ad- judged to death for conspiring against the public good. On Jan. 21 he was led to the scaffold, where he showed the calm fortitude which had distinguished him through all the scenes of suffering and indignity to which he had been exposed. His body was thrown into a pit filled with lime, and no vestige left of the place of his interment.
