28. The Momentous Last-Minute Ride Change
The years after the French Revolution were tough for French King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette. The absolute monarchy had been drastically weakened, and in October of 1789, the unwashed masses had burst into the Palace of Versailles, and forcibly transferred the royal family to Paris. Ever since, the king and queen lived as virtual captives of their subjects. Feeling increasingly humiliated as they were forced to adjust to the role of constitutional monarchs, they finally decided to slip out of Paris. The plan was to flee to the citadel of Montmedy, roughly 200 miles away, where 10,000 men under a royalist general awaited. Having regained his freedom of action, the king would then launch a royalist counterrevolution, and restore France to pre-revolution days. On the night of June 20th, 1791, Louis and Marie Antoinette gathered their family, and prepared to slip out of the Tuileries Palace.
Behind, Louis left a document addressed to the National Assembly, letting them know his intent to roll the clock back to the royal concessions granted in 1789, before the Revolution began. In private correspondence, Marie Antoinette took a more reactionary line, with an intent to go back to the old order, without any concessions at all. To carry the royal family and their close intimates, a Swedish Count Fersen had arranged for two fast light carriages, that could have made it to Montmedy relatively quickly. However, that would have entailed splitting the family, which the king and queen refused to countenance. Instead, Louis and Marie Antoinette decided on a different ride at the last minute: a bigger and more conspicuous carriage drawn by six horses, that could accommodate everybody. It was a bad choice.
