Declaration Of The Kind Speech Analysis

The “Declaration of the Kind Addressed to All the French About His Flight from Paris” on June 21, 1971, has a pretty straightforward title because this document is just that. The previous day the king and his family had tried to escape France, only to be discovered a day’s journey away from the border. In this speech, possibly given by an announcer on the square due to its lack of first person pronouns, the king gives his point of view about what he thinks about France, where it is heading, and what has happened. He tries to explain why he left. The king wanted to “see the kingdom’s order and happiness restored by…the National Assembly” with him nearby and still wielding power (152). But when the National Assembly took away his “rights” when
they denied him absolute veto power, he blamed them for all the destruction that happened in France (152). However, I do believe it was him who blocked them from their meeting place with armed guards, causing them to make the Tennis Court Oath. That is one event that set the ball rolling, which eventually caused the Fall of the Bastille. He says the Assembly put a clause in the kingdom’s constitution that says “the making of the laws should be in concert with the king” but the Assembly is not including him in any discussion (153). The document goes on to say “the king does not think it is possible to govern a kingdom of such great extent and importance as France by the means established by the National Assembly,” (153). The king has ruled very badly over the last few years that’s why there’s a revolution going on, among other causes. In the video we watched in class the other day the king described himself as inexperienced and not ready to rule after the death of his grandfather, who left him a broken and poor country. Now after a couple of years, which is not much time historically, he thinks he can demand all this power when he did not really have any to begin with. Ultimately the king left France because the Assembly was destroying France and wouldn’t listen to him. Since the Assembly wouldn’t listen to him, he turned to the people. He tried to gain their support by saying how terrible the Assembly is, since he already complained about losing his rights. Since he complained about losing his rights, it seems he was trying to appear more relatable to the people. He said that “love for its kings was the virtues of the French,” (154). He is trying to inspire them to like him through guilt. You are not really French if you do not love your king. He continues to scorn the Assembly by saying “the more wise men are discredited, the more dispositions increase daily which could render the conduct of government difficult if not impossible, and inspire distrust and disfavor,” (154). This shows that his goal still is to unify France and make it peaceful again, but he’s still trying to get more people on his side. This is especially true when the king asks “Do you [the French] desire that the anarchy and despotism of the clubs replace the monarchical government under which the nation has prospered for fourteen hundred years?” (154). These are not alternative facts, in class we did talk about how monarchy and feudalism was the norm in France for hundreds of years. However, due to the enlightenment, things cannot be the same anymore since people think differently. The enlightenment was a social revolution that caused a political revolution, and the king is trying to stop it. The king’s goal was to turn the people against the National Assembly and support him instead, but it ended up backfiring because the people began to dislike both.