Why Is King Louis Xvi Important

King Louis XVI reigned from 1774 to 1793 as a brilliant absolute monarch. Some people may not have liked him, but God chose him as the ruler which is something of great importance. He ruled alongside his beautiful wife, Marie Antoinette. During the Old Regime, which traced its roots to the period of feudalism, the people of France were divided into three social classes called estates. The first estate had the Church, the second estate had nobles and wealthy people, and the third estate was made up of the rest of the population. The third estate was split into three subcategories; the bourgeoisie which was wealthy and better educated, the working class who were poor and often went hungry, and the peasants who were extremely poor and paid at
Because of this, Louis XVI ended up having to call a meeting with the Estates General on May 5, 1789 in Versailles, which hadn’t been called together for 175 years. During these meetings, what mostly ended up happening was that the two higher and more privileged estates would outvote the third estate. The third estate insisted that all the delegates meet together to vote, which would give them an advantage because they had the same amount of people. The king had sided with estates one and two and said that they should continue to follow the medieval rules. The third estate became more driven on having power, and so one leader, Abbe Sieyès, argued that they deserved just as much power. He recommended to the third estate delegates that they rename themselves the ‘National Assembly’ and pass laws and reforms in the name of the French People. June 17, 1789 they voted to end absolute monarchy, which was the first act of the revolution. A few days later the third estate found that they were locked out of their meeting room, so they broke down the door to an indoor tennis court and pledged they would keep meeting until they had made a new constitution. They called this the