Why was Louis VI treated as a traitor?
Answers
Answer: The charges to justify the execution of Louis XVI was treason. The claim was that he had conspired to overthrow the revolution with foreign countries against France. This was a stretch as all of his relatives who could help him were royalty in other countries.
The trial of Louis XVI—officially called "Citizen Louis Capet" since being dethroned—before the National Convention in December 1792 was a key event of the French Revolution. He was convicted of high treason and other crimes, resulting in his execution.
Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In 1789, in a last-ditch attempt to resolve his country’s financial crisis, Louis assembled the States-General, a national assembly that represented the three “estates” of the French people—the nobles, the clergy and the commons. The States-General had not been assembled since 1614, and the third estate—the commons—used the opportunity to declare itself the National Assembly, igniting the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, violence erupted when Parisians stormed the Bastille—a state prison where they believed ammunition was stored.