0:00:03 > 0:00:07For over a century, the Palace of Versailles was home
0:00:07 > 0:00:10to the most powerful family in Europe.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13A place of artistic brilliance,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16lavish entertainment,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18passion of love affairs
0:00:18 > 0:00:21and outrageous scandals.
0:00:21 > 0:00:26But while a lucky few danced, feasted and flirted their days away,
0:00:26 > 0:00:30the state was on the brink of collapse.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32Outside these gilded gates,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35millions of ordinary people were taxed to the hilt,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38while rich nobles paid virtually nothing.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41A new king, Louis XVI,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44and his beautiful young queen, Marie Antoinette,
0:00:44 > 0:00:48faced the biggest challenge in the history of their illustrious family.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Bring fairness to the system and hope to their subjects
0:00:52 > 0:00:57or face losing their palace, their crowns
0:00:57 > 0:01:00and their heads.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18In 1775, Versailles celebrated the coronation of a new king and queen.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25Louis XVI had lived most of his 20 years here,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29surrounded by courtiers and power brokers.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32But, like his young Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette,
0:01:32 > 0:01:34he didn't feel ready to rule.
0:01:45 > 0:01:47Despite their king's private feelings,
0:01:47 > 0:01:50the public had high hopes.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53He's young, he has a beautiful wife,
0:01:53 > 0:01:55so there's everything to expect
0:01:55 > 0:01:58from this new and hopefully glorious reign of Louis XVI.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Louis XVI wants to rule in a grand manner.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09He wants to be an absolute monarch.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11He wants to live up to the style
0:02:11 > 0:02:14of Louis the Great, Louis XIV.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17But, interestingly, he wants also
0:02:17 > 0:02:19to rule in a way which is popular.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26To be truly popular, Louis knew that he had to govern
0:02:26 > 0:02:28in the interest of all his people,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and not just the ones he had grown up with.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48In keeping with the Enlightenment,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50he's going to be a slightly more modern king.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54He has ambitions to be a just
0:02:54 > 0:02:56and a philanthropic monarch.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00He calls himself Louis le Bienfaisant, Louis the Philanthropic.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05In fact, one of his first decisions was so modern
0:03:05 > 0:03:08that it quite terrified his courtiers.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19He had his whole family inoculated against smallpox,
0:03:19 > 0:03:24using a procedure that was experimental and very dangerous.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25That was something which, you know,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27raised heads at the time.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30People thought, "Oh, what will happen if he dies?"
0:03:32 > 0:03:34And I think, in that way, the king took the lead.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38He showed that he could lead with the times and move with the times.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41And that was a promising start to the reign.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49Louis and Marie Antoinette seemed happy and relaxed in public.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53But, behind the smiles, there was a problem with the royal marriage.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55A big one.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59The marriage was in one way a disaster.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03If you say that the point
0:04:03 > 0:04:05of the marriage was to produce heirs
0:04:05 > 0:04:07who would combine the blood
0:04:07 > 0:04:09of the Austrian royal family
0:04:09 > 0:04:10and the French royal family.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13Well, that wasn't going to happen,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16cos poor Louis XVI simply couldn't,
0:04:16 > 0:04:21wouldn't or didn't try to consummate the marriage.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24A king and queen sex life, or lack of one,
0:04:24 > 0:04:26was an important matter of state,
0:04:26 > 0:04:29so it didn't take long for news of Louis' failings in the bedchamber
0:04:29 > 0:04:32to spread around Versailles.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35It's so embarrassing,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39a situation where all the courtiers hang about the bridal chamber.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41I mean, it's inconceivable to us.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45They were allowed to do that and sort of more or less said,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47"How was it for you, sir?"
0:04:47 > 0:04:51And nothing happened and he didn't consummate it for a long time.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58Precisely what was going on behind the bedroom door mystified the courtiers,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01and divides historians to this day.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05For the first seven years of the marriage,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08there is clearly a sexual problem.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10And certainly, either the couple
0:05:10 > 0:05:11do not have sex
0:05:11 > 0:05:15or they don't have sufficient sex.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18Or they are not sufficiently instructed in sexual matters
0:05:18 > 0:05:22to actually produce pregnancies and children.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31Given the legendary sexual exploits of Louis XIV and XV,
0:05:31 > 0:05:35it's hard to believe that number XVI was such a blushing innocent.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41It does seem extraordinary that he wouldn't have known how to do it.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43But, apparently, he didn't.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45What he would do is put his penis
0:05:45 > 0:05:47inside the queen's vagina,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50leave it there without moving for two minutes and then withdraw.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54The queen would leave his bed, and he would then have a...
0:05:54 > 0:05:56a happy ending on his own.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02But some believe it wasn't ignorance that stopped Louis from doing his royal duty.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04It was illness.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06A rare medical condition called phimosis,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10which meant that lovemaking was more pain than pleasure.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14It's possible that Louis XVI had a malformation
0:06:14 > 0:06:17which needed to be corrected by minor surgery
0:06:17 > 0:06:19before he could have full sexual relations.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21And at various times,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23an operation of circumcision
0:06:23 > 0:06:25was discussed to correct this.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28But, in fact, this was found not really to be the case.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Luckily, we have his hunting diary.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35And I went to top experts on the subject of phimosis,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39which is what he would have had if he'd needed an operation.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43And they assured me when I showed them the hunting diary, which he wrote,
0:06:43 > 0:06:48no-one who'd had an operation for phimosis without anaesthetic
0:06:48 > 0:06:51could possibly have gone hunting day after day after day.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Without going into details, it's unthinkable.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59While Louis struggle to father a child with Marie Antoinette,
0:06:59 > 0:07:03he also had to address the problem that had blighted the final years
0:07:03 > 0:07:08of Louis XV's reign - the poor state of the national finances.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13He hired one of the sharpest minds in Europe, Anne-Robert Turgot,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16to advise him on the economy.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26France was a society which still lived on the margins of subsistence.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Many people still had memories of the terrible famines
0:07:29 > 0:07:32that had killed millions at the end of the reign of Louis XIV.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43Turgot is an enlightened minister,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47who has a particular sense of the importance of landed wealth,
0:07:47 > 0:07:49and the need to tax landed wealth.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Turgot tried to teach the king and his ministers
0:08:08 > 0:08:13some lessons about life outside Versailles, like the price of bread.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15Louis was interested.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18The others, not so much.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Louis XVI really does begin his reign
0:08:27 > 0:08:30with modernising and adventurous policies,
0:08:30 > 0:08:34so this is a modern, forward-looking king who would hope to reform France
0:08:34 > 0:08:37and to help France regain its status in the world
0:08:37 > 0:08:40as well as the leading European power.
0:08:42 > 0:08:47Louis' enthusiasm for reform was not shared by most of his courtiers.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51The palace was full of powerful, landed aristocrats,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54many of them Louis' own relatives.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57If Turgot's reforms went through,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00they would have to pay taxes like everyone else
0:09:00 > 0:09:02for the first time in their lives.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05And they didn't like that idea at all.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09Versailles is becoming an increasingly isolated little world.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13Nobles who are living uselessly,
0:09:13 > 0:09:15spending money, relying on court pensions,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19utterly oblivious to the political issues in France.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24Certain taxes were not paid
0:09:24 > 0:09:26by the nobility,
0:09:26 > 0:09:27notably the taille,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29poll tax,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32simply wasn't paid by anyone.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36Now, Louis XVI thought this was wrong and aimed to end it.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46But Turgot's reforms had to be accepted
0:09:46 > 0:09:48by France's highest law court, le Parlement.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52Its members, like most of Louis' own governing council,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54were outraged by his ideas.
0:10:06 > 0:10:11Opposition to Turgot's reforms came from within the council,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13very conservative men who felt that the sorts of things
0:10:13 > 0:10:16that Turgot was proposing,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19threatened the traditional structure of society,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23in which nobles and clergy held a privileged position
0:10:23 > 0:10:26relative to the rest of society.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44And so, he had, if you will, stirred up a hornets' nest of vested interest.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Queen Marie Antoinette loved to dance and gamble
0:10:54 > 0:10:57in the most fashionable Parisian salons,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00where she heard all the gossip against Turgot.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43One of the most powerful opponents of reform
0:11:43 > 0:11:46was the king's own brother, le Comte de Provence,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49known in court simply as Monsieur.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52He clung to the traditional order of French society.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Three estates under the king - the clergy, the nobility and the rest.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01With only the rest paying taxes.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14The gossip in Paris, combined with the strong vocal opposition inside Versailles,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18began to undermine Louis' faith in Turgot and reform.
0:12:20 > 0:12:23Louis XVI must not have known which way to turn,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27because the economists are divided and, fundamentally,
0:12:27 > 0:12:32the issue is the French state and whether it will survive.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34Very momentous decisions for a young man to take.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44It looked initially as if he was going to stand firm.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48However, his confidence was undermined.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54Louis XVI lacked the willingness to support him to the bitter end.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Despite his promises of support, Louis eventually dismissed
0:13:17 > 0:13:21the man he'd recruited to save the French economy.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29He's famously said to have remarked,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32"Monsieur Turgot wants to be me,
0:13:32 > 0:13:34"I don't want him to be me."
0:13:34 > 0:13:38And for that reason, the minister was disgraced.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08His treatment of Turgot made Louis look weak and indecisive.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Labels that would stick.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17But Louis did have something to celebrate.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19After eight years of marriage,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23he and Marie Antoinette finally managed to start a family.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25First, a daughter,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28and then an heir to the throne.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33The birth of their second child, le Dauphin,
0:14:33 > 0:14:34was enormously important.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36She'd produced a SON.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39She'd fulfilled her duty.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42And that was tremendously important and bolstered her.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46And the king was extremely pleased. Hugh celebrations.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51It was seen as a miracle.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54This little baby really was seen as a saviour.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57He was the boy who was going to save France.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01The bells rang in Paris, the fountains flowed with wine, the Te Deum was sung.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03I mean, nothing was neglected.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57Louis enjoyed being a father and for a while began to enjoy being king.
0:16:14 > 0:16:19But the responsibilities of government weighed upon him every day,
0:16:19 > 0:16:24especially the urgent need to fill the national treasury.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29Louis' next attempt to do so arrived at Versailles in the shape of Jacques Necker,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32one of the wealthiest men in Europe.
0:16:33 > 0:16:38Necker is an enormously rich Genevan banker.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42States like France, which, you know, is having financial problems,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47finds it terrifically advantageous, because it means that he places his personal credit
0:16:47 > 0:16:50to the benefit of the state.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53He seemed initially as a sort of miracle man,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57because by establishing confidence, financial confidence,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59the state can boom.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08Necker arrived at an exciting time in Versailles.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11France's old enemy, England,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14was struggling with an armed rebellion in its American colonies.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17A rebellion that Louis wanted to support.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29France, since the defeat of the Seven Years' War,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32had been desperate to get revenge on England.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Louis XVI would like nothing more than to attack the old enemy.
0:17:39 > 0:17:40But, on the other hand, there's a problem.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43If they do that, are they not supporting insurgence?
0:17:43 > 0:17:46And indeed insurgents, many of whom were republicans,
0:17:46 > 0:17:48and avowed republicans like that.
0:17:48 > 0:17:49And so, it's difficult.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52And so, to begin with, they take a kind of a middle course.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Louis approved the aid, but insisted that everything was done in secret.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13Using a certain amount of covert skulduggery,
0:18:13 > 0:18:17weapons and arms are sent off to help the Americans
0:18:17 > 0:18:21fight off the British attempt to reconquer the rebellious colonies.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27All this assistance to American cost the French government a fortune.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Money it simply did not have.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33Louis turned to his new Finance Minister
0:18:33 > 0:18:37and Necker arranged emergency loans from his banking friends.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40The world's first democratic revolution
0:18:40 > 0:18:45was being financed by one of the least democratic nations in Europe.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47A fact that troubled Louis himself.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33After two years of war,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37Louis' investment in the American revolution seemed to pay off
0:19:37 > 0:19:42when the rebels got their first great victory at the Battle Of Saratoga.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45He decided that the moment had come to support America publicly
0:19:45 > 0:19:48and go to war with Britain.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00He threw a huge party at Versailles to welcome one of the men
0:20:00 > 0:20:05who'd drafted America's Declaration Of Independence - Benjamin Franklin.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Louis and the nobles of Versailles didn't care that Franklin was a democrat
0:20:12 > 0:20:15who did not believe in the rule of kings and princes.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19What appealed to them was the chance to do down a country they hated so much
0:20:19 > 0:20:22that they wore its image on their backsides.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30The courtiers at Versailles loved Franklin
0:20:30 > 0:20:32because he was a pseud, like they were,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34they dressed up as shepherdesses, he dressed up as a fur trapper.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48When Benjamin Franklin arrived in France, he was an absolute celebrity.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51There was a real sort of frenzy, really,
0:20:51 > 0:20:57a Franklin-mania almost, as everybody wants to be seen with the great man.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06The war may have been successful,
0:21:06 > 0:21:10but it was costing more every year that it dragged on.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Finance Minister Necker had already borrowed up to the hilt,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18and was now struggling to get a grip on royal spending.
0:21:32 > 0:21:35War is increasingly expensive and the French political system
0:21:35 > 0:21:41is not set up to impose taxes on the people who are best able to pay them.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45So the fundamental problem of the French state is, "How do you tax the rich?"
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Necker, after several years in government,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13had pretty much exhausted the possibility of borrowing.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16He was aware that it was necessary to raise taxes.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24Necker published plans to get rid of the unnecessary but lucrative jobs
0:22:24 > 0:22:27enjoyed by the courtiers at Versailles.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31But even the suggestion of reining in the privileges of the nobles
0:22:31 > 0:22:34set off a familiar argument.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58Louis promised to back Necker all the way, just as he had with Turgot.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Marie Antoinette encouraged her husband to be strong this time.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35But once again, he began to dither.
0:23:48 > 0:23:52Louis XVI was not a decisive man by nature,
0:23:52 > 0:23:54he was a decent man.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59He was controlled more by his ministers than previous kings had been.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02But he was facing a different situation.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Despite his wife's advice, Louis decided that Necker had to go.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13The second attempt to confront the French nobility had ended
0:24:13 > 0:24:16just like the first one, in complete failure.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34When the British finally gave up fighting in America
0:24:34 > 0:24:37and recognised the new country's independence,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41it looked like Louis had achieved a famous victory.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43But even as Versailles celebrated,
0:24:43 > 0:24:47his courtiers were whispering that France was not getting what it expected
0:24:47 > 0:24:49from a war it had financed on borrowed money.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Louis had hoped for an economic boost for the war,
0:25:04 > 0:25:07but the Americans had other ideas.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15The Americans preferred to continue to trade with England,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18so France actually ended up spending an awful lot of money
0:25:18 > 0:25:22on a war from which she got very little tangible benefit.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29Turgot, the ex-Minister Of Finances says,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32"The first gunshot will drive the state to bankruptcy."
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Well, he's wrong, but he's only wrong by a few years,
0:25:35 > 0:25:40because the impact of that war on French finances is absolutely terrible.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Necker's successor was Charles Alexandre de Calonne,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59who proposed a new idea.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02He told Louis that to boost the French economy
0:26:02 > 0:26:05he should spend even more.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Calonne's financial policies aggravate these very serious problems,
0:26:38 > 0:26:41financial problems of the state to breaking point.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Marie Antoinette had given the French people an heir to the throne,
0:26:46 > 0:26:50but as an Austrian outsider, she had never been very popular.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53Now, as the financial crisis deepened,
0:26:53 > 0:26:56ordinary people came to see her not as their queen,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00but as a symbol of the selfishness of the aristocratic elite.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03It's a truism of history -
0:27:03 > 0:27:06when there's economic stress,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08people look round for who to blame.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13And it was all too easy to blame the Austrian, L'autrichienne.
0:27:13 > 0:27:15And that she had an extravagant court,
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and that country people were starving
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and she was having parties and giving balls.
0:27:21 > 0:27:27So that's really what caused the major downturn in her reputation.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30There is a stream of salacious pamphlets
0:27:30 > 0:27:34which come out about Marie Antoinette in the 1770s and 1780s.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36The sorts of things that they say,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39that she has a very wild sex life.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Frustrated in her relations with the king,
0:27:42 > 0:27:44she has sexual relations with his brothers.
0:27:44 > 0:27:45She's the new Messalina,
0:27:45 > 0:27:48she's the new sort of sexually wild person at the court.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51And this is dragging the monarchy down.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06One of the innuendoes was that Marie Antoinette
0:28:06 > 0:28:12had an affair with Cardinal de Rohan, who was the court almoner.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15And he then passed venereal disease on to every woman in the court.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18That's the sort of thing that went around. It was very gross.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20The grosser the better.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24They make anything that people may put up with today
0:28:24 > 0:28:26look absolutely mild.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27They are so gross.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29They are really lewd,
0:28:29 > 0:28:32with detail and illustrations.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36One of the points the satirists made in their pamphlets was that
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Marie Antoinette had it off with her brother-in-law, the Comte d'Artois.
0:28:40 > 0:28:41You know, you take a story,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44like she's having it off with her brother-in-law and then,
0:28:44 > 0:28:46how do you prove she's not?
0:28:46 > 0:28:49That was the trouble, so everybody liked to believe it.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54I think the king, who was a very nice man, was very upset by it.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58Louis himself was also a victim of the pamphleteers.
0:29:36 > 0:29:37From everything that he read,
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Louis assumed that the whole country now despised him.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44But a visit to Normandy to inspect a new port,
0:29:44 > 0:29:46brought a pleasant surprise.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55This is a triumphant moment for Louis XVI.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57For the rest of his career,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59he virtually never goes out of the area around Paris.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03It's almost the only time he sees the rest of his country.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07And what it shows is he is incredibly popular.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11There's a sort of popularity which he is utterly unsuspecting of,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15and he even ends up cheering and clapping himself in the excitement.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20He was much applauded in Normandy,
0:30:20 > 0:30:22and it is said that,
0:30:22 > 0:30:23as he was getting back
0:30:23 > 0:30:25to Versailles, he said,
0:30:25 > 0:30:27"I know I'm getting near
0:30:27 > 0:30:30"to Versailles cos the cheers are much weaker."
0:30:33 > 0:30:37As soon as he returned to his court, Louis faced another crisis.
0:30:37 > 0:30:43Finance Minister Calonne decided that his spend, spend, spend formula
0:30:43 > 0:30:46had been wrong after all.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Now he called for cuts, and new taxes for the nobility.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53The same advice that his ill-fated predecessors had given.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55And sure enough,
0:30:55 > 0:31:00the nobles organised themselves to resist taxation all over again.
0:31:05 > 0:31:091787 and 1788 will be characterised
0:31:09 > 0:31:13by a state that's desperate for financial reform
0:31:13 > 0:31:17to get out of the situation of bankruptcy which is staring it in the face.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31Louis believed that Calonne's medicine could save France,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34but doubted that the patient would ever be prepared to swallow it.
0:31:49 > 0:31:52And it's going to be absolutely vital that Louis XVI
0:31:52 > 0:31:55for once in his life follows through
0:31:55 > 0:31:59and supports his minister in order to make sure
0:31:59 > 0:32:03that these plans are accepted, because there is no Plan B.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36The Assembly of Notables included
0:32:36 > 0:32:39all the most powerful figures in Louis' realm.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42They had the authority to see that Calonne's reforms
0:32:42 > 0:32:44became the law of the land.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00Calonne's reforms will be introduced to them,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02they will give it their endorsements,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05thus showing a degree of almost national support,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and the king will go on happily.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Of course, it doesn't happen like that.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13The Assembly of Notables turns into an absolute bear garden,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15an absolute dogfight.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20What Calonne was doing was asking an assembly of privileged people
0:33:20 > 0:33:22to vote away their own privileges.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25In other words, asking turkeys to vote early for Christmas.
0:33:25 > 0:33:27And so, inevitably, they rejected it.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34The king realises that Calonne has failed to persuade
0:33:34 > 0:33:37the political elite to go down his route.
0:33:37 > 0:33:41He gets sacked. The ideas which he proposes are withdrawn.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45So it's a pretty unmitigated disaster.
0:33:47 > 0:33:51Calonne was the third Finance Minister to fall from grace
0:33:51 > 0:33:54after trying to make the rich pay more tax.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58And the third that Louis had supported only to sack.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Trapped between economic disaster
0:34:03 > 0:34:06and the implacable opponents of change all around him,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08the king couldn't cope any more.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11He suffered a mental breakdown.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14Stumbling around his palace,
0:34:14 > 0:34:16rambling about the visions that tormented him.
0:34:43 > 0:34:45Just as his grandfather, Louis XV,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48was subject to melancholia and depression,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51Louis XVI seems to enter into a period
0:34:51 > 0:34:54of really quite deep depression.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00The failure of the Assembly of Notables
0:35:00 > 0:35:05seems to have affected Louis XVI very badly.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07He's unable to manage the courts
0:35:07 > 0:35:11and to manage the political situation in a way that he has to do as a king,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15because he is at the pinnacle of a system which is itself in crisis.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23In some respect, from this moment he'd lost the control.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26This was a key moment where
0:35:26 > 0:35:29his ability to actually be a king
0:35:29 > 0:35:33and dominate the political agenda was put under question.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02After the Notables, Louis XVI exhibits the qualities
0:36:02 > 0:36:04that have gone down the Louis of history.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08You know, tearful, uxorious, reliant on Marie Antoinette,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10kindly, indecisive, all that.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13And there are lapses of reason,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16which are very unfortunate for the people who have to be with him.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Louis' mental state was hardly improved
0:36:38 > 0:36:41when somebody sneaked into his private chamber
0:36:41 > 0:36:44and left him an unwelcomed gift.
0:36:44 > 0:36:49A portrait of the execution of England's king Charles I.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02Louis XVI was dominated by the life of Charles I,
0:37:02 > 0:37:05who was his direct ancestor.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09He knew, bit by bit, line by line, what happened to Charles.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11And so, people were able to scare him
0:37:11 > 0:37:15by moving a portrait of the king into his private apartments.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18But Louis, who had a very sort of mechanical kind of mind, he said,
0:37:18 > 0:37:22"If I avoid the mistakes that Charles made, I won't be executed."
0:37:22 > 0:37:26He said, "Charles was executed because he levied war on his own subjects.
0:37:26 > 0:37:28"I'm not going to do that."
0:37:32 > 0:37:36Louis recovered his composure and tried one last time
0:37:36 > 0:37:39to change the way his kingdom was taxed and governed.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45He called an unprecedented meeting of all three estates -
0:37:45 > 0:37:49the nobility, the clergy and the Third Estate,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52who represented the mass of the common people.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05In August 1788, the treasury was bare.
0:38:05 > 0:38:11The government was forced to summon an Estates-General.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14It really was a last throw of the dice.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16Despite their huge numerical superiority,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20the votes of the Third Estate only counted the same
0:38:20 > 0:38:23as those of the nobility and the clergy.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25You will always have a situation
0:38:25 > 0:38:28where the two votes of the so-called privileged orders,
0:38:28 > 0:38:31that is the nobility and the clergy,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34representing maybe less than half a million people,
0:38:34 > 0:38:39will always outweigh the wishes of the 27.5 million people
0:38:39 > 0:38:40of the Third Estate.
0:38:40 > 0:38:43So, straight away, you've got a political deadlock
0:38:43 > 0:38:45as soon as the Estates-General meet.
0:38:45 > 0:38:47And getting out of that deadlock
0:38:47 > 0:38:50will be what happens over the summer of 1789
0:38:50 > 0:38:53that triggers the Revolution.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00A difficult time grew even worse for Louis and Marie Antoinette
0:39:00 > 0:39:02with the death of their eldest son.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15The death of the Dauphin, the young heir to the throne,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18is quite a big psychological shock, actually.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25The king is met by a tremendous amount of support from the nobility.
0:39:25 > 0:39:31Psychologically, it draws the king and his nobility closer together, in a way.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37It was a crucial moment.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Louis sudden shift in sympathy back to the nobles
0:39:41 > 0:39:44meant that their enemies, the representatives of the Third Estate,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47decided he was never going to help them.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54The king is increasingly finding it difficult to distance himself
0:39:54 > 0:39:56from his nobles and their interest.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58That's the world he moves in.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02This is Versailles, it's all about being surrounded by nobles.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05He's hardly ever met his own subjects outside of,
0:40:05 > 0:40:06out of that context.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12So he's swaying towards supporting the nobles,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15and Marie Antoinette certainly is swaying towards them.
0:40:40 > 0:40:46With negotiations at the Estates-General still hopelessly bogged down,
0:40:46 > 0:40:50the Third Estate sent a group to Versailles to ask for Louis' help.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03He refused to meet them.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12It was the final straw.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17The Third State takes matters into its own hands
0:41:17 > 0:41:21and declares itself the National Assembly.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23And this is absolutely critical, because it's the first time
0:41:23 > 0:41:26in modern European history
0:41:26 > 0:41:30that a representative body has claimed power in the state
0:41:30 > 0:41:36based on the democratic principle that it represents 80% of the French people.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39It was a genuinely radical revolutionary moment,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42because they were saying they were not going to disperse
0:41:42 > 0:41:45until France had been given a constitution.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23Faced with the crumbling of the structure of the old Estates-General,
0:42:23 > 0:42:28Louis XVI decided finally that he would resort to force.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30As a result, he began to call in troops
0:42:30 > 0:42:34and to assemble troops around Paris.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42The whole business was botched.
0:42:42 > 0:42:43The Parisians panicked
0:42:43 > 0:42:46by rapidly rising food prices,
0:42:46 > 0:42:48decided to defend themselves.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51As a result, they attacked the Bastille to get the powder.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Louis was woken in the middle of the night with the news
0:43:03 > 0:43:07that his people had finally taken up arms against the authorities.
0:43:09 > 0:43:11Louis XVI had a choice.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20He could have tried to face down the people of Paris
0:43:20 > 0:43:22and the National Assembly by force of arms.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24In other words, he could have risked civil war.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28If there is one thing that is clear about Louis XVI is that
0:43:28 > 0:43:30he refused to take that path.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33He would not fight or raise his standard against his own people.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37He knew his English history, he knew what had happened to Charles I.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39He had no intention of repeating it.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46Louis may not have wanted to go to war with his own people,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49but many of them now wanted to go to war with him.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51Three months after the fall of the Bastille,
0:43:51 > 0:43:55a group of angry Parisians marched on Versailles itself.
0:44:09 > 0:44:14The rioters vowed to kill the one person they blamed for all their troubles,
0:44:14 > 0:44:17the symbol of the hated rich - Marie Antoinette.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22There's no doubt that some elements of this crowd
0:44:22 > 0:44:24had very bloodthirsty thoughts in their mind.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27Marie Antoinette has become a figure of absolute hatred
0:44:27 > 0:44:30for the population of Paris at this point.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37Marie Antoinette was the main target,
0:44:37 > 0:44:40because she's been the main target for many years now.
0:44:42 > 0:44:49She was considered that... the person who really was giving poor advice to Louis XVI
0:44:49 > 0:44:53would be at the origin of the fiscal crisis because of her lavish expenses.
0:44:54 > 0:44:57One reason the crowd hated Marie Antoinette
0:44:57 > 0:45:00was because of a phrase she was said to have uttered
0:45:00 > 0:45:02when told that the poor had no bread.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" - "Let them eat cake".
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Marie Antoinette never said "Let them eat cake,"
0:45:11 > 0:45:14and she never could have said it.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18She was brought up in the philanthropic court of Austria,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22where her mother Maria Theresa would tell them to go round
0:45:22 > 0:45:26giving soup and bread to old women in farmers' cottages.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29And it was inconceivable.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32She would have given the brioche to...
0:45:32 > 0:45:35She was much more like Princess Diana, you know.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38She would perform a gesture like that.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40So, she could never have said it.
0:45:42 > 0:45:44Whoever said what or when,
0:45:44 > 0:45:47the revolutionaries were after the queen's blood,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50and were soon breaking down the palace gates.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55They broke in in the early morning,
0:45:55 > 0:46:00and they tried to climb in the room of Marie Antoinette.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04One of her bodyguards is killed actually defending the entrance
0:46:04 > 0:46:07to her chamber in the palace, massacred there and then.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12Marie Antoinette only escapes by a rapid exit into the king's chamber.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21It is a very, very dangerous moment for the royal family.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23There was no doubt they must have been terrified.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28And the king and the queen and their children
0:46:28 > 0:46:31go out onto the balcony to show themselves.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35In a sense, to show that they are prisoners, and are not fleeing.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00It must have been an absolutely terrifying moment
0:47:00 > 0:47:02for the king, the queen and their children,
0:47:02 > 0:47:05because the crowd is fearsome.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08They are not used to coming into contact with people like this.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18The entire royal family surrendered itself to the revolutionary crowd,
0:47:18 > 0:47:22and agreed to be taken as prisoners to Paris.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25None of them would ever see Versailles again.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47They were taken back as the baker, the baker's wife and the baker's son,
0:47:47 > 0:47:52in reference to the grain and the bread prices that had triggered this.
0:47:52 > 0:47:55But it's fair to say that, after the 6th of October,
0:47:55 > 0:47:59the king and the royal family were prisoners of the Revolution.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13Louis had tried and failed to change his kingdom.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15Now, he would pay the price.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22Both he and Marie Antoinette would die under the blade of the guillotine.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30For over a hundred years, Versailles stood for the power and prestige
0:48:30 > 0:48:32of the Bourbon dynasty.
0:48:33 > 0:48:39But it also stood for a society that was fundamentally unfair and corrupt.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44Romantic, but royally debauched.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47Glittering, but grotesquely unequal.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Magnificent, but profoundly immoral.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56A society whose time was up.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd