Secrets d'histoire

Escape to Varennes: Louis XVI's escapade (17x3)

: 15, 2023

This episode looks back at the Escape from Varennes, a key episode in the French Revolution, during which French King Louis XVI, Queen Marie-Antoinette and their family attempted to reach the Royalist stronghold of Montmédy. Stopped en route at Varennes-en-Argonne, the royals were eventually led back to Paris by revolutionaries. The program recounts the panic and surprise caused by the king's departure from the Tuileries Palace in the middle of the night. It recounts the ups and downs of the royal family's journey, as well as the mistakes that led to his arrest. Finally, it describes how this episode led to a rift between the king and the French people, who felt both betrayed and abandoned by their sovereign, and to the execution of the king and queen in 1793.