Escape from Tuileries

I've been on AH.com for a few months now and after reading a some excellent timelines have desided to make my own. I know next to nothing about this subject and one of the reasons i have set my timeline at this point in time is so i will be forced to learn about it. This is my first timeline so please post any comments or suggestions you have.

and now without further ado...

Escape from Tuileries



Escape to Exile by Thomas Phillman

At thirty minutes past ten on 21st of June, 1791 the French royal family made there escape from Tuileries. The plan, concocted by the Count Axel von Fersen and the Baron de Breteuil, was to disguse the childrens governess, the Marquise de Tourzel, as a Russain baroness with both the Queen of France Marie Antoinette and the King’s sister Madame Élisabeth acting as maids and the kings children to play her daughters.

The King, Louis XVI of France, who was intended to play a butler to the Baroness, had a few days before caught a cold and on the day of the escape was bed-ridden. However when his wife attempted to delay the escape Louis insisted that they should go without him for fear that they would miss a chance to escape. He also said that he would follow them at a latter date after he had recovered.

While incredible dangerous for all involved, the Royal family arrived at royalist fortress of Montmédy at two o’clock and where welcomed by Breteuil and Fersen as well as the large amount of royalist supporters.
 
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So the point of departure is that they don't decide to delay the escape attempt? A free Louis XVI is certainly going to make some differences, will be interested to see where you take it.
 
Ah no, Louis was not free. The POD is that he was to ill to go with them. Maybe i didn't make that clear enough.
Also the 20th is a typo it is supposed to say 21st sorry

Edit: Hopefully i made it clearer
 
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National Constituent Assembly: From 1790-1791 by Jack Harding

The few days after the escape of Marie Antoinette and the rest of the kings family were some of the most intense the National Constituent Assembly would ever have. The Jacobins proposed that the king had known full well what the Queen planed to do and that Louis should be tried for being a counter revolutionist. The Feuillants however thought that the Queen had acted independently and that the King had no knowledge of the escape attempted.

Debates raged for almost five days with two votes that led to nothing. The Leader of the National Guard, Lafayette, who was supposed to be keeping a close eye on the royal family, was dragged in front of the Assembly and denounced as a “traitor” by the likes of Robespierre and Danton. All suspicion faded away however when on the 25th of June, King Louis XVI decided that he was well enough to address the Assembly.

The King paused for almost a minute while the Assembly stood ready for his version of the events that took place on the 21st. Finally after some prompting from a high ranking Feuillant, Adrien Duport, the king began to relay his story of what happened that night.

The account given by the King blamed Austrian kidnappers on the disappearance of his family and that they would have taken him too, if he had not so sick. The reason given was enough to sway some of the more moderate members of the Assembly. However while Louis XVI was cleared of all charges, his wife Marie Antoinette could not escape the anger of the Jacobins and was labeled a counter-revolution as well as a kidnapper of the Royal children who was in league with the Austrians.



Revolutionary France and the road to war by James Foch

It is not known exactly why King Louis XVI blamed Austrians for the fictitious kidnapping but the motive is very clear. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor was the brother of Marie Antoinette and had constantly been asked for help and military assistance by both her and the fleeing nobles that had evacuated from France. However Leopold II was well known for being calm and cautious and had not been interested in the goings on in France. It seems that, because of this, Louis XVI was attempting to take the war to Austria.

By the decree of the Assembly, Armand Marc, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, drafted a letter entitled “The Letter of Return” that underlined the facts that the Queen and the royal children had been kidnapped and presumably taken to Austria and that they should be found and returned as soon as possible. It did not, however, suggest anything about the Assembly’s believe that Marie Antoinette knew about this kidnapping and that she was most likely part of it.

The letter was finished by the 27th and, after ratification of the Assembly, was issued to Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor.
 
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This is really interesting and bye bye Louis XVIII and Charles X...
(if the Dauphin is out of France he will almost surely live enough for marry one of his many cousin and fathering some sons)
 
Escape to Exile By Thomas Phillman

Ever since the arrival of the royal family at Montmédy, Émigrés had been arriving in there dozens every few hours to rally behind the Kings cause. It was Breteuils hope that by mid-July they would have enough men to begin the assault on the capital and overthrow of the republican forces.

It was decided that for the time being the royal children would be taken by Axel von Ferson to Sweden where it was hoped they would be safe and out of the way. The Queen however refused to accompany them declaring that she would not “Leave France in shame nor without my husband.”

Revolutionary France and the road to war by James Foch


On the 24th of June, Marie Antoinette sent another of her numerous letters to the brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. The letter said that the royalist army would be re-taking the capital in the next couple of weeks and that assistance from Austria would be extremely helpful.
 
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