RamscoopRaider
Donor
Assume through better planning, luck and a series of improbable coincidences, Louis XVI succeeds in his 1791 escape from Paris to Montmedy, what does he do then and what happens?
Montmedy is a french city since 1659.In an odd way, compared with OTL, this has advantages for both sides.
The Royalists have the legitimate King of France alive and well.
The Republicans take the line that Louis has de facto abdicated, deserting France.
I'm not sure what the long-term effects would be. Are the Vendee uprisings more successful? I suspect that the outcome is little different from OTL, with the restoration of Louis XVI in 1814-15.
However, one idea at the back of my mind is, has Napoleon anything to gain in terms of national unity by restoring Louis as a figurehead King with himself as Minister-in-Chief to the King. Do the characters of Napoleon (in 1805) and Louis allow for this?
Actually, he just wanted to put himself and his family in a safer place as he no longer felt secure in Paris. He was also trying to regain the upper hand against the Assemblée Nationale: if he was protected by an army, he was in a better position to negotiate with the Députés. Civil War was the last thing he wanted OTL: there are several occasions he could have ordered his troops to fire on crowds but didn't. One of the things we learned from the later biographies of Louis XVI is that he cared deeply for the hapiness of his people.RamscoopRaider said:Montmedy is in France, Louis XVI wanted to go there to gather forces to crush the Republicans so I sort of assumed that he would start a real civil war
Interesting, I did not know that
Any other comments please?