Rescue the Royal Family Minus One

Does Louis Keep Quiet?

  • Yes

  • No


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During the French Revolution, the Royal Family was arrested in August.

Let's suppose British agents were in Paris. On November 1, 1792, a few agents drug some guards and kill others. There are plenty of Roman intrigue stories with action, I can think of some competent ways to pull it off in the 1700s. They then free most of the royal family, which let's say are in separate cells.

Most of the Royal family is taken to horses and told to ride with the conspirators. The conspirators don't have any contact with the French internal affairs, so they are being taken to a Channel port where a ship will be waiting. They say they will retrieve Louis XVI.

An agent goes to Louis XVI's cell and tells him he's staying there. He says "George says this is for British North America" and leaves, preparing to tell the French Royal family that the alarm was raised and there was simply no way to rescue the king.

Now, we must suspend disbelief because there are several things improbable. One, the British almost certainly didn't have a network of agents in Paris. Two, the Royal Family can't escape on horseback, it would have to be by carriage which is too easily spottable. Three, a Restroationist approach maximizes the number of surviving royal family members, which leaving one behind on purpose does not do. Finally, there is no way an agent would risk everything to tell the guy they were leaving behind that they were leaving him behind to die.

But let's ignore all that and say this happens.

Does Louis XVI screw over the agent in defiance by calling the guards?
 
The royal family is five people : the King, the Queen, the Dauphin, Mesdames (Marie-Thérèse and Elisabeth). The girls do not count - the Republic exchanged them OTL. In fact, only the King and the Dauphin are potential figureheads. Both slept on the same floor (Louis Capet had a four-rooms floor, not a single cell), so taking the prince without his father would be difficult. The girls were on another floor. Of course, as you said, killing all 50-so guards in the most sensible jail in Paris and taking the five most wanted prisoners out of the city in one of the most violent period in French history requires ASB-like pre-SAS british agents.
 
The royal family is five people : the King, the Queen, the Dauphin, Mesdames (Marie-Thérèse and Elisabeth). The girls do not count - the Republic exchanged them OTL. In fact, only the King and the Dauphin are potential figureheads. Both slept on the same floor (Louis Capet had a four-rooms floor, not a single cell), so taking the prince without his father would be difficult. The girls were on another floor. Of course, as you said, killing all 50-so guards in the most sensible jail in Paris and taking the five most wanted prisoners out of the city in one of the most violent period in French history requires ASB-like pre-SAS british agents.

Wait, what do you mean only the dudes are the targets? The queen got executed too remember, even though Queens don't rule in France.
 
8 says he doesn't keep his mouth shut and 4 days he does. I wonder if I can make a POD in the 1740s with training of a British continental intelligence network by the revolution
 
9 says he doesn't keep his mouth shut and 8 says he does. Hmmm...

If I ever revisit this in a TL (not a simple "I have a yes no question" thread), I was leaning towards him staying mute.

However if the proportion of "no, he doesn't keep quiet votes" (no votes divided by total votes, represented from here on as p) is high enough, I'll come up with one where Louis does shout and call the guards on the British agents.

If p - 3* sqrt((p(1-p))/ (total votes)) > 0.75, then I'll have one where he shouts and screws over the agent in defiance.

I'll probably also need a POD 30 years earlier to get an agent network plausible. But the POD needs to allow the American Revolution, or else the French won't bankrupt themselves.

Eh, don't worry about that, I'll trouble shoot the details myself if I ever revisit this idea. the only thing I wanted to know from the forum on this thread was if Louis would screw over the agent when he finds out his wife, son, and children are being taken to Austria while he is deliberately being left behind.
 
Bit late to this party, but out of curiosity, why the Hell does George III act in such manner towards Louis? OTL, they had a half-decent correspondence, Queen Charlotte prepared rooms for them at Buckingham House in the event of them fleeing to England, George wrote to Louis congratulating him on the birth of his son (and in a letter from after the ARW George stated that he was simply happy that this "unhappy event" was behind them), and George himself would realize the problem with dealing with radicals/republicans. Charlotte and Antoinette's correspondence was warmer, but the days of the king=state in Britain were past. So it seems a bit ASB to say that George will screw Louis over because he lost his colonies due to the French. Besides, the French got royally (or should that be republicanly:p?) screwed over by the same nation they had acted as midwife to, Britain was still the preferred nation for America to trade with, the money that the French spent was never repaid, etc.

Plus, the British ambassador (duke of Sutherland I think) to Paris was married to a woman who was close friends with the queen (the duchess smuggled some of the queen's jewels out of France, to be collected at a later date, but AFAIK Madame Royal struggled to get them back), the duchess of Devonshire (the famed Georgiana Spencer Cavendish) was likewise friendly with Antoinette. And that's just two female people in British politics.
 
they had a half-decent correspondence, Queen Charlotte prepared rooms for them at Buckingham House in the event of them fleeing to England, George wrote to Louis congratulating him on the birth of his son (and in a letter from after the ARW George stated that he was simply happy that this "unhappy event" was behind them),

Actually, I did not know this at all
 
Well not that I know George and Louis were cool, if I ever revisit the rescue of the Royal Family minus one, I'm changing the guillotine date so that there is simply one less person to rescue.
 
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