King of France in 1774, he surrounded himself with talented ministers (Malesherbes, Turgot, Necker). The war undertaken alongside the American colonies will restore prestige to France. But inside, the opposition of the privileges increases, and Calonne and Loménie de Brienne cannot stop the financial crisis. Louis XVI then decided to convene the Estates General in 1789. But the deputies of the Third Estate formed the National and then Constituent Assembly, removing all influence from the king. Reduced to the title of king of the French in 1791, the king discredited himself by his flight and his arrest at Varennes as well as by negotiations with foreign countries. Prisoner of the insurrectional Commune (August 10, 1792), he was tried, sentenced to death and then guillotined for treason.
Louis XIV , nicknamed the Great » or « the Sun King was King of France from 1643 to 1715. During his long reign, the most famous of the Bourbons waged numerous and costly wars across Europe, while modernizing the administration and intervening in the economic development of the kingdom. Having chose