Today, once again, we mark the anniversary of the regicide of His Most Christian Majesty King Louis XVI of France. It is not, at this point, necessary to go through all the details of this monstrous crime, as that has been done before (relevant links will be below). However, I thought it might be worthwhile to make brief mention of what the repercussions of this event have been, which are present even to the present day. Obviously, there were immediate consequences in that most of the crowned heads of Europe immediately went to war with the First French Republic simply on principle. Even the British, and King George III felt that King Louis was suffering for having supported the American rebels in their war against him, immediately went to war with the French even though the Kingdom of France had been England's most long-standing enemy. France suffered immediate and terrible consequences for this. Even the United States immediately changed their point of view of the French Revolution when King Louis XVI was killed. Practically every major monarchy in Europe immediately became an enemy and even the Americans were no longer willing to be friends with a regime that would murder an innocent and powerless man.
Everyone knows about the Reign of Terror, the massacres, the repression and the long succession of wars that followed this event. However, there were broader and more far-reaching consequences that no one could possibly have foreseen at the time. For one thing, the permanence and sacrosanct nature of the monarchy was destroyed and that is something that is seemingly impossible to recover. This is why, I think, the British monarchy consistently decreased in power since the regicide of King Charles I, even though the monarchy was willingly restored. The French monarchy was restored, more than once, since the regicide of King Louis XVI but, as we know, none of these restorations lasted. The radical elements of French society knew that they had taken down one king and that set a precedent that they could take down others and so they did. It set up a very long-term destabilization of France as a country. The way modern France has become so famous for its strikes and a populace, particularly in Paris, being known for their temper tantrums all goes back to the regicide of King Louis XVI.
We also see today the huge explosion of the non-French population in France so that today about 20% of the population of France is not French. In terms of religion, France has the largest amount of Muslims as a percentage of the population of any country in Europe. It is also worth keeping in mind that the immigrant population has about twice the rate of natural growth as the native French population. For myself, I do not think this state of affairs is unrelated to the regicide and the French Revolution. In the first place, as I have said before, it is a logical next step for people who claim that the bloodline of their rulers does not matter, getting rid of monarchy, to then believe that the bloodline of the population being ruled does not matter either, which is the attitude held by those in power today. Similarly, by the overthrow and regicide of King Louis, the precedent was sent for the people changing their ruler to one more to their liking (or at least so they thought), it then also stands to reason that the rulers of republican France today can decide to change the population of France and replace it with another more to their liking.
Bertolt Brecht supposedly said, of the Communist regime in East Germany, that they might dismiss the current electorate and appoint a new one. He was being sarcastic to make a point but that seems to be something the modern liberal elite of western countries thinks is not only possible but a positively brilliant idea. In the aftermath of the regicide of King Louis XVI, I cannot see it any other way as being directly responsible for the current state of affairs. The downfall of monarchy, in France as elsewhere, set the standard for national authorities being changeable with no direct, personal ties of blood and history with the country and it is simply taking this to its logical conclusion for the rulers of today to believe that their peoples are also just as changeable. The crisis that France finds itself in today is, I firmly believe, a direct result of the regicide of King Louis XVI and the twisted "values" of the French Revolution. The country and the people are still suffering from this horrendous crime.
The Root of the Current French Crisis
The Greatness of King Louis XVI
A Tragic Anniversary
Inspiration in a Tragic Anniversary
"It is also worth keeping in mind that the immigrant population has about twice the rate of natural growth as the native French population."
ReplyDeleteNow, how about outlawing abortion?
I think that would be very good for old age pensions.
Vive le Roi Louis XVI!
ReplyDeleteWhat died with kings was faith in authority.
ReplyDeleteAuthority, from the Latin auctoritas, means to set a pattern. From a traditional Christian perspective, authority is intimately related to parenthood from which it draws legitimacy. Special weight is given to the fifth commandment, 'honour thy father and thy mother', the pivot that links the first four commandments about God with the last five about neighbour.
A key reason why Christianity came to prevail over classical antiquity was that the religion's foundation of obedience in love of the Son for the Father dovetailed nicely with the Roman legal and social emphasis on the rule of the father, pater familias. Christendom is the fulfillment of both.
Rebellion is rooted in pride and the ultimate act of pride (ergo rebellion) is to usurp authority through murder, patricide. Killing the king was killing the father. The consequences has been the fragmentation and diffusion of authority wholesale; the belief that power rises from below rather than authority from above, the death of God, and the modern/post-modern vacillation and merger of nihilism and totalitarianism.
Revolution and Christendom are incompatible. One descends into the chaos. The other reaches for heaven. One seeks to be 'like God'. The other seeks godliness.
Christendom and kingship are linked. Kill he king and its difficult to put Humpty Dumpty on the wall again.
Unlike many other “““““quotes”””””, the Brecht one is genuine; from his „Die Lösung“ written after the 1953 uprising.
ReplyDeleteDie Lösung
Nach dem Aufstand des 17. Juni
Ließ der Sekretär des Schriftstellerverbands
In der Stalinallee Flugblätter verteilen
Auf denen zu lesen war, daß das Volk
Das Vertrauen der Regierung verscherzt habe
Und es nur durch verdoppelte Arbeit
Zurückerobern könne. Wäre es da
Nicht doch enfacher, die Regierung
Löste das Volk auf und
Wählte ein anderes?
Hiebel, Hans H. Das Spektrum der modernen Poesie. Interpretationen deutschsprachiger Lyrik 1900–2000 im internationalen Kontext der Moderne. Teil I (1900–1945). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2005. 299. Print.
The Solution
After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
Brecht, Bertolt. Poems 1913–1956. Edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim. 1976. London: Minerva, 1994. 440. Print.
If only King Louis XVI had actually listened to his wife and been much harsher to his enemies from the very beginning. If only.
ReplyDelete