1-156-664 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Execution by guillotine of Louis XVI of France, Paris, 21 January 1793 (1790s). Louis (1754-1793) lying bound on the guillotine waiting for the blade to fall and decapitate him. A basket is positioned ready to receive his head. After the monarchy was overthrown by the French Revolution in 1789, Louis, Marie Antoinette and their children were imprisoned in the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris. In 1791 they tried, unsuccessfully to escape from France. Afterwards Louis was tried and convicted of treason and was executed. The same fate befell Marie Antoinette on 16 October 1793.