Who was the King of France in 1789, at the beginning of the French revolution

When revolutionary crowds stormed the Bastille in Paris in July 1789, the monarch seated on the French throne was Louis XVI. A member of the long-ruling House of Bourbon, he had ascended to the throne in 1774. While not initially seen as a tyrant, he was a notoriously indecisive ruler who proved ill-equipped to handle the immense social and financial crises brewing in his kingdom.

Louis inherited a nation teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. This staggering debt was fueled by years of extravagant court spending at Versailles and, ironically, by France's costly support for the American Revolution. The financial crisis was compounded by a deeply unjust tax system that burdened the common people, known as the Third Estate, while largely exempting the clergy and nobility. Widespread famine and the soaring price of bread transformed this simmering discontent into open rebellion.

His inability to enact meaningful financial reforms and his vacillation between siding with the people and the aristocracy steadily eroded his authority. After a failed attempt to flee the country with his queen, Marie Antoinette, in 1791, any remaining public trust was shattered. As the revolution grew more radical, the monarchy was abolished, and he was put on trial for treason. His reign, and his life, came to a dramatic end at the guillotine in January 1793.