The execution by guillotine of King Louis XVI of France on January 21, 1783
The execution by guillotine of King Louis XVI of France on January 21, 1783 Louis XVI, king of France, was publicly executed on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. At his trial four days prior, the National Convention had convicted the king of high treason in a near-unanimous vote; while no one voted "not guilty", several deputies abstained Often viewed as a turning The executioners fastened him to the guillotine's bench (bascule), positioning his neck beneath the device's yoke (lunette) to hold it in place, and the blade swiftly decapitated him. Sanson grabbed his severed head out of the receptacle into which it fell and exhibited it to the cheering crowd. According to one witness report, the blade did not sever his neck but instead cut through the back of his skull and into his jaw. Some accounts state that members of the crowd rushed towards the scaffold with handkerchiefs to dip them in his blood and keep as so...