18th Century Hygiene, Part 2: Bathing

Today I’m continuing my series on the realities of 18th century hygiene by taking a look at bathing practices in the 1700s. We Americans have to be among the cleanest people on the planet. Most of us take bathing on a daily basis for granted, or certainly several times a week. But throughout history that has rarely been the standard and isn’t in many other countries even today.

18th-century Copper Bathtub

People living back in the 18th century wanted to feel and look clean as much as we do, but their standards of cleanliness weren’t the same as ours. Taking a bath by immersing one’s body in a tub full of warm water wasn’t a daily or even weekly practice for great majority of people. For one thing, clean, water was hard to come by. Today all we have to do is to turn on a faucet, but in the 18th century finding and drawing enough clean water, and then heating it in order to take a full bath required a ton of labor. Without sewage systems, running water, and indoor plumbing, somebody had to carry all that water from the source, heat it, and carry it to the tub. And afterward they’d have to carry it all away. You were either going have to do it yourself or be able to afford servants to manage the task. Heating large amounts of water over a fire was also no picnic, not to mention the need for plenty of firewood, which first had to be chopped … well, you get the idea. Not going to happen too often!

Attributed to Gerardus Duyckinck

Another force working against daily bathing was that during much of the 18th century immersion in warm water was considered to be unhealthy. Many doctors believed that it allowed diseases to enter your body through the pores in your skin. Which, considering the dearth of adequate sewage systems might well have been true! Views on this did differ in various countries, however. Public bath houses remained popular in Germany, and people in the Nordic countries and Russia favored saunas, but these were not widely available in France and England.

River Scene with Bathers by Claude Joseph Vernet

In any case, people did wash their bodies. It was not uncommon for people to bathe outside in lakes and rivers. But most of the time taking a sponge bath using a basin of water, soap, and a sponge or towel, as has probably been done since early in human history, did the job just fine. In fact, this method can get you cleaner than sitting in a bathtub unless you also have a way to rinse off afterward. Louis XV solved the problem by soaking in one tub and rinsing in another, which no doubt required numerous servants to heat and carry sufficient water, which, of course, is no problem if you’re king. His mistress, Madame de Pompadour, was also very fond of bathing, as was Louis XVI’s queen, Marie Antoinette, who, being Austrian, naturally expected a bath every morning. Bidets were also very popular in France for washing the more intimate areas, or a basin on a chair could easily be substituted if one was not available.

18th-century Bidet

Over time some medical experts began to tout the health benefits of immersion in cool water, and by the end of the century bathing regularly became the norm at least among the upper classes. In England Sir John Floyer, a physician in Lichfield, discovered that local peasants used certain springs in the area to treat ailments. After doing some research, he published a book in 1702 that aroused interest in therapeutic bathing in cold water. It ran through six editions within a few years and was translated into German. Dr. J. S. Hahn of Silesia used this text as the basis for his book, published in 1738, On the Healing Virtues of Cold Water, Inwardly and Outwardly Applied, as Proved by Experience. They obviously loved long titles back then! In 1797 Dr. James Currie of Liverpool followed up with a book on the use of hot and cold water for treating fever and other illnesses that considered the subject from a scientific viewpoint. Thus by the dawn of the 1800s, hot baths were rapidly coming into their own along with sewage systems and indoor plumbing.

I know many people love to lounge luxuriously in a hot bath, but that doesn’t work for me. I prefer taking showers, which allows me to get toasty warm without overheating, while also solving the problem of rinsing. Which do you prefer—a bath or a shower? Please share your preferred bathing experience with us. And we’d also love to hear about any special bath soaps or other bath products you especially love that add to the pleasure of getting clean!

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is a professional editor, a publisher, and the author of award-winning historical fiction whose books have been endorsed by bestselling authors such as Laura Frantz, Lori Benton, Jocelyn Green, Michelle Moran, and MaryLu Tyndal. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. She is also the author of One Holy Night, which won the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year and co-authored the award-winning Northkill Amish Series with Bob Hostetler.

A Retreat Fit for a Queen: Le Petit Trianon

Le Petit Trianon, West Facade

Tucked amid a former botanical garden inside the grounds of Le Grand Trianon, Louis XIV’s retreat southeast of the Palace of Versailles, is a small gem. Le Petit Trianon is a cube-shaped château that Louis XV built for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. After his ascension to the throne in 1774, 20-year-old Louis XVI gave it and the surrounding park to his 19-year-old wife, Marie Antoinette, for her exclusive use. The queen and the beautifully landscaped gardens surrounding the chateau make an appearance in my upcoming release, Refiner’s Fire.

Queen’s Private Chamber

The château features a central colonnaded gallery, or peristyle, that opens onto the central courtyard on one side and the gardens on the other. The building is a delightful example of the transition from the Rococo style of the earlier 18th century to the more sober, refined Neoclassical style of the 1760s and to the following decades. The small palace has four facades, each designed in relation to the portion of the estate it faces, and the steps on the western façade compensate for the different levels of the château’s inclined site. A retreat fit for a queen indeed.

Dining Room

Features were included in the design to minimize interaction between guests and servants. It was planned for the tables in the dining room to be mechanically lowered and raised through the floorboards so that the servants below could set it without being seen. Although they were never built, visitors can see the mechanics for them. The decor of the queen’s boudoir also features mirrored panels that can be raised or lowered with a crank to cover the windows so no one could see inside, and within the room they reflected candlelight. And her simple, but elegant bedroom is consistent with her general style. The queen also redesigned and expanded the gardens surrounding the château. New features she had built were the Belvedere, the Love Pavilion, and the French Pavilion.

Eastern Overlook from the Love Monument

Marie Antoinette, who was from Austria, endured a great deal of pressure and judgment from both her family and the French court at Versailles. Le Petit Trianon became her private retreat where she could relax and do whatever she pleased. She made many expensive changes and updates to the property to suit her taste, which only increased the criticism directed at her, however. In addition only members of her inner circle were invited; no one could enter the property without her express permission—evidently including Louis XVI himself. This alienated the courtiers who were left out, which is what she intended. And since she withdrew there so often for privacy and escape from the pressures and duties of being queen, she was vilified even more.

Here is a video on the gardens of the Trianon estate, which includes Le Petit Trianon.

The monarchy’s lavish expenditures on extravagances such as these when the common people of France lived in poverty finally led to the French Revolution. And tragically to the execution of both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on the guillotine.

If you were like Marie Antoinette and had no budget restrictions, what would your ideal retreat from daily life look like? Let your imagination roam, and share your wildest dreams!

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers, a lifelong student of history, and an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Book 6, Refiner’s Fire, releases in June 2019. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 Indie Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, received the 2017 Interviews and Reviews Silver Award for Historical Fiction and was named one of Shelf Unbound’s 2018 Notable Indie Books. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year and a finalist in the Carol Award.

The 18th Century French Court at Versailles

I’m deep in the throes of researching and writing book 6 of my American Patriot Series, Refiner’s Fire, set during the American Revolution. In this installment of the saga my heroine, Elizabeth Howard, has been whisked off to France to keep her safe from British attacks. Meanwhile, my hero, Jonathan Carleton, also known as the Shawnee war chief White Eagle, is far out in Ohio Territory wrestling with the frustrating and tricky politics of negotiating with the Indians to keep them from allying with the British against the Americans.

West facade of Versailles before construction of Hall of Mirrors.

Over the past few months I’ve posted here on Colonial Quills about French King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, who will appear briefly in Refiner’s Fire, and the palace of Versailles, which will be one of the story’s settings. One of the fun things about writing a sweeping historical saga is all the potential for intrigue on so many levels, and it’s so much better when history presents a treasure trove of factual material, as in this case.

Versailles, just as every other royal court, was not only the nation’s power center, but also a hotbed of juicy rumor and delicious gossip. And there was plenty of fuel for the fire since even acts expected to be the most private—including personal bodily functions, dressing and undressing, sexual encounters, and births—were attended by courtiers and nobles who held various levels of rights of access. Naturally, the greater the Rights, the higher the individual’s personal prestige, so they were greatly prized. Louis XIV, France’s Sun King, developed these elaborate ceremonies in the 17th century as a way to control the nobles. By the late 1770s, when Refiner’s Fire is set, power struggles played out on the field of etiquette were rife.

The most important nobles held Major Rights, which included things like being able to sit in the royal presence or to address the king as Monsieur instead of Monseigneur or Majesté, a privilege that indicated the highest intimacy. Lesser nobles and servants such as physicians and valets-de-chambres were granted only Minor Rights—much less impressive, but nevertheless an indication of a degree of royal favor that could be lorded over those less fortunate.

Every day started with the ritual morning dressing, held separately for king and queen, beginning with a petit lever attended only by those who held Major Rights and followed by a grand lever open to those who held Minor Rights. The king and queen could not put on any item of clothing until it had been handed to them by whoever held that particular right. On one occasion, while Marie Antoinette waited stark naked and shivering, not to mention increasingly frustrated and humiliated, ever greater rights-holders kept entering the chamber, which meant that the article she was waiting for first had to be handed from the person in possession of it to the one who outranked her. One presumes that by the time the grand lever began the king and queen at least had their underclothes on! The ritual undressing, the coucher, followed in the evening with the same formalities as the monarchs were put to bed with the assistance of the highest ranking members of the nobility.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette
by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1778

There was also a regular public dinner called the grand couvert, which pretty much anyone could attend to watch the royals eat. They did have to meet minimum standards for dress, such as a sword and hat for the men. If one came unprepared, however, the proper equipment was available for rent at Versailles’ gates. Surprisingly, considering the formality that reigned at the palace, the service at meals was usually haphazard, with special dishes for the royals sometimes going astray, only to be enjoyed by one of the servants later.

At court ladies were expected to wear the cumbersome court dress that featured extremely wide hoops and a long train to display the expensive fabric it was made of. At right is an example worn by Marie Antoinette. Men’s dress was no less ornate. Both men and women had to have their hair powdered, of course. First pomatum was applied to the hair, then an enormous cape was draped over one’s clothing and powder was blown onto the hair. For ladies wool, tow, pads, and wire were added to their own hair to construct towering coiffures called poufs, which featured feathers and other ornaments. Imagine managing both a really wide, long dress while wearing a really tall monstrosity on one’s head for hours at a time! How would you sit down? Or go to the bathroom?

Madame de Pompadour at Her Toilette

by Boucher, 1758

Wearing rouge was also de rigueur. Because it was so expensive, it was seen as a badge of rank and distinction, and no one outside the court was allowed to use it. There was nothing subtle about how it was applied either. You painted a large circle of the stuff in a color pretty close to scarlet on each cheek, as you can see in Madame de Pompadour’s portrait at left. The effect was so...um, striking...that sensible Germans like Mozart thought it detestable and unbearable to the eyes.

Another interesting feature of the French court was that every subject traditionally possessed the right of access to the sovereign. This naturally made security at the palace essentially nonexistent. The common people freely roamed through the palace’s salons, hallways, and chambers, and not necessarily in decent dress. They even entered the king’s apartment as soon as he stepped out. Though the queen’s apartment was generally considered off limits, the fishwives held an ancient right to address the queen on certain prescribed occasions. This eventually morphed into a general right of access for all the market women, and they would flock into the queen’s rooms and boldly admonish her and the princesses on their perceived failings.

What struck foreign visitors to Versailles in the 18th century most was the smell and the dirt. Much of it resulted from the royals’ numerous pets. Cats, dogs, monkeys, birds—you name it, they had it. You can imagine the chaos of animals bounding through the palace at will and doing their business wherever. To say nothing of the vagrants who settled into the palace’s many nooks and crannies in such numbers that they occasionally had to be routed out with spaniels. According to some reports, you could smell the place five miles out.

All in all, life as a French king or queen wasn’t as glamorous as one might imagine. A whole crowd of royals and nobles even had to attend the queen when she gave birth! How would you feel about having so many people involved in your most private moments? Please let us know what you think about the royal life!

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 Indie Book of the Year Bronze Award for Historical Fiction. Book 2, The Return, received the 2017 Interviews and Reviews Silver Historical Fiction Award. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.

Marie Antoinette and the Intrigues of Louis XVI’s Court

Now that the Northkill Amish Series is finished, I’m back to work on my American Patriot Series. Next up is Book 6, Refiner’s Fire, in which we’re going to catch up with the American commissioners in Paris, who negotiated France’s support in the war with Britain. In this episode Jonathan Carleton’s uncle, Admiral Alexandre Bettár, le comte de Caledonne, sweeps Elizabeth Howard off to France to remove her from the reach of assassins sent by British General Henry Clinton to kill her after her rescue from a British prison ship in New York Harbor.

Caledonne is highly connected at the French court, so Elizabeth is going to end up being drawn into life at court during the reign of King Louis XVI. For this book I’m delving deeply into what was going on at Versailles during 1778 and 1779. There’s always a multitude of complicated and dangerous intrigues swirling in the shadows of every royal court—and especially so in France—which happily will provide plenty of opportunities for getting Elizabeth neck-deep into even more hot water.

Marie Antoinette at the age of thirteen,
Joseph Ducreux

A major player, of course, will be Marie Antoinette, the queen who, along with her husband, Louis XVI, met a tragic end in the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror. Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna was born on November 2, 1755, at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the youngest daughter of Maria Theresa, empress of the Habsburg Empire, and Francis I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1770 she was married to Louis-Auguste of France, her second cousin once removed and the French dauphin, or heir to the throne, first by proxy in Vienna, and then in a lavish ceremony in the royal chapel at Versailles, before more than 5,000 guests. She was 14 and he was 15. She would go down in history with the French form of her name: Marie Antoinette.

Life as a public figure was not easy for a young girl. She was dropped suddenly into struggles for power, prestige, and financial gain between royals and nobles, the king’s brothers and devout aunts, and his ministers, diplomats, and other advisors, played out through highly complex French customs of etiquette and modes of address. Any influence wielded by women was unofficial, and since romantic liaisons were de rigueur at court, the greatest influence belonged to mistresses rather than wives.

Marie Antoinette in Court Dress,
Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1778

Let’s take a look at how the court scene would have appeared. According to long tradition, women were expected to wear a round spot of rouge on each cheek. This wasn’t the delicate highlighting you’d see today, but huge, precisely drawn scarlet circles. Rouge was very expensive, and so a badge of rank and distinction. Mozart, for one, thought the French court makeup detestable, “unbearable to the eyes of an honest German.” Sounds like it! One’s hair also had to be powdered. The queen popularized hair styles called poufs, monstrous affairs supplemented by wool, tow, pads, and wire up to three feet high and topped by the panache, a spray of feather plumes, as you can see in the portrait at right.

The portrait also shows the cumbersome court dress with its wide hoops. Managing the long, heavy train was an art form. Young ladies who were to be presented at court had to be coached by a special dancing master in Paris to move in a “Versailles glide” without seeming to touch the ground, and to make the three requisite curtsies, which began at the door, with modesty and grace. And then the lady’s appearance was likely to be torn to pieces by the spectators. The queen gradually began to make changes in court customs, abandoning heavy makeup and wide-hooped panniers. The new fashion she introduced called for a simpler look, initially in the rustic robe à la polonaise style.

View from Place d'Armes, c. 1722, by Pierre-Denis Martin

In contrast to the tortuous formality of the court, there was an extraordinary lack of security at Versailles. Royal bodyguards did use spaniels to ferret out vagrants who set themselves up in the palace’s various nooks and crannies, but there wasn’t much else they could do. Traditionally every French subject had the right of access to their sovereign, so the palace was open to the public. As a result random people wandered in and out, thronging the antechambers and even at times trying to push into the royals’ private apartments. A public dinner was held regularly, called the grand couvert, and anyone who was decently clothed could come to watch the royals eat. Men were required to wear a sword, but if that was lacking, one could be obtained at the palace gates.

Fishwives and market women held a customary right of access to the queen and used the privilege to comment freely on her perceived failings and those of the princesses. Then there were the royals’ beloved pets. Dogs, cats, monkeys, and other animals had free rein in the palace, roaming over the furniture and even on the table at meals. It was common for foreigners to remark on how dirty the place was! I can just imagine. Ugh!

As far as privacy was concerned, the king and queen were attended at every moment by numerous nobles except during the most intimate marital act—which, however, could not be accomplished without witnesses to the king’s trip to the queen’s suite! This in itself was a problem. Louis didn’t consummate the marriage for 7 years, which, as you can imagine, strained their relationship, the more so since they were expected to speedily produce an heir. In the fishbowl that was the royal court, rumors were bound to fly, and so they did, including the claim that Louis was incapable of sexual relations. Part of the complication may have been that they had met only two days before their wedding and were almost complete strangers. He was also shy, and both were young and inexperienced.

Marie Antoinette and Her Children,
Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1787

It surely didn’t help that the French public was hostile to the union. France’s alliance with Austria had drawn the country into the disastrous Seven Years’ War, which had ended in defeat by the British, the loss of Canada and France’s Caribbean colonies, and a massive national debt. His cold behavior toward her in public fueled the gossip but was evidently due to his fear that she would attempt to manipulate him in favor of Austrian interests. They did develop an affectionate relationship, however, and their marriage was finally consummated in 1777. After 8 years of marriage, Marie Antoinette gave birth to Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale, who was born at Versailles on 19 December 1778—with numerous royals and nobles looking on! They eventually had 4 children, one of whom died in infancy.

Since Marie Antoinette had very few official duties, she passed the time by forming deep friendships with her ladies in waiting at court and eventually befriended a number of her male admirers—the source of more malicious gossip. She spent most of her time devising social events and indulging her extravagant tastes. While the country was in the midst of a serious financial crisis and the common people were suffering great want, she spent huge amounts of money on the latest fashions and creating new ones, all manner of luxuries, and gambling. In spite of her initial popularity, a growing number of people turned against her. Widely circulated newspapers and cheap pamphlets spread vicious, pornographic gossip about her, calling her the“Austrian whore,” accusing her of sympathizing with France’s enemies, particularly her native Austria, and doing everything she could to undermine France, charging her with adultery, and even calling the parentage of her children into question. Increasingly she became the focus of the French people’s rage.

In reality, it was the 18th century colonial wars, including the Seven Years War and the American Revolution, that buried France under a mountain of debt. Those who owned most of the property paid little or no taxes, leaving the rest of the people saddled with an unreasonable burden. The natural result was growing resentment against the conspicuous spending of the king, queen, and nobles, which came to a head in 1789 with the beginning of the Revolution.

A side note: There’s no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said “Let them eat cake,” when she was informed that the French peasants had no bread and were starving. That tale arose from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, written around 1766 when she was 11 years old. In fact, Marie Antoinette, who had been raised in a court where the monarchs believed that they were responsible for the welfare of their subjects, carried out many notable acts of charity during her reign. One observer wrote: “She was so happy at doing good and hated to miss any opportunity of doing so.” That she didn’t curtail her extravagant spending, however, was one of the factors that eventually led to her death on the guillotine.

All things considered, there’s more than enough juicy fodder here for a really entertaining plot for Refiner’s Fire. And I mean to make the most of it!

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 Indie Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.

Louis XVI of France and the American Revolution

Louis XVI at the age of 20
Joseph Duplessis, 1776 

I’m currently working on The Return, Book 2 of my Northkill Amish Series, co-authored with BobHostetler. It publishes in April next year, and as soon as it’s off my desk, I’m going to get back to my American Patriot Series. In Book 6, Refiner’s Fire, my heroine, Elizabeth Howard, is in danger, and in Jonathan Carleton’s absence, his uncle, le comte de Caledonne, takes her to France for safety. Caledonne is an admiral in the French navy; an intimate of the French king, Louis XVI; and a master of spies, which will give me an opportunity offer readers a glimpse into the machinations of the 18^th century French court. In my next post we’re going to take a look at the American commissioners to France during the Revolution and the intrigues surrounding them, but first, Louis!

He was born Louis-Auguste on August 23, 1754, in the Palace of Versailles, the second son and one of 7 children of Louis, the dauphin of France, and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Louis-Auguste’s grandparents were Louis XV and Maria Leszczyńska. At birth Louis-Auguste received the title Duc de Berry.

His parents favored his handsome older brother, Louis, duc de Bourgogne, who unfortunately died in 1761 at the age of nine, rather than their second son. Louis-Auguste was very shy, but he was fit and healthy and enjoying hunting with his grandfather and rough-and-tumble play with his brothers. He excelled as a student as well, with Latin, history, geography, and astronomy his favorite subjects. He also became fluent in Italian and English. As a young child he developed an interest in locksmithing, and this became a hobby as he grew older.

In 1765 Louis-Auguste’s father died of tuberculosis. Since his older brother had died several years earlier, this made eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste the new dauphin. Two years later his mother also died from tuberculosis, leaving him and his brothers and sisters orphans whose care and education were supervised by royal tutors.

Marie Antoinette and Her Children
Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1787

Louis-Auguste was only fifteen when he married 14-year-old Habsburg Archduchess Maria Antonia, better known by the French form of her name: Marie Antoinette, in May 1770. She was his second cousin once removed, the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa, a formidable force of nature who may have influenced her daughter’s indifferent response, “Let them eat cake,” many years later when she was informed that the French peasants had no bread and were starving. The two young people had met only two days before their wedding and were almost total strangers. That, along with his shyness and both their youth and inexperience, was problem enough. It didn’t help that the French public was hostile to this union. After all, France’s alliance with Austria had drawn the country into the disastrous Seven Years’War that ended in defeat at the hands of the British in both Europe and North America, the loss of Canada and France’s Caribbean colonies, and a massive national debt.

Louis XVI of France
Antoine-François Callet, 1789

The young couple’s relationship was strained during the first years of their marriage, as one might expect. In fact, it wasn’t until 1777 that their union was consummated, and in the fishbowl of a royal court, rumors were bound to fly. They certainly did, including the claim that Louis-Auguste was incapable of sexual relations. His cold behavior toward Marie in public fueled the gossip but was evidently due to his fear that she would attempt to manipulate him in favor of Austrian interests. They overcame these obstacles over time, however, and eventually had four children together.

Louis-Auguste’s grandfather died in 1774 on the eve of the American Revolution, and at the age of 19 Louis succeeded to the throne—and to the disastrous baggage of the French and Indian War. For Vergennes, the French foreign secretary, the Americans’ fight for independence offered an opportunity for France to humiliate their long-standing enemy and recover the territory they’d lost during the Seven Years’ War. Louis was persuaded to secretly send supplies, ammunition, and guns to the rebels, and in early 1778 he signed a formal Treaty of Alliance with the United States. Later that year France was once again at war with Britain, with Spain and the Netherlands soon joining in an anti-British coalition.

Washington and Rochambeau giving last orders before battle
Auguste Crowder, 1836

At first the French dragged their feet when it came to actually giving the Americans military aide. But finally in 1780 France sent large land and naval forces under Rochambeau and de Grasse, which arrived in North America in July 1780. Then in October 1781 a French naval blockade forced Cornwallis’s army to surrender at Yorktown. Lord North’s government fell as soon as news of this disaster reached London, and Great Britain was left no choice but to sue for peace. Although France delayed the end of the war into 1783, hoping to overrun more British colonies in India and the West Indies, in the end they gained little from the 1783 Treaty of Paris except a couple of small colonies.

The war cost France 1,066 million livres, which had to be financed through loans at high interest and later led to more oppressive taxes. Heaped on top of the debt remaining from the French and Indian War, this led to a financial crisis that increased the French people’s resentment of the aristocracy and the absolute monarchy of the French kings. Riots broke out in Paris in 1789, and the storming of the Bastille inaugurated the French Revolution. In June 1791, four months before the constitutional monarchy was declared, the situation was so unstable that Louis fled to Varennes, which gave credit to rumors that he was hoping for a foreign invasion to save his throne. In the eyes of the common people he became a hated symbol of the Ancien Régime’s tyranny.

Louis XVI was arrested and deposed during the insurrection of August 10, 1792. A little over a month later, on September 21, France’s constitutional monarchy was abolished and the First French Republic proclaimed. Louis was tried by the National Convention, found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793, as French citizen Louis Capet. The name referred to Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty, which the revolutionaries interpreted as Louis’ family name. Louis XVI was the only king of France ever to be executed. His death brought an end to more than a thousand years of French monarchy.

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers, an author, editor, and publisher, and a lifelong student of history. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Her novel Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill AmishSeries coauthored with bestselling author Bob Hostetler, won ForeWord Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases in Spring 2017. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.