The Road from Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the French Monarchy

by Munro Price

What becomes of leaders when absolute power is wrested from their hands? How does dramatic political change affect once-absolute monarchs? In acclaimed historian Munro Price’s powerful new book, he confronts one of the enduring mysteries of the French Revolution---what were the true actions and feelings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they watched their sovereignty collapse?

Dragged back from Versailles to Paris by the crowd in October 1789, the king and queen became prisoners in the capital. They were compelled for their own safety to approve the Revolution and its agenda. Yet, in deep secrecy, they soon began to develop a very different, and dangerous, strategy. The precautions they took against discovery, and the bloody overthrow of the monarchy three years later, dispersed or obliterated most of the clues to their real policy. Much of this evidence has until now remained unknown.

The Road from Versailles reconstructs in detail, for the first time, the king and queen’s clandestine diplomacy from 1789 until their executions. To do so, it focuses on a vital but previously ignored figure, the royal couple’s confidant, the baron de Breteuil. Exiled from France by the Revolution, Breteuil became their secret prime minister, and confidential emissary to the courts of Europe.

Along with the queen’s probable lover, the comte de Fersen, it was Breteuil who organized the royal family’s dramatic dash for freedom, the flight to Varennes. Breteuil’s role is crucial to an understanding of what Louis and Marie Antoinette secretly felt and thought during the Revolution. To unlock these secrets, The Road from Versailles draws on highly important unpublished and previously unknown material.

Meticulously researched and utterly fascinating, T he Road from Versailles provides fresh insight into some of the most controversial events in modern history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, French Revolution, France, Royalty, Research, 18th Century

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 20, 2003

About the author

Munro Price is a British historian noted for his award winning work on French history. Price was educated at Cambridge University. For most of his career he has been based at the University of Bradford, where he is currently professor of Modern European History. He has also taught at the University of Swansea and the University of Lyon

Reviews

[JR Roach · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping and at times heartbreaking account of the high politics and diplomatic machinations of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their representatives from the Revolution through their deaths. Price's impressive detective work in state archives and long-lost personal papers resolves many of the mysteries of the monarchs' policies and plans toward the Revolution. The book remains squarely within the province of old-school diplomatic history, and Price is immensely sympathetic to the king and queen and their agents, but the information he uncovers and the analysis he provides are an indispensable resource for any attempt to come to grips with the political currents of the Revolution. Perhaps most importantly (although Price does not make this point explicit), this book emphasizes over and over again the immense degree to which contingency shaped the course of events - a welcome rejoinder to the determinism of both Marxist and revisionist accounts of the Revolution.

[R Fontaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another attempt to clarify the confusion and answer questions leading up to and about the French revolution. Was King Louis XVI going to support a limited monarchy,or did you really intend to restore the old regime when the time came? It was worth the read but really not much new: somewhat the same information from a different perspective.
The revolution will be endlessly discussed, debated, and dissected;however,perhaps the best assessment was summed up by
Zhou Enlie when asked his opinion on the French Revolution. He responded, "too early to tell".

[Heather Propes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout school I was taught that Marie Antoinette was a villian and the revolutionaries were modern, groundbreaking, the first democracy. Not only in High School AP European History, but in undergraduate history classes (Modernism taught by Albert Boime at UCLA) and then on into graduate school. For years I took this as gospel. Only when I saw Sophia Coppola's great film on Marie Antoinette did I begin to question the narrative. Perhaps she was not so awful. Perhaps they were a bit cruel. Modern versions of MA's story reinforce this. She was a young lady caught in bad circumstances. Louis XVI similarly, was not despotic or manipulative, maybe that was his problem.

After reading Price Munro's book I now question whether the French Revolution was an emancipation of the oppressed or a power-grab of the corrupt mob. It feels like the latter, the way the Girondins took advantage of the moment to create hysteria for the blood of the monarchs, in a setting that was largely theatrical. I'm not so surprised that baron de Breteuil fought fiercely to save his king. He knew that rule by the angry mob (the revolutionaries) would not be in France, or anyone's interest. Was the French revolution a step forward for democracy? I used to think so, because this is what I was taught in public school. I'm not surprised that I was taught in this way. Public school seems to lean toward the left. Maybe we destined to learn the other side of the narrative only after leaving public school, if we keep reading.

[Johnny Tyrrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Very informative. The detail about the king and queen after being imprisoned is astounding. I had no idea of all the plots that went in behind the scenes to rescue the royal family. I knew of there atempted escape, but had no idea the thought and planning was so extensive.
Breutuil seems like a very interesting man. His devotion to the royal family was unique.
There were times in the book it seem to big down. But the majority of the book read really good.
I sometimes had to go back and reread a paragraph or even a page or two, because it seemed as though I missed something. That was on me though, not because if the way the book was wrote
I would highly recommend this book to anybody wanting to know the behind the scenes story of King Louis XVI.

[Larry Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not very well read in the French Revolution and this gave me a good starting off point for further reading on the subject. I learned a ton from this book and it was mostly easy to follow and only occasionally got bogged down by the many characters involved around the King Louis the XVI and the Marie Antoinette saga. I did feel the author slanted a little toward empathy for the royals and vilifying of the commoners but maybe that's just because the book was focused on the royals and not the French citizenship. It did answer many of my questions but also left me wanting to delve more into this subject matter.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book to acquaint yourself of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette's thought and political tendency during the french revolution, by revealing the impotant role played by Baron Breteuil. It gives you more convincing details than ordinary biography of the queen's life. However, when I talked about this book with my friend, both of us thought that Price went too far to prove that Breteuil supported absolute monarchy wholeheartedly. As a result, he thought Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were also strong supporters of absolute monarchy, especially in 1792 and 1793. However, some of Louis XVI's letters show that he may not be so extreme.

[Selina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book a few years ago, at about 15 years old. Although I didnt find it too enthralling, I pushed on, being so interested in the subject. A good all-round read on the subject, whereas many such books on the topic focus on the royal family and the revolutionary period

[Fabrice · Rating 2 out of 5]

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