This article re-examines a crucial aspect of French history between 1789 and 1793,
and one which remains controversial : the attitude of Louis XVI towards the Revolution. It does this
by exploiting an important and unpublished source, the letters of the king's secret plenipotentiary to the
European powers, the baron de Breteuil, to the foreign monarch most trusted by the French royal
family, Gustavus III of Sweden. Since Louis XVI's precarious position in Paris from the October
Days until his death prevented him from expressing his true feelings except very rarely, historians since
have found it difficult to reach firm conclusions on his political views and motivation during the
Revolution, and the result has often been partisan judgements from left and right. The issue has been
further clouded by persistent claims for over a century that several of Louis's most important letters of
this period are forgeries. While they do not resolve all these problems, the letters of Breteuil to
Gustavus III, which are incontestably genuine, reveal Louis XVI's views on critical events between
1791 and 1792 as represented by the politician closest to his real policy, to the fellow-ruler in whom
he had the most faith. The most important subjects covered are Breteuil's interpretation of Louis
XVI's true attitude to the constitution of September 1791, his distrust of his brothers, the comtes de
Provence and d'Artois, and the plan for an armed congress of the European powers to put pressure on
revolutionary France. These letters, and Gustavus III's replies to them, are published at the end of the
article in an appendix.
How do you spell “freedom”? Narratives about the 25 April 1974 Revolution in the Brazilian press
