Scribd
Upload
389 views

Humanities Script

1) King Louis XVI discusses his difficult childhood, being neglected by his parents who favored his older brother, and the pressure of becoming king at a young age after several family members died. 2) As king, Louis made selfish decisions like increasing taxes on the third estate while living lavishly, which caused growing resentment and contributed to the French Revolution. 3) During the revolution, Louis and his family were captured while trying to escape and taken back to Paris. Louis was eventually tried for treason and guillotined in 1793.

Uploaded by

api-311297520
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
389 views

Humanities Script

1) King Louis XVI discusses his difficult childhood, being neglected by his parents who favored his older brother, and the pressure of becoming king at a young age after several family members died. 2) As king, Louis made selfish decisions like increasing taxes on the third estate while living lavishly, which caused growing resentment and contributed to the French Revolution. 3) During the revolution, Louis and his family were captured while trying to escape and taken back to Paris. Louis was eventually tried for treason and guillotined in 1793.

Uploaded by

api-311297520
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Humanities Script- French Revolution

Intro
*7 News intro clip
James Roberts (news Anchor): hi my names James Roberts and
welcome to 7 News, where we the media manipulate your
minds as much as possible because your reaction is funny. Next
up is our weekly interviews, where King Louis XVI will be joining
us because we are so unpopular we interview dead people.
Now to hand you over to professional interviewer Stephan
Williams.
Stephan Williams: thank you James, today we will be joined by
a very famous man, everyone give it up for the last king of
France King Louis XVI
King Louis: thank you, thank you. Its a pleasure to be on the
show Stephan.
Stephan: now worries Louis, can I call you louis, Ill call you
louis. So anyway lets get started on this interview. Are you
ready
King Louis: Im ready
Stephan: okay, louis, could you tell me a bit about your
childhood?
King Louis: Well I was born on the 23rd of August 1754. I had a
difficult childhood because my parents ignored me and didnt
care, this was because they favoured my older brother Louis
Duc de Bourgogne, it was hard for me as they were too
distracted with him then to even realise I existed. in 1761 my
brother died at the age of ten which caused my parents to
despise of me even more. Worst came to worst when my father
passed from lung tuberculosis on the 20th of December four
years after my brother had died, this then put me into next
inline of heir to the throne. At the age of 13 My mother fell into
deep depression after my fathers death until she was struck by
the same illness that killed my father and passed away on the
13th of march 1767. After this me and my other orphan siblings

were looked after and cared for by my grandma who died a


year later.
Stephan: that must have been a very hard childhood, speaking
of childhoods did you ever envy your brother in any way?
King louis: Of course I envied him, the way my parents payed
more attention to him and despised of me, how I was nothing
compared to him. This caused my childhood to be so difficult
because my parents neglected me, even after death its like
they disliked me even more.
Stephan: what were your thoughts on your marriage at
such an early age?
King Louis: well I was only 15 when it had been arranged that I
would get married to Marie Antoinette. because of my shyness
and also my fear of manipulation of Marie, I was made to
appear cowardly in a way to her in public making the marriage
distant. Over the years we grew closer eventually having four
children, unfortunately only one survived as the other three
died in childhood
Stephan: that is so sad, I got married at 29, I dont think I even
had a girlfriend at 15. Next up What was it like becoming
king after the death of your Grandfather and not
originally being heir to the throne?
King Louis: Well It was 1774 10th of may when I became king
Louis XVI after the tragic death of my grandfather. As you
already know my older and more favorited brother was
supposed to be king until he faced a tragic death as a child, this
then put me in line to be king after my father, until my father
died leaving me heir to the throne. As I was only 20 I was very
immature and in experienced. Although my aims were to be a
good and respected king, all of the debt and financial problems
I inherited from my grandfather, made being a good king
difficult.
Stephan: do you think you were a respected king?
King Louis: Well before the revolution, many rich people and the
nobles respected me, but the third estates (peasants) would
disagree. This was because of my selfish acts as king, by

increasing the tax rate for the third estate only, the money was
shared between the royal, rich and nobles leaving the third
estate, who were the majority of the French people with less
money and food. Because of my selfish and narrow minded acts
the third estate didnt respect or care for me.
Stephan: will be back after this short commercial
Stephan: and we are back, next up for your question, did you
even care for the Citizens of France? While you were
living the luxury life, they were working hard to survive
and care for their families?
King louis: I think because I was young and foolish as king I was
to selfish to even realise what was going on between the three
estates, and not giving equal rights to every estate. Marie
Antoinette and I were to hung up on making more money and
living the luxury life that we increased the taxes only for the
peasants (third estate) which is another reason for why the
third estate had a hatred for me.
Stephan: it must have been so hard having so much
responsibility at such a young age. Question seven, Do you
think that it was your fault the French revolution
occurred, why is this and what actions might have
caused this?
King louis: I think as king I played a big part of the cause of the
French Revolution, this because of my selfish and foolish
decisions that I made which caused the revolution in the first
place. My foolish acts put the country into more debt as I spent
too much money in trying to help out in the American
revolution, which I failed to do so. This then forced me to
increase the taxes for the third estate in which the royal, rich
and nobles would receive all of this money leaving the third
estate poor and extremely angry with me. With the country still
being in debt I turned to the nobles in 1787, but the nobles
were shocked to hear about how bad the debt was and refused
to help out which showed that I had no power and that I had

lost respect from the nobles as well. In 1789 I had no other


choice but to call a meeting of the three estates, this was made
up of representatives of each estate to gather and try solve the
debt problems and the bring everyone together. The meeting
went horribly wrong as the third estate decided leave as they
felt that their rights at the meeting were not being accepted.
the representatives of the third estate went off in another part
of the castle to form a new National Constituent Assembly. It
wasnt until the storming of the bastille where revolutionaries
(third estate members) thought they could find ammunition,
when I knew the French revolution had begun and that I
realised I had made a big mistake in my decisions as king.
Stephan: what happened to you and your family during
the revolution?
King Louis: Well at first I didnt know how to stop the revolution
this may have been of my lack of concentration when preparing
to become king. I made sure me and my family stayed alive by
selfishly putting my life in front of everyone else not caring
about their wellbeing. I failed to protect my family when an
angry mob of people who were mostly women, from the third
estate who were influenced by revolutionaries marched into the
palace of Versailles where my family and I were staying. during
the night they attempted to kill my wife Marie Antoinette but
they did not succeed although my family and I were taken back
to Paris by the angry crowd to live in the Tuileries Palace.
Stephan: talk me through your escape plan to keep
yourself and your family safe and did you succeed?
King louis: Well in 1791 on the 21st of June, I attempted to
secretly flee with my family as we dressed as bakers and made
an escape to Austria. because of the rumours of our escape we
were easily recognized and captured near the borders of
Germany. We were returned to Paris to face many angry and
disappointed people who had lost all respect for me and my
family.
Stephan: and last question, what was the consequence of
your escape and the terrible things you did as king?

King louis: Well as of September 21st 1792, the legislative


Assembly announced the first French Republic, this put me out
of my power as king. I then had a trial by the National
Assembly, pleading guilty for treason and was sentenced to
death. On January 21st 1793 I was guillotined in the Palace de
la Revolution. My wife Marie Antoinette faced the same brutal
punishment nine months later and was killed on October 16
1973.
Stephan: thank you so much for your time
King Louis: thank you for having me
Stephan: one more round of applause for King louis XVI, back to
you James.
James Stewart: what a wonderful interview, thats all the news
for today, see you next time on seven news.
*7 news outro.

You might also like