King Louis XVI and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette inherited an enormous state debt (by Louis XIV and Louis XV). Also, Louis XVI was indecisive and not firm enough to rule. Radical financial reforms by Turgot and Malesherbes angered the nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So Turgot was dismissed in 1776 and Malesherbes resigned in 1776 to be replaced by Jacques Necker. Necker supported the American Revolution, and proceeded with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. When this policy failed miserably, Louis dismissed him, and replaced him in 1783 with Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, who increased public spending to buy the country’s way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly
of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were told the extent of the debt, they were shocked into rejecting the plan. This negative turn of events signaled to Louis that
he had lost the ability to rule as an absolute monarch, and he fell into depression.
Tags: depression, fell, monarch
