The man who was at the head of the French state, who was falling apart, was Louis XVI, a king who never realized what was happening.
One would say that Louis XVI never knew, that as king, he had to govern. He was always concerned only about attending to his luxuries and lovers, his vanities and caprices in the midst of a peasant France that was starving.
The day of the capture of the Bastille, when the French Revolution began, the king, writing in his diary what had happened, wrote:
"Nothing important has happened today. Nothing at all."
But then the political events overflowed, the king ended up imprisoned by the radicals, and condemned to death.
During his time in prison, King Louis XVI underwent a radical change in his personality, and ceased to be a cowardly and cowardly man, a dark character incapable of assuming his destiny.
When he learned that he was going to be executed, he devoted himself to doing exercises in his cell and when they asked him why he was exercising if he was going to die, the king replied:
"Because I do not want my legs to shake when I go up to the scaffold."
On the day of his execution, the king asked permission to wear several shirts, as well as pants and thick socks, and explained that, since the morning was very cold, he did not want his trembling from the low temperature to be confused with fear by the guillotine .