Editing Flight to Varennes (section)

{{Short description|Attempted escape by the French royal family during the French Revolution}}
[[File:Map to illustrate the Flight to Varennes, H. G. Wells' Outline of History, page 461.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|The route from the [[Tuileries Palace]] to [[Varennes-en-Argonne]] (approximate distance 250 km)]]
The '''Flight to Varennes''' (French: fuite de Varennes) during the night of 20&ndash;21 June 1791 was a significant event in the [[French Revolution]] in which the French royal family—comprising [[Louis XVI]], [[Marie Antoinette]], the Dauphin [[Louis XVII|Louis Charles]], [[Marie Thérèse of France|Marie-Thérèse, Madame Royale]], and [[Élisabeth of France|Madame Élisabeth]]—unsuccessfully attempted to leave [[Paris]] for [[Montmédy]], along with loyal members of their retinue. The King hoped to regain his freedom there, with the protection of royalist troops, as the Revolution was intensifying and the threat to the royal family's safety grew. They reached the small town of [[Varennes-en-Argonne]], where they were stopped and arrested after being recognised at their earlier stop in [[Sainte-Menehould]].

This incident was a turning point after which Parisian hostility towards the monarchy, as well as towards the King and Queen as individuals, became much more pronounced. The King's attempted flight provoked charges of treason that ultimately led to his [[Execution of Louis XVI|execution]] in 1793. The flight failed due to a series of misadventures, delays, misinterpretations, and poor judgments.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Thompson, J. M. (James Matthew) | title=The French Revolution | publication-date=1943 | publisher=Oxford | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/7400914 | access-date=5 April 2017 }}</ref> The King's decisions on a number of matters, including the means and timing of the journey, allowed seemingly small matters to escalate.

The King's flight was traumatic for Paris, inciting reactions ranging from anxiety to violence and panic. Everyone was aware that foreign intervention was imminent. The realisation that the King had effectually repudiated the Revolutionary reforms made up to that point came as a shock to people who had seen him as genuinely supporting the Revolution. [[Republicanism]] quickly evolved from being merely a subject of coffee-house debate to the dominant ideal of Revolutionary leaders.<ref>Timothy Tackett, ''When the King Took Flight'' (2003) p. 222</ref>
[[File:Arrest of Louis XVI and his Family, Varennes, 1791.jpg|thumb|350px|right|Louis XVI and his family, dressed as [[bourgeois]], arrested in Varennes. Painting by [[Thomas Falcon Marshall]] (1854)]]

The King's brother, the comte de Provence, also fled on the same night, by a different route.  He successfully escaped, and spent the French Revolution in exile, later returning as King [[Louis XVIII]].