In 1783 the king hosted the first aeronautical experiments at Versailles: on 14th September, Étienne de Montgolfier floated a balloon filled with hot smoky air and carrying a basket holding a sheep, a rooster and a duck over the palace. In the 1780s he sponsored the explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse for his circumnavigation of the globe. The king also took a keen interest in maritime exploration and the discovery of new lands. They included workshops devoted to physics, mechanics, chemistry, woodworking, watchmaking and lock-making, along with a working forge and a room for experiments involving electricity. Louis XVI indulged his interest in the applied sciences and the latest technical and mechanical curiosities in the special cabinets and laboratories he had installed near his private chambers. In the court the King was surrounded by his brothers, the Count of Provence and the Count of Artois and their wives, as well as his sister Madame Élisabeth. Only the eldest, Madame Royale, born in 1778, and the Second Dauphin, born in 1785, survived to see the outbreak of the French Revolution. In 1770 the Dauphin Louis, future Louis XVI, married Marie Antoinette de Habsbourg-Lorraine, Archduchess of Austria. This extraordinary assembly brought together 1200 representatives of the three “orders” which made up the nation: the clergy, the nobility and the third estate. These reforms were doomed to failure, and Louis XVI was eventually obliged to summon a meeting of the Estates General at Versailles, in May 1789. Although serious financial troubles beset the country, the king lent only ambivalent support to their efforts to suppress some of the nation’s many fiscal exemptions. Upon taking the throne Louis XVI decided to dispense with the political team assembled by his grandfather, Louis XV, and replaced them with ministers such as Turgot, Necker and Calonne. His political philosophy was influenced by Fénelon and the thinkers of the Enlightenment, who held that the nation existed independently of the king – an idea which challenged the traditional conception of the French monarchy.

The future Louis XVI studied history, geography, science, law, Latin and Greek as well as various modern languages. This lack of preparation was compounded by the fact that he was only the third royal son and did not become heir apparent until after the death of his two elder brothers. His governor, the Duke of La Vauguyon, provided him with a well-rounded education but singularly failed to prepare the young prince for the concrete challenges of government. He became Dauphin in 1765 and inherited the throne in 1774 at the age of 20.

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