At eleven o'clock on 21 January 1793, in a silence heavy with fear mixed with hatred, awe, and horror, the head of Louis XVI fell severed on the Place de la Révolution—one of those complex historical events whose implications and consequences are given deep and systematic study, but all too often from a narrow perspective. The historical significance of the king's execution has thus been long debated from countless points of view, yet there may be factors still to be analysed, especially from our newer vantage of historical psychology.

I propose to focus on the metamorphoses undergone by the image of the king in order to understand how his executioners and jailers could dare lay hands on the Lord's anointed. How, since the advent of Louis XV, could public opinion have turned about so radically from reverential adulation to bitter contempt? Most historians have attributed this to the faults and incapacities of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and their entourage, even to the diminished magnificence of his court and to his relatively modest style of life; yet we might better look back to the much longer reign of Louis XV for the causes of the people's disenchantment with the monarchy.

The increased burden of taxation along with the repeated military and diplomatic setbacks of his reign were, no doubt, important factors, though France had never been more prosperous.