We have mentioned that on May 10, 1774, the unworthy, pleasure-seeking Louis XV was succeeded by his twenty-year-old grandson, Louis XVI, and we have traced the young king’s first steps, which revealed boundless goodwill and as much intelligence as could reasonably be expected of such a young ruler, given the environment in which he had grown up. The course of events leading up to Louis XVI’s reign had invested the king with such power, making him such a pivotal and central figure in the state, that extraordinary talent and foresight were required to wield such limitless authority correctly. At the same time, the prevailing monarchical mindset of the era had ensnared the king in a web of burdensome, servile, Oriental-style etiquette, thereby cutting him off from the very thing most essential for a ruler: the ability to see his people and his state as they truly were. Louis XVI was a man of ordinary talents and—above all—lacked willpower; his favorite pastimes—hunting and locksmithing—are highly revealing in this regard; he had a workshop built for himself where he would retreat to work diligently: neither activity leaves one idle, yet neither requires much deep thought.

In terms of intellect, his wife Marie Antoinette—the daughter of Maria Theresa—was incomparably superior to her husband. Yet she had attained her exalted position at the age of seventeen, was surrounded on all sides by the most refined flattery, and was caught up in the high society over which she presided—a whirlwind of pleasures and the rule of "always being cheerful" (être toujours gaie), which made the life of the elite resemble a perpetual masquerade ball; the vacuity of salon life and the demands of ceremonial display left her no room for serious pursuits during the early years of the reign; she found neither the time nor the patience to read even a single serious book. One might ask whether even a will three times as strong and a far keener intellect could have averted the disaster that had long been looming and was already manifesting itself in the disarray of the nation's finances.