The Flight to Varennes

By spring 1791, Marie Antoinette had convinced Louis XVI that escape was their only option. The plan, developed with Swedish Count Axel von Fersen (rumored to be the queen's lover), was elaborate and seemingly foolproof. The royal family would flee to the fortress of Montmédy near the Austrian border, where loyal troops waited to protect them.

The preparations required months of secret planning. Fersen arranged everything: forged passports, relay horses, loyal drivers, and troops stationed along the route. Marie Antoinette smuggled out jewelry and money to fund their life in exile. She practiced playing the role of a Russian baroness's governess, the identity she would assume during the flight.

On the night of June 20, 1791, the escape began. The royal family, disguised and separated to avoid suspicion, slipped out of the Tuileries through doors left unguarded by sympathetic servants. They reunited at a waiting coach, specially built to accommodate them comfortably for the long journey. As Paris slept, they rolled eastward toward what they believed would be freedom.

The journey unraveled through a combination of delays, misunderstandings, and bad luck. The heavy coach moved slowly. Planned military escorts failed to materialize. Most fatally, the king's face—featured on every coin in France—was recognized at Sainte-Menehould by postmaster Jean-Baptiste Drouet, who raised the alarm.

At Varennes, just miles from safety, the fugitives were stopped. The scene was both dramatic and pathetic: the King and Queen of France, exhausted and travel-stained, surrounded by armed citizens in a candlelit room above a grocer's shop. Marie Antoinette reportedly offered diamonds for their freedom, then threatened retribution, then wept. Nothing worked. After a night of negotiations, they were forced to return to Paris.