THE "TEMPLE, " A PRISON THAT COULD BE HAVE BEEN WORSE

THE ROYALS ARE CONFINED IN THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS'

13TH-CENTURY STRONGHOLD

The royal gibet is in the background:

    Artist unknown, 1795 / zoom

The Montfaucon gibet, whose nine beams were adapted to hanging a number of people at one time, so to political executions.

The enclosed area, toward 1450

Print sold on Ebay / zoom

Zoom

  

Imagine the long ride, with jeers along the way: 

      Adapted from the métro map

The name of the métro station is all that remains of the prison.

Louis the Last and his Family at the Temple on August 13, 1792 / zoom

But surveillance was less than at the Tuileries, there were no insults, the food was good and for royals the family life was extremely unusual:

     The Royal Family at the Temple by Edward Matthew Ward, 1851 / zoom

That intimacy may have led Marie-Antoinette, who had called the king "that poor man," to appreciate Louis XVI for his love for his children, for his self-control and for his courage.

-- Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette, "The Temple," 1932

Internet (disappeared)

Louis XVI Educates his Son, anonymous /zoom

For the six months when the king was alive 

their lives may have been relatively happy.

*    *    *

Next,

"I have no tears left to cry"