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Lot 164: King Louis XVI Signed Document

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Lot  164: King Louis XVI Signed Document
<b>Autographs</b><hr><b>Louis XVI, King of France Signed in Prison!
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<b>LOUIS XVI, King of France, Tried for treason, he was found guilty, and guillotined.</b>
Document Signed, in French, 1 page, 9' x 4', no place [most likely Paris], no date [probably 1792], appointing an official. Co-signed by the Minister of the Interior, JEAN-MARIE ROLAND. Choice Extremely Fine. In part: 'I propose to your Majesty to approve the services of Sr. Nicholas under the eyes of the National Assembly for him...to continued to be paid...Department of Isere.'

Still 'His Majesty', Louis XVI in 1792 was also a prisoner of, among others, Jean-Marie Roland who was, so to speak, captive to his manipulative wife who was, soon enough, a captive herself, and would die on the guillotine just like Louis, whom she, through her husband, helped to dethrone. The French Revolution turned and twisted every which way - until the aristocracy was wiped out, and the freethinkers, and the moderates, and anyone unlucky enough to be disliked by someone holding, however fleetingly, power. It was in fact, the wife of Roland who cried out, on her way to be guillotined, "Liberty, Oh liberty! What crimes have been committed in thy name!" That was in 1793, not long after Louis was executed and immediately before her husband, upon learning of her death, killed himself. This document, written just months earlier, connects them all.