The fate of Louis XVI under the guillotine made his followers claim him as a martyr-king, as had happened with Charles I of England. In spite of this, his historical press has been bad or mediocre, though his Austrian wife, Marie-Antoinette, has often been used as an alibi. John Hardiman elevates him neither to hero nor martyr status, but he does reveal an intelligent, sometimes shrewd, but divided and inhibited man, moderately reformist, yet given to irrational fits of stubbornness. The Flight to Varennes is shown not as an attempt to flee from France, but to take refuge in the provinces and there build up a following against the extreme revolutionaries who were beginning to dominate Paris. Though the style is a little prolix, this book should do much to rehabilitate a king who, to a great extent, was a victim of events beyond control.