Abstract
After the execution of King Louis XVI on January 21, 1793, Marie Antoinette, who was responsible for the act, was not sued initially. There are different hypotheses surrounding the execution. Some among the revolutionaries wished to keep her as a bargaining ship for the Austrian Empire, and some historians even think that the Girondins wished to preserve "a future regent for the Constitutional King Louis XVII (the son of Marie Antoinette), because they hoped he would be able to come to the throne in the end".
None of these assumptions can be easily proved, but we can also assume that the execution of the King traumatized some supporters of the Revolution in a way, and it increased the fear to be invaded by foreign armies. The reason for the fear was that the revolutionaries were by now regicidal, and the members of the Convention probably thought it wiser to delay the issue of Marie Antoinette's statement. But in March 1793, there was the uprising of "rebels" in Vendée, followed by the murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday in July; which rekindled the threat of a counter-revolution and revenge from their part.
