How Far Do You Agree with the View That the Flight to Varennes Fatally Damaged the Prospects of Successfully Implementing a Constitutional Monarchy by 1791-92?

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“How far do you agree with the view that the flight to Varennes fatally damaged the prospects of successfully implementing a Constitutional Monarchy by 1791-92?” The downfall of the constitutional monarchy in France between 1789 and 1792 was a result of a number of factors that each showed a varying degree of contribution, which can be seen through evidence within a range of sources. The most fundamental factor aiding the collapse of the constitutional monarchy can be seen to be the consequences of Louis personal failings, in particular through the Flight of Varennes, and is stressed heavily by both historians in sources 1 and 3. Other factors that can be seen to be important in damaging the successful implementation of a Constitutional Monarchy was the War with Austria in 1792, highlighted in source 2 especially, and the significance of the radical minority in France at the time in sources 1 and 3. There are several links that the sources make between one another in relation to the interpretations by the historians themselves, with source 1 also underlining the impact of radicals and the war as contributing factors to the Flight to Varennes, and sources 1 and 3 differing in the overall significance of the Flight to Varennes to the failure of the Constitutional Monarchy’s implantation. Source 1 highlights the main factor in this controversy, the Flight to Varennes, and underlines its significance as the ‘most immediate consequence’ in Louis reign as King. The Flight itself on the 17th June 1791 showed that the king could not work with the National Assembly and that it proved he didn’t support the revolution. Sutherland reveals in the source that the Flight directly led to the failure of the Monarchy stating it had ‘momentous and extensive consequences’. He also emphasises the ‘decline in popularity of the King’, that ‘showed he could no longer be trusted’, and
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