Louis XVI was the central character in the French Revolution, a major turning point in world history. Yet he remains largely unknown or, rather, stereotyped as the stupid, lazy, weak, and ultimately treasonous king dominated by Marie-Antoinette. This fresh investigation explains how the stereotype evolved and corrects it, with the aid of those few of Louis's contemporaries and later historians who have never entirely accepted its veracity and with new evidence published by the author. The new material enables the author to get to the bottom of the mind and personality of this wilfully enigmatic man and to attempt, for the first time, a reconstruction of his political thought. The new light shed on the king also illuminates the French Revolution as a whole, which has too often appeared as Hamlet without the prince.