Franklin's First Audience with Louis XVI, 1778
Franklin's first audience before King Louis XVI, at Versailles. March 20, 1778. In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He remained in France until 1785. He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783). During his stay in France, he was active as a freemason, serving as Grand Master of the Lodge Les Neuf Soeurs from 1779 until 1781. In 1783 he witnessed the world's first hydrogen balloon flight. In 1784, when Franz Mesmer began to publicize his theory of "animal magnetism" which was considered offensive by many, Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate it. These included Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, and Benjamin Franklin. His advocacy for religious tolerance in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November 1787. No artist credited, dated, 1903.
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