Marie Antoinette undermining the First French Republic, Louis XVI was separated from his family and tried in December. He was found guilty by the Convention, led by the Jacobins who rejected the idea of keeping him as a hostage. On 15 January 1793, by a majority of one vote, that of Philippe Égalité, he was condemned to death by guillotine and executed on 21 January 1793. The queen, now called "Widow Capet", plunged into deep mourning. She still hoped her son Louis-Charles, whom the exiled "Comte de Provence", Louis XVI's brother, had recognised as Louis XVI's successor, would one day rule France.
Hugh Capet to answer for his actions. But while hunting in the forest of Senlis, the king was killed in a riding accident on 21 or 22 May 987. In May 987, chroniclers, including Richerus and Gerbert of Aurillac, wrote that in Senlis, "died the race of Charles." However, even if Louis died childless, there remained a Carolingian who could ascend the throne: Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, brother of Lothair, uncle of Louis V, first cousin of Hugh Capet through their mothers. This was nothing extraordinary; it was not the first time that a Robertian would be competing with a Carolingian.