Execution of the Duke of Enghien

Seized on Baden territory in defiance of the law of nations, the Duke of Enghien, last of the Condés, was tried by night at Vincennes and shot at dawn. The royalist plot of which he was accused was never established; the execution was meant to end conspiracies by striking at the Bourbons. It scandalised the courts of Europe and left a stain that Napoleon was still defending at Saint Helena.