While it would be hard to maintain that “Über Anmut und Würde” has much in the way of overt political content, the treatise was certainly written at a time of high political tension. In late 1792 and early 1793, Schiller had started drafting a theory of beauty in a series of letters to his friend Christian Gottfried Körner, while at the same time considering an intervention in the trial of King Louis XVI in Paris. It is unknown what precisely he was proposing to say, but it is certain that it would have included a plea to spare the King's life. The trial was arousing a high level of attention in Germany, with opinion shifting away from the sympathy that had originally been shown to the revolutionaries towards a disdain for their apparent descent into lawlessness. With Louis's life at stake, Schiller wrote to Körner on 21 December 1792 of a dual benefit that could result from his (Schiller's) intervention at this time. First, a statement by a prominent foreigner might make an impression on “diese richtungslosen Köpfe” (these disoriented minds). Second, however, Schiller speculated that such a statement might have a positive effect at home as well: