Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born Archduchess Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna of Austria on November 2nd, 1755. She was twelfth child and ninth daughter of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Underneath her "Queenly" serenity, the Empress was tough-as-nails and intent on cementing her country's alliances through the marriages of her sixteen children. Marie and favorite sister, Carolina, learned to be accomplished in sewing, music, and dancing, which Marie loved the most. However, within a few weeks of her fourteenth birthday, Marie would be thrust from this idyllic childhood into adulthood.
Marie Antoinette's mother, Empress Maria Theresa Louis Auguste, the fifteen year-old Dauphin (King to-be) of France, was looking for a wife who would one day be his Queen. Though Austria's alliance with France was somewhat shaky, Empress Maria Theresa didn't give up. Nothing could patch things up better than a marriage that would produce the next King of France.
Marie's husband, King Louis XVI at age twenty-three Preparations for the wedding began while the bride and groom were still hundreds of miles apart. Elaborate gowns were sent from France for the Marie's trousseau along with a portrait of Louis for her to admire. Though the Empress had forged the perfect match, she had worries. Marie was still a terrible speller and found the French language difficult to learn. She also had trouble memorizing all of the strict royal protocol of the French court. After she and Louis married, Marie would live in France, away from her friends and family. She would have to carve a whole new life out for herself as the Dauphine.The Empress worried that her sweet, naive daughter was unprepared for what was ahead of her.
Marie at age fourteen in the portrait she sent to Louis before their wedding. On April 19th, 1769 Marie married Louis by-proxy in the Church of Augustine Friars in Vienna. Her brother Ferdinand stood in for the groom while the long Roman-Catholic nuptial mass was conducted. On May 7th, 1770, Marie was officially "handed over" to France. She met her husband Louis, who was tall, chubby, and awkward, but also kind and sweet. On May 16th they were married ceremoniously in the Chapel Royal of Versailles. The next few days were filled with extravagant fireworks shows, operas, and balls all thrown in the honor of the new Dauphin and Dauphine's marriage.
Madame Du Barry
Marie was simultaneously hated and adored at the court of Versailles. Many found her kind and unpretentious. Others spread nasty rumors out of jealousy. Her biggest rival was Madame Du Barry, King Louis XV's mistress. Believing she was rude, common, and power hungry, Marie refused to speak to Du Barry. This further increased her unpopularity among some courtiers. Finally, Marie gave in to avoid upsetting the King, saying as little to Du Barry as she could: "There are a lot of people at Versailles today."
Queen Marie Antoinette at Versailles
After that, Du Barry was no longer a threat. However, by 1774 there was still a major problem. Four years into the marriage, no announcement of Marie's pregnancy had been made. As the future Queen, it was Marie's duty to produce not only a male heir but many children. Instead, she confided to a close friend, her husband had not so much as held her hand on their wedding night. Then, on April 27th, 1774, King Louis XV died of smallpox. Marie was now Queen of France at nineteen and her husband was King Louis XVI at twenty. They would be the last to ever receive those titles.
Marie's mother was furious at her daughter's inability to produce an heir as Queen. She constantly criticized and ridiculed her daughter, even suggesting that she wasn't pretty enough to attract her husband. In reaction, Marie did what many teenage girls are famous for: she shopped. Fashionable gowns in 18th-century France were made of the finest silks with wide hips, lace, and bustles. Louis gave her "Petit Trianon" as a retreat where she could relax with friends and ignore protocol. News of this spending angered the French people. Life for the poor in France was becoming increasingly difficult as the country's financial problems deepened. Though many pointed blame solely at Louis XVI, the spending had been going on since his great-grandfather built the gilded palace of Versailles. Luckily, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. It was announced that the Queen was pregnant on May 16th, 1778.
Marie at Petit Trianon
On December 19th 1778, courtiers packed into the royal bedchamber and watched while Marie suffered through a horrible labor. When a daughter was born many didn't even suppress their groans of disappointment. The pressure to have a male was now even higher. Still, both Louis and Marie adored their daughter, who they named Marie-Therese. After a miscarriage and the death of her mother, Marie became pregnant again. On October 17th, 1780, a Dauphin was at last born. Just a few days before, the American Revolution had ended with the Americans and the French victorious. Louis Joseph Xavier Francois added to the patriotism of the French court and subjects.
Unfortunately, this harmony between the classes didn't last long. Conditions for the French people became worse as France struggled to pay off debts from the American Revolution. The price of bread began to rise as well. Marie, meanwhile, was playing her favorite role: the mother of her children. She broke the long tradition of French Queens by nursing them herself and chose a close friend to be their nanny when her duties as Queen conflicted with their care.
By 1787 France was getting dangerously close to revolution. Radicals formed a group called the Third Estate which later became the National Assembly. They demanded a solution to the bread crisis and called for the rights of the poor to be protected. King Louis continued to be ineffective. Though he desperately called on countless advisers to put an end to his subjects' struggling and save the monarchy, it was too late. On July 14th, 1789 the thousands stormed the Bastille and Paris erupted with riots. La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen ("The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen")was soon adopted, beginning a constitutional monarchy of France. While she and the king were placed under a sort of house arrest in the Tuileries Palace, Marie desperately hoped that her brother would invade France and save her family. When France declared war on Austria in 1792, that hope was lost. Marie Antoinette was now an enemy of the Austrian people as well.
Marie and her children as a mob breaks into the Tuileries Palace
The family was soon imprisoned in the tower of the Temple on Marais. Outside the infamous September Massacres were occurring. 1,200 aristocrats, including Marie's close friend the Princesse de Lambelle, were murdered, their heads gruesomely affixed on pikes and marched through the city. On September 21st the end of the monarchy was officially declared. Louis was separated from Marie and the children and tried in court in December for acting against the First French Republic. Louis was found guilty and executed by the guillotine on January 21 1793. Marie was devastated by the death of her husband, with whom she had been through so much. Upon her relocation to the Concierge prison, her second son Louis-Charles was taken from his mother and given to a cobbler. Marie's son would be poisoned against his family and die from abuse and neglect two years later.
Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine
Marie Antoinette's trial lasted two days and began on October 14th. She was charged with ridiculous and humiliating crimes, including plotting to kill important political figures and having an inappropriate relationship with her own son. Though her courtroom demeanor was one of dignity, she emotionally denied abusing her son, winning sympathy from many of the women in the courtroom.
Sadly, sympathy did not save her. Marie was found guilty and sentenced to the same fate as her husband on October 16th. At 12:15 pm Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, was taken in a cart to the guillotine. Her last words were apparently an apology to her executioner for stepping on his foot: "Monsieur, je vous demande pardon. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès," (Sir, I beg your pardon. I did not mean to do it).
J'habite dans un grand châteaux Versailles. Je porte vêtements de style. J'aime chanter et danser. Je fais toujours un pique-niques avec mes enfants. Ils aime jouer. Je faire souvent une promenade à pied. Il est amusant et gentil.
What was it like to live in France when your person did? What was going on socially, culturally, and politically? How was your person affected by their time period and how did they in turn affect everyone else?
Marie Antoinette lived in 18th-century France, a time when life was very different for those of different classes. The aristocracy lived in unlimited luxury and extravagance, while the poor often struggled to get by.Ever since the American Revolution in 1776, the French people had become increasingly weary of the French aristocracy. If all men were created equal as the Americans' Declaration of Independence said, why were so many of French peasants starving while the nobles feasted? At the same time,France was the center of fashion, the arts, and even science (the first hot air balloon flight was made in Paris on December 14th, 1783). Marie Antoinette was affected strongly by the social protocol that women followed in her time. While many of accuse her of not doing enough to help her people, Marie was not in a position which allowed her to go against her husband on any matters, much less political. She was taught to obey and support her husband in everything he did, no matter what he own feelings were. Never the less, her excessive spending further damaged France's financial situation and the French people's anger towards her public image, a major factor in the beginning of the French Revolution.
Name a few ways that your person changed history. How did his or her thoughts and actions affect they way other people thought fifty or one hundred years later?
Marie Antoinette was the last woman to ever hold the title of Queen of France. Her name became infamous, and so did her reign and her eventual death. She was rightly portrayed as frivolous and naive, but also unfairly made out to be haughty and uncaring towards her people. The phrase, "Let them eat cake" which she was said to have replied to an adviser when told that her people couldn't afford bread, was never said. Truthfully, it probably never even entered Marie's mind that her people were suffering as much as they were. Safely contained in the gilded gates of Versailles, the royal family lived in a completely different world than their subjects. The revolution that resulted from this ignorance struck fear in the hearts of other royals of Europe and began the French Republic.
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