Marie-Antoinette

I

Introduction

Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), queen consort of Louis XVI of France from 1774 to 1792; her unpopularity helped discredit the monarchy in the period before the French Revolution (1789-1799). Like her husband, she was convicted of treason and publicly beheaded during the Revolution.

II

Birth and Marriage

Born in Vienna on November 2, 1755, Marie-Antoinette was one of the daughters of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. At the age of 14 she was promised in marriage to Louis, the heir to the French throne, and was married to him the following year, on May 16, 1770, at Versailles. The marriage was intended to cement an alliance between the Bourbon dynasty of France and her parents’ dynasty, the Habsburgs of Austria.

Vivacious and beautiful, Marie-Antoinette was received approvingly by her young husband and his grandfather, Louis XV, on her arrival at the French court. However, her husband, a plodding, bashful youth, at first appeared indifferent to her, and her natural vitality found expression in gaiety and extravagance. When her husband assumed the throne in 1774, Marie-Antoinette became queen of France. In 1778, a daughter was born. Two sons and another daughter followed.

III

An Unpopular Queen

Even before she became queen Marie-Antoinette made herself unpopular. Her disregard of French etiquette, her impetuous conduct, and her rumored infidelities made her the subject of court intrigues and dislike. Before long she was contemptuously referred to as “l’Autrichienne” (“the Austrian”) and began to find disfavor with the French people generally. As queen she made herself more unpopular by her devotion to the interests of Austria and the bad reputations of some of her friends. She strongly influenced the king in his conduct of state affairs, and her choice of ministers was unwise. Her extravagance was mistakenly blamed for the financial problems of the French government and for the simultaneous poverty and suffering of the French people. Also damaging was her supposed connection with the so-called Diamond Necklace affair, a scandal in 1785 involving the fraudulent purchase of some jewels. As the revolution neared, Marie Antoinette became the symbolic object of popular hatred for the French government.

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IV

Fall of Marie-Antoinette and the Monarchy

After the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, Marie-Antoinette sided with the intransigents at court who opposed any compromise with the moderate revolutionaries. Raised to believe in the absolute power of the monarchy, she opposed even the idea of a limited, constitutional monarchy. However, she sensed that the regime was doomed after a crowd marched on Versailles in October 1789 and the royal family was forced to move to the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris.

Through secret envoys Marie-Antoinette appealed to her brother, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, to send an Austrian army to rescue them. When no help seemed forthcoming after two years, she determined to flee France. Although Louis protested, she won him over. On the night of June 20, 1791, disguised as ordinary travelers, Marie and Louis fled Paris by coach with their surviving son. They were captured at Varennes and brought back to Paris as prisoners. Hostility toward the monarchy increased after their flight.

On August 10, 1792, a mob stormed the Tuileries, and the royal family was removed and imprisoned. Louis was later convicted of treason and was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793. Two attempts were made to rescue Marie while she was in prison, but on October 14, 1793, she was sent before the revolutionary tribunal and also was sentenced to death for treason. She was put to death on the guillotine in Paris on October 16, 1793.