Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette
Name	Marie Antoinette
Title	Queen consort of France
Caption	Portrait by Joseph Ducreux
Succession	Queen consort of France
Reign	10 May 1774 – 21 September 1792
Coronation	11 June 1775
Spouse	Louis XVI
Issue	Marie Thérèse, Louis Joseph, Louis XVII, Sophie
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Theresa
Birth date	2 November 1755
Birth place	Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria
Death date	16 October 1793 (aged 37)
Death place	Place de la Concorde, Paris, French First Republic
Burial place	Basilica of Saint-Denis

Marie Antoinette. She was the last queen of France before the French Revolution, a figure whose life and death became emblematic of the fall of the Ancien Régime. Born an Archduchess of Austria, her marriage to Louis XVI was a strategic alliance between the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and the House of Bourbon. Her reign, marked by extravagant court life at the Palace of Versailles, culminated in her execution by guillotine during the Reign of Terror.

Early life and marriage

Born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, she was the fifteenth child of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and the formidable Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy. Her upbringing was overseen by governesses like Countess von Brandeis and focused on courtly graces rather than deep academic study, preparing her for a dynastic marriage. To cement the Diplomatic Revolution and the Treaty of Versailles (1756), she was betrothed to the French dauphin, the future Louis XVI. The formal marriage by proxy took place in the Augustinian Church in April 1770, after which she departed Austria in a grand procession. She first met her husband at the Forest of Compiègne before their official wedding ceremony in the Chapel of Versailles on 16 May 1770.

Queen of France

Following the death of Louis XV in 1774, her husband ascended the throne and she became queen consort. Her life at the Palace of Versailles was governed by strict court etiquette, against which she often rebelled by seeking private refuge at the Petit Trianon. Her circle included friends like the Princesse de Lamballe and the controversial Duchesse de Polignac. While she was a patron of the arts, supporting composers like Christoph Willibald Gluck and the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, her perceived extravagance, symbolized by the Hameau de la Reine, fueled public criticism. Persistent gossip, such as the libelous *libelles*, attacked her character and her initially unconsummated marriage, straining her relationship with the French people and figures like the Comte de Provence.

The Diamond Necklace Affair

In 1785, she became the central victim of a devastating public scandal known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The scheme, orchestrated by the adventuress Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy and the Cardinal Louis de Rohan, involved the fraudulent purchase of an immensely valuable necklace originally commissioned for Madame du Barry. Although she had refused the necklace and was entirely innocent, the machinations of Rohan and the trial before the Parlement of Paris were manipulated by pamphleteers to damage her reputation irreparably. The affair, sensationalized in publications like the *Gazette de France*, cemented her image in the public mind as a spendthrift and morally corrupt queen, severely undermining the prestige of the monarchy on the eve of revolution.

The French Revolution

As the financial crisis deepened and the Estates General were convened in 1789, she was viewed with suspicion as a member of the Austrian Committee. Following the Storming of the Bastille, she initially supported a hardline stance against the National Assembly. The royal family was forced to leave Versailles after the Women's March on Versailles in October 1789 and was installed under guard at the Tuileries Palace in Paris. She corresponded secretly with her brother, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, and other European rulers, and was a key proponent of the failed Flight to Varennes in June 1791, an attempt to seek refuge with royalist forces near the Montmédy fortress.

Imprisonment, trial, and execution

After the Insurrection of 10 August 1792 and the assault on the Tuileries Palace, the royal family was imprisoned in the Temple fortress. Following the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793, she was separated from her son, the titular Louis XVII, and transferred to the Conciergerie, known as "the antechamber of death." Her trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal in October 1793, presided over by Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, included charges of treason, depletion of the national treasury, and incest, the latter fabricated from the coerced testimony of her son. She was condemned to death and executed by guillotine on the Place de la Concorde on 16 October 1793; her body was buried in a mass grave at the Madeleine Cemetery before being transferred to the Basilica of Saint-Denis during the Bourbon Restoration.

Legacy and cultural depictions

Her legacy is complex, shaped by both revolutionary propaganda, such as the infamous "Let them eat cake" allegation, and later sympathetic portrayals. Nineteenth-century writers like Thomas Carlyle and Alexandre Dumas helped shape her historical narrative, while Antonia Fraser's modern biography offered a more nuanced view. She has been depicted in numerous films, notably by actresses Norma Shearer in *Marie Antoinette* and Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola's 2006 film, as well as in operas like John Corigliano's *The Ghosts of Versailles*. Museums dedicated to her life exist at the Petit Trianon and the Palace of Versailles, and her personal items, such as jewelry, continue to be subjects of fascination and auction at houses like Sotheby's.

Category:House of Habsburg-Lorraine Category:French queens consort Category:People executed by guillotine during the French Revolution