Marie Antoinette

In honor of her recent birthday, I've decided to write about one of the most interesting time periods in history, the French Revolution, through the lens of Marie Antoinette, an excellent example of the falling aristocracy of the period.

Marie Antoinette,  last Queen of France

Marie was born Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna on November 2nd, 1775 in her homeland of Austria. She was the fifteenth child in her family, and the second to last. Her mother was the Empress of Austria, and her father was the Holy Roman Emperor. She was well educated, but not extremely so. She was educated in the areas viewed as fitting for a woman, such as religion and morality. To preserve a waning alliance  between Austria and France, Marie was betrothed to an eleven-year-old boy,  Louis Auguste, the heir to the French throne. 

The King sent Marie a new tutor, who remarked that she was not unintelligent, but, "rather lazy and extremely frivolous, she is hard to teach." She was sent to France at the age of fourteen to marry a boy she had never met, and to one day rule a country she had never seen. She was said to have missed both her parents and the privacy of her home, and wept for days at a time in the French court. When the King died five years after her marriage, Marie became the Queen of France. 

Marie was not everything that people desired in their Queen. She was outspoken for a woman, and often reported to be improper in her actions and words. She enjoyed the same activities as men, but also spent a large amount of her time working on her appearance, and enjoyed balls more than anyone else at court. Her husband, however, loathed social gatherings, and found court life too exciting and improper. 

When Marie was twenty two, she gave birth to her first child, a daughter. After that she grew distant from her husband, often abandoning court life in favor of her own private estate, where she did not have to worry about ruling or gossip, two things that she despised about the French court. 

She could do nothing, however, to deter the gossip back at court. Many said that she was having an affair with Count Axel von Fersen, a Swede in the court. Others simply said that she was unintelligent, improper, and not a suitable Queen. At the same time, the economy in France was at one of its worst points of all time, and people blamed that on the rulers, both Marie and her husband. 

After the diamond necklace scandal many of the French found themselves disillusioned. Almost all 

European governments in that period gave their blind trust to the reigning monarchs. But the French no longer trusted Marie, and by default, did not trust Louis either. This troubled Marie deeply, and she took to hiding away, even building another retreat to turn to. 

In 1789, a group of commoners stormed Bastille Prison. This action started the French Revolution. Marie knew that her husband would do nothing to stop the rebellion, and so she called on her connections in other countries to help. But no one could do anything to save them. They were arrested. Louis was tried for treason and found guilty in January 1793. He was executed. 

In October of the same year, Marie was put on trial for treason, theft, and sexual abuse of her son. The male jury found her guilty of these crimes, and she was beheaded on October 16th. Even the day before her death, Marie would not admit to any crimes. She claimed that she had a free conscience. When the priest told her to have courage in the face of her death, she responded by saying, "The moment that my ills are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me." 

Marie Antoinette was an important political figure of her time and played a decisive role in the French Revolution. However, in history she is often villainized as being selfish and speaking her mind. It is important to remember when speaking about such matters that what is written about women of the past was written by those living then, and most often they were men whose views were clouded by misogyny. Marie Antoinette could not be faulted for the French Revolution, it was the inherent sexism present at court that caused any part she may have played i nthe downfall of her country.