Marie-Antoinette - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Marie Antoinette: Early Life Marie Antoinette, the 15th child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and the powerful Habsburg empress Maria Theresa, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1755–an age of great instability for European monarchies. In 1766, as a way to cement the relatively new alliance between the French and Habsburg thrones, Maria Theresa promised her young daughter’s hand in marriage to the future king Louis XVI of France. Four years later, Marie Antoinette and the dauphin were married by proxy in Vienna. (They were 15 and 16 years old, and they had never met.) On May 16, 1770, a lavish second wedding ceremony took place in the royal chapel at Versailles. More than 5,000 guests watched as the two teenagers were married. It was the beginning of Marie Antoinette’s life in the public eye. Did You Know? There is no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said that starving peasants should “eat cake” if they had no bread.

In fact, the story of a fatuous noblewoman who said “Let them eat cake!” appears in the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, which was written around 1766 (when Marie Antoinette was just 11 years old). Marie Antoinette: Life at Versailles Life as a public figure was not easy for Marie Antoinette. Her marriage was difficult and, as she had very few official duties, she spent most of her time socializing and indulging her extravagant tastes. (For example, she had a model farm built on the palace grounds so that she and her ladies-in-waiting could dress in elaborate costumes and pretend to be milkmaids and shepherdesses.) Widely circulated newspapers and inexpensive pamphlets poked fun at the queen’s profligate behavior and spread outlandish, even pornographic rumors about her. Before long, it had become fashionable to blame Marie Antoinette for all of France’s problems. Marie Antoinette: The French Revolution In fact, the nation’s difficulties were not the young queen’s fault.

Eighteenth-century colonial wars–particularly the American Revolution , in which the French had intervened on behalf of the colonists–had created a tremendous debt for the French state. The people who owned most of the property in France, such as the Catholic Church (the “First Estate”) and the nobility (the “Second Estate”), generally did not have to pay taxes on their wealth; ordinary people, on the other hand, felt squeezed by high taxes and resentful of the royal family’s conspicuous spending. Louis XVI and his advisers tried to impose a more representative system of taxation, but the nobility resisted. (The popular press blamed Marie Antoinette for this–she was known as “Madame Veto,” among other things–though she was far from the only wealthy person in France to defend the privileges of the aristocracy.) In 1789, representatives from all three estates (the clergy, the nobility and the common people) met at Versailles to come up with a plan for the reform of the French state, but noblemen and clergymen were still reluctant to give up their prerogatives.

The “Third Estate” delegates, inspired by Enlightenment ideas about personal liberty and civic equality, formed a “National Assembly” that placed government in the hands of French citizens for the first time. At the same time, conditions worsened for ordinary French people, and many became convinced that the monarchy and the nobility were conspiring against them. Marie Antoinette continued to be a convenient target for their rage. Cartoonists and pamphleteers depicted her as an “Austrian whore” doing everything she could to undermine the French nation. In October 1789, a mob of Parisian women protesting the high cost of bread and other goods marched to Versailles, dragged the entire royal family back to the city, and imprisoned them in the Tuileries. In June 1791, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fled Paris and headed for the Austrian border–where, rumor had it, the queen’s brother, the Holy Roman Emperor, waited with troops ready to invade France, overthrow the revolutionary government and restore the power of the monarchy and the nobility. This incident, it seemed to many, was proof that the queen was not just a foreigner: She was a traitor.

Marie Antoinette: The Terror The royal family was returned to Paris and Louis XVI was restored to the throne. However, many revolutionaries began to argue that the most insidious enemies of the state were not the nobles but the monarchs themselves. In April 1792, partly as a way to test the loyalties of the king and queen, the Jacobin (radical revolutionary) government declared war on Austria. The French army was in a shambles and the war did not go well—a turn of events that many blamed on the foreign-born queen. In August, another mob stormed the Tuileries, overthrew the monarchy and locked the family in a tower. In September, revolutionaries began to massacre royalist prisoners by the thousands. One of Marie Antoinette’s best friends, the Princesse de Lamballe, was dismembered in the street, and revolutionaries paraded her head and body parts through Paris. In December, Louis XVI was put on trial for treason; in January, he was executed. The campaign against Marie Antoinette likewise grew stronger.

In July 1793, she lost custody of her young son, who was forced to accuse her of sexual abuse and incest before a Revolutionary tribunal. In October, she was convicted of treason and sent to the guillotine. She was 37 years old. Marie Antoinette: Legacy The story of revolution and resistance in 18th-century France is a complicated one, and no two historians tell the story the same way. However, it is clear that for the revolutionaries, Marie Antoinette’s significance was mainly, powerfully symbolic. She and the people around her seemed to represent everything that was wrong with the monarchy and the Second Estate: They appeared to be tone-deaf, out of touch, disloyal (along with her allegedly treasonous behavior, writers and pamphleteers frequently accused the queen of adultery) and self-interested. What Marie Antoinette was actually like was beside the point; the image of the queen was far more influential than the woman herself. Tags Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution . Famous Faces .

The Teen Queen: Marie Antoinette | PBS Extended Interviews > Resources > For Educators > The Teen Queen: Marie Antoinette As Queen of France, Marie Antoinette had no official role and no legitimate political power — her main job was to produce a male heir to continue her husband's royal line. Like the marriage, the coronation of Louis XVI was greeted warmly by the French people, who had great hopes that after the fifty-year reign of Louis XV, the young King would bring new ideas, much-needed reforms, and a fresh approach to governing France in a rapidly-changing world. This goodwill quickly eroded as the King's economic policies failed, while his Queen failed to produce an heir. He seemed to lose interest in government, as she became aggressively social, attending the Opera and dances in the capital, gambling and partying late into the night at Versailles. In public and at court she was seen only in the latest and most expensive fashions. Rumors about her alleged secret lovers and out-of-control spending increased. Illegal presses began printing pamphlets showing the queen as an ignorant, adulterous spendthrift.

Some speculated in print that the King's brother, the comte d'Artois, was taking the King's place in his wife's bed. Louis XVI was the first French king in two hundred years not to have a royal mistress; Marie Antoinette was the first queen to believe that she could be both wife and mistress to her husband. However, by cultivating fashion, taste, and the arts while failing to produce a legitimate heir, Marie Antoinette looked to all the world like a mistress, not a wife, and one whose sexuality was directed away from the King. All the ire that had been directed at Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry, Louis XV's most famous mistresses, was now redirected at the only target available: the Queen who acted like a mistress, but who was not satisfied, it seemed, with the King. Marie Antoinette's first child, Marie Therese Charlotte, was finally born in December 1778, followed by Louis Joseph in 1781, Louis Charles in 1785 and Sophie Béatrix in 1786. As she grew older, the Queen became less extravagant, devoting herself to her children, two of whom died in childhood.

In fact, her first son, the dauphin, died on June 4, 1789. This meant that the Queen was in mourning for her son when the Tennis Court Oath was signed on June 20, the Bastille fell on July 14, and still when the Great Fear spread throughout the countryside in August. In October 1789, the royal family was forced to leave Versailles for the Tuileries palace in the heart of Paris, where they lived in prison-like isolation. Marie Antoinette secretly requested help from other European rulers, including her royal siblings in Austria and Naples. On the night of June 20, 1791, the royal family attempted to flee. Their escape plan was said to have been engineered by Axel von Fersen, the Swedish count who was rumored to be one of the Queen's lovers. It is incontestable that Marie Antoinette's brother awaited the royal family just across the border and that he was accompanied by troops ready to invade. They were caught in the small town of Varennes, half-way to the border, and brought back to Paris, prisoners now of the Revolutionary government.

On the night of August 10, 1792, militants attacked the royal palace where Marie Antoinette and her family were being held and forced the Legislative Assembly to "suspend" the King. Little more than a month later, on September 20, the new National Convention was convened, and two days later it voted to declare France a republic, thus abolishing the monarchy. From that moment on, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were no longer King and Queen, but, like many others, imprisoned citizens suspected of treason. Marie Antoinette became a widow when her husband was guillotined to death after being tried and convicted of treason in January 1793. Her two remaining children were subsequently taken from her. After a brief trial, Marie Antoinette herself was convicted of treason and also of sexual abuse of her son in October 1793. On October 16, she too was executed by guillotine. She was 37 years old.

Famous Faces Marie Antoinette & The French Revolution - King Louis XVI King Louis XVI Marie Antoinette & The French Revolution Quick Biography Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793), Louis-Auguste de France, ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792. Suspended and arrested during the 10th of August 1792 Insurrection , he was tried by the National Convention , found guilty of treason , and executed on 21 January 1793. He was the only king of France to be executed, and by a guillotine. Although Louis was beloved at first, his indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to eventually hate him as a symbol of the perceived tyranny of the Ancien Régime . After the abolition of the monarchy in 1792, the new republican government gave him the surname Capet, a reference to the nickname of Hugh Capet , founder of the Capetian dynasty , which the revolutionaries wrongly interpreted as a family name.

He was also informally nicknamed Louis le Dernier (Louis the Last), a derisive use of the traditional nicknaming of French kings. Today, historians and Frenchmen in general have a more nuanced view of Louis XVI, who is seen as an honest man with good intentions, but who was probably unfit for the herculean task of reforming the monarchy, and who was used as a scapegoat by the revolutionaries. Sexual problems Louis Aguste's sexual awkwardness,was to be public and legendery , began with his refusal to consuminate his marriage to the pretty,young dauphine.It was not until August 22,1777,what the emporer referred to "the great work" was done.Marie-Antoinette wrote o the empress that a proper consumination had taken place,and her brother,the emporer,to thank him for his assistance.

Good Father & Husband Dispite their troubled sex life and his anti-Austrian upbringings,Louis became sincerly attached to his wife.Even asking her once,publicy & sweetly, "but do you love me?" in 1782, he made the unpresented annoucement that he would not be taking a mistress dispite pressure from doing so in court.An equally devoted father,he moved his cynical courtiers to tears by reasssuring his daughter,Madame Royale,that he had never regretted that she was born not a son.When his eldest son became sick,he visited the suffering child 5 or 6 times a day.During the months of imprisoment in the tower,he took on the schooling of his youngest son himself. Create a free website Marie Antoinette | History | Smithsonian Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Marie Antoinette The teenage queen was embraced by France in 1770. Twenty-three years later, she lost her head to the guillotine.

(But she never said, "Let them eat cake") Marie-Antoinette, her children, and Madame de Tourzel face the mob at the Tuleries on June 20th, 1792. ( The Tuileries, 20th June 1792 ) Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe November 2006 Late September sunlight filters onto the blue velvet furnishings of the jewel-box theater built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles. The painted, original backdrop depicts a rustic farmhouse hearth, and I can just imagine the young queen reveling in her role as a shepherdess while her witty friends and dull husband, French king Louis XVI, applaud politely. At the time I was there, the theater was closed to most visitors (it is now open to the public from April 1 through October 31), and I wanted to take full advantage of my access. "Go ahead. Have a good, long look," said Christian Baulez, Versailles' chief conservator. On the way out, Baulez, who has worked at the former royal palace for four decades, locked the gate with a heavy iron key.

"From time to time, you have to visit a spot like the theater when there's no one else around to give the place a chance to trigger an emotional reaction," he said. "You're thinking about other things, then all of a sudden, you're totally surprised. It's a state of grace, an aura you sense—even after 40 years here." The frivolous 14-year-old Austrian princess who came to France to marry the future king, Louis XVI, developed strength and character over the years. (Public Domain) To escape palace life, Marie Antoinette built a hideaway for herself and her intimate friends that included cottages equipped with couches, stoves, and billiard tables. ( Creative Commons ) "The moment when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is going to fail me," the former queen (sketched en route to the guillotine) said shortly before her execution.

(Public Domain) Thought of as the power behind the throne, Marie Antoinette prophesied, "They are going to force us to go to Paris, the King and me, preceded by the heads of our bodyguards on pikes." (Public Domain) The Austrian Empress Maria Theresa gave birth to her fifteenth child, Marie Antoinette, on November 2, 1755. (Wikipedia.com) After Louis XVI's execution, Marie Antoinette was transferred to the Conciergerie Prison, dubbed "death's antechamber." (Public Domain) (© Bettmann/CORBIS) King Louis XVI with Marie and their children (© Bettmann/CORBIS) Arrest of Marie and Louis XVI at Varennes (© Bettmann/CORBIS) Marie and children embracing King Louis XVI before his execution Marie condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal (© Bettmann/CORBIS) I did not commune with Marie Antoinette's ghost, as some claim to have done. But I had to admit that there is a poignancy about the playhouse and its fantasy world.

Less than a decade after the theater's inauguration in 1780, the curtain would come crashing down on the French monarchy and its Austrian-born queen, who seemed to grow in moral stature as she approached the guillotine. With the possible exception of the Corsican-born Napoleon, another outsider who overstayed his welcome, no one haunts French history like the Hapsburg princess. The frivolous, high-spirited tomboy who arrived at Versailles at age 14 was quickly embraced by her subjects. Yet by the time of her execution 23 years later, she was reviled. Thrust into a social and political hurricane, Marie Antoinette, biographer Stefan Zweig wrote in the 1930s, was "perhaps the most signal example in history of the way in which destiny will at times pluck a mediocre human being from obscurity and, with commanding hand, force the man or woman in question to overstep the bounds of mediocrity." Ultimately, even Marie Antoinette herself grasped how suffering gave her fortitude.

"Tribulation first makes one realize what one is," the queen wrote in August 1791, soon after the royal family's failed escape attempt from their detention in Paris. Marie Antoinette's fairy tale turned tragedy has spawned biographies, fictionalizations, operas, plays, ballets and memoirs. Even her hairdresser and her executioner published ghostwritten recollections. And, like the 300 gowns the queen ordered each year, the story is a perfect fit for Hollywood. The 1938 film Marie Antoinette, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Morley, is considered a classic of historical melodrama. Now, Sofia Coppola has directed a new interpretation, with Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman in the lead roles. Based largely on British biographer Antonia Fraser's 2001 biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey , the new film, also called Marie Antoinette , was released in the United States last month. "I was struck by the fact that Louis and Marie were teenagers—he was 19 when he was crowned, she was 18—in charge of France at the most vulnerable time in its history," says Coppola.

"I didn't set out on a campaign to correct the misperceptions about her; I just wanted to tell the story from her point of view." Each year millions of visitors flock to Versailles and Fontainebleau, where the queen maintained a second palace, to admire her exuberant tastes in furniture and décor. But it is her furtive love life that arouses the deepest interest—and sympathy. Tarred by pamphleteers for sexual wantonness, she was actually rather prudish, at least according to her brother, Austrian emperor Joseph II. Despite a number of innocent flirtations, she deeply loved—probably with Louis' tacit approval, according to a confidante—only one man: Swedish military attaché Count Axel Fersen. Although Marie Antoinette initially condescended to her husband, she eventually developed a genuine fondness for him. For his part, Louis was completely devoted to her and never took a mistress, exhibiting a restraint virtually unheard of in an 18th-century French king. Marie Antoinette: Queen Executed in French Revolution Updated October 02, 2016.

Marie Antoinette Facts Known for supposedly saying "Let them eat cake," as well as for her support of the monarchy against reforms and against the French Revolution, and for her execution at the guillotine. Also Known As: Maria-Antoine, Josephe-Jeanne-Marie-Antoinette, Marie-Antoinette Marie Antoinette Biography Marie Antoinette was born in Austria, a daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor , and Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. She was born on the same day as the famous earthquake of Lisbon. As with most royal daughters, Marie Antoinette was promised in marriage in order build a diplomatic alliance between her birth family and the family of her husband. (Her sister, Maria Carolina , was married to Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, for example.) Marie Antoinette married the French dauphin, Louis, grandson of Louis XV of France, in 1770. He ascended the throne in 1774 as Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette was welcomed in France at first. continue reading below our video What is a Guillotine? Her frivolity contrasted with the withdrawn personality of her husband.

After her mother died in 1780, she became more extravagant and this led to growing resentment. The French were suspicious of her ties to Austria and her influence on the King in attempting to foster policies friendly to Austria. Marie Antoinette, formerly welcomed, now was vilified for her spending habits and opposition to reforms. The 1785-86 Affair of the Diamond Necklace , a scandal in which she was accused of having an affair with a cardinal in order to obtain a costly diamond necklace, further discredited her and reflected on the monarchy. After an initial slow start at the expected role of childbearer -- her husband apparently had to be coached in his role in this -- Marie Antoinette gave birth to her first child, a daughter, in 1778, and sons in 1781 and 1785. By most accounts she was a devoted mother. Paintings of the family stressed her domestic role.

Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution After the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789, the queen urged the king to resist the Assembly's reforms, making her even more unpopular, and leading to the attribution to her of the remark, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!" -- "Let them eat cake! " In October, 1789, the royal couple were forced to move to Paris. Reportedly planned by Marie Antoinette, the escape of the royal couple from Paris was stopped at Varennes on October 21, 1791. Imprisoned with the king, Marie Antoinette continued to plot. She hoped for foreign intervention to end the revolution and free the royal family. She urged her brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, to intervene, and supported a declaration of war against Austria in April, 1792, which she hoped would result in the defeat of France. Her unpopularity helped lead to the overthrow of the monarchy when Parisiennes stormed the Tuileries palace on Aug. 10, 1792, followed by the establishment of the First French Republic in September.

The family was imprisoned in the Temple on August 13, 1792, and moved to the Conciergie on Autust 1, 1793. There were several attempts to escape, but all failed. Louis XVI was executed in January 1793, and Marie Antoinette was executed by the guillotine on October 16 of that year. She was charged with aiding the enemy and inciting civil war.

Marie Antoinette Biographies Madame Campan, The Private Life of Marie Antoinette Sofia Coppola, Marie Antoinette (2006) Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution (2006) Marie-France Boyer, The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette (2006) Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (2001) Chantal Thomas, The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette (2001) Evelyne Lever, Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France (2000) Dorothy Moulton Mayer, Marie Antoinette: The Tragic Queen (1969) Stanley Loomis, The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes (1962, 1972) André Castelot, Queen of France: A Biography of Marie Antoinette (1957) Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman (trans.

1933; 2002) Hilaire Belloc, Marie Antoinette (1909; 2d ed. 1924) More women's history biographies, by name: Wedded, Unbedded, and Beheaded: The Human Side of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - Biography.com History & Culture Wedded, Unbedded, and Beheaded: The Human Side of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette On the 221st anniversary of King Louis XVI's execution, we take a more intimate look at him and his wife Marie Antoinette—the good, the bad, and the naughty. Avatar: Social count: 441 On the 221st anniversary of King Louis XVI's execution, we take a more intimate look at him and his wife Marie Antoinette—the good, the bad, and the naughty. 441 0 A painting of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the Gardens of Versailles, by Charles Louis Lucien Muller.

(Image: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images ) The reign of Louis XVI , the final Bourbon king of France, was a varied and eventful one, but when we think of him and his queen Marie Antoinette , certain associations inevitably pop into our minds. Perhaps we think of the couple’s ostentatious wealth, as exemplified by their palace at Versailles. Or, maybe we recall their blasé attitude towards the working poor, as reflected in Marie Antoinette’s famous quip, “Let them eat cake.” Some of us may think immediately of the grim machine responsible for the royal couple’s untimely end, the guillotine. This historical shorthand may be the best we can do when we’re trying to absorb the whole of human history, but it doesn’t present us with a very well-rounded picture of an era or its important actors. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t deliver a very accurate picture at all. For instance, Marie Antoinette, forever identified with the contemptuous phrase “Let them eat cake,” never actually spoke those words. Yet, this tidbit of misinformation has defined her for generations.

History is made by people – people who have likes and dislikes, who love and hate, who possess virtues as well as flaws. Kings and queens, living on a large stage, experience more spectacular successes and more dramatic failures than most of us, but ultimately they are just people. Today, on the anniversary of King Louis XVI's execution in 1793, we spotlight some facts about him and his wife Marie Antoinette that may help to add a human dimension to our understanding of these often maligned historical figures. 1. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were barely in their teens when they married. In the days of the European monarchies, marriage was less a matter of personal inclination than political expediency. Governments interested in forming alliances with other countries would as a matter of course attempt to unite their leaders with the offspring of other royalty. This was the case for Louis-Auguste, third son of the dauphin of France, grandson of King Louis XV . Louis-Auguste was not a promising specimen. His grandfather, the king, considered him “ungainly” and “dimwitted”; kinder appraisers regarded him as shy and withdrawn, living in the shadow of an attractive older brother being groomed for the crown.

This brother died young, however, and Louis-Auguste the loner was thrust into a public role as the heir apparent to the throne. Watch the 'Origins of the French Revolution': Louis XVI - Origins of the French Revolution (TV-14; 3:38) Learn about the origins and outcomes of the French Revolution. Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna was born in Vienna, the beautiful daughter of Emperor Francis I . Unlike Louis-Auguste, who had a rather austere upbringing, she was a very social child with a close family and many friends. She liked playing music and dancing and was reportedly very talented at both. Her mother Maria Theresa, acting as queen after the death of the emperor, planned to unite Austria with its former enemy France through marriage. Most likely, Antonia would not have been selected to fulfill this duty, but her older, eligible sisters had died from an outbreak of smallpox. Not yet 12 years old, she was promised to the future king of France. Marriages often took place by proxy in those days; Maria Antonia was married to Louis in 1768, without having met him (her brother stood in).

In 1770, she was finally sent to France for the formal marriage ceremony. She was 14 at the time, Louis was 15. On the big day, Louis donned a suit of silver, and Marie wore a lilac dress dripping with diamonds and pearls. There were over 5,000 guests, and a crowd of 200,000 watched the concluding fireworks display. Two occurrences of that day could be seen as bad omens for the marriage: a big storm, which threatened ominously during the ceremony, and a riot at the fireworks display that resulted in hundreds of people getting trampled. 2. Louis and Marie’s royal bedroom was on the quiet side. Since they were more or less children at the time, we would not be surprised today that nothing much happened at first when Louis and Marie were thrust together. One of the key reasons for royal marriages, however, was to produce heirs, and this was expected to happen with some alacrity. In the case of the royal couple, a long night stretched into seven years, a situation that not only personally distressed the members of the royal household, but which in time became a political liability.

SEE OUR FAMOUS BEHEADED GROUP Several reasons have been proposed for the fact that the marriage went unconsummated for seven years. Louis, self-conscious and insecure, may not have been very interested in sex, unlike his licentious grandfather, who lambasted him for his reluctance. Marie, who was interested in sex, became increasingly frustrated with this state of affairs. Her mother eventually sent Marie’s brother Joseph to town to find out what the problem was. Joseph referred to the royals as “two complete blunderers” and didn’t discover any good reason why the sheets remained so cold in the royal bedchamber other than a lack of inclination or, perhaps, a lack of education. Joseph’s straight talk during his visit seemed to produce results; the couple sent him a thank-you letter and produced four children in relatively quick succession. Some wags wondered if the children were Louis’s, given Marie’s almost understandable interest in other men at court, but no one was able to prove otherwise. The long delay had done damage to Louis’ reputation as king, however, with some critics contending that a man who could not perform on a personal level was likely to be just as ineffective as a leader.

Some ill-advised policies advanced by Louis did nothing to contradict this point of view. 3. Louis spent more time on padlocks than wedlock. Since Louis didn’t seem very interested in a vivacious young bride, what exactly was he interested in? Although it wasn’t the kind of working with his hands that the French may have preferred, what Louis liked to do was work with metal and wood. Unencumbered with learning how to be kingly at a young age, Louis found himself drawn to the solitary pursuits of lock making and carpentry. The royal locksmith, a man named François Gamain, befriended him and taught him how to make locks from scratch. It wasn’t long before Louis became interested in carpentry and began to make furniture. If his path in life hadn’t been preordained, it seems likely that Louis would have been a simple craftsman rather than a king. On the other hand, being king allowed Louis to explore his interests on an extravagant level, given that the palace at Versailles was his playground. A view of the 'Tapis Vert' at Versailles, with the king and Marie Antoinette in the foreground.

(Image: Imagno/ Getty Images ) Once, Louis attempted to use his talents to reach out to his wife. He crafted her a spinning wheel, a considerate present for a clotheshorse like Marie Antoinette, who averaged over 200 new dresses per year. The story goes that Marie thanked him courteously and then gave it away to one of her attendants. Later on, Louis had much worse luck with his old friend from the locksmith shop. Nervous about the revolutionary fervor bubbling up in France, Louis asked Gamain to craft an iron chest with a special lock to protect important papers. By this time, Gamain had secretly joined the revolutionary cause. Marie warned Louis that Gamain might be untrustworthy, but Louis could not believe that his friend of 20 years would betray him. He did, and the betrayal led to the discovery of the iron chest by the ministers seeking to overthrow the king. 4. Marie Antoinette liked flowers and chocolates, Queen-style. While Louis was busy making locks and spinning wheels, Marie was indulging her taste for luxury.

Raised by her family in a homespun manner, often helping out with chores and playing with “common” children, Marie nonetheless took to the role of queen with gusto. She became notorious for her pricey fashions and expensively sculpted hair. A party girl, she planned and attended innumerable dances, once famously playing a trick on her homebody husband to get out the door sooner. Louis usually went to bed at 11 p.m., so the mischievous Marie set the clocks back so that he went to bed earlier without realizing it. SEE OUR FAMOUS KINGS GROUP Two of Marie’s favorite things were, ironically enough, things we associate with romance: flowers and chocolate. Flowers were almost an obsession with the queen, who papered her walls with flowered wallpaper, decorated all of her commissioned furniture with flower motifs (perhaps Louis should have put a daisy or two on that spinning wheel), and tended the real thing in her own personal flower garden on her mini-estate at Versailles, Petit Trianon. She even commissioned a unique perfume, whose floral sent was a mixture of orange blossom, jasmine, iris, and rose.

(Some historians have contended that this unique scent aided in the capture of the king and queen when they tried to flee to Austria during the height of the revolution.) As for chocolate, Marie had her own chocolate maker on the premises at Versailles. Her favorite form of chocolate was in liquid form; she’d begin every day with a hot cup of chocolate with whipped cream, often enhanced by orange blossom. A special tea set was dedicated to the purpose. Chocolate was still largely a luxury item in 18th century France, so a steady diet of chocolate was the kind of luxury only available to a queen. Such personal indulgences no doubt added fire to the ire of the revolutionaries. 5. Louis was a homebody and a bookworm. As the story about the clock makes clear, Louis was not exactly a party animal. While Marie enjoyed music, dancing, and gambling, Louis’ idea of a pleasant evening was to enjoy a good book by the fireside and retire early. Louis XVI had one of the most impressive personal libraries of his day, almost 8,000 carefully arranged volumes of bound leather. Unlike Marie, whose education was spotty, Louis was well-educated and continued to be interested in learning once he became king.

Although he no doubt read the philosophy and political thinking that was current, he was a big fan of history and even read fiction. Robinson Crusoe was one of his favorite fictional works. The choice is not that surprising for a man who probably wished he were on a desert island at times. The execution of King Louis XVI. (Image: The Print Collector/Print Collector/ Getty Images ) Louis’s extensive reading fostered enlightened aims. He advocated the abolition of serfdom, an increase in religious tolerance, and fewer taxes on the poor. He supported the American Revolution, hoping to weaken the British Empire. However, these aims were blocked at every juncture by a hostile aristocracy desperate to preserve the social structure in France and irritated that their money was funding foreign wars. A frustrated populace soon blamed the king and the nobility for inaction and revolutionary attitudes began to foment. For a king who tried very hard to be popular and fair, asserting more than once that he “wanted to be loved” by the people, this development was dismaying. 6. Marie Antoinette was not a monster that ate babies for breakfast.

Political pamphleteers of the day did much to deride Marie Antoinette for her profligate spending habits, nicknaming her “Madame Déficit.” They often portrayed her as an ignorant woman who treated her social inferiors with disregard at best and contempt at worst. Much of this character assassination was simply invented. Although Marie Antoinette was guilty of sins against decorum and exhibited a certain insensitivity to the value of money, she was a person who liked people and bore little resemblance to the cold villain portrayed by her detractors. Marie was especially fond of children, possibly because she had been childless for so long, and she adopted a number of children during her reign. When one of her maids died, Marie adopted the woman’s orphaned daughter, who became a companion to Marie’s own first daughter. Similarly, when an usher and his wife died suddenly, Marie adopted the three children, paying for two girls to enter a convent while the third became a companion for her son Louis-Charles. Most strikingly, she baptized and took into her care a Senegalese boy presented to her as a gift, who normally would have been pressed into service. Other examples of her kindness abound.

Out for a carriage ride, one of her attendants accidentally ran over a wine grower in the field. Marie Antoinette flew out of the carriage to attend personally to the hurt man. She paid for his care and supported his family until he was able to work again. It wasn’t the first time she and Louis picked up the bill; they even took financial care of the families hurt in the stampede on their wedding day. Together with Louis, Marie gave liberally to charity. She established a home for unwed mothers; patronized the Maison Philanthropique, a society for the aged, widowed, and blind; and made frequent visits to poor families, giving them food and money. During the famine of 1787, she sold the royal flatware to provide grain for struggling families, and the royal family ate cheaper grain so there would be more food to go around. All of this is not to say that Marie Antoinette was not a spendthrift who wasted millions of dollars on unnecessary luxuries, but she was also capable of a Christian kindness that her enemies chose to ignore. 7. Louis XVI was not a cat person.

Although he was generally a fair and gentle man, Louis XVI did bear some hatred in his heart for one particular race of creatures: cats. It’s anyone’s guess where this hatred stemmed from, but a likely source would be his grandfather, Louis XV, who adored cats. Affection was an absent commodity between Louis and his grandfather, and he was unlikely to share enthusiasm for anything that his grandfather loved. Furthermore, Louis XV had allowed his cats to breed indiscriminately, and they overran the grounds at Versailles. There are stories that Louis-Auguste may have been scratched by one of these cats as a child. Aside from lock making and reading, one of Louis’s greatest passions was hunting. When not pursuing animals in the field, he would often hunt and shoot the cats overrunning the Versailles grounds. Once he accidentally shot a female courtier’s cat, thinking it was one of the feral Versailles cats. He apologized profusely and bought the woman a new one. It should be noted in Louis’s defense that household cats were not as common in the 18th century as they are now, and his distaste for them was not unusual.

For centuries, cats had been regarded as somewhat evil creatures in Europe, and during religious times of the year, they were regularly rounded up, tortured, and killed. At Metz, near France’s northeastern border, “Cat Wednesday” was a Lenten tradition in which 13 cats in a cage were burned alive in front of a cheering crowd. This tradition came to an end during Louis’s lifetime. It’s unlikely that Louis would have tortured cats; he just didn’t seem to want them in his house. Luckily, his wife preferred dogs. 8. Marie Antoinette was an unhappy victim of pornographers. Always somewhat unpopular in France owing to her provenance (the French and Austrians had disliked each other for hundreds of years), Marie Antoinette was one of the most attacked public figures in the history of France. Often, the attacks on her took on a very unwholesome hue. Even before revolutionary fervor took hold of the country, pamphleteers published satirical, often obscene libelles intended to smear the Queen’s reputation. Marie Antoinette, adorned with a necklace of her children, mourns the death of her husband.

(Image: DeAgostini/ Getty Images ) The childlessness of the royal couple was no doubt responsible for the initial attacks, which focused just as frequently on Louis. As time went on, however, speculations about the Queen’s love life independent of her husband became rife. At various times, Marie was accused of sleeping with her brother-in-law, generals of the army, other women (apparently, women of Austrian background were considered by many French to be inclined towards lesbianism), and even her son. Marie became a scapegoat for the nation’s ills, her alleged moral failings representative of the monarchy’s evidently debauched character. For pornographic publishers, vilifying the queen while also engaging in cheap (and profitable) titillation was a win-win situation. All of this slander would be so much hot air if it didn’t have real-life consequences. One of the most troubling is the fate of Marie’s close friend, the Princess de Lamballe, who was superintendent of the royal household. Scurrilous publications had depicted the princess as the queen’s lesbian lover, and public sentiment was against her. After a show trial, she was marched into the streets and attacked by a violent mob.

Some accounts mention mutilation and sexual violation as part of the attack, although these accounts have been disputed; what is not disputed is that she was beaten and beheaded, her head stuck on a pike and marched around Paris. Some accounts say that the head was tauntingly raised up so that Marie could view it from her cell in the Temple tower, where she was imprisoned. Although Marie Antoinette likely had lovers during her reign (most notably, the Swedish count Axel von Fersen, with whom she exchanged love letters written in an elaborate code), the perversion attributed to her by her detractors was simply more fuel for the fire of hatred intended to weaken the regime. The character assassination was effective; upon her death at the guillotine on October 16, 1793, rabid crowds dipped their handkerchiefs in the queen’s blood and cheered when her disembodied head was raised up for view. The power of the press was rarely used for such ignominious ends. Tags Marie Antoinette | Queen of France Home: Library: Marie Antoinette “Courage!

I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?” - MARIE ANTOINETTE Marie Antoinette Queen of France, 1755 - 1793 Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest and most beautiful daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa , Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Marie Antoinette was brought up believing her destiny was to become queen of France. She married the crown prince of France in 1770. Four years later she became queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI (House of Bourbon). The stories of Antoinette's excesses are vastly overstated. In fact, rather than ignoring France's growing financial crisis, she reduced the royal household staff, eliminating many unnecessary positions that were based solely on privilege. In the process she offended the nobles, adding their condemnation to the scandalous stories spread by royal hopefuls. It was the nobility that balked at the financial reforms the government ministers tried to make, not the King and Queen, who were in favor of change.

In truth, Antoinette and Louis were placed in harms' way not only by elements of their personalities, but by the changing face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. From that point on the King and Queen were virtual prisoners. Antoinette sought aid from other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and her sister, Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791 Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria and Prussia declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine. Marie Antoinette was cruely treated during her final days of captivity. Her best friend, the Princess de Lambelle, was killed and her severed head was put on a pike and paraded in front of the Queen.

Her children (Marie Therese and Louis XVII) were taken from her. Louis XVII was subjected to abuse by the family's jailers and later died, supposedly of Tuberculosis and malnutrition. Marie Therese, her firstborn daughter was the only family member to survive. For additional information about Marie Antoinette and Louis's children, click here . Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. She was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused. She was only 37 years old. The Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon I . The succession went to the closest living relative of Louis XVI who became Louis XVIII. He had escaped to Britain where he sat out the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The new monarchy had a bumpy road, lasting until 1848 and the ascension of Napoleon III . After Napoleon III abdicated in 1871, France became a republic. If you are aware of books, movies, databases, web sites or other information sources about Marie Antoinette or related subjects, or if you would like to comment, please contact us . Resource Menu

Question: Which French king was the husband of Marie Antoinette?
Answer: King Louis XVI