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Marie Antoinette of Austria
Maria Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre, by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, ca. 1779.
Queen consort of France and Navarre
Tenure	10 May 1774 – 21 September 1792
Born	(1755-11-02)2 November 1755 Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria
Died	16 October 1793 (aged 37) Place de la Révolution, Paris, France
Burial	21 January 1815 Saint Denis Basilica, France
Spouse	Louis XVI of France
Issue	Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France Louis XVII of France Princess Marie Sophie
Names Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Theresa
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature

Marie Antoinette (/məˈriː æntwəˈnɛt/ or /æntwɑːˈnɛt/; French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt]; baptised Maria Antonia Josepha (or Josephina) Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793), born an Archduchess of Austria, was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I.

In April 1770, upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine of France. She assumed the title Queen of France and of Navarre when her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI upon the death of his grandfather Louis XV in May 1774. After seven years of marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, the first of her four children.

Initially charmed by her personality and beauty, the French people eventually came to dislike her, accusing "L'Autrichienne" (which literally means the Austrian (woman), but also suggests the French word "chienne", meaning bitch) of being profligate, promiscuous, and of harbouring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly Austria, her country of origin. The Diamond Necklace incident damaged her reputation further, although she was completely innocent in this affair. She later became known as Madame Déficit because France's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending.

The royal family's flight to Varennes had disastrous effects on French popular opinion: Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison. Nine months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was herself tried, convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of treason to the principles of the revolution, and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793.

Long after her death, Marie Antoinette is often considered to be a part of popular culture and a major historical figure, being the subject of several books, films and other forms of media. Some academics and scholars have deemed her frivolous and superficial, and have attributed the start of the French Revolution to her; however, others have claimed that she was treated unjustly and that views of her should be more sympathetic.

Early life

Maria Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. She was the youngest and 8th living daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg dominions, and Emperor Francis I. The next day, she was baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna (also known as Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna). Her godparents were the King and Queen of Portugal. Described at her birth as "a small, but completely healthy archduchess", she was also known at the Austrian court as Antonia, but more often as Madame Antoine, since French was commonly spoken in the Hofburg.

The relaxed ambience of court life in the Hofburg, where it was possible to often deviate from protocol, was compounded by the private life which was developed by the Habsburgs even before Maria Antonia was born. In their private life, the family dressed in bourgeois attire, played games with non-royal children (they were, in fact, encouraged to play with such 'common' children by their parents), and were treated to gardens and menageries. She later attempted to recreate this atmosphere through her renovation of the Petit Trianon in France.

Maria Antonia had a relatively simple childhood in comparison with that of Louis XVI. She was never lonely, since she never had the chance to be alone. This was particularly evident in her relationship with her older sister, Maria Carolina: they were the two youngest girls, and shared the same governesses, Carolina once described her sister as someone she "loved extraordinarily".

Antonia's education was poor, or at least it lacked the rigorous training of Louis XVI's; her handwriting, for instance, was sprawling and careless in form. The emphasis in Marie Antoinette's education was on manners, dance, music and appearance. She learned Italian, from Metastasio, on top of the necessary French and German, as well as Austrian history and French history, though from an Austrian perspective. Around ten years old, she still had trouble reading, as well as writing in German, she spoke little French and with difficulty, and very little Italian (three languages that the imperial family was fluent in). Conversations with her were stilted, and her ability to read and write German and French (the 'universal' language of Europe at this point in time) was undeniably poor. Often, her tutors would finish the work themselves, out of fear of losing their positions . Mme de Brandeis, made responsible by the empress for the princess' lack of education was fired and replaced by the much more severe, Mme de Lerchenfeld. Under the guidance of Gluck, she excelled to some extent in her musical endeavours. She drew often; at ten, for example, she had drawn a good chalk likeness of her father.

The Imperial family was one that thoroughly enjoyed music. Antonia herself learned to play the harpsichord, spinet and clavichord, as well as the harp, taught by Gluck. During the family's musical evenings, she would sing French songs and Italian arias. She also excelled at dancing—an accomplishment often remarked by those who saw her, whether friendly or hostile, having been carefully trained in it since her early youth. She had an "exquisite" poise and a famously graceful deportment; Horace Walpole once quoted Virgil as to her gait, saying, "vera incessu patuit dea" (she was in truth revealed to be a goddess with her step). She also loved dolls as a young girl, as captured by a family portrait in which seven-year-old Antonia excitedly held up a fancy doll. Numerous dolls arrived at the Hofburg as soon as Marie Antoinette turned 13, wearing miniature versions of the evening gowns, afternoon dresses, and gold-trimmed gowns proposed for her.

By many accounts, her childhood was somewhat complex. On the one hand, her parents had instituted several innovations in court life which made Austria one of the most progressive courts in Europe. While certain court functions remained formal by necessity, the Emperor and Empress nevertheless presided over many basic changes in court life. This included allowing relaxations in the type of people who could come to court (a change which allowed people of merit, as well as birth, to rise rapidly in the hierarchy of imperial favour at court), relatively lax dress etiquette, and the abolition of certain antiquated court rituals, including one in which dozens of courtiers could be present in the Empress' bedchamber while she gave birth. The Empress disliked the ritual, and would eject courtiers from her rooms when she went into labour.

While her "private" life was more relaxed than other European princesses', and her initial role in the political arena was relatively small, her mother (as most 18th century monarchs would do) still ended up using her for political purposes. Because there were so many other children who could be married off, Maria Antonia was sometimes neglected by her mother. As a result, she later described her relationship with her mother as one of awe-inspired fear. She also developed a mistrust of intelligent older women as a result of her mother's close relationship with the Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, Marie Antoinette's older sister.

Marriage to Louis: 1770–1793

The events leading to her eventual betrothal to the Dauphin of France began in 1765, when her father, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, died of a stroke in August, leaving Maria Theresa to co-rule with her eldest son and heir, the Emperor Joseph II. By that time, marriage arrangements for several of Maria Antonia's sisters had begun: the Archduchess Maria Josepha was betrothed to King Ferdinand of Naples, and one of the remaining eligible archduchesses was tentatively set to marry Don Ferdinand of Parma. The purpose of these marriages was to cement the various complex alliances that Maria Theresa had entered into in the 1750s due to the Seven Years' War, which included Parma, Naples, Russia, and more importantly Austria's traditional enemy, France. Without the Seven Years' War to "unite" the two countries briefly, the marriage of Maria Antonia and the Dauphin Louis-Auguste might not have occurred.

In 1767, a smallpox outbreak hit the family. Maria Antonia had already survived the disease as a young child and was consequently immune. Her sister-in-law, Empress Maria Josepha, died from smallpox and also passed it on to Maria Theresa, who survived but suffered from its effects the rest of her life. Two days after visiting the Empress's body with Maria Theresa, Maria Antonia's sister Archduchess Maria Josepha also developed symptoms, and she soon died. Another sister, Maria Elisabeth, fell ill as well but survived. Her brother, Charles Joseph, and sister Maria Johanna, had already died of smallpox in 1761 and 1762 respectively.

This left 12-year-old Maria Antonia as the only potential bride in the family for the 14-year-old Louis Auguste, who was also her second cousin once removed through Leopold I. During the marriage negotiations, it was pointed out her teeth were crooked, and a French doctor was commissioned to perform corrective oral surgeries on her. The process was done without anesthesia and took a total of three months, but the family was satisfied at the end that the princess's smile was "very beautiful and straight". After painstaking work between the governments of France and Austria, the dowry was set at 200,000 crowns; as was the custom, portraits and rings were exchanged. Finally, Maria Antonia was married by proxy on 19 April (at age 14) in the Church of the Augustine Friars, Vienna; her brother Ferdinand stood in as the bridegroom. She was also officially restyled as Marie Antoinette, Dauphine of France. Through her father, Marie Antoinette became the second (after Margaret of Valois, the renowned Queen Margot) French queen ever to descend from Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.

Marie Antoinette was officially handed over to her French relations on 7 May 1770, on an island on the Rhine River near Kehl. Chief among them were the comte de Noailles and his wife, the comtesse de Noailles, who had been appointed the Dauphine's Mistress of the Household by Louis XV. She met the King, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste, and the royal aunts (Louis XV's daughters, known as Mesdames), one week later. Before reaching Versailles, she also met her future brothers-in-law, Louis Stanislas Xavier, comte de Provence; and Charles Philippe, comte d'Artois, who came to play important roles during and after her life. Later, she met the rest of the family, including her husband's youngest sister, Madame Élisabeth, who at the end of Marie Antoinette's life would become her closest and one of her most loyal friends.

The ceremonial wedding of the Dauphin and Dauphine took place on 16 May 1770, in the Palace of Versailles, after which was the ritual bedding. It was assumed by custom that consummation of the marriage would take place on the wedding night. However, this did not occur, and the lack of consummation plagued the reputation of both Louis-Auguste and Marie Antoinette for seven years to come.

The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste was decidedly mixed. On the one hand, the Dauphine herself was popular among the people. Her first official appearance in Paris on 8 June 1773 at the Tuileries was considered by many royal watchers a resounding success, with a reported 50,000 people crying out to see her. People were easily charmed by her personality and beauty. She had fair skin, straw-blond hair, and blue eyes.

However, at Court the match was not so popular among the elder members of court due to the long-standing tensions between Austria and France, which had only recently been mollified. Many courtiers had actively promoted a marriage between the dauphin and various Saxon princesses instead. Behind her back, Mesdames called Marie Antoinette l'Autrichienne, the "Austrian woman." (Later, on the eve of the Revolution, and as Marie Antoinette's unpopularity grew, l'Autrichienne was supposedly transformed into l'Autruchienne, a pun making use of the words autruche "ostrich" and chienne "female dog".) Others accused her of trying to sway the king to Austria's thrall, destroying long-standing traditions (such as appointing people to posts due to friendship and not to peerage), and of laughing at the influence of older women at the royal court. Many other courtiers, such as the comtesse du Barry, had tenuous relationships with the Dauphine.

Her relationship with the comtesse du Barry was one which was important to rectify, at least on the surface, because Madame du Barry was the mistress of Louis XV, and thus had considerable political influence over the king. In fact, she had been instrumental ousting from power the duc de Choiseul, who had helped orchestrate the Franco-Austrian alliance as well as Marie Antoinette's own marriage. Louis XV's daughters, Mesdames, hated Mme du Barry due to her unsavoury relationship with their father. With manipulative coaching, the aunts encouraged the Dauphine to refuse to acknowledge the favourite, which was considered by some to be a political blunder. After months of continued pressure from her mother and the Austrian minister, the comte de Mercy-Argenteau, Marie Antoinette grudgingly agreed to speak to Mme du Barry on New Year's Day 1772. Although the limit of their conversation was Marie Antoinette's banal comment to the royal mistress that, "there are a lot of people at Versailles today", Mme du Barry was satisfied and the crisis, for the most part, dissipated. There was, however, a further level of animosity from the view of the Mesdames raised by this situation—they felt somewhat "betrayed" in their stance against du Barry. Later, Marie Antoinette became more polite to the comtesse, pleasing Louis XV, but also particularly her mother.

From the beginning, the Dauphine had to contend with constant letters from her mother, who wrote to her daughter regularly and who received secret reports from Mercy d'Argenteau on her daughter's behaviour. Marie Antoinette would write home in the early days saying that she missed her dear home. Though the letters were touching, in later years Marie Antoinette said she feared her mother more than she loved her. Her mother constantly criticized her for her inability to "inspire passion" in her husband, who rarely slept with her and had no interest in doing so, being more interested in his hobbies such as lock-making and hunting. The Empress went so far as saying directly to Marie Antoinette that she was no longer pretty, and had lost all her grace.

To make up for the lack of affection from her husband and the endless criticism of her mother, Marie Antoinette began to spend more on gambling and clothing, with cards and horse-betting, as well as trips to the city and new clothing, shoes, pomade and rouge. She was expected by tradition to spend money on her attire, so as to outshine other women at Court, being the leading example of fashion in Versailles (the previous queen, Maria Leszczyńska, had died in 1768, two years prior to Marie Antoinette's arrival).

Marie Antoinette also began to form deep friendships with various ladies in her retinue. Most noted were the sensitive and "pure" widow, the princesse de Lamballe, whom she appointed as Superintendent of her Household, and the fun-loving, down-to-earth Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, who eventually formed the cornerstone of the Queen's inner circle of friends (Société Particulière de la Reine). The duchesse de Polignac later became the Governess of the royal children (Gouvernante des Enfants de France), and was a friend of both Marie Antoinette and Louis. The closeness of the Dauphine's friendship with these ladies, influenced by various popular publications which promoted such friendships, later caused accusations of lesbianism to be lodged against these women. Others taken into her confidence at this time included her husband's brother, the comte d'Artois; their youngest sister, Madame Élisabeth; her sister-in-law, the comtesse de Provence; and Christoph Willibald Gluck, her former music teacher, whom she took under her patronage upon his arrival in France.

On 27 April 1774, a week after the première of Gluck's opera, Iphigénie en Aulide, which had secured the Dauphine's position as a patron of the arts, Louis XV fell ill with smallpox. On 4 May, the dying king was pressured to send the comtesse du Barry away from Versailles; on 10 May, at 3 pm, he died at the age of 64. Louis-Auguste was crowned King Louis XVI of France on 11 June 1775 at the cathedral of Rheims. Marie Antoinette was not crowned alongside him, merely accompanying him during the coronation ceremony.

Queenship: 1774–1792

1774–1778: Early years

From the outset, despite how she was portrayed in contemporary libelles, the new queen had very little political influence with her husband. Louis, who had been influenced as a child by anti-Austrian sentiments in the court, blocked many of her candidates, including Choiseul, from taking important positions, aided and abetted by his two most important ministers, Chief Minister Maurepas and Foreign Minister Vergennes. All three were anti-Austrian, and were wary of the potential repercussions of allowing the queen – and, through her, the Austrian empire – to have any say in French policy.In spite of that the Queen played a decisive role in the disgrace and exile of the most powerful of Louis fifteen minister the Duke of Aiguillon.

Marie Antoinette's situation became more precarious when, on 6 August 1775, her sister-in-law, the comtesse d'Artois, gave birth to a son, the duc d'Angoulême (who later became the heir apparent to the French throne when his father, the comte d'Artois, became King Charles X of France in 1824). There followed a release of a plethora of graphic satirical pamphlets, which mainly centered on the king's impotence and the queen's searching for sexual relief elsewhere, with men and women alike. Among her rumored lovers were her close friend, the princesse de Lamballe, and her handsome brother-in-law, the comte d'Artois, with whom the queen had a good rapport.

These personal attacks caused the queen to plunge further into the costly diversions of buying her dresses from Rose Bertin and gambling, simply to enjoy herself. For formal occasions, she adopted a hair style, the pouf, created shortly before by her hairdresser, Léonard Autié. On one famed occasion, she played for three days straight with players from Paris, straight up until her 21st birthday. She also began to attract various male admirers whom she accepted into her inner circles, including the baron de Besenval, the duc de Coigny, and Count Valentin Esterházy.

She was given free rein to renovate the Petit Trianon, a small château on the grounds of Versailles, which was a gift to her by Louis XVI on 15 August 1774; she concentrated mainly on horticulture, redesigning the garden in the English fashion, which in the previous reign had been an arboretum of introduced species, and adding flowers. Although the Petit Trianon had been built for Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Pompadour, it became associated with Marie Antoinette's perceived extravagance. With the "English garden" Marie Antoinette and her court adopted the English dress of indienne, of percale or muslin. The tradition of costume at the court at Versailles was broken after more than ten years. Rumors circulated that she plastered the walls with gold and diamonds. Her lady-in-waiting Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan replied on such rumors that Marie Antoinette visited the workshops of the village in a simple dress of white percale with a gauze scarf and a straw hat.

"...the innovativeness of Marie Antoinette's country retreat would attract her subjects’ fierce disapproval, even as it aimed to bolster her autonomy and enhance her prestige..."

An even bigger problem, however, was the debt incurred by France during the Seven Years' War, still unpaid. It was further exacerbated by Vergennes and Marie Antoinette prodding Louis XVI to get involved in Great Britain's war with its North American colonies, due to France's traditional rivalry with Great Britain.

In the midst of preparations for sending help to France, and in the atmosphere of the first wave of libelles, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph came to call on his sister and brother-in-law on 18 April 1777, the subsequent six-week visit in Versailles a part of the attempt to figure out why their marriage had not been consummated. He soon realized that there was no obstacle to the couple's conjugal relations save the king's unwillingness to exert himself in that arena, due to a mistaken belief that relations weakened the male partner,and the queen's lack of interest in the whole business. Joseph graphically described these matters in a letter to his brother Leopold, and called the king and queen of France "a couple of complete blunderers." It was due to Joseph's intervention that, in August 1777, the marriage was finally consummated. Eight months later, in April, it was suspected that the queen was finally pregnant with her first child. This was confirmed on 16 May 1778.

1778–1781: Motherhood

In the middle of her pregnancy, two events occurred which had a profound impact on the Queen's later life. First, there was the return of the handsome Swede, Count Axel von Fersen—whom she had met previously on New Year's Day, 1774, while she was still Dauphine—to Versailles for two years. Secondly, the King's wealthy but spiteful cousin, the duc de Chartres, was disgraced by his questionable conduct during the Battle of Ouessant against the British. In addition, Marie Antoinette's brother, the Emperor Joseph, began making claims on the throne of Bavaria based upon his second marriage to the princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria. Marie Antoinette pleaded with her husband for the French to help intercede on behalf of Austria but was partially rebuffed by the King and his ministers. The Peace of Teschen, signed on 13 May 1779, ended the brief conflict with the Queen imposing French mediation on the demand of her mother, a partial retreat from the early French position who was hostile towards Austria, but the incident once more showed the limited influence that the Queen had in foreign politics at that time.

Marie Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, given the honorific title at birth of Madame Royale, was finally born at Versailles, after a particularly difficult labour, on 19 December 1778, following an ordeal where the Queen literally collapsed from suffocation and hemorrhaging. The Queen's bedroom was packed with courtiers watching the birth, and the doctor aiding her supposedly caused the excessive bleeding by accident. The windows had to be torn out to revive her. This incident has a variant: some sources purport that it was the Princesse de Lamballe who lost consciousness, and to prevent the Queen from doing the same, the King himself—rather unusually—let in some air by tearing off the tapes that sealed the windows. In any case, as a result of this harrowing experience, the Queen and the King banned most courtiers from entering her bedchamber for subsequent labours.

The baby's paternity was contested in the libelles, but not by the King himself, who was close to his daughter.

The birth of a daughter meant that pressure to have a male heir continued, and Marie Antoinette wrote about her worrisome health, which might have contributed to a miscarriage in July 1779. The Queen's lady-in-waiting, Madame Campan described the miscarriage came about after the Queen exerted herself too strenuously in closing a carriage window, felt that she had hurt herself, and lost the child eight days later. Campan adds that the King spent a morning consoling the Queen at her bedside, and swore to secrecy all those who were aware of the accident.

Meanwhile, the Queen began to institute changes in the customs practised at court, with the approval of the King. Some changes, such as the abolition of segregated dining spaces, had already been instituted for some time and had been met with disapproval from the older generation. More importantly was the abandonment of heavy make-up and the popular wide-hooped panniers for a more simple feminine look, typified first by the rustic robe à la polonaise and later by the 'gaulle,' a simple muslin dress that she wore in a 1783 Vigée-Le Brun portrait. She also began to participate in amateur plays and musicals, starting in 1780, in a theatre built for her and other courtiers who wished to indulge in the delights of acting and singing.

In 1780, two candidates who had been supported by Marie Antoinette for positions, the marquis de Castries, and the comte de Ségur, were appointed Minister of the Navy and Minister of War, respectively. Though many believed it was entirely the support of the Queen that enabled them to secure their positions, in truth it was also partially that of Finance Minister, Jacques Necker. After the resignation of Necker in 1781, Marie Antoinette became the only political reference of the two ministers and she would support their attempts to prevent the middle classes from reaching high positions in the Army and Navy, thus causing one of the main reasons for the outbreak of the French Revolution. Finally, the Queen played in 1783 a decisive role in the nomination of Calonne, a close friend of the Polignacs, as Financial Minister as well as Breteuil perhaps the strongest and most conservative minister of the reign, as the Minister of Royal Household. The result of these two nominations was that Marie Antoinette's influence became paramount in government

Later that year, Empress Maria Theresa began to fall ill with dropsy and an unnamed respiratory problem. She died on 29 November 1780, in Vienna, at the age of 63, and was mourned throughout Europe. Marie Antoinette was worried that the death of her mother would jeopardise the Franco-Austrian alliance (as well as, ultimately, herself), but Emperor Joseph reassured her through his own letters (as the empress had not stopped writing to Marie Antoinette until shortly before her death) that he had no intention of breaking the alliance.

Three months after the empress' death, it was rumoured that Marie Antoinette was pregnant again, which was confirmed in March 1781. Another royal visit from Joseph II in July, partially to reaffirm the Franco-Austrian alliance and also a means of seeing his sister again, was tainted with false rumours that Marie Antoinette was siphoning treasury money to him.

On 22 October 1781, the Queen gave birth to Louis Joseph Xavier François, who bore the title Dauphin of France, as was customary for the eldest son of the King of France. The reaction to the birth of an heir was best summed up by the words of Louis XVI himself, as he wrote them down in his hunting journal: "Madame, you have fulfilled our wishes and those of France, you are the mother of Dauphin". He would, according to courtiers, try to frame sentences to put in the phrase "my son the Dauphin" in the weeks to come. It also helped that, three days before the birth, the majority of the fighting in the conflict in America had been concluded with the surrender of General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.

1782–1785: Declining popularity

Despite the general celebration over the birth of the Dauphin, Marie Antoinette's political influence, such as it was, did not fully benefit Austria. After the death of the comte de Maurepas, the influence of Vergennes was strengthened when he was nominated as the head of the financial comity, and she was again left out of some political affairs. The same happened during the so-called Kettle War, in which her brother Joseph attempted to open the Scheldt River for naval passage. Marie Antoinette failed to impose a total change in French foreign policy but she succeeded in obliging Vergennes to pay a huge financial compensation to Austria. Later, another attempt by him to claim Bavaria was partially rebuffed as being against French interests. finally, the Queen was able to have her brother's support against England and she neutralized French hostility to his alliance with Russia.

When accused of being a "dupe" by her brother for her political inaction, Marie Antoinette responded that she had little power. The king anti-Austrian education as a child fortified his refusals sometimes in allowing his wife any participation in his decisions. As a result, she had to pretend to his ministers that she was in his full confidence in order to get the information she wanted. This led the court to believe she had more power than she did.The Queen however was not telling her brother the whole truth because she was beginning to protect her children's interests by balancing her position between Austria and France; the truth was that slowly but surely Marie Antoinette political influence was beginning to be paramount in the state.

Her temperament was more suited to personally directing the education of her children. To do so was against the traditions of Versailles, where the queen usually had little say over the Enfants de France, as the royal children were called, and they were instead handed over to various courtiers who fought over the privilege. In particular, after the royal governess at the time of the Dauphin's birth, the princesse de Guéméné, went bankrupt and was forced to resign, there was a controversy over who should replace her. Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the duchesse de Polignac, to the position. This decision met with disapproval from the court, as the duchess was considered to be of too "immodest" a birth to occupy such an exalted position. On the other hand, both the king and queen trusted Mme de Polignac completely, and the duchess had children of her own to whom the queen had become attached.

In June 1783, Marie Antoinette was pregnant again. Later that month, Count Axel von Fersen returned from America, in order to secure a military appointment, and he was accepted into her private society. He left in September to become a captain of the bodyguard for his sovereign, Gustavus III, the king of Sweden, who was conducting a tour of Europe. Marie Antoinette suffered a miscarriage on the night of 1–2 November 1783, prompting more fears for her health.

Trying to calm her mind, during Fersen's first visit, and later after his return on 7 June 1784, the queen occupied herself with the creation of the Hameau de la reine, a model hamlet in the garden of the Petit Trianon with a mill and 12 cottages, 9 of which are still standing. Started in 1783 and finished in 1787, the Queen's hamlet, built to the designs of her favoured architect, Richard Mique, was complete with farmhouse, dairy, and mill. Its creation, however, unexpectedly caused another uproar when the actual price of the Hameau was inflated by her critics.

In addition to the creation of the Hameau, Marie Antoinette had other notable interests and activities. She became an avid reader of historical novels, and her scientific interest was piqued enough to become a witness to the launching of hot air balloons. She was fascinated by Rousseau's "back to nature" philosophy, as well as the culture of the Incas of Peru and their worship of the sun, about which she had books in her library. Briefly, she even sought out important British personages such as the Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger, and the British ambassador to France, the Duke of Dorset. She also developed an interest in learning English, and while she never became fluent, she was able to write in broken English to her friend, the Duchess of Devonshire.

Despite the many things which Marie Antoinette did in her spare time, her primary concern became the health of the Dauphin, which was beginning to fail. By the time Fersen returned to Versailles in 1784, it was widely thought that the sickly Dauphin would not live to be an adult. It was rumored that the king and queen were attempting to have another child, which rumour suggested was because of the Dauphin's ill-health, although it would have been unusual at the time for royalty not to have more than one son. During this time, Beaumarchais' play The Marriage of Figaro premiered in Paris. After initially having been banned by the king due to its negative portrayal of the nobility, the play was ironically finally allowed to be publicly performed because of its overwhelming popularity at court, where secret readings of it had been given.

In August 1784, the queen reported that she was pregnant again. With the future enlargement of her family in mind, she bought the Château de Saint-Cloud, a place she had always loved, from the duc d'Orléans, the father of the previously disgraced duc de Chartres. She intended to leave it as an inheritance to her younger children without stipulation, but later realized that her children would not appreciate it. This was a hugely unpopular acquisition, particularly with some factions of the nobility who already disliked her, but also with a growing percentage of the population who felt shocked that a French queen might own her own residence, independent of the king. Despite having the baron de Breteuil working on her behalf, the purchase did not help improve the public's image of the queen as frivolous. The château's expensive price, almost 6 million livres, plus the substantial extra cost of redecorating it, ensured that there was less money going towards repaying France's substantial debt.

On 27 March 1785, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a second son, Louis Charles, who was created the duc de Normandie. Louis Charles was visibly stronger than the sickly Dauphin, and the new baby was affectionately nicknamed by the queen, chou d'amour. The fact that this delivery occurred exactly nine months following Fersen's visit did not escape the attention of many, and though there is much doubt and historical speculation about the parentage of this child, public opinion towards her decreased noticeably. It is the belief of most of Marie-Antoinette's biographers and the young prince's that he was the biological son of Louis XVI and not Axel von Fersen, even among those biographers who believe the Queen was in love with Fersen. Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries at the time that the date of the child's conception in fact corresponded perfectly with a period when the King and Queen had spent a lot of time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks on the Queen's character. These suspicions of illegitimacy, along with the continued publication of the libelles, a never-ending cavalcade of court intrigues, the actions of Joseph II in the Kettle War, and her purchase of Saint-Cloud combined to turn popular opinion sharply against the queen, and the image of a licentious, spendthrift, empty-headed foreign queen was quickly taking root in the French psyche.

1786-1789: Prelude to revolution

A second daughter, Sophie Hélène Béatrice de France, was born on 9 July 1786, but died on 19 June 1787.

The continuing deterioration of the financial situation in France, despite cutbacks to the royal retinue, ultimately forced the king and his current Minister of Finance, Calonne, to call the Assembly of Notables, after a hiatus of 160 years. The assembly was held to try to pass some of the reforms needed to alleviate the financial situation which the Parlements refused to cooperate. The first meeting of the assembly took place on 22 February 1787, at which Marie Antoinette was not present. Later, her absence resulted in her being accused of trying to undermine the purpose of the assembly.

However, the Assembly was a failure with or without the queen, as it did not pass any reforms and instead fell into a pattern of defying the king, demanding other reforms and for the acquiescence of the Parlements. As a result, the king dismissed Calonne on 8 April 1787; Vergennes died on 13 February. The king, once more ignoring the queen's pro-Austrian candidate, appointed a childhood friend, the comte de Montmorin, to replace Vergennes as Foreign Minister.

During this time, even as her candidate was rejected, the queen began to abandon her more carefree activities to become more involved in politics than ever before, and mostly against the interests of Austria. This was for a variety of reasons. First, her children were Enfants de France, and thus their future as leaders of France needed to be assured. Second, by concentrating on her children, the queen sought to improve the dissolute image she had acquired from the "Diamond Necklace Affair", in which she had been accused of participating in a crime to defraud the crown jewelers of the cost of a very expensive diamond necklace. Third, the king had begun to withdraw from a decision-making role in government due to the onset of an acute case of depression. The symptoms of this depression were passed off as drunkenness by the libelles. As a result, Marie Antoinette finally emerged as a politically viable entity, although that was never her actual intention. In her new capacity as a politician with a degree of power, the queen tried to help the situation brewing between the assembly and the king.

This change in her political role signalled the beginning of the end of the influence of the duchesse de Polignac, as Marie Antoinette began to dislike the duchesse's huge expenditures and their impact on the finances of the Crown. The duchesse left for England in May, leaving her children behind in Versailles. Also in May, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, the archbishop of Toulouse and one of the queen's political allies, was appointed by the king on Marie Antoinette urging and demand to replace Calonne first as the Finance Minister and then as Prime Minister. He began instituting more cutbacks at court and to restore the absolute power of the King and Queen who were weakened by parliaments .

Brienne, though, was not able to improve the financial situation. Since he was the queen's ally, this failure adversely affected her political position. The continued poor financial climate of the country resulted in the 25 May dissolution of the Assembly of Notables because of its inability to get things done. This lack of solutions was unfairly blamed on the queen. In reality, the financial problems resulted from a combination of several factors. There had been too many expensive wars, a too-large royal family whose large frivolous expenditures far exceeded sometimes but not in the majority of the cases those of the queen, and an unwillingness on the part of many of the aristocrats in charge to help defray the costs of the government out of their own pockets with higher taxes. Marie Antoinette earned the nickname of "Madame Déficit" in the summer of 1787 as a result of the public perception that she had singlehandedly ruined the national finances. While sole fault for the financial crisis did not lie with the queen, Marie Antoinette was the biggest obstacle to any major reform effort. She played a decisive role in the disgrace of the Reformer Ministers of Finance, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune and Necker. She spent a lot of money on her favorites and on herself, more than any other person in France. Finally the expense of the court was much higher than the official estimate of 7% of the state budget, if secret expenses were taken into account. The queen attempted to fight back with propaganda portraying her as a caring mother, most notably the premier at Royal Académie Salon de Paris in August 1787 of a portrait of her and her children by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. This attack strategy was eventually dropped, however, because of the death of the queen's youngest child, Sophie. Around the same time, Jeanne de Lamotte-Valois escaped from prison in France and fled to London, where she published more damaging lies concerning her supposed "affair" with the queen.

The political situation in 1787 began to worsen when on Marie Antoinette urging the Parlement was exiled, and culminated on 11 November, when the king tried to use a lit de justice to force through legislation. He was unexpectedly challenged by his formerly disgraced cousin, the duc de Chartres, who had inherited the title of duc d'Orléans at the death of his father in 1785. The new duc d'Orléans publicly protested the king's actions, and was subsequently exiled. The May Edicts issued on 8 May 1788 were also opposed by the public. Finally, on 8 July and 8 August, the king announced his intention to bring back the Estates General, the traditional elected legislature of the country which had not been convened since 1614.

Marie Antoinette was not directly involved with the exile of the Parlement, the May Edicts or with the announcement regarding the Estates General, but she did participate in the King Council, the first Queen to do this in the last hundred year and she was taking the major decisions behind the scene and in Council . Her primary concern in late 1787 and 1788 was the improved health of the Dauphin, who suffered from tuberculosis, which had twisted and curved his spinal column severely. He was brought to the château at Meudon in the hope that its country air would help the young boy recover, but instead the Dauphin's condition continued to deteriorate.

The queen, however, was present with her daughter, Marie-Therese, when Tippu Sultan of Mysore, archrival of the British colonial hegemony in post-Mughal India, visited Versailles seeking help against the British designs. More importantly she was instrumental in the recall of Jacques Necker as Finance Minister on 26 August, a popular move, even though she herself was worried that the recall would again go against her if Necker was unsuccessful in reforming the country's finances.

Her prediction began to come true when bread prices started to rise due to the severe 1788–1789 winter. The Dauphin's condition worsened even more, riots broke out in Paris in April, and on 26 March, Louis XVI himself almost died from a fall off a roof.

"Come, Léonard, dress my hair, I must go like an actress, exhibit myself to a public that may hiss me", the queen quipped to her hairdresser, who was one of her "ministers of fashion", as she prepared for the Mass celebrating the return of the Estates General on 4 May 1789. She knew that her rival, the duc d'Orléans, who had given money and bread to the people during the winter, would be popularly acclaimed by the crowd much to her detriment. The Estates General convened the next day. During the month of May, the Estates General began to fracture between the democratic Third Estate (consisting of the bourgeoisie and radical nobility), and the royalist nobility of the Second Estate, while the king's brothers began to become more hardline.

Despite these developments, the queen was strongly focused on her son, the dying Dauphin. Attended by his mother, the seven-year old boy succumbed to tuberculosis at Meudon on 4 June, leaving the title of Dauphin to his younger brother, Louis Charles. His death, which would have normally been nationally mourned, was virtually ignored by the French people, who were instead preparing for the next meeting of the Estates General and hoping for a resolution to the bread crisis. As the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath, and as others listened to rumors that the queen wished to bathe in their blood, Marie Antoinette went into mourning for her eldest son. Marie Antoinette's role was decisive in urging the King to remain firm and to not concede to popular demands for reforms. In addition, the Queen was ready to use force to crush the revolution.

July 1789–1792: The French Revolution

The situation began to escalate violently in June as the National Assembly began to demand more rights, and Louis XVI began to push back with efforts to suppress the Third Estate. However, the king's ineffectiveness and the queen's unpopularity undermined the monarchy as an institution, and so these attempts failed. Then, on 11 July, on Marie Antoinette's urging and orders, Necker was dismissed to be replaced by Breteuil, the Queen's choice to crush the Revolution with mercenary Germanic troops. Paris was besieged by riots at the news, which culminated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July.

In the days and weeks that followed, many of the most conservative, reactionary royalists, including the comte d'Artois and the duchesse de Polignac, fled France for fear of assassination. Marie Antoinette, whose life was the most in danger, stayed behind in order to help the king promote stability, even as his power was gradually being taken away by the National Constituent Assembly, which was now ruling Paris and conscripting men to serve in the Garde Nationale.

By the end of August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen) was adopted, which officially created the beginning of a constitutional monarchy in France. Despite this, the king was still required to perform certain court ceremonies, even as the situation in Paris became worse due to a bread shortage in September. On 5 October, a mob from Paris descended upon Versailles and forced the royal family, along with the comte de Provence, his wife and Madame Elisabeth, to move to Paris under the watchful eye of the Garde Nationale. The king and queen were installed in the Tuileries Palace under strong surveillance. During this house arrest, Marie Antoinette conveyed to her friends that she did not intend to involve herself any further in French politics, as everything, whether or not she was involved, would inevitably be attributed to her anyway and she feared the repercussions of further involvement.

Despite the situation, Marie Antoinette was still required to perform charitable functions and to attend certain religious ceremonies, which she did. Most of her time, however, was dedicated to her children. Marie Antoinette in spite of her status as an effective state prisoner, played a very important political role in the period extending between 1789 and 1791. That role was not public because there was a political and public rejection of the Queen who tried to crush the revolution in July 1789. During this period, Marie Antoinete had a complex set of relationships with several key leaders of the early period of the French Revolution.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette the leader of the National Guard (and military leader in the American Revolution) hated the Queen and served as her jailer and even considered sending her to a conventHowever, he was persuaded by the mayor of Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, to try to work with her. La Fayette's relation with the King was acceptable and being a liberal aristocrat he did not want the destruction of the monarchy but instead the installation of a liberal system of government. At times La Fayette worked in the Queen's favor. La Fayette sent the Duke of Orleans, who was accused by the Queen of fomenting trouble, into exile for a period of time. La Fayette even boasted, as the Queen's jailer, that he allowed Marie Antoinette to see Axel de Fersen, albeit under strong surveillance. The Queen who did not have any direct political power during that period because the King's powers were suspended until the constitution was adopted. Marie Antoinette strongly resented her status as an effective prisoner who needed the approval of her guards for any physical or public activity.

A significant achievement for Marie Antoinette in that period was the establishment of an alliance with Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, the most important lawmaker in the assembly. Like La Fayette, Mirabeau was a liberal aristocrat. While Mirabeau was elected on the lower class list he was not fundamentally against the monarchy and dreamed of reconciling the monarchy with the revolution. Mirabeau wanted also to be a minister and he was not immune to corruption. On the advice of Count Mercy, Marie Antoinette opened secret negotiations with Mirabeau and they agreed to meet in secret in the castle of Saint Cloud in the summer of 1790. At the meeting, a deal was reached turning Mirabeau into one of her political allies. Marie Antoinette also accepted to pay Mirabeau 6000 livres per month and many millions if he succeeded in his mission to restore the King's authority.

Mirabeau sincerely wanted to reconcile the Queen with the people but the Queen was still attempting to restore as much of the King's authority as possible and to liberate herself from her captivity. Marie Antoinette was happy to see Mirabeau restoring much of the King's powers in the assembly, such as the King's authority over foreign policy was restored. The right to propose the declaration of war was also given to the King. Over the objections of La Fayette and his allies, the King was given a suspensive veto allowing him to veto any laws for a period of four years. With time Mirabeau would support the Queen even more, going as far to agree with her escape plans but perhaps not to the extent of demanding the help of foreign powers. However, this leverage with the Assembly ended with the death of Mirabeau in April 1791.

At about the same period as Mirabeau's death, the Pope condemned the civil constitution of the clergy, which reduced the number of bishops from 132 to 93, imposed the election of bishops and monks by the French people and finally reduced the Pope's authority over the Church. Marie Antoinette was raised in the Catholic Faith and while she was not pious as her husband, religion played a decisive role in her life specially after her pregnancies. The Queen's political ideas and her belief in the absolute power of monarchs were based on the simple assumption that Queens and Kings were the representatives of God on earth and that their subjects should obey them in an absolute way. When the people in Paris felt that the Queen was against the new religious laws, Marie Antoinette was publicly insulted and she was not allowed to leave Paris. This incident fortified the Queen's determination to leave Paris.

Despite her attempts to remain out of the public eye, she was falsely accused in the libelles of conducting an affair with the commander of the Garde Nationale, the marquis de La Fayette. In reality, she loathed the marquis for his liberal tendencies and for being partially responsible for the royal family's forced departure from Versailles. This was not the only accusation Marie Antoinette faced from such "libelles." In such pamphlets as "Le Godmiché Royal" (translated, "The Royal Dildo"), it was suggested that she routinely engaged in deviant sexual acts of various sorts, most famously with the English Baroness 'Lady Sophie Farrell' of Bournemouth, a renowned lesbian of the time. From acting as a tribade (in her case, in the lesbian sense), to sleeping with her son, Marie Antoinette was constantly an object of rumor and false accusations of committing sexual acts with partners other than the king. Later, allegations of this sort (from incest to orgiastic excesses) were used to justify her execution. Ultimately, none of the charges of sexual depravity has any credible evidentiary support; Marie Antoinette was simply an easy target for rumor and criticism.

Constantly monitored by revolutionary spies within her own household, the queen played little or no direct part in the writing of the French Constitution of 1791, which greatly weakened the king's authority. She, nevertheless, hoped for a future where her son would still be able to rule, convinced that the violence would soon pass.After the death of Mirabeau, many moderate leaders of the French Revolution tried to contact the Queen and to establish some kind of cooperation with her.

The most important lawmaker who tried to establish contact with the Queen at this time was Antoine Barnave, who was close to La Fayette in addition to being an enemy of Mirabeau. Barnave was not corrupted and was afraid of the radicalization of the Revolution. Of middle class not aristocratic stock, Barnave may have been naturally flattered by the Queen's attention.

Marie Antoinette at that period of time had in general very good relations with her husband, who was passing by a depression phase and who was letting her take all the major political and personnel decisions affecting their lives. Marie Antoinette's priority in the spring of 1791 was to escape her captivity but with her family; she refused to be separated from her children and especially from her husband. Even Fersen could not convince her to leave without the King; the Queen wanted the King to come with her both because she loved the King, the father of her children and because she was aware that without the King she would lose all her political powers. Marie Antoinette asked and ordered Fersen and Breteuil (who represented her in the courts of Europe) to prepare an escape plan while she continued her negotiations with some moderate leaders of the French Revolution.

Marie Antoinette committed the biggest political mistake of her queenship when she decided to flee Paris in June 1791. She destroyed the trust, confidence and love that the majority of the French People still felt towards their King. While she was extremely unpopular Queen, the King retained the support of the majority of his subjects. Marie Antoinette did not want only to flee Paris, but also to use French Troops against the people who supported the Revolution; more than that the Queen was ready to collaborate with foreign powers especially Austria in order to crush the Revolution and to restore her absolute authority. Marie Antoinette did not want to be a constitutional ruler under the supervision of her people, she wanted to dispose of all the wealth of the French State, to have the total control of government and to be able to imprison her critics in state prisons according to her pleasure. She didn't like the idea that she was an effective state prisoner, that she controlled only a budget of 25 million livres and that she had to share her powers with an elected assembly. Also the most important subject for her was the religious question and the rejection by the Pope of the civil constitution of the clergy. Marie Antoinette believed in the Catholic Religion and her whole political ideology was based on the divine origin of her powers and the absolute authority of her husband.

During this time, there were many plots designed to help members of the royal family escape. The queen rejected several because she would not leave without the king. Other opportunities to rescue the family were ultimately frittered away by the indecisive king. Once the king finally did commit to a plan, his indecision played an important role in its poor execution and ultimate failure. In an elaborate attempt to escape from Paris to the royalist stronghold of Montmédy planned by Count Axel von Fersen and the baron de Breteuil, some members of the royal family were to pose as the servants of a wealthy Russian baroness. Initially, the Queen rejected the plan because it required her to leave with only her son. She wished instead for the rest of the royal family to accompany her. The King wasted time deciding upon which members of the family should be included in the venture, what the departure date should be, and the exact path of the route to be used. After many delays, the escape ultimately occurred on 21 June 1791, and was a failure. The entire family was captured twenty-four hours later at Varennes and taken back to Paris within a week. When the Queen was captured with her family, the assembly sent three representatives to escort the royal family back to Paris. Marie Antoinette was humiliated by the people as never before or even after in her life, she was beaten and pushed by the crowds, people spat on her and her hands were put forcefully behind her back under the excuse of escorting her. Barnave who represented the moderate party in the constitutional assembly protected the Queen from the crowds at the peril of his own life. Even Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, who represented the Girondin radical republican party of Madame Roland, took pity on the royal family. Marie Antoinette was brought safely to Paris, in addition, thanks to Barnave, she was not brought to trial and publicly exonerated of any crimes in relation with her attempt of escape. Fersen was able to escape.

Using her connection with Antoine Barnave, one of the moderate leaders of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette played a leading but indirect role in the establishment of the constitution of 1791. This constitution called for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy where the King was given important but not full powers; in fact the Queen was not totally sincere in this cooperation with the moderate leaders of the French Revolution as her letters show, which led to a fiasco and ended any chance to establish a moderate government in France. The result of the fiasco was a further decline in the popularity of both the King and Queen. The Jacobin Party successfully exploited the failed escape to advance its radical agenda. Its members called for the end to any type of monarchy in France.

In its details, the constitution of 1791 was a compromise between the ideas of the Old Regime and the ideals of the French Revolution. It was not directed against the King but certainly against the old nobility. The King was given huge powers according to the articles of the Constitution, first executive power was under the control of the King who was also the head the army and was in charge of foreign policy. Second, the King could choose ministers and although he could not declare war, the new Legislative Assembly, which replaced the previous Constituent Assembly on 1 October, could only go to war if the King asked them to do so. The King was also considered to have immunity for actions he might take as a monarch, but this did not apply to other members of his family. An English visitor in the Tuileries gardens would witness two soldiers observing and guarding the queen keeping their hats in her presence while singing disgusting songs, on the grounds that there was no mention of her in the Constitution. Finally, the king was given the right to veto any law for four years. The King, who was considered the head of state, was given a budget of 25 millions livres every year in order to allow him to pay the functions of his court.

Unfortunately the Queen would use much of that money in her internal and external plots against the Revolution. The Queen saw herself as a prisoner who not only lost her power but also her freedom; more than that she considered that she was subjected almost daily to a lot of humiliations from the people of Paris in general and from the soldiers guarding her in particular. Beyond doubt Marie Antoinette was harshly treated after her return from Varennes perhaps even before, but her secret actions in turning against the constitution and demanding the help of foreign powers was seen as treason by the great majority of the French People. It was no secret to anybody that Marie Antoinette was the person in charge in the royal couple,. Her husband was letting her take all the major political decisions. What was not clear was that the Queen was leading a double policy which even her husband was not completely aware of.

The constitution called for a moderate system of government. Barnave, who believed in the sincerity of the Queen, took great political risks in the hope of producing a stable social and political structure. Barnave established a system of voting that was based on the middle class vote. In addition, the civil constitution of the clergy, which greatly displeased Marie Antoinette because it created a national church outside the influence of the Papacy, was not considered a constitutional act. Barnave was able to secure a moderate majority who was ready to work with the Queen in spite of her unpopularity, but this situation lasted a few months until the spring of 1792. Unfortunately the double dealings of the Queen turned the majority against her with disastrous consequences for her, her country, and even the whole European continent .

Marie Antoinette never played a more negative role in the history of her country than in this period of time. The Queen first pushed for an armed congress in order to pressure the leaders of the revolution. When this policy failed, she pushed and ordered her husband to declare war on her country of birth Austria. Marie Antoinette hoped that the armies sent by the rulers of Europe would be able to crush the Revolution even at the cost was the blood of her own people. The Queen counted on the support of her Austrian family. After her brother Joseph died in 1790. Léopold was ready to support Marie Antoinette but only to a limited degree. Her nephew Francis, who succeeded his father Leopold in 1792, was a very conservative ruler who was ready to support Marie Antoinette because he hated and feared the French Revolution. When the Queen asked him to declare war on France, he accepted out of monarchical solidarity and because he wanted to establish Austrian influence over Western Europe. To be fair to Marie Antoinettem she was not the only person who wanted war, as many radical leaders of the French Revolution also wanted war for their own reasons. Yet the Queen's responsibility was greater than anybody else because only the King had the constitutional power to propose the declaration of war, a King who was in 1792 under the total control of his wife. More than that Marie Antoinette has her own secret policy which was kept secret even from the King. The worst act of Marie Antoinette however would be to betray her country by revealing the secret military plans to the foreign powers. In short Marie Antoinette played a decisive role in the failure to produce a moderate political and social structure in France, and specially in the declaration of war in 1792 which killed millions of people and opened a new chapter in world civilization by inventing the concept of revolutionary wars and nationalistic mass mobilization.

During this time, Queen was a prisoner guarded night and day by many soldiers who never left her for a moment even in her bedroom. Many of these jailers were radicals who openly disrespected her, smoking in her face, denying her any privacy and maximally restricting her movements. Marie Antoinette was never allowed to visit her palace of Saint Cloud and was required to seek her guards' permission to see her children or husband, who sometimes refused her request. If permission was granted to leave her rooms, she was escorted by soldiers who surrounded her from all sides and who were present in all her meetings. This was despite the fact that she and her husband were still legally ruling sovereigns. Despite the many difficulties imposted by their situation, the health of Marie Antoinette was acceptable in 1792. It was true that the Queen lost some weight in comparison with the late 1780's when she was pregnant frequently, but all pictures and sketches of the period showed Marie Antoinette as a very big, grossly overweight and tall woman with a double chin;more than that in most pictures she was described as taller and bigger than her husband who was a tall and big man (He was around 176 cm).

In February 1792 Ferson was able to see the Queen a final time in spite of the strong measures of restriction around the prisoner Queen. Beyond doubt Fersen bribed some of the guards, but was not able to pass more than a short period of time in the palace where the Queen was effectively imprisoned. Marie Antoinette would acknowledge that the security measures were so strong that it was impossible to escape with barred windows in her rooms and an escort of soldiers following her days and nights dictating her every move.

Barnave advised the Queen to recall the Austrian ambassador Count Mercy, who played such a huge part in her life, in addition to the Princess de Lamballe. Count Mercy who was appointed in a high position in the Austrian Empire refused to return for a variety of reasons, which made the Queen very sad with the impression that she was left to her demise, specially that Mercy was a paternal figure for her sent by her mother to take care of her since her coming to France; she was more lucky with the Princess de Lamballe who returned and filled a great void in the affective and social life of the captive Queen. As for her social life it was difficult for the Queen who was effectively a prisoner guarded night and day to have an effective social life; whenever Marie Antoinette went there was a soldier before her and one after her, it was only in the night that she was partially free but she was obliged to keep the door of her bedroom open so that she can be seen by her guards who did not always respected her.

The result of Leopold's aggressive tendencies, and those of his son Francis II on the Queen behalf, who succeeded him in March, was that France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792. This caused the queen to be viewed as an enemy, even though she was personally against Austrian claims on French lands. The situation became compounded in the summer when French armies were continually being defeated by the Austrians because Marie Antoinette betrayed her country's military secrets to the foreign powers and the King on the orders of the Queen vetoed several measures that would have restricted his power even further. During this time, due to his political activities, Louis received the nickname "Monsieur Veto"—and the name "Madame Veto" was likewise subsequently bequeathed on Marie Antoinette. These names were then prominently featured in different contexts, including La Carmagnole

In addition due to her strict captivity, her big sadness and the restrictions on her social life; the health of Marie Antoinette began to deteriorate on a very quick scale. The hair of the Queen turned at least partially to white and she began to lose a lot of blood. In spite that she remained a very fat person with a double chin, Marie Antoinette retained her beauty and charm to a large degree but she developed some problems in at least one of her legs, had to restrict her already reduced activities and to be helped when walking.

In the period from June 1791 until the deposition of the royal family in August 1792, Barnave remained the most important advisor and supporter of the Queen inside France. Marie Antoinette was ready to work with Barnave as long as he was ready to follow her orders, which Barnave did to a large extent and to a long period of time. What was true was that Marie Antoinette used Barnave in her plans to restore her authority where she was partially successful, and in the declaration of war against Austria where she was totally successful. Barnave convinced La Fayette to use force against the radical elements of the French Revolution and ten of thousands of political opponents of Marie Antoinette were either killed, exiled or sent to prisons. Rather than to cooperate with La Fayette Marie Antoinette refused to be helped by him and played a decisive role in defeating him in his aims to become the mayor of Paris.Barnave and the moderates were around 260 lawmakers in the new Legislative Assembly, the radicals were around 136 and the rest (around 350) were in the middle. At first the majority was with Barnave, but the Queen's policy led to the radicalization of the assembly and the moderates lost control of the legislative process. The moderate government collapsed in April 1792 and a radical ministry headed by the Girondins was formed. Worse than that the assembly passed a series of laws concerning the Church, the aristocracy and the formation of new national guard units which were vetoed by the King on the orders of the Queen. The laws were not very radical by themselves except perhaps in relation to the Church, pragmatism should have led the Queen to accept the new laws even on a temporary basis in order to conciliate the fury of the people. Instead Marie Antoinette continued her plots with the foreign powers by pushing them to issue the Declaration of Pillnitz, which threatened invasion of France. This led in turn to a French declaration of war and the Campaigns of 1792 in the French Revolutionary War and the popular revolution of August 1792 which ended the monarchy.

On 20 June, "a mob of terrifying aspect" broke into the Tuileries and made the king wear the bonnet rouge (red Phrygian cap) to show his loyalty to France.

The vulnerability of the king was exposed on 10 August when an armed mob, on the verge of forcing its way into the Tuileries Palace, forced the king and the royal family to seek refuge at the Legislative Assembly. An hour and a half later, the palace was invaded by the mob who massacred the Swiss Guards. On 13 August, the royal family was imprisoned in the tower of the Temple in the Marais under conditions considerably harsher than their previous confinement in the Tuileries.

A week later, many of the royal family's attendants, among them the princesse de Lamballe, were taken in for interrogation by the Paris Commune. Transferred to the La Force prison, the princesse de Lamballe was a victim of the September Massacres, killed on 3 September. Her head was affixed on a pike and marched through the city. Although Marie Antoinette did not see the head of her friend as it was paraded outside her prison window, she fainted upon learning about the gruesome end that had befallen her faithful companion.

On 21 September, the fall of the monarchy was officially declared, and the National Convention became the legal authority of France. The royal family was re-styled as the non-royal "Capets". Preparations for the trial of the king in a court of law began.

Charged with undermining the First French Republic, Louis was separated from his family and tried in December. He was found guilty by the Convention, led by the Jacobins who rejected the idea of keeping him as a hostage. A month later he was condemned to execution by guillotine.

1793: "Widow Capet", trial, and execution

Louis was executed on 21 January 1793. The queen, now called the "Widow Capet", plunged into deep mourning and refused to eat or do any exercise. There is no documentation of her proclaiming her son as Louis XVII; however, the comte de Provence, in exile, recognised his nephew as the new king of France and took the title of Regent. Marie-Antoinette's health rapidly deteriorated in the following months, due to tuberculosis and possibly uterine cancer and frequent hemorrhages.

Despite her condition, the debate as to her fate was the central question of the National Convention after Louis' death. While some continually advocated her death, others proposed exchanging her for French prisoners of war or for a ransom from the Holy Roman Emperor. Thomas Paine advocated exile to America. Starting in April, however, a Committee of Public Safety was formed, and men such as Jacques Hébert were beginning to call for Antoinette's trial; by the end of May, the Girondins had been chased out of power and arrested. Other calls were made to "retrain" the Dauphin, to make him more pliant to revolutionary ideas. To carry this out, the eight-year-old Louis Charles was separated from Antoinette on 3 July and given to the care of a cobbler. On 1 August, she herself was taken out of the Tower and entered into the Conciergerie as Prisoner No. 280. Despite various attempts to get her out, such as the Carnation Plot in September, Marie Antoinette refused when the plots for her escape were brought to her attention. While in the Conciergerie, she was attended by her last servant, Rosalie Lamorlière.

She was finally tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October. Unlike the king, who had been given time to prepare a defence, the queen was given less than one day. Among the things she was accused of, many originating as rumors in the libelles, were orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans, incest with her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792.

The most infamous charge was that she sexually abused her son. In this she was accused by Louis Charles, who had been coached by Hébert and his guardian. After being reminded that she had not answered the charge of incest, Marie Antoinette protested emotionally to the accusation, and the women present in the courtroom, including market women who had stormed the palace for her entrails in 1789, even began to support her. She had been composed throughout the trial until this accusation was made, to which she finally answered, "If I have not replied, it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."

In reality, the outcome of the trial had been decided in advance by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot was uncovered, and she was declared guilty of treason in the early morning of 16 October, after two days of proceedings. Back in her cell and stunned from her condemnation to death while she excepted an exile or an imprisonment for life , she composed a letter to her sister-in-law Madame Élisabeth, affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith and her feelings for her children. The letter did not reach Élisabeth.

On the same day Marie Antoinette, who was still stunned from her condemnation to death, suffered the greatest humiliation of her life. She was forced to undress before her guards, her hair was cut off, her hands were bound tightly behind her back, a rope was used to put her on leash and she was dragged openly before the people. The Queen was driven through Paris in an open cart, wearing a plain white dress, she was humiliated before the whole people of Paris and even denied a priest who represented Rome. Yet in all this suffering, sadness and humiliations, Marie Antoinette, who lost everything including her family, her kingdom and her life did not cry, did not beg and died like a Queen, forcing even the respect of her enemies. Her last picture was by the painter Jacques-Louis David, depicts a bound woman who lost much of her beauty, yet the dignity, double chin, very fat body and very large bosom were still there; beyond doubt Marie Antoinette lost some weight and some of her beauty (In the 1780's her bosom was estimated at 109 cm or more than 40 inches and her waist at 60 cm because of the corset, much more without it); but she still had enough charm, beauty and determination to die like a martyred Queen at least from her own point of view. At 12:15 p.m. 16 October 1793, two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, Marie Antoinette was beheaded at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde). Her last words were "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it", to Henri Sanson the executioner, whose foot she had accidentally stepped on after climbing the scaffold. Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, rue d'Anjou (which was closed the following year).

Her sister-in-law Élisabeth was executed in 1794 and her son died in prison in 1795. Her daughter returned to Austria in a prisoner exchange, married and died childless in 1851.

Both Marie Antoinette's body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the Bourbon Restoration, when the comte de Provence had become King Louis XVIII. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French Kings at the Basilica of St Denis.

In popular culture

The phrase "Let them eat cake" is often attributed to Marie Antoinette, but there is no evidence she ever uttered it, and it is now generally regarded as a "journalistic cliché". It may have been a rumor started by angry French peasants as a form of libel. This phrase originally appeared in Book VI of the first part (finished in 1767, published in 1782) of Rousseau's putative autobiographical work, Les Confessions.

Enfin je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit : Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.

Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: "Let them eat brioche."

Apart from the fact that Rousseau ascribes these words to an unknown princess—vaguely referred to as a "great princess", there is some level of thought that he invented it altogether, seeing as Confessions was, on the whole, a rather inaccurate autobiography.

In America, expressions of gratitude to France for its help in the American Revolution included the naming of the city of Marietta, Ohio, founded in 1788. The Ohio Company of Associates chose the name Marietta after an affectionate nickname for Marie Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette is referenced in the lyrics of the song "Killer Queen" by the rock band Queen.

Titles from birth to death

• 2 November 1755 – 19 April 1770: Her Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria
• 19 April 1770 – 10 May 1774: Her Royal Highness The Dauphine of France
• 10 May 1774 – 1 October 1791: Her Most Christian Majesty The Queen of France and Navarre
• 1 October 1791 – 21 September 1792: Her Most Christian Majesty The Queen of the French
• 21 September 1792 – 21 January 1793: Madame Capet
• 21 January 1793 – 16 October 1793: La Veuve ("the widow") Capet

Ancestry

See also

• French Revolution

References

Notes

1. ^ Lever 2006, p. 1
2. C. f. "it is both impolitic and immoral for palaces to belong to a Queen of France" (part of a speech by a councilor in the Parlement de Paris, early 1785, after Louis XVI bought St Cloud chateau for the personal use of Marie Antoinette), quoted in Castelot 1957, p. 233
3. C.f. the following quote: "she (Marie Antoinette) thus obtained promises from Louis XVI which were in contradiction with the Council's (of Louis XVI's ministers) decisions", quoted in Castelot 1957, p. 186
4. "Marie Antoinette Biography". Chevroncars.com. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
5. Jefferson, Thomas. Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson. Courier Dover Publications. Retrieved 29 March 2013. I have ever believed that had there been no queen, there would have been no revolution.
6. "A Reputation in Shreds - Marie Antoinette Online". Marie-antoinette.org. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
7. "Marie Antoinette". Antonia Fraser. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
8. Konigsberg, Eric (22 October 2006). "Marie Antoinette, Citoyenne". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
9. Fraser 2002, p. 5
10. Fraser 2001, p. 3
11. ^ Cronin 1989, p. 45
12. Lever 2006, p. 7
13. Lever 2006, p. 10
14. France Loisirs, Michel de Decker, 2005, p.16
15. Fraser 2002, pp. 32–33
16. France Loisirs, Michel de Decker, 2005, p.17
17. Cronin 1989, p. 46
18. ^ Weber 2007
19. After the problems encountered at the birth of Marie Antoinette's first child, Marie Therese in 1778, her husband, King Louis XVI, did not allow the public in his wife's bedroom at the birth their other children, and let only a handful of trusted courtiers witness the birth of the dauphin Louis Joseph on 22 October 1781. Fraser 2001, pp. 166–170
20. Fraser 2001, p. 22
21. ^ Cronin 1974, p. 46 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
22. Fraser 2001, p. 23
23. Fraser 2001, p. 25
24. Fraser 2001, pp. 10–12
25. Fraser 2001, pp. 42–50
26. Fraser 2001, pp. 51–53
27. Fraser 2001, pp. 58–62
28. Fraser 2001, pp. 64–69
29. Fraser 2001, pp. 70–71
30. Cronin 1974, pp. 49–50 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
31. Fraser 2001, p. 157
32. Fraser 2001, p. 47
33. Fraser 2001, pp. 94, 130–31
34. Cronin 1974, pp. 61–63 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
35. Cronin 1974, p. 61 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
36. Lever 2006.
37. Fraser 2001, pp. 87–90, 97–99
38. Fraser 2001, pp. 80–81
39. Fraser 2001, p. 141
40. Fraser 2001, pp. 129–131
41. Fraser 2001, pp. 131–132; Bonnet 1981
42. Fraser 2001, pp. 111–113
43. Fraser 2001, pp. 113–116
44. Fraser 2001, pp. 132–137
45. Fraser 2001, pp. 136–137
46. Fraser 2001, pp. 124–127
47. Fraser 2001, pp. 137–139
48. Fraser 2001, pp. 140–145
49. Cronin 1974, p. 215 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
50. Fashion, the mirror of history, page 190, Michael Batterberry, Ariane Ruskin Batterberry, Greenwich House, 1977. ISBN 978-0-517-38881-5
51. 20,000 years of fashion: the history of costume and personal adornment, page 350, François Boucher, Yvonne Deslandres, H.N. Abrams, 1987. ISBN 978-0-8109-1693-7
52. Fraser 2001, pp. 150–151
53. A History of the Gardens of Versailles, page 218, Michel Baridon, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8122-4078-8
54. Weber 132
55. Fraser 2001, p. 152
56. Cronin 1974, pp. 158–159 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
57. Cronin 1974, p. 159 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
58. Fraser 2001, pp. 160–162
59. Cronin 1974, pp. 162–164 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
60. Fraser 2001, pp. 164–168
61. Cronin 1974, p. 161 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
62. Hibbert 2002, p. 23
63. Fraser 2001, pp. 166–170
64. Fraser 2001, p. 169
65. Fraser 2001, p. 172
66. Cronin 1974, pp. 127–128 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
67. Fraser 2001, pp. 174–179
68. Fraser 2001, pp. 183–186
69. Fraser, 2001 & pp218-220 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp218-220 (help)
70. Fraser 2001, pp. 184–187
71. Fraser 2001, pp. 187–188
72. Fraser 2001, p. 191
73. Cronin 1974, p. 190 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
74. Fraser 2001, p. 194
75. Fraser, pp.232-6
76. Fraser 2001, p. 195-198
77. Fraser, p. 234-6
78. Fraser, p.235-6
79. Fraser 2001, pp. 197–198, 199–205
80. Cronin 1974, p. 193 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
81. Fraser 2001, pp. 198–201
82. ^ Fraser 2001, p. 202
83. Lever 2006, p. 158
84. Fraser, pp. 245-7.
85. Cronin 1974, pp. 204–205 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
86. Fraser 2001, p. 208
87. Cronin 1974, pp. 133–134 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCronin1974 (help)
88. Fraser 2001, pp. 214–215
89. Fraser 2001, pp. 216–220
90. Fraser 2001, pp. 224–225
91. Lever 2006, p. 189
92. Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, who believe Fersen and the Queen were romantically involved with one another, argue that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Louis XVI was not the child's father - see Stefan Zweig, Marie Antoinette: The portrait of an average woman (New York, 1933), pp. 143, 244-7, and Fraser, pp. 267-9. This is also the view taken in biographies like Ian Dunlop, Marie-Antoinette: A Portrait (London, 1993), Évelyne Lever, Marie-Antoinette : la dernière reine (Paris, 2000), Simone Bertière, Marie-Antoinette: l'insoumise (Paris, 2003), and Jonathan Beckman, How to ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal that shook the French throne (London, 2014), all of which argue that the Queen was not romantically or sexually involved with von Fersen. Beckman argues that 'there was speculation that he had an affair with the queen. To keep such a liaison hidden for years would have required a talent for logistics and discretion well beyond Marie Antoinette.' Munro Price, The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil (London, 2002) argues that it is impossible to know one way or the other how the Queen and von Fersen felt about one another, but that if they ever did consummate their union, it took place after the birth of all four of her children and quite possibly only in the final few weeks of her freedom. The prince's biographer, Deborah Cadbury, in The Lost King of France: The tragic story of Marie-Antoinette's Favourite Son (London, 2003), pp. 22-4 also argues strongly that Louis XVI was the younger son's biological father.
93. Cadbury, p. 23
94. Fraser 2001, p. 226
95. Fraser 2001, pp. 246–248
96. ^ Fraser 2001, pp. 248–250
97. Fraser 2001, pp. 250–260
98. Fraser 2001, pp. 254–255
99. Fraser, 2001 & pp254-260 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp254-260 (help)
100. Facos, p. 12.
101. Schama, p. 221.
102. Fraser 2001, pp. 255–258
103. Fraser, 2001 & pp 257-258 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp_257-258 (help)
104. Fraser 2001, pp. 258–259
105. Fraser 2001, pp. 260–261
106. Fraser 2001, pp. 263–265
107. Fraser 2001, pp. 270–273
108. Fraser 2001, pp. 274–278
109. Fraser, 2001 & pp279-282 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp279-282 (help)
110. Fraser, 2001 & pp280-285 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp280-285 (help)
111. Fraser 2001, pp. 282–284
112. Fraser 2001, pp. 284–289
113. Fraser 2001, p. 289
114. Fraser 2001, pp. 298–304
115. Fraser 2001, p. 304
116. Fraser 2001, pp. 304–308
117. Fraser, 2001 & pp310-314 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp310-314 (help)
118. Fraser, 2001 & pp315-319 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp315-319 (help)
119. Fraser, 2001 & pp321-323 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp321-323 (help)
120. Fraser 2001, p. 319
121. "Project MUSE — Early American Literature — Charles Brockden Brown's Ormond and Lesbian Possibility in the Early Republic" (PDF). Muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
122. Bonnie Zimmerman (2000). Lesbian histories and cultures: an encyclopedia (Volume 1). Taylor & Francis. pp. 776–777. ISBN 9780815319207. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
123. Dena Goodman (2003). Marie-Antoinette: writings on the body of a queen. Psychology Press. pp. 144–145. ISBN 9780415933957. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
124. Fraser 2001, pp. 320–321
125. Fraser, 2001 & pp321-325 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp321-325 (help)
126. Fraser, 2001 & pp325-329 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp325-329 (help)
127. Fraser 2001, pp. 333–348
128. Fraser 2001, pp. 353–354
129. Fraser 2001, pp. 350–352
130. Fraser 2001, pp. 355–356
131. Fraser, 2001 & p356 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001p356 (help)
132. Fraser, 2001 & pp357-358 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp357-358 (help)
133. Fraser, 2001 & pp358-365 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp358-365 (help)
134. Fraser 2001, pp. 360–363
135. {{Harvnb|2001|pp365-368
136. Fraser 2001, pp. 365–368
137. Fraser, 2001 & pp360-371 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp360-371 (help)
138. Fraser, 2001 & pp371-373 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp371-373 (help)
139. Fraser 2001, p. 368
140. Fraser 2001, pp. 373–379
141. Fraser 2001, pp. 382–386
142. Fraser 2001, p. 389
143. Fraser 2001, p. 392
144. Fraser 2001, pp. 395–398
145. Fraser 2001, p. 399
146. Fraser 2001, pp. 404–405, 408
147. Fraser 2001, pp. 398, 408
148. Fraser 2001, pp. 411–412
149. Fraser 2001, pp. 412–414
150. Fraser 2001, pp. 414–415
151. Fraser 2001, p. 418
152. Fraser 2001, pp. 429–435
153. Fraser 2001, pp. 424–425, 436
154. "Last Letter of Marie-Antoinette", Tea at Trianon, 26 May 2007
155. Fraser, 2001 & p256 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001p256 (help)
156. Fraser, 2001 & pp 436-440 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFraser2001pp_436-440 (help)
157. Fraser 2001, p. 440
158. The Times 23 October 1793, The Times.
159. Richard Covington (November 2006), "Marie Antoinette", Smithsonian magazine
160. Fraser 2001, pp. 411, 447
161. Fraser 2001, pp. xviii, 160; Lever 2006, pp. 63–5; Lanser 2003, pp. 273–290
162. Johnson 1990, p. 17
163. Sturtevant, pp. 14, 72.

Bibliography

• Bonnet, Marie-Jo (1981). Un choix sans équivoque: recherches historiques sur les relations amoureuses entre les femmes, XVIe-XXe siècle (in French). Paris: Denoël. OCLC 163483785. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Castelot, André (1957). Queen of France: a biography of Marie Antoinette. trans. Denise Folliot. New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 301479745. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cronin, Vincent (1989). Louis and Antoinette. London: The Harvill Press. ISBN 978-0-00-272021-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dams, Bernd H.; Zega, Andrew (1995). La folie de bâtir: pavillons d'agrément et folies sous l'Ancien Régime. trans. Alexia Walker. Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-08-201858-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Facos, Michelle (2011). An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-84071-5. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
• Fraser, Antonia (2001). Marie Antoinette (1st ed.). New York: N.A. Talese/Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-48948-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fraser, Antonia (2002). Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2nd ed.). Garden City: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-48949-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hermann, Eleanor (2006). Sex With The Queen. Harper/Morrow. ISBN 0-06-084673-9.
• Hibbert, Christopher (2002). The Days of the French Revolution. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-688-16978-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Johnson, Paul (1990). Intellectuals. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-091657-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lanser, Susan S. (2003). "Eating Cake: The (Ab)uses of Marie-Antoinette". In Goodman, Dena (ed.). Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-93395-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lever, Évelyne (2006). Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France. London: Portrait. ISBN 978-0-7499-5084-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schama, Simon (1989). Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Vintage. ISBN 0-679-72610-1.
• Seulliet, Philippe (July 2008). "Swan Song: Music Pavillion of the Last Queen of France". World Of Interiors (7). {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sturtevant, Lynne (2011). A Guide to Historic Marietta, Ohio. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-60949-276-2. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
• Weber, Caroline (2007). Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-42734-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wollstonecraft, Mary (1795). An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution and the Effect it Has Produced in Europe. St. Paul's.

Further reading

• Bashor, Will (2013). Marie Antoinette's Head: The Royal Hairdresser, the Queen, and the Revolution. Lyons Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-0762791538.
• Lasky, Kathryn (2000). The Royal Diaries: Marie Antoinette, Princess of Versailles: Austria-France, 1769. New York: Scholastic. ISBN 978-0-439-07666-1.
• Loomis, Stanley (1972). The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the flight to Varennes. London: Davis-Poynter. ISBN 978-0-7067-0047-3.
• MacLeod, Margaret Anne (2008). There Were Three of Us in the Relationship: The Secret Letters of Marie Antoinette. Irvine, Scotland: Isaac MacDonald. ISBN 978-0-9559991-0-9.
• Naslund, Sena Jeter (2006). Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-082539-3.
• Romijn, André (2008). Vive Madame la Dauphine: A Biographical Novel. Ripon: Roman House. ISBN 978-0-9554100-2-4.
• Thomas, Chantal (1999). The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette. Trans. Julie Rose. New York: Zone Books. ISBN 978-0-942299-40-3.
• Vidal, Elena Maria (1997). Trianon: A Novel of Royal France. Long Prairie, MN: Neumann Press. ISBN 978-0-911845-96-9.
• Zweig, Stefan (2002). Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 978-0-8021-3909-2.

External links

• "Marie Antionette" in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Story of Marie Antoinette with Primary Sources
• Find A Grave
• Marie Antoinette's Head: The Royal Hairdresser, the Queen, and the Revolution - Lyons Press page
• Marie Antoinette's official Versailles profile
• Using mtDNA to track the case of Louis XVII, son of Marie Antoinette
• Marie Antoinette Online—A site with a sympathetic bend, and contains a great deal of information.
• The marais of Marie-Antoinette sur parismarais.com
• Tea At Trianon—Many articles on all things Antoinette, from Versailles to Trianon to the most obscure details of life in Royal France, by historian and author Elena Maria Vidal.
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Marie Antoinette" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Online catalog of Marie Antoinette's personal reading library from the Petit-Trianon palace, based on 1863 printed catalog, online at LibraryThing.
• If they have no bread, let them eat cake.

Articles and topics related to Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette House of Habsburg-LorraineBorn: 2 November 1755 Died: 16 October 1793 French royalty VacantTitle last held byMarie Leszczyńska Queen consort of France and Navarre 10 May 1774 – 1 October 1791 Herself as Queen of the French Herself as Queen of France Queen consort of the French 1 October 1791 – 21 September 1792 VacantMonarchy abolishedTitle next held byJoséphine de Beauharnais as Empress of the French Titles in pretence Loss of title Republic declared — TITULAR — Queen consort of France and Navarre/ Queen consort of the French 1 October 1791 – 21 January 1793 VacantTitle next held byMarie Josephine Louise of Savoy Notes and references 1. Weber, Caroline. Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2006. v t e Austrian archduchesses by descent Generations are numbered by male-line descent from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919. 1st generation Kunigunde, Duchess of Bavaria 2nd generation Margaret, Duchess of Savoy 3rd generation Eleanor, Queen of Portugal and France* Isabella, Queen of Denmark and Norway* Maria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia* Catherine, Queen of Portugal* 4th generation Maria, Holy Roman Empress* Joanna, Princess of Portugal* Elisabeth, Queen of Poland Anna, Duchess of Bavaria Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg Magdalena Catherine, Queen of Poland Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua Margaret Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara Helena Joanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany 5th generation Isabella Clara Eugenia, Co-sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands** Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy** Anna, Queen of Spain Elisabeth, Queen of France Margaret (1567–1633) Maria (1584–1649) Anna, Holy Roman Empress Anna, Queen of Poland Maria Christina, Princess of Transylvania Catherine Renata Gregoria Maximiliana Eleanor (1582–1620) Margaret, Queen of Spain Constance, Queen of Poland Maria Maddalena, Grand Duchess of Tuscany 6th generation Anna, Queen of France** María** Maria Anna, Holy Roman Empress** Margarita** Maria Anna, Electress of Bavaria Cecilia Renata, Queen of Poland Isabella Clara, Duchess of Mantua Maria Leopoldine, Holy Roman Empress 7th generation Maria Theresa, Queen of France** Margarita Teresa, Holy Roman Empress* Maria Anna, Queen of Spain Eleanor, Queen of Poland, Duchess of Lorraine Maria Anna Josepha, Electoral Princess of the Palatinate Claudia Felicitas, Holy Roman Empress 8th generation Maria Antonia, Electress of Bavaria Maria Elisabeth Maria Anna, Queen of Portugal Maria Theresa Maria Josepha Maria Magdalena 9th generation Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland Maria Amalia, Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa Princess Maria Anna of Lorraine 10th generation Maria Elisabeth^ Maria Anna^ Maria Carolina^ Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen^ Maria Elisabeth^ Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma^ Johanna^ Maria Josepha^ Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples^ Maria Antonia, Queen of France^ 11th generation Maria Theresa Maria Theresia, Queen of Saxony^ Maria Anna^ Maria Clementina, Duchess of Calabria^ Maria Amalia^ Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia# Maria Leopoldine, Electress of Bavaria# Maria Ludovika, Empress of Austria# 12th generation Marie Louise, Empress of the French Maria Leopoldina, Empress of Brazil Clementina, Princess of Salerno Marie Caroline, Crown Princess of Saxony Maria Anna Maria Luisa^ Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia^ Maria Theresa, Queen of the Two Sicilies Maria Caroline Hermine Elisabeth Franziska Marie Henriette, Queen of the Belgians Adelaide, Queen of Sardinia Maria Theresa, Countess of Chambord# Maria Beatrix, Countess of Montizón# 13th generation Maria Anna Princess Auguste Ferdinande of Bavaria^ Maria Isabella, Countess of Trapani^ Maria Luisa, Princess of Isenburg-Büdingen^ Mathilda Maria Christina, Queen of Spain Maria Dorothea, Duchess of Orléans Margaretha Klementine, Princess of Thurn and Taxis Maria Theresa, Queen of Bavaria# 14th generation Sophie Princess Gisela of Bavaria Marie Valerie Margarete Sophie, Duchess of Württemberg Maria Annunciata Princess Elisabeth of Liechtenstein Maria Antonietta^ Luise, Crown Princess of Saxony^ Maria Theresa^ Princess Karoline Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha^ Princess Maria Christina of Salm-Salm Princess Maria Anna of Bourbon Parma Maria Henrietta, Princess of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst Princess Isabella of Bavaria Eleonora Renata, Princess Radziwill Mechthildis, Princess Czartoryski 15th generation Elisabeth Marie, Princess of Windisch-Graetz Helena, Duchess of Württemberg^ Rosa, Duchess of Württemberg^ Dolores^ Maria Inmaculata^ Margarita, Marchioness Taliani di Marchio^ Princess Maria Antonia^ Assunta^ Elisabeth, Countess of Waldburg-Zeil^ Hedwig, Countess of Stolberg-Stolberg^ Margaret, Princess of Monteleone Ilona, Duchess of Mecklenburg 16th generation Adelheid Charlotte, Duchess of Mecklenburg Princess Elisabeth of Liechtenstein 17th generation Gabriela Walburga, Countess Douglas Maria-Anna, Princess Piotr Galitzine Sophie, Princess of Windisch-Graetz 18th generation Eleonore * also an infanta of Spain ** also an infanta of Spain and Portugal ^ also a princess of Tuscany # also a princess of Modena v t e Tuscan princesses by birth 1st generation Princess Maria Isabella, Duchess of Bracciano Lucrezia de' Medici, Duchess of Ferrara Virginia, Duchess of Modena^ 2nd generation Eleonora, Duchess of Mantua Princess Anna Marie, Queen of France Princess Maria Maddalena Claudia, Archduchess of Further Austria 3rd generation Princess Maria Cristina Margherita, Duchess of Parma Anna, Archduchess of Further Austria Catherine, Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat 4th generation none 5th generation Anna Maria Luisa, Electress Palatine 6th generation none 7th generation Princess Maria Anna* Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen* Princess Maria Elisabeth* Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma* Princess Maria Johanna Gabriela* Princess Maria Josepha* Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily* Maria Antonia, Queen of France* 8th generation Maria Theresia, Queen of Saxony* Maria Clementina, Duchess of Calabria* 9th generation Princess Maria Luisa* Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia* 10th generation Auguste Ferdinande, Princess Luitpold of Bavaria* Maria Isabella, Countess of Trapani* Maria Luisa, Princess of Isenburg-Büdingen* 11th generation Princess Maria Antonietta* Louise, Crown Princess of Saxony* Maria Theresa, Archduchess Charles Stephen of Austria* Karoline Marie, Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha* 12th generation Helena, Duchess Philipp of Württemberg* Rosa, Duchess of Württemberg* Princess Dolores* Maria Immaculata, Nobile Inigo Neri Sereneri* Margarita, Marchioness Taliani di Marchio* Princess Maria Antonia, Mrs. Luis Pérez* * also an archduchess of Austria ^did not have a royal or noble birth v t e Princesses of France by marriage 1st generation None 2nd generation Marie, Duchess of Montpensier Princess Marguerite of Lorraine 3rd generation Princess Henrietta of England Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate 4th generation Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria Françoise Marie de Bourbon 5th generation Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy Princess Marie Louise of Orléans 6th generation None 7th generation Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony 8th generation Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria Princess Maria Joséphine of Savoy Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy 9th generation Princess Marie Thérèse of France* Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily 10th generation Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este *also a princess of France in her own right v t e Dauphines of France Joanna of Bourbon (1350–1364) Margaret of Burgundy (1412–1415) Jacqueline of Bavaria (1415–1417) Margaret of Scotland (1436–1445) Charlotte of Savoy (1451–1461) Catherine de' Medici (1536–1547) Mary Stuart (1558–1559) Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (1680–1690) Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (1711–1712) Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain (1745–1746) Maria Josepha of Saxony (1747–1765) Maria Antonia of Austria (1770–1774) Marie Thérèse of France (1824–1830) v t e Royal consorts of France List of Frankish queens List of French royal consorts Merovingians (509–751) Clotilde Ultragotha Guntheuc Radegund Ingund Aregund Ingoberga Merofleda Marcovefa Theudechild Austregilde Audovera Galswintha Fredegund Brunhilda of Austrasia Bertrude Sichilde Gomentrude Nanthild Ragintrudis Wulfefundis Bertechildis Balthild of Chelles Bilichild Chrothildis Carolingians, Robertians and Bosonids (751–987) Bertrada of Laon Gerberga Desiderata of the Lombards Hildegard Fastrada Luitgard Ermengarde of Hesbaye Judith of Bavaria Ermentrude of Orléans Richilde of Provence Adelaide of Paris Richardis Théodrate of Troyes Frederuna Eadgifu of Wessex Beatrice of Vermandois Emma of France Gerberga of Saxony Emma of Italy House of Capet (987–1328) Adelaide of Aquitaine Rozala of Italy Bertha of Burgundy Constance of Arles Matilda of Frisia Anne of Kiev Bertha of Holland Bertrade of Montfort Adelaide of Maurienne Eleanor of Aquitaine Constance of Castile Adela of Champagne Isabella of Hainault Ingeborg of Denmark Agnes of Merania Blanche of Castile Margaret of Provence Isabella of Aragon Marie of Brabant Joan I of Navarre Margaret of Burgundy Clementia of Hungary Joan II, Countess of Burgundy Blanche of Burgundy Marie of Luxembourg Joan of Évreux House of Valois (1328–1589) Joan of Burgundy Blanche of Navarre Joan I, Countess of Auvergne Joanna of Bourbon Isabeau of Bavaria Marie of Anjou Charlotte of Savoy Anne of Brittany Joan of France Mary Tudor Claude of France Eleanor of Austria Catherine de' Medici Mary Stuart Elisabeth of Austria Louise of Lorraine House of Lancaster (1422–1453) Margaret of Anjou House of Bourbon (1589–1792) Margaret of Valois Marie de' Medici Anne of Austria Maria Theresa of Spain Marie Leszczyńska Marie Antoinette House of Bonaparte (1804–1814; 1815) Joséphine de Beauharnais Marie Louise House of Bourbon (1814–1815; 1815–1830) Marie Joséphine of Savoy Marie-Thérèse House of Orléans (1830–1848) Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily House of Bonaparte (1852–1870) Eugénie de Montijo Consorts to debatable or disputed rulers are in italics. v t e French Revolution Causes Timeline Ancien Régime Revolution Constitutional monarchy Republic Directory Consulate Glossary Journals Museum Significant civil and political events by year 1788 Day of the Tiles (7 Jun 1788) Assembly of Vizille (21 Jul 1788) 1789 What Is the Third Estate? (Jan 1789) Réveillon riots (28 Apr 1789) Convocation of the Estates General (5 May 1789) Death of the Dauphin (4 June 1789) National Assembly (17 Jun – 9 Jul 1790) Tennis Court Oath (20 Jun 1789) National Constituent Assembly (9 Jul – 30 Sep 1791) Storming of the Bastille (14 Jul 1789) Great Fear (20 Jul – 5 Aug 1789) Abolition of Feudalism (4–11 Aug 1789) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 Aug 1789) Women's March on Versailles (5 Oct 1789) Nationalization of the Church properties (2 Nov 1789) 1790 Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790) Abolition of the Nobility (23 Jun 1790) Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 Jul 1790) Fête de la Fédération (14 Jul 1790) 1791 Flight to Varennes (20–21 Jun 1791) Champ de Mars massacre (17 Jul 1791) Declaration of Pillnitz (27 Aug 1791) The Constitution of 1791 (3 Sep 1791) National Legislative Assembly (1 Oct 1791 – Sep 1792) 1792 France declares war (20 Apr 1792) Brunswick Manifesto (25 Jul 1792) Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary (Jun 1792) 10th of August (10 Aug 1792) September Massacres (Sep 1792) National Convention (20 Sep 1792 – 26 Oct 1795) First republic declared (22 Sep 1792) 1793 Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793) Revolutionary Tribunal (9 Mar 1793 – 31 May 1795) Reign of Terror (27 Jun 1793 – 27 Jul 1794) Committee of Public Safety Committee of General Security Fall of the Girondists (2 Jun 1793) Assassination of Marat (13 Jul 1793) Levée en masse (23 Aug 1793) The Death of Marat (painting) Law of Suspects (17 Sep 1793) Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793) Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year) 1794 Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794) Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794) Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794) Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794) White Terror (Fall 1794) Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794) 1795–6 Insurrection of 12 Germinal Year III (1 Apr 1795) Constitution of the Year III (22 Aug 1795) Directoire (1795–99) Council of Five Hundred Council of Ancients 13 Vendémiaire 5 Oct 1795 Conspiracy of the Equals (May 1796) 1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797) Second Congress of Rastatt (Dec 1797) 1798 Law of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798) 1799 Coup of 30 Prairial VII (18 Jun 1799) Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 Nov 1799) Constitution of the Year VIII (24 Dec 1799) Consulate Revolutionary campaigns 1792 Verdun Thionville Valmy Royalist Revolts Chouannerie Vendée Dauphiné Lille Siege of Mainz Jemappes Namur 1793 First Coalition War in the Vendée Battle of Neerwinden Battle of Famars (23 May 1793) Expedition to Sardinia (21 Dec 1792 - 25 May 1793) Battle of Kaiserslautern Siege of Mainz Battle of Wattignies Battle of Hondschoote Siege of Bellegarde Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees) Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793) First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793) Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees) Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793) 1794 Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794) Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794) Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794) Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794) Glorious First of June (1 Jun 1794) Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794) Chouannerie Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794) Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) 1795 Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) Peace of Basel 1796 Italian campaign (1796) Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796) Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796) Battle of Theiningen Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796) Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796) Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796) Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796) First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796) Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796) Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796) Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796) Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796) Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796) Ireland expedition (Dec 1796) 1797 Italian campaign (1797) Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797) Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797) Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797) Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797) Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797) Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797) 1798 French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798) French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798) Quasi-War (1798–1800) Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798) 1799 Second Coalition (1798–1802) Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799) Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799) Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799) Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799) Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799) First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799) Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799) Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799) Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799) 1800 Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800) Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800) Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800) League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02) 1801 Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801) Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801) Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801) 1802 Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802) Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802) Military leaders France French Army Eustache Charles d'Aoust Pierre Augereau Alexandre de Beauharnais Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte Louis-Alexandre Berthier Jean-Baptiste Bessières Napoléon Bonaparte Guillaume Brune Jean François Carteaux Jean-Étienne Championnet Chapuis de Tourville Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis Desaix Jacques François Dugommier Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Charles François Dumouriez Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino Louis-Charles de Flers Paul Grenier Emmanuel de Grouchy Jacques Maurice Hatry Lazare Hoche Jean-Baptiste Jourdan François Christophe de Kellermann Jean-Baptiste Kléber Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Jean Lannes Charles Leclerc Claude Lecourbe François Joseph Lefebvre Étienne Macdonald Jean-Antoine Marbot Marcellin Marbot François Séverin Marceau Auguste de Marmont André Masséna Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey Jean Victor Marie Moreau Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise Joachim Murat Michel Ney Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr] Nicolas Oudinot Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon Jean-Charles Pichegru Józef Poniatowski Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier Joseph Souham Jean-de-Dieu Soult Louis-Gabriel Suchet Belgrand de Vaubois Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno French Navy Charles-Alexandre Linois Opposition Austria József Alvinczi Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Count of Clerfayt (Walloon) Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss) Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth Pál Kray (Hungarian) Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French) Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon) Karl Mack von Leiberich Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon) Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian) Karl Philipp Sebottendorf Dagobert von Wurmser Britain Sir Ralph Abercromby James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Netherlands William V, Prince of Orange Prussia Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen Russia Alexander Korsakov Alexander Suvorov Andrei Rosenberg Spain Luis Firmin de Carvajal Antonio Ricardos Other significant figures and factions Patriotic Society of 1789 Jean Sylvain Bailly Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt Isaac René Guy le Chapelier Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Nicolas de Condorcet Feuillants and monarchiens Grace Elliott Arnaud de La Porte Jean-Sifrein Maury François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas Antoine Barnave Lafayette Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth Charles Malo François Lameth André Chénier Jean-François Rewbell Camille Jordan Madame de Staël Boissy d'Anglas Jean-Charles Pichegru Pierre Paul Royer-Collard Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Girondins Jacques Pierre Brissot Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière Madame Roland Father Henri Grégoire Étienne Clavière Marquis de Condorcet Charlotte Corday Marie Jean Hérault Jean Baptiste Treilhard Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve Jean Debry Olympe de Gouges Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux The Plain Abbé Sieyès de Cambacérès Charles-François Lebrun Pierre-Joseph Cambon Bertrand Barère Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot Philippe Égalité Louis Philippe I Mirabeau Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville Jean Joseph Mounier Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours François de Neufchâteau Montagnards Maximilien Robespierre Georges Danton Jean-Paul Marat Camille Desmoulins Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Paul Barras Louis Philippe I Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Jacques-Louis David Marquis de Sade Georges Couthon Roger Ducos Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois Jean-Henri Voulland Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Jean-Pierre-André Amar Prieur de la Côte-d'Or Prieur de la Marne Gilbert Romme Jean Bon Saint-André Jean-Lambert Tallien Pierre Louis Prieur Antoine Christophe Saliceti Hébertists and Enragés Jacques Hébert Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne Pierre Gaspard Chaumette Charles-Philippe Ronsin Antoine-François Momoro François-Nicolas Vincent François Chabot Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel François Hanriot Jacques Roux Stanislas-Marie Maillard Charles-Philippe Ronsin Jean-François Varlet Theophile Leclerc Claire Lacombe Pauline Léon Gracchus Babeuf Sylvain Maréchal Others Figures Charles X Louis XVI Louis XVII Louis XVIII Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien Louis Henri, Prince of Condé Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Marie Antoinette Napoléon Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Fesch Joséphine de Beauharnais Joachim Murat Jean Sylvain Bailly Jacques-Donatien Le Ray Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes Talleyrand Thérésa Tallien Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target Catherine Théot Madame de Lamballe Madame du Barry Louis de Breteuil de Chateaubriand Jean Chouan Loménie de Brienne Charles Alexandre de Calonne Jacques Necker Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil List of people associated with the French Revolution Factions Jacobins Cordeliers Panthéon Club Social Club Influential thinkers Les Lumières Beaumarchais Edmund Burke Anacharsis Cloots Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Pierre Claude François Daunou Diderot Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Antoine Lavoisier Montesquieu Thomas Paine Jean-Jacques Rousseau Abbé Sieyès Voltaire Mary Wollstonecraft Cultural impact La Marseillaise Cockade of France Flag of France Liberté, égalité, fraternité Marianne Muscadin Bastille Day Panthéon French Republican calendar Metric system Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Cult of the Supreme Being Cult of Reason Temple of Reason Sans-culottes Phrygian cap Women in the French Revolution Incroyables and merveilleuses Symbolism in the French Revolution Historiography of the French Revolution Influence of the French Revolution Films

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