Marie Antoinette

Birth:Hofburg Palace, Vienna, November 2nd, 1755
Death: Paris, October 17, 1793
Vocation: Queen of France

Allegiance: French Crown

Marie was the youngest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. After growing up in Austria, Marie was married at the age of fourteen to Dauphin Louis Auguste of France in 1770. Antoinette was very popular at first with the common people. People thought that she was beautiful, pleasant, and generous. She was not trusted at court though. On June 10th of 1775 Louis the XV died. On June 11th, the dauphin became king and she became queen.

As queen, Marie Antoinette did not have a great deal of influence or power. Early in the marriage she found herself bored and would go on expensive shopping and gambling trips. She even built a model village at her personal palace. She was a heavy reader and was interested in science, foreign cultures, and read novels. She was very devoted to their children.

Her spending, expensive taste, and being Austrian began turning the people against her. There was a scandal called the Affair of the Necklace in which the Cardinal de Rohan was tricked into buying a very expensive necklace for someone pretending to be the queen. Many blamed the queen for this event. Many people were spreading rumors about her.

She began to pay more attention to government but the countries money situation was out of control and she did not have the power to do anything about it. All she really could do was try to influence the king and his ministers. The third estate, which represented most of the working people, declared itself the national assembly. When the king fired one of his finance minister Jaques Necker in July of 1789, the Bastille (a prison) was stormed by a mob. In September, 1789 a mob stormed the Palace of Versailles and forced the royal family to move to Paris. They were protected and kept from escape by the French National Guard, under the command of the Marquis de Lafayette. There were several plots to escape but only one attempt. Count Axel von Ferson and Louis Charles Auguste le Tonnelier helped the royal family escape in June 1791 but they were recaptured.

Things became very bad. In August of 1792, hundreds of Swiss Guards died protecting the royal's from French republican forces. King Louis XVI was taken away tried and then executed in 1793. Many opinions for escape were considered and a number of countries would have offered her refuge, but in the end she was put on trial. Most of the things that she was accused of were lies and she was never really given a chance to defend herself. Like her husband she was taken to the guillotine.