Born: 2 November 1755, Austria
Died: 16 October 1793
Country most active: France
Also known as: Maria Antonia Josephina Johanna, Maria Antonia of Austria
Carolyn Harris on queens and revolution transcript
This biography, written by Amy-Jane Humphries, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Marie Antoinette was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I, and his wife Empress Maria Theresa. In 1770, as part of the peace process between the Empire and France, Marie was married to the Dauphin, Louis-Auguste. The marriage was unpopular with the French public.
In 1774, Louis-Auguste became King of France and Marie became its queen. Their ongoing childlessness became a grave cause for concern. Satirical pamphlets mocked Louis’s failure to sire an heir. Finally, in 1778, Marie gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse.
Three other children followed, and Marie attempted to cultivate the image of a devoted mother to offset her increasingly dire reputation. The delay in producing heirs may have simply been due to the couple’s youth and inexperience but it gave rise to rumours of infidelity.
Marie’s purported sexual impropriety was compounded by the financial problems of France for which she was largely blamed. Marie spent vast amounts of money on the arts, fashion, and gambling and used her influence to oppose reforms that would have alleviated their financial woes.
After the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, France moved towards establishing a constitutional monarchy where the King had to work with the National Constituent Assembly. The lavish lifestyle of the queen and the court continued until a mob descended on Versailles.
The royal family then moved to Tuileries Palace where they were effectively under house arrest. Their attempted escape in 1791 lost them any public support that still remained. From then on, they were allowed no privacy and remained under armed guard.
Attempts to save the royal family by the Austrians was the beginning of the end for the king and queen. In 1792, the monarchy was abolished, and Louis was accused of treason. He was found guilty and was executed in January 1793. Marie’s trial and execution followed in October.
Recommended Reading
Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey (London: Widenfeld and Nicholson, 2001)
Chantal Thomas, The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)
Évelyne Lever, Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000)
John Hardman, Marie Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen (London: Yale University Press, 2019).
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria and was executed on October 16, 1793 at the Place de la Concorde, Paris, France. While the Chapelle Expiatoire in Paris is dedicated to her and to her husband, King Louis XVI, she is buried at the Basilica Cathedral of Saint Denis, France. In many ways Marie Antoinette was a victim of the world into which she was thrown. To begin with, she came from Austria and after an initially warm welcome in France she was increasingly viewed with suspicion from the French people. She was born an archduchess and came to France at a very young age (a mere 14 years old) to marry Louis XVI. It is worth considering that these two were put in charge of the nation of France as teenagers, Louis being only 19 to her 18 when he was crowned. This was a financially unstable time in France and neither of them seemed able to fully comprehend the Revolution that was brewing. She also had extravagant tastes and a genuine love of fashion and art. She became a patron of the immensely talented artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun who painted not only Marie Antoinette’s portrait but over 600 other portraits. A figure of significance in many ways, during the Revolution, the painter wisely fled France and sought safety in Italy, Austria and Russia until she was finally able to return to France to live out her days. Marie Antoinette’s love of art and haute couture did her no favors during the Revolution as this caused her to spend profligately. Apparently she bought about 300 gowns a year, gaining a reputation as spoiled and vain. As the years went on and general unrest began to reach revolutionary levels, she also served as a scapegoat for those who would rather blame the Austrian queen than criticize their King. She is reported to have been genuinely fond of her husband but it was known that she had other lovers. She continued to spend freely even when France was in a financial crisis, making vast improvements to the charming hideaway of the Petit Trianon that cost over two million francs. These and other whims understandably went over poorly. Some modern scholars question whether her strong will and bold decisions suggest she was a proto-feminist, but this is usually dismissed since all her bold actions were ultimately motivated for personal gain rather than to bring up other women. Nevertheless, Marie Antoinette was vilified more than almost any female figure in French history and many scholars have asked the question, “Why was she hated so much?”. During her trial the scrutiny and condemnation over her purported “libertine ways” was highlighted for dramatic effect (the sheer volume of pornographic cartoons of the Queen attests to this preoccupation with her sexuality). Contemporary biographies continue to fixate on this aspect of her life, often to the exclusion of other areas, including her political machinations and attempts to save the Monarchy. Whether or not one is sympathetic to her ideological leanings, or judgmental about her extra-marital affairs-it has never been proven that she heartlessly said, “let them eat cake” to the hungry people of Paris.
In the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Marie Antoinette managed to steal the show centuries later as she was presented with the Conciergerie External as a backdrop, holding her own bloodied head. There were mixed reviews to Olympic artistic director, Thomas Jolly’s unapologetically shocking scene, the segment of the ceremonies entitled “Liberté” (broadcast in an appropriately deranged looking font), was paired with the French heavy metal rock band, Gojira External (taken from the original Japanese pronunciation of Godzilla, from the film) who preformed from various enclaves of the Conciergerie where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner before her eventual execution at what is today the Place de la Concorde. The finale also included red streaming coils, resembling so many dozen firehoses of blood, thrown from the windows in what might diplomatically be described as a bold choice that achieved its goal of riveting an audience, while possibly offending large swaths of the French population. It did win accolades among the younger and more avant garde crowd. Perhaps the final touch was the inclusion of the Revolutionary song “Ça Ira External ” which translates as something like “It will be fine” played and the title was flashed briefly before viewers to add to the confusing irreverent medley of images and themes. While not the most respectful way to honor the death of Marie Antoinette, she herself might have appreciated the pure audacity of the performance. Certainly the mainstream media has not tired of producing films and musicals where she is as audacious as ever.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. She was the youngest daughter of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, and at the age of fifteen years was married to the Dauphin, grandson of Louis XV and heir to the French crown.
At this early age she assumed her position as Dauphine in the dissolute court of Louis XV, where a woman of ripe years and cultivated intellect would have required the greatest prudence and caution to steer her way among innumerable difficulties. The memoirs of the time all dwell upon the promises of her yet undeveloped beauty; the noble cast of her features, her brilliant complexion, the golden shade of her beautiful hair, her graceful manner, and the remarkable dignity of her attitude.
The scandalous reign of Louis XV ended with his death on May 10, 1774, and wjen the courtiers announced the event to the Daughin and his wife, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette burst into tears, and with a joint impulse fell on their knees exclaiming: God help us and protect us! We are too young to reign! The king was not yet twenty; the queen was in her nineteenth year.
The nation, crushed with taxes and reduced to grinding poverty by the vices and shameless extravagance of Louis XV hailed the new reign with hopes and expectations of coming prosperity, but these anticipations could only prove illusive. The awkward, good-natured king was a weak ruler, and his beautiful young queen was thoughtless and pleasure-loving, spending money lavishly at a time when everyone felt the necessity of reforms and economy.
The queen’s first child, known as Madame Royale, lived until 1851. the second and fourth, a boy and girl, died in infancy, while the third, who because Dauphin, was destined to suffer a dreadful fate.
While the affairs of France were growing more serious, the inefficient reign of Louis, and the frivolous amusements of Marie Antoinette continued, but her mind was soon to be engrossed by other cares – the Revolution was looming in the future, and in July, 1789, it broke forth in the storming of the Bastille. During the next four years the familiar events of the insurrection moved rapidly, leading to the arrest, trial and condemnation of the king and queen.The Dauphin, the nominal heir to the crown of France, was torn from his mother and thrust into a loathsome prison-cell, where he suffered horrible tortures, and died at the age of ten years.
King Louis XVI perished on the scaffold in January, 1793, and in the following October Marie Antoinette was summoned before the Revolutionary Court. During the trial she conducted herself with queenly dignity, and received the sentence of death with fortitude. On the morning of October 16, 1793, she was driven in a rude cart to the guillotine in the place de la Révelotion, and there made the heroic final statement for waht she called “errors, but not crimes. the executioner held up the head to the populace. The deep awe of the spectators the face of Marie Antoinette expressed perfect consciousness, and the eyes look on the crowd. The expression was that of intense astonishment, as of some wonderful vision revealed.
Carlyle in his History of the French Revolution says:
Is there a man’s heart that thinks without pity of those long months and years of slow-wasting ignominy; of thy birth, in imperial Schönbrunn, the winds of heaven not to visit thy face too roughly, they foot to light on softness, thy eye on splendor; and then of thy death, or hundred deaths, to which the guillotine and Forquier Tinville’s judgment-bar was but the merciful end! Look then, O man born of woman! The bloom of that face is wasted, the hair is grey with care; the brightness of those eyes is quenched, their lids hang drooping, the face is stony pale, as of one living in death. Mean weeds, which her own hand has mended, attire the Queen of the World. The death-hurdle, where thou sittest motionless has to stop; a people, drunk with vengeance, looking at thee there. Far as the eye reaches, a multitudinous sea of maniac heads, the air of deaf with their triumphant-yell. There is no heart to say God pity thee! But thy path of thorns is nigh ended, one long last look at the Tuileries, where thy step was once so light – where thy children shall not dwell. They head is on the block; the axe rushes – dumb lies the world; that wild-yelling world, and all its madness is behind thee.”
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
Marie Antoinette, Ill Fated Queen of France, 1755 – 1793 A.D.
Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne De Lorraine, archduchess of Austria and queen of France, was the fifth daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I. She was born at Vienna, November 2, 1755, was carefully educated, and possessed an uncommon share of grace and beauty. Her hand was demanded by Louis XIV., for his grandson, the dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI., to whom she was married in 1770, before she had attained her fifteenth year.
Her position at the French court was difficult from the very first, and it soon became dangerous. There was a difference of character between her and the people among whom she had come to live which proved fatal in the end. Her morals were perfectly pure and her heart full of noble and generous instincts. During the first years of her residence in France the queen was the idol of the people. Four years from this period all was changed. Circumstances remote in their origin had brought about in France a state of feeling fast ripening to a fearful issue.
The queen could no longer do with impunity what had been done by her predecessors. The extravagance and thoughtlessness of youth, and a neglect of the strict formality of court etiquette, injured her reputation. She became a mark of censure, and finally an object of hatred to the people, who accused her of the most improbable crimes. Accused of being an Austrian at heart, and an enemy to France, every evil in the state was now attributed to her, and the Parisians soon exhibited their hatred in acts of open violence.
In October, 1789, the populace proceeded with rancor to Versailles, broke into the castle, murdered several of the bodyguard, and forced themselves into the queen’s apartments. When questioned by the officers of justice as to what she had seen on that memorable day, she replied, “I have seen all, I have hear all, I have forgotten all.”
She accompanied the king in his flight to Varennes, in 1791, and endured with him, with unexampled fortitude and magnanimity, and the insults which now followed in quick succession. In April, 1792, she accompanied the king from the Tuileries, where they had been for some time detained close prisoners, to the Legislative Assembly, where she was arraigned. Transferred to the Temple, she endured, with the members of the royal family, every variety of privation and indignity. On January 21, 1793, the king perished on a scaffold; her son was forcibly torn from her, and she was removed to the Conciergerie to await her trial in a damp and squalid cell. On the 14th of October she appeared before the revolutionary tribunal.
During the trial, which lasted seventy-three hours, Marie Antoinette preserved all her dignity and composure. Her replies to the infamous charges were preferred against her were simple, noble, and laconic. When all of the accusations had been heard, she was asked if she had anything to say. She replied, “I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.”
At four o’clock on the morning of the 16th she was condemned to death by a unanimous vote. She heard her sentence with admirable dignity and self-possession. At half-past twelve on the same day she ascended the scaffold. Scarcely any traces remained of the dazzling loveliness which had once charmed all hearts; her hair had long since become blanched with grief, her eyes were almost sightless from continued weeping. She knelt and prayed for a few moments in a low tone, then rose and calmly delivered herself to the executioner. Thus perished, a victim to the circumstances of birth and position.
Marie Antoinette had four children: a daughter, who died in infancy; the dauphin, who died in 1789; the young Louis, who perished in the Temple in 1795; and Maria Theresa Charlotte, who became the wife of the eldest son of Charles X.