The Princess Maria Antonia, as a young girl

She was hated, genuinely hated, and most of her subjects were to want to see her dead. Why? What did she do to bring upon herself such public opprobrium?

She was the youngest daughter of the Austrian Emperor Francis I and his wife Queen Maria Theresa. Francis and his Queen ran an informal Court and little, sweet, irrepressible Maria Antonia was allowed to run free. She learned to play the harpsichord, enjoyed games, and had an idyllic childhood, but her education suffered as a result and even as a teenager she could barely read and write.

In August, 1765, her father, Francis I, died. leaving her formidable mother, Maria Theresa (a woman she barely knew and lived in fear of) as Regent during the minority of her brother, Joseph. Maria Theresa was seeking to secure a marriage alliance with Austria’s traditional foe France. A smallpox epidemic had recently decimated the Royal children leaving Maria Antonia as the only possible candidate for marriage to the young French Dauphin, so in 1767, aged 12, she was betrothed to the 14 year old, Louis. The official wedding ceremony took place at the Palace of Versailles on 16 May, 1770. Marie Antoinette (as she was by now known) was  tall, somewhat self-conscious, ash-blonde, pale-skinned, with piercing blue eyes. She was not particularly pretty but rather had a face and a bearing that made her appear haughty and aloof, if not arrogant. Even so, she was well-received by the crowds that thronged the streets on her arrival in Paris. Louis, a plump, shy, nervous young man, did not seem taken by the occasion at all.

A Royal marriage was traditionally expected to be consumated on the night of the wedding, and the Royal Court waited anxiously for this to happen, but nothing happened, and wasn’t to happen for another 7 years. Louis had no interest in his new young wife, he didn’t appear to like her very much, and they barely spoke. He was happiest out of her presence, in his workshop practising his lock-making skills or out hunting. Marie Antoinette, neglected by her husband, gambled, played cards late into the night, and indulged a young womans love of fine clothes and jewellery. Their behaviour, however, was making them a laughing stock. It was in these early years that her reputation as a frivolous, uncaring, aristocrat first took hold. Throughout this period she was constantly bombarded by letters from her mother that were critical almost to the point of abuse, accusing her of lacking dignity, losing her attractiveness, and of being unable to sexually arouse her husband. she could barely stand to read them let alone pen a reply. On 11 June, 1775, Louis was crowned King Louis XVI of France, and it was evident that this loveless, barren marriage could not be allowed to continue.

In April, 1777, the recently crowned Emperor Joseph I of Austria, visited his sister and brother-in-law. Going on a walk with Louis in the gardens at Versailles he took him to one side and explained to Louis the requirement of a King to produce an heir, demanded that he make love to his wife, and even told him in no uncertain terms how to do it. In the meantime, Marie Antoinette, starved of affection from her husband, had sought it elsewhere and had become particularly close to two ladies of the Royal Court, the Duchesse de Polignac and Princess Lamballe. With the whole of Europe aware that she was in receipt of no sexual gratification from Loius the closeness of this relationship led to inevitable rumours of lesbianism. Already known as L’Autrichienne (the Austrian Whore, or Bitch) people were saying that she was not so much married to the King as married to excess, sexual and otherwise, and pornographic literature was already circulating on the streets of Paris.

Joseph’s little pep talk, however, seems to have done the trick. On 19 December, 1778, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie Therese. A Queen’s pregnancy was a public event, and the Royal Court would be invited in to witness the birth. So on the night of the birth itself the Queen’s bedchamber was packed with Courtiers. But it was it was to be an agonising birth, and Marie Antoinette, whose screams rent the night air, almost bled to death. Louis, out of concern for his wife and to spare her such indignities in the future, henceforth banned the tradition. With motherhood came greater responsibility and a new-found relationship with her husband the closeness of which shocked many of those at the Royal Court. It would appear that they were at last a married couple and Marie Antoinette now began to display the mantle of dignity that had previously been lacking. 

Louis XVI, had learned to appreciate his wife and their was a genuine warmth between them. He had given to her the Trianon Garden as a present and she turned it into a personal rural idyll. But it would be wrong to suggest that everything was rosy in the garden. Marie Antoinette did have affairs and she was particularly close to the dashing Swedish Count Festen whom would be her lover at times of great stress. Her presumed affairs were common currency on the streets of Paris and the literature portraying her as a lascivious sexual predator available to all in sundry behind the back of poor, unaware, cuckolded, impotent Louis, were easily found. On 22 October, 1781, she gave birth to a son, Louis Joseph and on 27 March, 1785, a second son, Louis Charles. The people doubted if they were the King’s.

Marie Antoinette, with her children, and in her pomp

The Affair of the Queen’s Necklace was to destroy beyond any hope of redemption the already tarnished reputation of Marie Antoinette, and it was to bring into disrepute the very existence of the institution of the Monarchy itself.

In 1772, Louis XV had commissioned the Parisian jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge to make a special and spectacular necklace for his lover the Madame du Barry. No expense was to be spared and the necklace they made came to be valued at 2,000,000 livres. Unfortunately, for the jewellers Louis XV died before it could be paid for. The cost of its creation had almost bankrupted the jewellers and they remained desparate to sell it. Surely, the ever-extravagant Marie Antoinette would purchase it, and on every occasion worthy of celebration they tried to sell it to her. But she was no longer the Marie Antoinette of old, she was a mother, a devoted wife, and a responsible Queen, her days of excess were at an end. Moreover, she did not want anything that had been made for such a disreputable woman as the courtesan du Barry. Still they kept trying. 

In 1784, a woman named Jeanne de la Motte, who claimed to be a descendant of King Henry II of France, and liked to use the name Valois, became the mistress of Cardinal de Rohan. The Cardinal was an ambitious and duplicitous man who had conspired against the Queen and as such had acquired her displeasure and seen his stature at Court wane as a result. He was desparate to win back her favour. De la Motte, claimed to be a close personal friend of the Queen’s and promised to work on his behalf to win back that favour he so desparately desired. She brought him letters she said were from the Queen (they were in fact forged) that convinced the Cardinal that Marie Antoinette was in fact in love with him. He fell for it and pleaded with Jeanne to arrange a meeting for him with the Queen, which she agreed to do. On a dark moonlit night in August 1784, the Cardinal met a woman in the Gardens at Versailles that he believed was Marie Antoinette. She was in fact a prostitute, Nicole Leguay d’Oliva, who bore a striking resemblance to the Queen and been hired by Jeanne for the role. They exchanged a few words, the Cardinal presented her with a rose, and she promised to forgive his past duplicity. They then parted.

Hearing of Jeanne’s apparent close relationship with the Marie Antoinette the jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge approached her in yet another attempt to sell the necklace to the Queen. She agreed to try. She was though determined to procure the necklace for herself. She told her lover, the Cardinal, that the Queen wished to purchase the necklace but that she could not be seen to do so and that in light of their recent reconciliation whether he would secure it for her. The Cardinal was delighted to be seen to do so and negotiated the purchase of the necklace presenting to the jewellers what he believed were notes from the Queen promising to pay the 2,000,000 livres in instalments. The necklace was handed over to him and he in turn presented it to someone he believed was a valet of the Queens. He turned out to be Jeanne de la Mottes husband. However, when the jewellers received no payment for the necklace they approached the Queen who curtly informed them that she had no knowledge of the affair.

The plot quickly unravelled and on the 15 August, 1785, the Cardinal de Rohan was arrested. Three days later so was Jeanne de la Motte. In May, 1786, all those involved in the necklace affair were brought to trial in a case that scandalised France. The Cardinal de Rohan was largely seen as a dupe and cleared of all charges, he was, however, banished from the Court. The prostitute Nicole Leguay d’Oliva, was also cleared. Jeanne de la Motte, was sentenced to be branded and flogged, she was indeed stripped naked and whipped in public, she was then taken to a womens prison to serve a life sentence but managed to weasel her way out of after serving only a year. Her husband was sentenced to life imprisonment. The real victim of the necklace affair, however, was Marie Antoinette, who had been blameless. She may have had no involvment in the affair but it fitted in perfectly with her popular image as the woman who partied while her people starved, gambled when they had no money to feed their children, and dressed extravagantly while they wore rags.  She may never have said, “Let them eat cake”, but she would wouldn’t she. Her reputation previously tarnished was in tatters. The king may be a decent enough fellow but his Queen was still L’Autrichienne.

By, 1787, France was a country in turmoil.  A series of failed harvests had left many close to starvation, the economy was bankrupt and close to meltdown, and a complicated and disjointed system of taxation which left many of the better-off exempt made raising extra revenue almost impossible. The King, who was unable to effectively govern through personal rule, was forced to convene an Estates General (the elected legislature of France not summoned since 1614) to address the issues. Marie Antoinette, whose political influence over her husband had always been minimal, nevertheless opposed the convening of the Estates General, and when it exerted its power and refused to disband itself as the King had ordered, she wanted him to take a hard-line and use the army, but Louis shrank from bloodshed.

On 14 July, 1789, everything changed when the storming of the Bastille turned what had been a crisis into a revolution. Yet again, Marie Antoinette cajoled and urged her husband to use the army on the people, but he knew the loyalty of the troops could no longer be relied upon, and the thought of Frenchmen killing Frenchmen continued to horrify him. In truth, Louis was indecisive and apathetic and control of the situation was quickly snatched from his grasp. Marie Antoinette, who had always appeared somewhat childlike and lacking in concentration, now displayed the strength of character her husband lacked. She actively conspired against the new Revolutionary Government and wrote copious letters to her brother the Emperor Joseph in Austria begging for his help. On 5 October, a furious mob of mostly women, descended on Versailles from Paris, they were desparate for bread and demanded of the KIng that he order the opening up of the granaries. He agreed but this did not satisfy them and they refused to disperse. On the night of the 6th a group of women broke into Marie Antoinette’s bedchamber with the intention of murdering her but she had heard the commotion and managed to escape through a secret passageway to the King. The following morning the mob physically removed the Royal Family and took them back to Paris where they handed them over to the Revolutionary Government which promised to protect them as long as they remained in the Tuilleries.

The experience of the 6 October, when Marie Antoinette had barely escaped with her life, despite her outward calm, had terrified and effected her deeply. She now feared for the safety, not just of herself and her husband, but of the children. She began to plot an escape. Louis, who was still King and would have the final say, seemed incapable of making a decision and was paralysed by events. So it was Marie Antoinette, along with Count Fersten, who would make the arrangements. On the night 20 June, 1791, they set out in disguise and in a single carriage heading for the Royal fortress at Montmedy. They got as far as the small town of Varennes just a few miles from their destination when they were stopped by the local postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet. He recognised the King, it was said from his likeness on a banknote. A squadron of cavalry sent to escort the Royal Family to safety never arrived and instead they were taken back to Paris in triumph. There could be little doubt now that the King opposed the Revolution, and their trial and the abolition of the monarchy was from this moment an inevitability. The stony silence which greeted their arrival back in Paris would seem to indicate that the people knew this to; and Jean-Baptiste Drouet, became one of those little known people who inadvertently change the course of history.

The Royal Family were now effectively prisoners of the Government. In April, 1792, France declared war on Austria. Marie Antoinette could barely disguise her delight, now at last rescue might be at hand. Unfortunately, Joseph had died and been replaced by his brother Leopold as Emperor. Marie Antoinette did not have the same close relationship with Leopold that she’d had with Joseph, and they hadn’t actually spoken for 25 years. Even so, she wrote to him begging him for his help and giving him her heart-felt desires for a swift Austrian victory.

On 10 August, 1792, the Paris mob attacked the Tuilleries Palace. The King’s Swiss Guard fought bravely to protect the Royal Family but outnumbered were massacred almost to a man and hundreds were killed. The Royal Family were forced to flee in desparation to the Legislative Assembly where they were hidden under tables until the Marquis de Lafayette could muster National Guardsmen for their protection.

On 3 September, guards opened up the prisons to the Paris mob. The mob went on the rampage murdering more than 1200 inmates mostly aristocrats, royalists and opponents of the revolution. One of whom was Marie Antoinette’s old friend the Princess Lamballe whose head was cut off, placed on a pike, and paraded beneath the Queen’s window. Marie Antoinette, horrified, refused to look.

Such was the depth of hatred towards the Royal Family that on 21 September, 1792, the Monarchy in France was officially abolished. The war against Austria which had at last turned in France’s favour had ended the last possibility of rescue. In December, Louis Capet (as he was now known) was tried with treason against the Revolutionary Government. The guilty verdict was passed by an overwhelming majority, though the decision to execute him was a much closer decision. Louis had a last visit from his family a few nights before his execution but turned down the opportunity to see them again. He went to the guillotine on 21 January, 1793, it was said with great dignity.

It was only a matter of time before Marie Antoinette herself was brought before the Court. Unlike Louis, whose execution was seen as necessary but did elicit sympathy from the people (even Robespierre felt obliged to state that the execution of Louis was nothing personal) Marie Antoinette was truly hated. She had survived attempts to murder her, had regularly endured abuse in the streets, and she had refused the opportunity to escape with her children early in the revolution, insisting that the Royal Family must stay together and that she would remain at her husbands side. Now she would suffer the same fate.

Marie Antoinette, was placed under guard and a 24 hour watch, someone would watch her even when she undressed for bed. Her gaolers were harsh and unsympathetic, whenever she was interrogated her hands would be bound even though she requested they not be, and her children were taken out of her care. On 14 October, 1793, she was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and charged with conspiring against the Government (which was undoubtedly true) spending millions of livres on herself and her friends and other sundry charges. Most damaging, however, and hurtful, was the accusation that she had sexually abused her son, Louis Charles. The young dauphin was bullied into confirming that this was true. His sister never forgave him but his mother did. Marie Antoinette, refused to even acknowledge this charge. Finally, under constant provocation she turned towards the women in the Court and said, ” If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother.” A ripple of  sympathy could be felt as the women could see that it was not a Queen who stood before them but a woman and a mother. It made no difference this was little more than a show trial. Two days later on 16 October, 1793, Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine. She appeared calm and relaxed and made no attempt to address the crowd. She merely apologised to the executioner for accidentally standing on his foot. Like her husband Louis, she died with courage and great dignity. Her body was later disposed of in an unmarked grave, and the French had at last got what they had for so long desired.