Marie Antoinette is known for saying, “Let them eat cake” even though she never said that. If TMZ existed in her time, she would be the scapegoat of the show. She was so unpopular people even tried to kill her. Why was she so hated and was she hated too much?
Antoinette was born a princess on November 2, 1755, in Vienna, Austria. Her dad was Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and her mom was Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and Bohemia. Fun fact, she was born the same day the Great Lisbon Earthquake, when fires and tsunamis almost completely destroyed the Portugal city. If that was not an obvious symbolism of the French Revolution in the future, I don’t know what would have been. The only thing her education covered as a youth was how to behave like a princess, so she watch the Princess Diaries daily. She did learn how to play musical instruments such as the clavicord (whatever that is) and the harp.
(Antoinette at age thirteen, looking like a grandma.)
On April 19, 1769, she was married to Louis XVI, the future king of France. She was fourteen, which might seem young, but is only two years younger than the average Disney princess. On June 11, 1775, her husband became the king of France. Immediately, she was pressured into producing a heir. However, Louis did not know how to have sex. Their relationship was like Steve Urkel marrying Paris Hilton. Louis’ friends had to tell him how to have sex. If you thought your parents were putting pressure on you to have children, just imagine how it must have felt for Antoinette to have an entire country pressure her. Antoinette did not help her image out by buying lavish clothing and gambling money while the people were living in famine. She gave birth to a daughter on December 19, 1778. Antoinette was like, “Look people, I gave birth to a child just like you wanted.” The people responded, “We wanted a MALE heir, not a girl! Go have another baby!” Considering how rough of the birth was she was not looking forward to going through it again. She gave birth to a son on October 22, 1781. The only job a queen had was give birth to a son. She had no real power or influence.
(Antoinette and her husband, Louis.)
As the financial situation in France kept getting worse and no reforms were being made, the queen became involved with politics. One major reason was to save her reputation because there had been a recent scandal, which today is known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The queen was accused of not paying the crown jewelers for a necklace they made for her. On top of that there was a lot of bad gossip surrounding the queen related to sexual activity.
On July 14, 1789, the French Revolution began with the destruction of the prison called Bastille. Violence started as a result of Louis’ failure to provide more rights to the people. As a result, Louis signed the Deceleration Rights of the Man and Citizen, declaring men had certain universal rights and a constitutional monarchy was born. However, that didn’t end the revolution because a bread shortage drew people mad again. On October 5, an angry mob stormed into the Palace of Versailles where the royals and powerful people were living. The mob successfully drove the royals and most of the French Assembly back to Paris, which is where they were supposed to be. In Paris the royal family were under watch 24/7 under house arrest. Antoinette was accused of several sex scandals and hit tabloids harder than Britney Spears. On the night of June 20, 1791, the royals tried to escape from Paris by disguising themselves as servants to spark a counter-revolution. However, the king was recognized and the escape failed.
(The angry mob storms into the palace, but they don’t look that angry in this picture.)
On September 21, it was officially declared the French monarchy was over and the National Assembly became the head power in France. King Louis was put on trial in December for his crimes and was found innocent. Just kidding, of course they found him guilty and had him executed on January 21, 1793. As a result Antoinette went into mourning and her health deteriorated. The National Assembly debated on what they should do with the queen. Ideas ranged from execution to trading her for money. Eventually, she was tried on October 14, with less than a day to prepare her defense, but it’s not like it would have made a difference. She was tried for incest with her son, assassination attempts, massacres, money theft, and planning orgies. To no one’s surprise, she was found guilty and was executed on October 16.
(Antoinette’s execution.)
Marie Antoinette was the easiest target for the French media. All of the accusations of her sexual activities were false including the one that claimed she had sex with her son. I’m not saying Antoinette is not guilty of being a bad queen. While the queen did not have much power, she should have at least fought for her people. She and the rest of the royals should have been more aware of the poverty that surrounded them. To be fair, part of this is because Louis and Antoinette were trained to behave like royals, but not on how to take the responsibilities of a royal. They had no guidance to make good choices. Giving the circumstances it is easy to see why the French media was angry and insulted her constantly. What is famously known about her comes from the rumors. In today’s media we can see the same thing from TMZ reports on celebrities to Fox News on President Obama. It shows how much influence the media has and how they can create a false image of a person that becomes accepted.
This has been the twelfth installment of my Interesting Biographies series. Follow my blog for more entries in the future. Also read my previous biographies. Leave a comment if there is someone you want me to do a biography on.
Blake Bradford 