Marie Antoinette, baptized as Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna of Habsburg-Lorraine, was born in Vienna on November 2, 1755, as the fifteenth and penultimate child of Maria Theresa and Francis I, Duke of Lorraine. Her godparents were the king and queen of Portugal. As with all of Maria Theresa’s children, her upbringing and education were carefully supervised.
At home, she was affectionately called Antonia. She was beautiful and charming, but also inattentive, playful, superficial, and frivolous. Like her siblings, she was raised and educated by a team of governesses, tutors, and nannies. Antonia was not particularly drawn to study or books. Maria Theresa knew very well that if she wanted to marry her daughter into an alliance beneficial to the Habsburg Monarchy, the teachers would have to become stricter. The cheerful, mischievous princess who was widely adored by everyone had to stop playing and begin taking her duties seriously. She had to improve her language skills, refine her court manners, perfect her dancing, and cultivate her walk.
Marriage policy
During Marie Antoinette’s adolescence, tensions were running high between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons of France. To resolve these diplomatic frictions, Maria Theresa turned to her marriage policy and betrothed her fourteen-year-old daughter to the heir to the French throne, Louis XVI, who was fifteen at the time. There was no romance involved. The French ambassador in Vienna delivered the official marriage proposal to the Empress on behalf of Louis-Auguste, presenting the princess with only a painted portrait of her future husband. Maria Theresa accepted the proposal. The official engagement ceremony was held at the Viennese court without the groom – only the bride, her family, and court dignitaries were present. Louis-Auguste, who remained in Versailles, was informed of the event through diplomatic correspondence. Engagement rings were exchanged and political documents signed to formalize the betrothal. Since the bride was still in Vienna and the groom in Paris, a per procura (proxy) wedding was held on April 19, 1770. Standing at the altar in place of the groom was her brother Ferdinand, representing Louis-Auguste.
Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna – where Marie Antoinette spent her childhood summers.
Journey to France
After the wedding, Marie Antoinette became the French dauphine and set out by carriage across Europe for France in May. At the border, a ceremony took place in which she had to remove her Austrian garments and belongings, put on French attire, and symbolically cross the border as a Frenchwoman. The real wedding was held in the royal chapel of the Palace of Versailles on May 16, 1770, before thousands of guests. The ceremony was followed by a grand ball and celebrations throughout Paris. The marriage remained unconsummated for a long time. The young couple was inexperienced and needed time to build intimacy and trust. Their first child, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, was born eight years after the wedding. Three more children followed, but only Marie-Thérèse lived to adulthood.
Madam Deficit
After the death of Louis XV in 1774, his grandson Louis-Auguste ascended the French throne, and at just nineteen, Marie Antoinette became queen. The new king, Louis XVI, was kind-hearted but lacked authority and the strength of character needed to restore stability to an already weakened monarchy. Moreover, his indulgent wife, whose extravagant lifestyle provoked the already restless populace, who never accepted her due to her foreign origins. She was young, beautiful, and fond of fashion, jewelry, carriages, and lavish balls. She enjoyed life to the fullest. Her spending on clothing and entertainment was excessive, creating the impression that she squandered enormous sums purely for personal pleasure. French newspapers and pamphlets began calling her Madame Déficit. The French people grew to despise her. They felt no support from her in their times of hardship. France was on the verge of bankruptcy, yet she lived in a bubble of luxury and privilege. Politically inexperienced, she often avoided direct involvement in state decisions.
The French Revolution
It was not only the queen’s fault that the treasury was empty. The kingdom’s finances were drained by war expenses, support for the American Revolution, and an inefficient tax system in which the nobility and clergy paid almost nothing, leaving the burden on the poor. The king was too indecisive to enforce the reforms proposed to him. All of this misfortune eventually culminated in revolution. The people demanded the heads of the king and queen. On the night of October 5, 1789, an angry mob – spurred on by the women of Paris – stormed Versailles and dragged the royal family to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where they were held under strict guard. They became prisoners of the revolution. Despite this, they managed to escape with the help of the queen’s friend and probable lover, Swedish nobleman Axel von Fersen. However, they were recognized on the road to freedom, and the mob nearly lynched them. They were taken to the Temple prison. The trial was not held against the king, but against Citizen Capet – symbolically marking the end of the monarchy. He was accused of treason and found guilty. On January 20, 1793, the National Convention sentenced Louis XVI to death; he was executed by guillotine the next day on the Place de la Révolution in Paris. Marie Antoinette was later accused, among other charges, of squandering state funds. She was executed at the same place on October 16, 1793, at the age of 37.
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