Everything yous need to know virtually Marie Antoinette and her life at Versailles

A taste for luxury and finer things, many adventures with women and everything that was wrong with French republic' Ancien Régime – this is what Marie-Antoinette is known for nowadays.

Marie Antoinette (born in 1755 and executed in 1793), was the queen of France, married to King Louis Xvi who was overthrowned and executed during the French Revolution. Her proper name has go significant with careless expenses and contempt for the poor, too as an extravagant lifestyle in Versailles.

Marie-Antoinette's proper name is surrounded with an aura of fascination, disgust and mystery; she has been the bailiwick of numerous movies and novels trying to brand sense of her opaque personality. If you are interested, you can cheque out our Elevation four movies about Marie-Antoinette. And if your morbid curiosity is not satisfied, y'all can go read about the guillotine during the French Revolution.

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Then, without farther ado, let's dive together into the life of i of the most fascinating queens of French republic to accept ever lived in Versailles, the majestic castle. Read until the cease to detect her surprising last words before her bloody execution.

Famous "Let them swallow cake" phrase was never actually said by Marie-Antoinette

Sofia Coppola

Marie Antoinette, 2006 directed past Sofia Coppola by norika21 – Flickr

The phrase "Let them eat cake" has famously been attributed to Marie Antoinette. She was believed to have answered that to someone explaining to her that the French people had get so poor they could no longer afford bread. In French, the phrase was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", and was used to bring forward the disconnection between Marie-Antoinette'southward life (in which everybody, even the poorest, have block and brioche at home) and the reality of the crunch on the French territory.

However, in reality, this phrase appeared in Jean-Jacques Rousseau'south autobiography The Confessions, attributing information technology to "a certain princess" without explicitly designating Marie Antoinette. Today, historians believe Rousseau might have invented the whole anecdote from beginning to stop.

Her early childhood as a daughter of Emperess paved the way for her luxurious taste

Marie Antoinette by Élisabeth Vigée, Versailles

Marie Antoinette past Élisabeth Vigée, Versailles – Flickr

Marie Antoinette was born in 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was nothing less than the girl of empress Maria Theresa (who at fourth dimension ruled the Habsburg Empire) and Francis I, Holy Roman Empire. She came from an Austrian family of emperors. She was built-in on November 2, a solar day of mourning the dead, and then she always insisted on celebrating her birthday the day before.

When she was vii, she met Mozart, who was two months younger than her and already a prodigy. She never obtained vivid bookish results, to the extent that at 10 years-erstwhile, she was incapable of writing in German, French or Italian, the iii languages used at court. Eventually, she decided that what she preferred was music, and learned the harp, the flute and the harpsichord. She was known to take a beautiful voice. Other famous traits included loving luxury dolls, existence a tremendously skilful dancer and being extremely poised.

Her wedlock with Louis Xvi was tormented, as was her arrival to France

Marie Antoinette by Joseph Ducreux. This miniature was painted when she was thirteen years old and was sent to Louis XVI and then that he would see what his wife looked like. Source: wikipedia

Marie Antoinette's mother and Louis XVI's father decided together, equally rulers of France and Republic of austria, to seal the ii countries' alliance by marrying their two children together.

The two has never met, merely a medallion of Marie Antoinette was sent to Louis XVI and then that he had an thought of what his wife would expect like. Marie Antoinette has to officially renounce her rights to her mother'due south domain, and she married Louis Xvi on the nineteen Apr 1770 in Vienna, without her husband even beingness present (her brother stood in for her husband during the anniversary). She met her hubby upon her arrival in France later that year; simply the couple famously failed to consummate their marriage for the post-obit 7 years. Marie Antoinette's blood brother famously described them in a alphabetic character as a "a couple of complete blunderers".

France'south reaction to the arrival of Marie Antoinette was generally very positive: she was cute and the common people appreciated her quite well.

However, Madame du Barry, Louis XV's mistress, gave her some trouble upon her arrival. Subsequently ignoring her for a while, Marie Antoinette decided that she would finally talk to her on new twelvemonth's eve 1772. "In that location are a lot of people at Versailles today", she simply told her, but this was enough to satisfy Du Barry. Only two days after his father's death, Louis XVI exiled Madame Du Barry in order to delight his wife.

She became increasingly known for her extravagant and worrying spending habits at Versailles

Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783 – WikiCommons

Marie Antoinette is known to exist one of the queens of France who spent the well-nigh state coin during her life, to the extent that she was held accountable for a long time for France's ruin.

Two days after the death of his father, Louis Sixteen, newly king of French republic, offered his wife her own estate, the Petit Trianon, and told her she would spend as much every bit she liked to renovate information technology. Some rumors accept it that she had covered the walls with gilt and diamonds.

At the fourth dimension, French republic was going through a severe financial crunch and the people were starving. While the country was suffering unprecedented rough times, Marie Antoinette spent massive amount of crown money on way, luxury items and gambling. Her hairstyles famously reached up to a meter loftier.

Thus, many people started to concur her the sole responsible for France's economic crunch. Even her female parent wrote her to warn her about the civil unrest that was first to rise considering of her.

Rumors accused her of meddling in French politics to defend Austrian interests, and fifty-fifty of sending coin to Austria from the country'south treasury.

In reality, the crisis in France was due to several causes, including the many expensive wars, the overwhelming spendings of the royal family (7% of the total State budget, without taking into account the queen's secret expenses), and the system of priviledge that supported too many of the upper classes by exempting them of taxes.

However, the people of France perceived the queen to be the sole responsible for the ruin of French republic, to the extent that in 1787, she was given the nickname of "Madame Déficit".

Her supposed lesbianism and nepotism both became the source of growing impopularity

Sofia Coppola

Marie Antoinette, 2006 directed by Sofia Coppola past Angela Thomas – Flickr

Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the duchesse de Polignac, to the position of governess. She was rumored to exist 1 of her many lovers. She gave her a thirteen-room apartment in Versailles, and showered the De Polignac family unit with gifts and money, which enraged many old families at the court.

Rumors of the Queen'southward lesbianism were starting to peak after the release of a pamphlet,Le Godmiché Royal ("The Royal Dildo"), that defendant her of having sexual relations with a famous English baroness. Later, at her trial, she was fifty-fifty accused without any evidence of incest with her eldest son.

At first, the queen attempted to counter these gossips by releasing portrays of her no more as a fashion and sensual icon, but equally a caring mother, which peaked in the painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, showing her with her children. This was not enough to counter accusations of lesbianism, known at that time to exist "the German vice".

While the situation grew increasingly complicated in French republic, she distracted herself with the creation of her "hamlet", which was a rustic retreat where she would spend hours office playing to exist a milkmaid on her own. When the cost of her new extravagance began to spread, a new unrest followed.

Her reputation was lost afterward the matter of the diamant necklace

This incredible and unique piece, all made of the fourth dimension's near expensive diamonds, participated in ruining Marie Antoinette'due south reputation. Source: wikipedia

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a famous incident that unfurled from 1784 to 1785 at the court. The queen was believed to have been involved into defrauding jewlerers into buying the most expensive diamond necklace at the time. Even though it was subsequently revealed that the queen had had nothing to exercise in the fraud, the people of France never forgave the queen for her believed interest, and their rage after on triggered the French Revolution and the king and queen's deaths.

The attempted flight to Varennes precipitated her family unit'due south death

Marie Antoinette (1938)

The lobby menu for the American historical drama film Marie Antoinette (1938) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – WikiCommons

As the situation in French republic began to boil and revolution prepared, the royal family sensed that they were in high danger. However, due to the male monarch'southward indecisiveness, the royal family did not manage to flee in time. Marie Antoinette ever refused to escape lonely without her married man.

When Louis Sixteen understood their simply chance of survival was to escape, it was too late: the regal flight to Varennes took identify during the night of the 21st June 1791, and was unsuccessful largely due to the rex'south indecision. They were attempting to escape the mob and meet loyal troops managed past royalists officers at the frontier. However the regal family, due to a succession of blunders, only managed to attain the pocket-sized boondocks of Varennes, where they were recognized and arrested.

This incident is considered by historians every bit the turning signal which led to the people of France's rage against the majestic couple's treason, which led to their bloody execution 2 years later.

The issue also triggered a disgust with the monarchy and fueled republicanism against many revolutionaries. After the Varennes incident, the king and queen could no longer get the benefit of the doubt: their death became imminent.

She was executed shortly after her husband and kept her composure until the finish

guillotine

Marie Antoinette's execution in 1793 at the Place de la Révolution – WikiCommons

Louis Xvi's spectacular execution took place on the bodily Place de la Concorde (formerly known as Place de la Révolution).

The execution was decided by the National Convention (the get-go government of the Revolution) later on a vote during which no deputy voted "not guilty". Before he was executed, he tried to deliver a speech but the oversupply's noise made it incommunicable to be heard. On the morning of the execution, a faithful royalist had planned an escape for the king alongside 300 other royalists, but they had been denounced and thus the program failed.

Shortly after, Marie Antoinette was transferred from the Temple to the Conciergerie, in a cell with no intimacy. Still another plot to help her escape failed (known as the Complot de l'oeillet).

The morning of her execution, she was forced to undress in front of her guards. She wore a white dress. She was brought to the Place de la Concorde under the insults of the cheering crowd. She was executed by the guillotine on October 16th 1793. Before dying, she stepped on the executioner's shoes, to which she promptly said "Pardon me, sir, I did not exercise information technology on purpose". These are known to be her terminal words.

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There you take information technology, all nearly the life of Marie Antoinette! If you want to acquire more nearly the French revolution and the storming of the Guardhouse, you can check out ourTop x Interesting Facts About Bastille Day.

And if y'all are curious about French history in general, then bank check out our Tiptop 10 historical events that happened in Paris. You will notice how much French history has come up to shape Paris' contemporary monuments and shape.