LeMonde
The Misunderstood Queen
By XXXXXXXXX , Editorial Editor
Marie Antoinette was a queen who was never understood by the people of France. Born and raised as a member of the Austrian royal family, she was chosen as the wife of the future king, Louis XVI as a means of securing the political and financial bond between the two nations.
This king and queen of France were merely children when they married. Marie Antoinette was 14 and the future king was only 15 years old. These two, boy and girl, grew up in the careless French Court. No one told them of the needs and sorrows of their people. They were only taught to amuse themselves, to behave well at Court ceremonies; how then could they know what the people wanted of them, when the time came for them to reign?
The gala event of the marriage of Marie Antoinette and the Dolphin of France, Louis
She was very fond of pleasure. She went to balls and dances and card-parties, merry-makings of all kinds. She wore very fine dresses; she wasted a great deal of money; she gave honors and gold and lands to her favorite attendants and to all their relatives and when she came to the end of her money, she went to the King and he paid her debts and gave her more. The king loved her dearly and could refuse her nothing.
She wanted a house all her own. He gave her one called the Petit Trianon. It stood near the great palace of Versailles, and there she would give private parties to which only her friends were invited. She had this Petit Trianon refurnished, new gardens were laid out, a dairy and a small farm were built near it, and all the money needed for this came from the heavily taxed people.
Sample of the luxurious sitting areas and furniture of the Queen’s private house on the grounds of Versaille
But Marie Antoinette was the product of her time. It seems ironic that a child raised in a climate of money and luxury is then criticized for behaving in the way she was raised!
Then some began to notice that the Queen never had money to give in charity, for all she spent so much on her own pleasure; and they did not like her any the better for it. They saw that the King, although so amiable, only did what the Ministers and the Queen told him to do, and they began to grow restless and rebellious.
The people began to blame the Queen for the huge deficit of France. In fact her spending, although excessive had little or no effect on the huge debt of France. That was namely the result of excessive spending on such ventures as aiding the American Revolution.
Yet it was clear, that France wanted the King and Queen of France to pay for all the sins of the previous monarchies long before they were born.
Without a word, Marie Antoinette went to the little balcony outside the apartment, and stood there in full sight of the people
The frustration of the people of the Third Estate rained down on the Queen; blamed for her lavish lifestyle and distrusted for her Austrian heritage, the people wanted her to pay for her sins with her life.
The Queen could have left Paris when the rest of her friends and family did, but she felt her place was with her husband. Marie Antoinette, the young Austrian Princess paid for the sins of the French nobility with her life. She faced death with great courage. In fact, many of those who witnessed the execution were awed by her composure.