What has been the life of this woman who fired with enthusiasm to become Queen of France?
When her reign begins, Marie-Antoinette is a beloved Queen and the nation feels attached to this singular young woman..
« God save the Queen ! »
But the difficulties Maria-Teresa Marie-Antoinette’s mother, had dread of, slowly become reality and the first signs appear in the bosom of the Royal family. Then, more and more rumours say that Marie-Antoinette spends her time with persons whose life is scandalous when they are not with the Court. Contrary to all expectations, her confident is not the King but the Count of Artois and she sometimes even makes a fool of her husband. Because of her taste for bals, operas, celebrations and other amusements they consider as transient, some reasonable minds reproach her of being immoderate, frivolous and neglecting her health.
« What could I do? I am afraid to be bored. »
Still, she is bored because she is a Queen and not yet a Mother. Eventually she gives birth to her first daughter Madame Royale in 1778 but the succession to the crown will only be guaranteed in 1781, with the birth of her first son, the Dauphin.
In spite of her son’s birth, the Queen still deals with difficulties, she understands what her friendships are based on, she tries to renew the people’s enthusiasm by showing up in public with the Dauphin yet her efforts are vain, she has lost her popularity..
In 1785, Marie-Antoinette gives birth to her second son at the same time the well-known affair of the diamond necklace has broken out. This is one more humiliation and the beginning of her trial… Nevertheless, she keeps being the same while France hurries into the Revolution and her destiny is straight away…« The legend that leads the Queen to the scaffold is made of many different elements. Are included the king’s sisters scoldings […] calumnies […] epigrams […] infamies […] hostilities […] resentments…Marie-Antoinette herself, her innocent frivolity, her feathers, her diamonds, her Polignac, her long and thoughtless youth. »
The only reproaches the friends of the monarchy could have done to Marie-Antoinette are to misunderstand her tasks, to underestimate the Crown’s importance and most of all to give more importance to her friends and her way of life than to her responsibility as a Queen.
During the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in Versailles, the life of the palace is marked with fêtes. Those fêtes, organized to celebrate events such as the coronation and the enthronisation of the king, also take place in Paris. For example, to honour the birth of the dauphin a great feast followed by a bal and fireworks were held. Any event is an opportunity for amusement and the words gracefulness and magnificence are the rule at that time. They have kept their importance until now, through the decline of the court and the rise of the unrest of the French Revolution.
Trying to penetrate the secrecy of M.A intimate life, studying cautiously her relationships with the people surrounding her, she appears as a very touching and sensitive person. . It is said that the conversations heard in her salons are pretty futile and no serious matter is welcomed there. Yet what remains at the centre of everything is the true devotion that M.A has for theatre .
« This resource nurtures the shallow minds »
The Queen is interested in all kinds of Arts from music to literature but this does not help her increase her popularity.
Her relationships and fellowships are the cause of many rumours. She is intimately related to those men: the Count of Artois, Coigny, Polignac, of Adhémar, Besenval, Vaudreuil; and women such as: Madame of Polastron, diane of Polignac (her favourite), the duchess Jules, Madame Lamballe (her former friend) and she attends also the salon of madame d’Ossun.
But it’s her fondness for a man named Fersen that will draw all the attention. She is betrayed by her own looks and will never admit that the man who died during a riot in Stockholm has been her unique love.
Although, the most important man in her life is the King, Louis XVI, the sovereign, the husband, the father, a King more familiar with a worker’s manners than a king ones. In spite of many events, humiliations, betrayals, silences, sacrifices, the Queen felt in prey of fatality, one of her daughter died at 11 month-old then her older son, the Dauphin, dies little by little
The woman is deeply touched in her maternal heart and nothing else will ever change it.How to understand History without mentioning the mythic place of the Trianon.
« The Austrian woman’s den of inequity »
...As it is named by some.
But the Trianon has its own history, especially with Louis XVI before it was given to Marie-Antoinette. For the Queen, this palace is an intimate place where, paradoxically she organizes fêtes, shows and meetings. That is where she spends her all days, where she goes strolling and where she entertains. It is a magical place, superbly decorated and furnished. It is also a place where nocturnal celebrations occur with comedian meetings
Sometimes she also perform in front of her husband, applauded by the King himself.« What a gorgeous room that is of Marie Antoinette’s as glowing and sparkling as toilette from the 18th century »
The Queen’s hamlet has been built as a wish to return to Nature, it is a real village and remains the most visited area. It constitutes a source of inspiration for many tales and legends but more than everything, it has been the witness of the Royalty’s collapse. The glorious times of the Trianon are behind. She is saddened for having been abandoned by everybody, she has lost everything she is ruined and her ultimate visit is coming up as well as the terrible days of October. The nation rumbles and riots burst everywhere.
« Death to the Austrian queen! Where the slob so we wreck her neck! Fine, if death is my fate then death it shall be. I’m not afraid of dying.. »
The triumphal nation escorts the Royal family to Paris.
« On the 6th of October, at the end of the road, here comes
the Revolution and the first slammer at the Tuileries.»The 16th of October 1793, the nation shouts at the Queen Marie-Antoinette while she arrives on a cart, sitting on a bench, hands tied up by the public executioner. She cuts her grey hair herself. She has bloodshot eyes. At this moment she is maybe remembering what her life has been… Her head falls over.
« An assistant shows the freshly-cut head, it is still blinking…somebody chills ”Hurray for the Republic” but the crowd remains still. People are already wondering what the regime of the Republic has benefited from her death. »
Michaëla Degui
More illustrations were provided by that web sites :
http://monsite.wanadoo.fr/antoinette/index.jhtml
wikimediaThe quotes cursively written are extracts of the book La Reine Marie-Antoinette by Pierre de Nolhac.
