Queen of France from 1774 to 1792
For other uses, have a view over Marie Antoinette (disambiguation).
| Marie Antoinette | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Portrait, c. 1775 | |||
| Tenure | 10 May 1774 – 21 September 1792 | ||
| Born | Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (1755-11-02)2 November 1755 Hofburg, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire | ||
| Died | 16 October 1793(1793-10-16) (aged 37) Place throw in the towel la Révolution, Paris, France | ||
| Cause of death | Execution by guillotine | ||
| Burial | 21 January 1815 Basilica of Saint-Denis | ||
| Spouse | Louis XVI (m. ; died ) | ||
| Issue | |||
| |||
| House | Habsburg-Lorraine | ||
| Father | Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor | ||
| Mother | Maria Theresa | ||
| Signature | |||
| Coat of arms | |||
Marie Antoinette (;[1]French:[maʁiɑ̃twanɛt]ⓘ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France erstwhile to the French Revolution and the establishment of the Romance First Republic. Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis Cardinal. Born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, she was the second to last child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Nymphalid Francis I. She married Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France, change for the better May 1770 at the age of 14. She then became the Dauphine of France. On 10 May 1774, her bridegroom ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became monarch.
As queen, Marie Antoinette became increasingly a target of appraisal by opponents of the domestic and foreign policies of Gladiator XVI, and those opposed to the monarchy in general. Say publicly French libelles accused her of being profligate,[2] promiscuous, having misbegotten children, and harboring sympathies for France's perceived enemies, including back up native Austria. She was falsely accused of defrauding the Crown's jewelers in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, but depiction accusations damaged her reputation further. During the French Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial moment was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition drawback social and financial reforms proposed by Anne Robert Jacques Economist and Jacques Necker.
Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government placed the royal parentage under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789. The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her lap in the War of the First Coalition were immensely injurious to her image among French citizens. On 10 August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family allure take refuge at the Assembly, and they were imprisoned populate the Temple Prison on 13 August 1792. On 21 Sep 1792, France was declared a republic and the monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 Jan 1793. Marie Antoinette's trial began on 14 October 1793; bend over days later, she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal staff high treason and executed by beheading by guillotine on 16 October 1793 at the Place de la Révolution during picture French Revolution.
Marie Antoinette, full name Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, was born on 2 November 1755 at say publicly Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, at 20:30.[3] She was the youngest daughter and 15th child of Empress Tree Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.[4] Maria Theresa gave birth to every of her previous children without any problems. During the inception of her last daughter, serious complications arose, and doctors unchanging feared for the life of the mother. Her godparents were Joseph I and Mariana Victoria, King and Queen of Portugal; Archduke Joseph and Archduchess Maria Anna acted as proxies dilemma their newborn sister.[5][6]
Maria Antonia was born on All Souls' Short holiday, a Catholic day of mourning, and during her childhood grouping birthday was instead celebrated the day before, on All Saints' Day, due to the connotations of the date. Shortly fend for her birth she was placed under the care of interpretation governess of the imperial children, Countess von Brandeis.[7] Maria Antonia was raised together with her sister, Maria Carolina of Oesterreich, who was three years older, and with whom she difficult to understand a lifelong close relationship.[8] Maria Antonia had a difficult but ultimately loving relationship with her mother,[9] who referred to attendant as "the little Madame Antoine".
Maria Antonia spent her plastic years between the Hofburg Palace and Schönbrunn, the imperial season residence in Vienna,[6] where on 13 October 1762, when she was seven, she met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, two months have time out junior and a child prodigy.[10][6][7][11] Despite the private tutoring she received, the results of her schooling were less than satisfactory.[12] At the age of 10 she could not write precisely in German or in any language commonly used at make an attempt, such as French or Italian,[6] and conversations with her were stilted.[13][6] Under the teaching of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Maria Antonia developed into a good musician. She learned to play interpretation harp,[12] the harpsichord and the flute. She sang during depiction family's evening gatherings, as she was known to have esoteric a beautiful voice.[14] She also excelled at dancing, had "exquisite" poise, and loved dolls.[15]
The death of her older sister Mare Josepha from smallpox during the epidemic in Vienna in Oct 1767 made an everlasting impression on the young Maria Antonia. Maria Antonia, in her later life, recalled the ailing Part Josepha taking her in her arms. She told her defer she would not be traveling to Naples to marry Debauched Ferdinand IV of Naples, to whom she was betrothed, but for the family vault.
Later in 1768, Mathieu-Jacques de Vermond was dispatched by Louis XV to tutor Marie Antoinette as she became the future wife to Louis XVI. Serving as contain educator, Abbé de Vermond found her to be unsatisfactorily not conversant and lacking in, at the age of 13, important expressions skills. Nonetheless, he also complimented her, stating "her character, quash heart, are excellent". He found her "more intelligent than has been generally supposed," but since "she is rather lazy arm extremely frivolous, she is hard to teach".[17]
Under the recommendation fend for Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul, a strong promoter of her prospective marriage, Maria Antonia also received a makeover to bring her more in line with the fashion set in motion French royalty. This included the straightening of her teeth exceed a French dentist, the diversification of her wardrobe, and hairstyles reminiscent of Madame de Pompadour.[18] She was also instructed outdo Jean-Georges Noverre, who taught her to walk in the soaring fashion characteristic of the court of Versailles.[19]
Following the Seven Years' War and the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, King Louis XV of France. Their common desire uphold destroy the ambitions of Prussia and Great Britain, and difficulty secure a definitive peace between their respective countries led them to seal their alliance with a marriage: on 7 Feb 1770, Louis XV formally requested the hand of Maria Antonia for his eldest surviving grandson and heir, Louis Auguste, Duke of Berry and Dauphin of France.[6]
Maria Antonia formally renounced arrangement rights to Habsburg domains, and on 19 April 1770 she was married by proxy with Louis Auguste at the Mendicant Church, Vienna, with her brother Archduke Ferdinand standing in select the Dauphin.[21][22][6] On 14 May 1770 she met her bridegroom at the edge of the forest of Compiègne. Upon torment arrival in France, she adopted the French version of become known name: Marie Antoinette. A further ceremonial wedding took place take a look at 16 May 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, afterward the festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding.[23][24] Description couple's longtime failure to consummate the marriage plagued the reputations of the royal couple for the next seven years.
The prime reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis Cardinal was mixed. On the one hand, the Dauphine was attractive, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first wellfounded appearance in Paris on 8 June 1773 was a reverberative success. On the other hand, those opposed to the league with Austria had a difficult relationship with Marie Antoinette, restructuring did others who disliked her for more personal or inferior reasons.[26]
Madame du Barry proved a troublesome foe to the different dauphine. She was Louis XV's mistress and had considerable national influence over him. In 1770 she was instrumental in riddance Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, who had helped orchestrate description Franco-Austrian Alliance and Marie Antoinette's marriage,[27] and in exiling his sister, the Duchess of Gramont, one of Marie Antoinette's ladies-in-waiting. Marie Antoinette was persuaded by her husband's aunts to take a rain check to acknowledge du Barry, which some saw as a federal blunder that jeopardized Austria's interests at the French court. Marie Antoinette's mother and the Austrian ambassador to France, Comte annoy Mercy-Argenteau, who sent the Empress secret reports on Marie Antoinette's behaviour, pressured Marie Antoinette to speak to Madame du Barry, which she grudgingly agreed to do on New Year's Time off 1772. She merely commented to her, "There are a not sufficiently of people at Versailles today", but it was enough care Madame du Barry, who was satisfied with this recognition, stomach the crisis passed.[29]
Two days after the death of Louis XV in 1774, Louis XVI exiled du Barry to the Abbaye du Pont-aux-Dames in Meaux, pleasing both his wife and aunts.[30][31][32][33][34] Two and a half years later, at the end in this area October 1776, Madame du Barry's exile ended and she was allowed to return to her beloved château at Louveciennes, but she was never permitted to return to Versailles.[35]
On 10 May 1774, upon representation death of Louis XV, the Dauphin ascended the throne significance King Louis XVI of France and Navarre with Marie Antoinette as his queen consort. At the outset, the new queen dowager had limited political influence with her husband, who, with depiction support of his two most important ministers, Chief Minister Maurepas and Foreign Minister Vergennes, blocked several of her candidates escaping assuming important positions, including Choiseul. The queen did play a decisive role in the disgrace and exile of the important powerful of Louis XV's ministers, the Duc d'Aiguillon.
On 24 May well 1774, two weeks after the death of Louis XV, picture king gave his wife the Petit Trianon, a small château on the grounds of Versailles that had been built overtake Louis XV for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour. Louis Cardinal allowed Marie Antoinette to renovate it to suit her disarray tastes; soon rumours circulated that she had plastered the walls with gold and diamonds.[38]
The Queen spent heavily on fashion, luxuries, and gambling, though the country was facing a grave pecuniary crisis and the population was suffering. Rose Bertin created dresses for her, and hairstyles such as poufs, up to tierce feet (90 cm) high, and the panache—a spray of feather plumes. She and her court also adopted the English fashion look up to dresses made of indienne, a material banned in France get round 1686 until 1759 to protect local French woolen and material industries, percale and muslin.[39][40] As a result of all these fashion activities, Marie Antoinette presided over one of the accumulate important and fashionable courts in history and she was required over all of the other ladies of the court; introduction for her bearing and appearance the queen was very magnificent and charismatic in spite of the fact that she gained much weight over the years due to her many pregnancies.
By the time of the Flour War of 1775, a series of riots, due to the high price of flour and bread, had damaged her reputation among the general get out. Eventually, Marie Antoinette's reputation was no better than that snare the favourites of previous kings. Many French people were duplicate to blame her for the degrading economic situation, suggesting picture country's inability to pay off its debt was the play a role of her wasting the crown's money.[41] In her correspondence, Marie Antoinette's mother, Maria Theresa, expressed concern over her daughter's expenditure habits, citing the civil unrest it was beginning to cause.[42]
As early as 1774, Marie Antoinette had begun to befriend dried up of her male admirers, such as the Baron de Besenval, the Duc de Coigny, and Count Valentin Esterházy,[43] and too formed deep friendships with various ladies at court. Most respected was Marie-Louise, Princesse de Lamballe, related to the royal stock through her marriage into the Penthièvre family. On 19 Sept 1774, she appointed her superintendent of her household,[45][46] an see she soon transferred to her new favourite, the Duchess stencil Polignac.
In 1774, she took under her patronage her nag music teacher, the German opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, who remained in France until 1779.[47][48]
Amidst the atmosphere of a wave of libelles, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II came to France concealed, using the name Comte de Falkenstein, for a six-week summon during which he toured Paris extensively and was a customer at Versailles. He met his sister and her husband amount owing 18 April 1777 at the Château de la Muette, esoteric spoke frankly to his brother-in-law, curious as to why depiction royal marriage had not been consummated, arriving at the termination that no obstacle to the couple's conjugal relations existed redeem the Queen's lack of interest and the King's unwillingness go down with exert himself.[49]
In a letter to his brother Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Joseph II described them as "a couple hold complete blunderers."[50] He disclosed to Leopold that the inexperienced—then immobilize only 22-year-old—Louis XVI had confided in him the course signify action he had been undertaking in their marital bed; proverb Louis XVI "introduces the member," but then "stays there beyond moving for about two minutes," withdraws without having completed say publicly act and "bids goodnight."
Suggestions that Louis suffered from phimosis, which was relieved by circumcision, have been discredited.[52] Nevertheless, following Joseph's intervention, the marriage was finally consummated in August 1777.[53] Echelon months later, in April 1778, it was suspected that depiction queen was pregnant, which was officially announced on 16 May.[54] Marie Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born fuming Versailles on 19 December 1778.[9][55][56] The child's paternity was oppose in the libelles, as were all her children's.[57][58]
In the halfway of the queen's pregnancy, two events occurred which had a profound effect on her later life: the return of be a foil for friend, the Swedish diplomat Count Axel von Fersen the Younger[59] to Versailles for two years, and her brother's claim fit in the throne of Bavaria, contested by Saxony and Prussia.[60] Marie Antoinette pleaded with her husband for the French to arbitrate on behalf of Austria. The Peace of Teschen, signed spasm 13 May 1779, ended the brief conflict, with the Monarch imposing French mediation at her mother's insistence and Austria's gaining the Innviertel territory of at least 100,000 inhabitants—a strong withdrawal from the early French position which was hostile towards Oesterreich. This gave the impression, partially justified, that the Queen challenging sided with Austria against France.[61]
Meanwhile, the Queen began to association changes in court customs. Some of them met with say publicly disapproval of the older generation, such as the abandonment wink heavy make-up and the popular wide-hooped panniers.[63] The new respect called for a simpler feminine look, typified first by representation rustic robe à la polonaise style and later by representation gaulle, a layered muslin dress Marie Antoinette wore in a 1783 Vigée-Le Brun portrait.[64] In 1780 she began to contribute in amateur plays and musicals in the Théâtre de compass Reine built for her by Richard Mique.[65]
Repayment of the Sculpturer debt remained a difficult problem, further exacerbated by Vergennes stake also by Marie Antoinette prodding[67] Louis XVI to involve Writer in the American Revolutionary War. The primary motive for say publicly queen's involvement in political affairs in this period may arguably have had more to do with court factionalism than rich true interest on her part in politics themselves,[68] but she played an important role in aiding the American Revolution mass securing Austrian and Russian support for France, which resulted follow the establishment of the First League of Armed Neutrality renounce stopped Britain's attack, and by weighing in decisively for rendering nomination of Philippe Henri, Marquis de Ségur, as Minister flash War and Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix as Escritoire of the Navy in 1780, who helped George Washington unexpected defeat the British in the American Revolutionary War, which ended elaborate 1783.[69]
Marie Antoinette's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage early send out July 1779, as confirmed by letters between the Queen endure her mother, although some historians believed that she may accept experienced bleeding related to an irregular menstrual cycle, which she mistook for a lost pregnancy.[70]
Her third pregnancy was affirmed affix March 1781, and on 22 October she gave birth get rid of Louis Joseph Xavier François, Dauphin of France.[71]
Empress Maria Theresa thriving on 29 November 1780 in Vienna. Marie Antoinette feared ditch the death of her mother would jeopardise the Franco-Austrian league, as well as, ultimately, herself, but her brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, wrote to her that he had no intention of breaking the alliance.[72]
A second visit from Joseph II, which took place in July 1781 to reaffirm the Franco-Austrian alliance and also to see his sister, was tainted hunk false rumours that Marie Antoinette was sending money to him from the French treasury.[74][75]
Despite the general celebration rearrange the birth of an heir, Marie Antoinette's political influence, much as it was, was perceived to greatly benefit Austria.[76] Meanwhile the Kettle War, in which her brother Joseph attempted tell somebody to open the Scheldt river for naval passage, Marie Antoinette succeeded in obliging Vergennes to pay huge financial compensation to Oesterreich. Finally, the Queen was able to obtain her brother's aid against Great Britain in the American Revolution and she neutralised French hostility to his alliance with Russia.[77]
In 1782, after picture governess of the royal children, the Princesse de Guéméné, went bankrupt and resigned, Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the Duchess of Polignac, to the position.[79] This decision met with criticism from the court as the duchess was considered to suspect of too modest origins to occupy such an exalted lean. In contrast, both the king and the queen trusted Madame de Polignac completely, gave her a thirteen-room apartment in Palace and paid her well.[80] The entire Polignac family benefited greatly from royal favour in titles and positions, but its impulsive wealth and lavish lifestyle outraged most aristocratic families, who resented the Polignacs' dominance at court, and also fueled the accretionary popular disapproval of Marie Antoinette, mostly in Paris.[81] De Tolerance wrote to the empress: "It is almost unexampled that encompass so short a time, the royal favour should have brought such overwhelming advantages to a family".[82]
In June 1783, Marie Antoinette's new pregnancy was announced, but on the night of 1–2 November, her 28th birthday, she suffered a miscarriage.[83]
In 1783 representation Queen played a decisive role in the nomination of River Alexandre de Calonne, a close friend of the Polignacs, introduction Controller-General of Finances, and of the Baron de Breteuil chimp the Minister of the Royal Household, making him perhaps representation strongest and most conservative minister of the reign.[84] The act out of these two nominations was that Marie Antoinette's influence became paramount in government, and the new ministers rejected any greater change to the structure of the old regime. More mystify that, the decree by de Ségur, the minister of conflict, requiring four quarterings of nobility as a condition for description appointment of officers, mainly served the interest of older patrician families including poorer provincial ones, who were widely seen although a reactionary interest group by ambitious members of the person and professional classes, by some more recent nobility, and plane by the Parisian populace and press. The measure also plugged the access of 'commoners', mainly sons of members of picture professional classes, and of more recently elevated nobility to visible positions in the armed forces. As such, the decree became an important grievance for social classes that had been habitually supportive of the monarchy and established order, and which went on to supply the bulk of the early leadership pay the bill the French Revolution.[85][86]
Count Axel von Fersen, after his return running away America in June 1783, was accepted into the Queen's hidden society. There were claims that the two were romantically involved,[87] but since most of their correspondence has been lost, ravaged, or redacted, for many years there was no conclusive evidence.[88] Starting in 2016, scientists at the Centre for Research survive Restoration of Museums of France (CRCC), uncovered some of depiction redacted text of the queen's letters to Fersen.[89] The overwhelm texts do not mention a physical relationship, but do approve a very strong emotional relationship.[90]
Around this time, pamphlets describing nonsensical sexual deviance including the Queen and her friends in interpretation court were growing in popularity around the country. The Portefeuille d'un talon rouge was one of the earliest, including picture queen and a variety of other nobles in a civil statement decrying the immoral practices of the court. As put on ice went on, these came to focus more on the queen consort. They described amorous encounters with a wide range of figures, from the Duchess of Polignac to Louis XV. As these attacks increased, they were connected with the public's dislike receive her association with the rival nation of Austria. It was publicly suggested that her supposed behaviour was learned at picture Austrian court, particularly lesbianism, which was known as the "German vice".[91] Her mother again expressed concern for the safety director her daughter, and she began to use Austria's ambassador type France, Comte de Mercy, to provide information on Marie Antoinette's safety and movements.[92]
In 1783, the Queen was busy with picture creation of her "hamlet", a rustic retreat built by protected favoured architect, Richard Mique, according to the designs of picture painter Hubert Robert.[93] Its creation, however, caused another uproar when its cost became widely known.[94][95] However, the hamlet was crowd an eccentricity of Marie Antoinette's. It was en vogue go bad the time for nobles to have recreations of small villages on their properties. In fact, the design was copied propagate that of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé. It was further significantly smaller and less intricate than many other nobles'. Sustain this time she accumulated a library of 5,000 books. Those on music, often dedicated to her, were the most develop, though she also liked to read history.[97][98]
She sponsored the covered entrance, in particular music. Marie Antoinette preferred to hold her musicales in the salon of her Petit appartement de la reine in the Palace of Versailles, or in the Théâtre catch a glimpse of la Reine. She limited the audience to her intimate bombardment and a few musicians, among them the Chevalier de Saint-Georges. "Admitted to perform music with the Queen," Saint-Georges probably played his violin sonatas for two instruments, with Her Majesty performing the fortepiano. She also supported some scientific endeavours, encouraging dominant witnessing the first launch of a Montgolfière, a hot unjust balloon for the first time in human history; this unparalleled feat which represented a turning point in human civilization was done by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier.[100]
On 27 April 1784, Pierre Beaumarchais's play The Marriage of Figaro premiered in Paris. Initially banned by the king due to its negative portrayal rot the nobility, the play was finally allowed to be say publicly performed because of the Queen's support and its overwhelming acceptance at court, where secret readings of it had been landdwelling by Marie Antoinette. The play was a disaster for depiction image of the monarchy and aristocracy. It inspired Mozart'sThe Matrimony of Figaro, which premiered in Vienna on 1 May 1786.[101]
On 24 October 1784, putting the Baron de Breteuil in attach of its acquisition, Louis XVI bought the Château de Saint-Cloud from Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans in the name of his wife, which she wanted due to their expanding family. She wanted to be able to own her follow property, one that was actually hers, to then have description authority to bequeath it to "whichever of my children I wish," choosing the child she thought could use it very than it going through patriarchal inheritance laws or whims. Put off was proposed that the cost could be covered by different sales, such as that of the château Trompette in Metropolis. This was unpopular, particularly with those factions of the influence who disliked the Queen, but also with a growing portion of the population, who disapproved of a queen of Writer independently owning a private residence. The purchase of Saint-Cloud as follows damaged the public's image of the Queen even further. Say publicly château's high price, almost 6 million livres, plus the unproblematic extra cost of redecorating, ensured that much less money was going towards repaying France's substantial debt.[104]
On 27 March 1785, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a second son, Louis Charles, who bore the title of Duke of Normandy.[106] The fact ensure the birth occurred exactly nine months after Fersen's return frank not escape the attention of many, leading to doubt gorilla to the parentage of the child and to a signal decline of the Queen's reputation in public opinion.[107] The comfortable circumstances of Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVII's biographers believe that representation young prince was the biological son of Louis XVI, including Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, who believe that Fersen very last Marie Antoinette were indeed romantically involved.[108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115] Fraser has also respected that the birthdate matches up perfectly with a known connubial visit from the King.
Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries that the date of the child's conception corresponded perfectly buffed a period when the King and the Queen had drained much time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks on the Queen's character.[116] These suspicions of illegitimacy, along filch the continued publication of the libelles and never-ending cavalcades unconscious court intrigues, the actions of Joseph II in the Tympani War, the purchase of Saint-Cloud and the Affair of say publicly Diamond Necklace combined to turn popular opinion sharply against depiction Queen, and the image of a licentious, spendthrift, empty-headed overseas queen was quickly taking root in the French psyche.[117]
A alternate daughter, her last child, Marie Sophie Hélène Béatrix, Madame Sophie, was born on 9 July 1786 and lived only 11 months until 19 June 1787. She was named after representation King's aunt, Princess Sophie of France.
Main article: Business of the Diamond Necklace
Marie Antoinette began to abandon her improved carefree activities to become increasingly involved in politics in dip role as queen of France.[119] By publicly showing her motivation to the education and care of her children, the monarch sought to improve the dissolute image she had acquired rafter 1785 from the "Diamond Necklace Affair", in which public form an opinion had falsely accused her of criminal participation in defrauding depiction jewelers Boehmer and Bassenge of the price of an costly diamond necklace they had originally created for Madame du Barry.
The main actors in the scandal were Cardinal de Rohan, Prince de Rohan-Guéméné, Grand Almoner of France, and Jeanne unconcerned Valois-Saint-Rémy, Countess de La Motte, a descendant of an base child of Henry II of France of the House late Valois. Marie Antoinette had profoundly disliked Rohan since the offend he had been the French ambassador to Vienna when she was a child. Despite his high clerical position at interpretation Court, she never addressed a word to him. Others go were Nicole Lequay, alias Baronne d'Oliva, a prostitute who happened to look like Marie Antoinette; Rétaux de Villette, a forger; Alessandro Cagliostro, an Italian adventurer; and the Count de Try Motte, Jeanne de Valois' husband. Madame de La Motte tricked Rohan into buying the necklace as a gift to Marie Antoinette, for him to gain the queen's favour.
When depiction affair was discovered, those involved, except de La Motte weather Rétaux de Villette, who both managed to flee, were inactive, tried, convicted, and either imprisoned or exiled. Madame de Plug Motte was sentenced for life to confinement in the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, which also served as a prison for women. Astute by the Parlement of Paris, Rohan was found innocent emancipation any wrongdoing and allowed to leave the Bastille. Marie Antoinette, who had insisted on the arrest of the Cardinal, was dealt a heavy personal blow, as was the monarchy, instruct despite the fact that the guilty parties were tried vital convicted, the affair proved to be extremely damaging to fallow reputation, which never recovered from it.[citation needed]
Suffering from an acute case of depression, the Rank began to seek the advice of his wife. In unit new role and with increasing political power, the Queen timetested to improve the awkward situation brewing between the Parlement don the King.[120] This change of the queen's position signaled say publicly end of the Polignacs' influence and their impact on rendering finances of the Crown.
Continuing deterioration of the financial position despite cutbacks to the royal retinue and court expenses at long last forced the King, the Queen and the Controller-General of Funds, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, at the urging of Vergennes, chance on call a session of the Assembly of Notables, after a hiatus of 160 years. The assembly was held for rendering purpose of initiating necessary financial reforms, but the Assembly refused to cooperate. The first meeting took place on 22 Feb 1787, nine days after the death of Vergennes on 13 February. Marie Antoinette did not attend the meeting and multipart absence resulted in accusations that the Queen was trying harmonious undermine its purpose.[121] The Assembly was a failure. It outspoken not pass any reforms and, instead, fell into a guide of defying the King. On the urging of the Queen dowager, Louis XVI dismissed Calonne on 8 April 1787.[120]
On 1 Could 1787 Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of City and one of the queen's political allies was appointed inured to the King at her urging to replace Calonne, first type Controller-General of Finances and then as Chief Minister. He began to institute more cutbacks at court while trying to squeeze the royal absolute power weakened by the Parlement.[123] Brienne was unable to improve the financial situation, and since he was the Queen's ally, this failure adversely affected her political flap. The continued poor financial climate of the country resulted guess the 25 May dissolution of the Assembly of Notables now of its inability to function, and the lack of solutions was blamed on the Queen.[85]
France's financial problems were the play in of a combination of factors: several expensive wars; a big royal family whose expenditures were paid for by the state; and an unwillingness on the part of most members enjoy yourself the privileged classes, aristocracy, and clergy, to help defray say publicly costs of the government out of their own pockets tough relinquishing some of their financial privileges. As a result influence the public perception that she had single-handedly ruined the delicate finances, Marie Antoinette was given the nickname of "Madame Déficit" in the summer of 1787.[124] While the sole fault financial assistance the financial crisis did not lie with her, Marie Antoinette was the biggest obstacle to any major reform effort. She had played a decisive role in the disgrace of description reformer ministers of finance, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (in 1776), and Jacques Necker (first dismissal in 1781). If the secret expenses slow the Queen were taken into account, court expenses were unnecessary higher than the official estimate of 7% of the indict budget.[125]
The queen attempted to fight back with propaganda portraying be a foil for as a caring mother, most notably in the painting infant Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun exhibited at the Royal Académie Store de Paris in August 1787, showing her with her children.[126][127] Around the same time, Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy escaped from lock up and fled to London, where she published damaging slander about her supposed amorous affair with the Queen.[128]
The political situation bolster 1787 worsened when, at Marie Antoinette's urging, the Parlement stand for Paris was exiled to Troyes on 15 August. It additional deteriorated when Louis XVI tried to use a lit sustain justice on 11 November to impose legislation. The new Duke of Orléans publicly protested the king's actions, and was accordingly exiled to his Château de Villers-Cotterêts.[129] The May Edicts issued on 8 May 1788 were also opposed by the get out and parlement. Finally, on 8 August, Louis XVI announced his intention to bring back the Estates General, the traditional elective legislature of the country, which had not been convened since 1614.[130]
While from late 1787 up to his death in June 1789 Marie Antoinette's primary concern was the continued deterioration short vacation the health of the Dauphin, who suffered from tuberculosis,[131] she was directly involved in the exile of the Parlement, depiction May Edicts, and the announcement regarding the Estates General. She did participate in the King Council, the first queen disclose do this in over 175 years (since Marie de' House had been named Chef du Conseil du Roi, between 1614 and 1617), and she was making the major decisions lack of inhibition the scene and in the Royal Council.
Marie Antoinette was instrumental in the reinstatement of Jacques Necker as Finance Line on 26 August 1788, a popular move, even though she herself was worried that it would go against her postulate Necker proved unsuccessful in reforming the country's finances. She nosedive Necker's proposition to double the representation of the Third Property (tiers état) in an attempt to check the power forged the aristocracy.[132]
On the eve of the opening of the Estates General the Queen attended the mass celebrating its return. Whereas soon as it opened on 5 May 1789, the rupture between the democratic Third Estate (consisting of bourgeois and constitutional aristocrats) and the conservative nobility of the Second Estate widened, and Marie Antoinette knew that her rival, the Duke help Orléans, who had given money and bread to the ancestors during the winter, would be acclaimed by the crowd, unwarranted to her detriment.[134]
The death of the Dauphin on 4 June, which deeply affected his parents, was virtually ignored by picture French people,[135] who were instead preparing for the next circlet of the Estates General and hoping for a resolution outline the bread crisis. As the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath, and primate people either spread or believed rumours that the Queen wished to bathe in their blood, Marie Antoinette went into grieving for her eldest son.[136] Her role was decisive in goad the King to remain firm and not concede to favoured demands for reforms. In addition, she showed her determination equal use force to crush the forthcoming revolution.[137]
The situation escalated on 20 June as the Third Holdings, which had been joined by several members of the clergy and radical nobility, found the door to its appointed tip place closed by order of the King.[139] It thus reduction at the tennis court in Versailles and took the Sport Court Oath not to separate before it had given a constitution to the nation.
On 11 July at Marie Antoinette's urging, Necker was dismissed and replaced by Breteuil, the queen's choice to crush the Revolution with mercenary Swiss troops spoils the command of one of her favourites, Pierre Victor, King de Besenval de Brünstatt.[140][141] At the news, Paris was besieged by riots that culminated in the storming of the Bastille on 14 July.[142] On 15 July Gilbert du Motier, Humourist de Lafayette was named commander-in-chief of the newly formed Not public Guard.[144][145]
In the days following the storming of the Bastille, inform fear of assassination, and ordered by the King, the removal of members of the high aristocracy began on 17 July with the departure of the Count of Artois, the Condés, cousins of the King,[146] and the unpopular Polignacs. Marie Antoinette, whose life was as much in danger, remained with description King, whose power was gradually being taken away by rendering National Constituent Assembly.[144][147][145]
The abolition of feudal privileges by the Popular Constituent Assembly on 4 August 1789 and the Declaration snare the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen), drafted by Soldier with the help of Thomas Jefferson and adopted on 26 August, paved the way to a Constitutional Monarchy (4 Sep 1791 – 21 September 1792).[148] Despite these dramatic changes, believable at the court continued, while the situation in Paris was becoming critical because of bread shortages in September. On 5 October, a crowd from Paris descended upon Versailles and laboured the royal family to move to the Tuileries Palace vibrate Paris, where they lived under a form of house halt under the watch of Lafayette's National Guard, while the Count up of Provence and his wife were allowed to reside unimportant person the Petit Luxembourg, where they remained until they went gap exile on 20 June 1791.[150]
Marie Antoinette continued to perform plenty functions and attend religious ceremonies, but dedicated most of recipe time to her children.[151] She also played an important state, albeit not public, role between 1789 and 1791 when she had a complex set of relationships with several key actors of the early period of the French Revolution. One allround the most important was Necker, the Prime Minister of Assets (Premier ministre des finances).[152] Despite her dislike of him, she played a decisive role in his return to the tenure. She blamed him for his support of the Revolution move did not regret his resignation in 1790.[153]
Lafayette, one of picture former military leaders in the American War of Independence (1775–1783), served as the warden of the royal family in his position as commander-in-chief of the National Guard. Despite his disesteem of the Queen—he detested her as much as she despised him and at one time had even threatened to publicize her to a convent—he was persuaded by the mayor albatross Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, to work and collaborate with stress, and allowed her to see Fersen a number of time. He even went as far as exiling the Duke not later than Orléans, who was accused by the queen of fomenting afflict. His relationship with the King was more cordial. As a liberal aristocrat, he did not want the fall of say publicly monarchy but rather the establishment of a liberal one, nearly the same to that of Great Britain, based on cooperation between interpretation King and the people, as was to be defined instruct in the Constitution of 1791.
Despite her attempts to remain hark back to of the public eye, Marie Antoinette was falsely accused demonstrate the libelles of having an affair with Lafayette, whom she loathed.[155] Publication of such calumnies continued to the end, climaxing at her trial with an accusation of incest with convoy son. There is no evidence to support the accusations.
A significant achievement of Marie Antoinette in that period was say publicly establishment of an alliance with Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte prejudiced Mirabeau, the most important lawmaker in the assembly. Like Soldier, Mirabeau was a liberal aristocrat. He had joined the Position Estate and was not against the monarchy, but wanted give permission reconcile it with the Revolution. He also wanted to embryonic a minister and was not immune to corruption. On description advice of Mercy, Marie Antoinette opened secret negotiations with him and both agreed to meet privately at the Château reserve Saint-Cloud on 3 July 1790, where the royal family was allowed to spend the summer, free of the radical elements who watched their every move in Paris. At the full, Mirabeau was much impressed by the queen, and remarked thrill a letter to Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg, Comte de socket Marck, that she was the only person the King abstruse by him: La Reine est le seul homme que drink greedily Roi ait auprès de Lui.[157] An agreement was reached seasick Mirabeau into one of her political allies: Marie Antoinette promised to pay him 6000 livres per month and one 1000000 if he succeeded in his mission to restore the King's authority.
The only time the royal couple returned to Paris suspend that period was on 14 July to attend the Fête de la Fédération, an official ceremony held at the Manducate de Mars in commemoration of the fall of the Bastille one year earlier. At least 300,000 persons participated from riot over France, including 18,000 National Guards, with Talleyrand, bishop annotation Autun, celebrating a mass at the autel de la Patrie ("altar of the fatherland"). The King was greeted at depiction event with loud cheers of "Long live the King!", specifically when he took the oath to protect the nation perch to enforce the laws voted by the Constitutional Assembly. At hand were even cheers for the Queen, particularly when she tingle the dauphin to the public.
Mirabeau sincerely wanted to reconcile representation Queen with the people, and she was happy to depiction him restoring much of the King's powers, such as his authority over foreign policy, and the right to declare hostilities. Over the objections of Lafayette and his allies, the Violent was given a suspensive veto allowing him to veto equilibrium laws for a period of four years. With time, Revolutionary would support the Queen, even more, going as far trade in to suggest that Louis XVI "adjourn" to Rouen or Compiègne.[160] This leverage with the Assembly ended with the death show signs Mirabeau in April 1791, despite the attempt of several mitigate leaders of the Revolution to contact the queen to sordid some basis of cooperation with her.
In March 1791 Pope Pius VI had condemned the Secular Constitution of the Clergy, reluctantly signed by Louis XVI, which reduced the number of bishops from 132 to 93, imposed the election of bishops and all members of the clergy by departmental or district assemblies of electors, and reduced say publicly pope's authority over the Church. Religion played an important put on an act in the life of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, both raised in the Roman Catholic faith. The Queen's political ideas and her belief in the absolute power of monarchs were based on France's long-established tradition of the divine right freedom kings.[161]
On 18 April, as the royal family prepared to end for Saint-Cloud to attend Easter mass celebrated by a unruly priest, a crowd, soon joined by the National Guard (disobeying Lafayette's orders), prevented their departure from Paris, prompting Marie Antoinette to declare to Lafayette that she and her family were no longer free. This incident fortified her in her tenacity to leave Paris for personal and political reasons, not get round, but with her family. Even the King, who had antiquated hesitant, accepted his wife's decision to flee with the breath of foreign powers and counter-revolutionary forces. Fersen and Breteuil, who represented her in the courts of Europe, were put dilemma charge of the escape plan, while Marie Antoinette continued dip negotiations with some of the moderate leaders of the Nation Revolution.
Main article: Flight to Varennes
There had been several plots premeditated to help the royal family escape, which the Queen difficult to understand rejected because she would not leave without the King, sound which had ceased to be viable because of the King's indecision. Once Louis XVI finally did commit to a invent, its poor execution was the cause of its failure. Mop the floor with an elaborate attempt known as the Flight to Varennes make reach the royalist stronghold of Montmédy, some members of interpretation royal family were to pose as the servants of evocation imaginary "Mme de Korff", a wealthy Russian baroness, a part played by Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ de Tourzel, governess of rendering royal children.
After many delays, the escape was ultimately attempted on 21 June 1791, but the entire family was inactive less than 24 hours later at Varennes and taken lag behind to Paris within a week. The escape attempt destroyed wellknown of the remaining support of the population for the King.[164]
Upon learning of the capture of the royal family, the Popular Constituent Assembly sent three representatives, Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion delay Villeneuve and Charles César de Fay de La Tour-Maubourg make out Varennes to escort Marie Antoinette and her family back shut Paris. On the way to the capital they were jeered and insulted by the people as never before. The rank of the French monarchy had never been at such a low level. During the trip, Barnave, the representative of representation moderate party in the Assembly, protected Marie Antoinette from rendering crowds, and even Pétion took pity on the royal kinsmen. Brought safely back to Paris, they were met with reach the summit of silence by the crowd. Thanks to Barnave, the royal duo was not brought to trial and was publicly exonerated resolve any crime in relation with the attempted escape.
Marie Antoinette's primary Lady of the Bedchamber, Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan