Why was Marie Antoinette be-headed?

Answer 1

Marie Antoinette was beheaded because she was Queen of France during the unfortunate period of the French Revolution. The French people regarded the ancien regime, the system of monarchy and aristocracy that had been in place in France for hundreds of yeras, as evil and responsible for all the hardships that they had been forced to face over the years, which was largely true. The French monarchy was self-indulgent and spent vast amounts of money (i.e. the Palace of Versailles). People regard Queen Marie Antoinette as the embodyment of all that was wrong with the government, with her ridiculous expensive fashions and extravagance. In the Revolution, and above all in the Reign of Terror that encompassed the time during which Marie was beheaded, all the aristocrats, characterized as "enemies of the republic" were sent to the guillotine. Marie was the very height of the monarchy, so she was destined to die. Her life may have been spared if her brother Joseph II of Austria or her mother Maria Theresa were still alive and they could have sent her help, but they were not and so she went to the guillotine.

Or:

Because she suffered from a fatal birth defect. She was born an Austrian and that alone was adequate to demand her death during the French Revolution.

Answer 2

Marie Antoinette, the young Austrian queen of King Louis XVI, was beheaded as a result of the rising discontent of the Third Estate (bourgeoisie, peasantry, and artisans). The discontent stemmed from the French intervention in the American Revolution. Helping the Americans, as it turned out, came with a crippling amount of debt. In order to counteract this debt, the Crown decided to raise taxes, taking more money from the dirt poor peasantry. A poor harvest and rising inflation led to a series of bread riots, as accounted for by E. J. F. Barbier's Chronique de la regence et du regne de Louis XV ou journal de Barbier.

• Money has been devalued by one-third this year. . . . Order is being reestablished only with great difficulty, which highlights the danger of workers becoming accustomed to increased earnings. It was attractive for them to work only three days and to have enough to live on for the rest of the week. (April, 1724)
• On Saturday the fourteenth, a baker of the faubourg Saint-Antoine seemingly tried to sell bread for thirty-four sous which that morning had cost thirty. The woman to whom this happened caused an uproar and called her neighbors. The people gathered, furious with bakers in general. Soon their numbers reached eighteen hundred, and they looted all the bakers' houses in the faubourg from top to bottom, throwing dough and flour into the gutter. Some also profited from the occasion by stealing silver and silverware. (17 July, 1725)

Throughout this predicament, the richest classes, the First and Second Estates (clergy and nobility), were tax exempt. Furthermore, the Third Estate had nearly no say in the government or the Church, and were unable to stop the over taxation of the masses. Marie Antoinette, with her pearl adorned tresses, her frivolous spending, and her reckless habits, had to be taught a lesson. In truth, Marie Antoinette was not as affluent as it seemed, but paintings, such as Jeanne-Baptiste Gautier's Marie Antoinette, certainly seemed to affirm this viewpoint. After the Storming of the Bastille, the discontent of the Third Estate evolved into a full blown revolution: The French Revolution. Shortly after, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were put under house arrest, and later prison. On October 14, 1793, Marie Antoinette was given a trial and was accused of various scandalous acts including incest with her son, which stemmed from rumors and public belief. Two days later, on October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette was beheaded at the guillotine.

Answer 3

Marie Antoinette was beheaded by the French peasants of the time because they believed that she along with her husband, King Louis XVI deserved to die after the years of oppression and being poor. They may have especially liked to kill Marie Antoinette because of the obscene amount of money she spent on her wardrobe and jewelry, thus the nickname "Madam Deficit."