Why was Mary Antoinette be headed?

Answer 1

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.