Marie Antoinette

"Let them eat cake" However, the line is fictional, something she never said.

She had only one husband, most historians don't know if she had him killed or she killed him herself.

She was 37 at the time of her execution. She was born on November 2nd, 1755 and died on October 16th, 1793.

She was Austrian, a country that France had been in war with for years. The French did not want a foreigner on the throne, especially not an Austrian. Also, even before she came to France, the revolution was already smouldering because of the financial disasters of Louis XV which he did to the national treasury. France was already almost bankrupt when Marie Antoinette stepped in the picture, and because the French needed someone to blame it all on, and she was Austrian, she was the perfect victim. The people tried to make all of France believe that she had no concern for her people, spending money on wigs and dresses and throwing wild parties while the population was starving and desperate. The people did believe it, although she was completely innocent and killed her and her husband, destroying the whole French monarchy and the French credibility all around the world for as far as the French had that anyway.

That happened on the Place de la Revolution, the former Place de Louis XV, but the revolutionists took down the statue of the former King Louis XV and baptized the place to Place de la Revolution. After the revolution was over, Napoleon saw to it that it got a new name again, this time: Place de la Concorde (= harmony). Still today it carries that name and a monument was erected on the exact spot the guillotine used to stand in remembrance of the ones that lost their lives there.

(If you really think about the name, Concorde, you might find that Eagles (as in the huge birds) are also often called concordes... And Eagles (concordes to be exact) were the sign of Austria... the land Marie Antoinette came from!)

Besides the harp, she learned to play harpsichord, spinet, and clavichord.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were King and Queen of France and eventually got guillotined during the French Revolution.

She was groomed, trained, tutored and educated for the role of a Monarch from an early age. Her studies included languages, world history, music and the arts. She was destined to bring forth heirs for a distant realm.

Marie Antoinette had 2 sons and 2 daughters.

Due to the French Revolution. The third estate (the bourgeoisie) wanted to rid France of the Monarchical system (thus, King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette). To do so, they had to make sure that the Royals knew this third estate was an enemy to be reckoned with. They eventually imprisoned the Royal family to let them and the rest of the world see that the people had won it from their monarchs.

Comtesse de Lamotte-Valois was a common woman, though she was a descendant of the Valois family, a family that had once been the Royal family of France, but were replaced by the Bourbons (the family that was now on the throne and Marie Antoinette was a direct descendant from this family (her great-grandfather being Louis XIV). She always held a grudge against the Bourbons because she felt that her family should have stayed Royal instead of the Bourbons. Also, she was very poor and wanted the Royal family to support her because of her Royal blood.

She and her lover (she had a husband but also several lovers) Retaux de Villette (a master forger) made a plan. They had heard of the jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge who made a gorgeous necklace especially for Madame du Barry, but she had left Versailles due to the death of Louis XV before they had the chance to present it to her. Now they wanted Marie Antoinette to buy it, but she had refused the necklace for 3 times already because she thought it was ugly and she said "I already have enough diamonds".

The jewellers therefore where desperate to sell the necklace worth 1.6 million Francs. Rétaux de Villette was a master forger and wrote letters from 'the Queen' to the "comtesse". She stated that she wanted the necklace, but was aware of the reluctance of the King to buy it due to the current dismal financial situation of the country. She hoped that the Cardinal Prince Louis de Rohan (a man the Queen hated)could lend her the money, and she would grant him the stipend he wished for. Jeanne de la Motte was named as the Queen's agent. The Cardinal, so happy that the Queen finally seemed to trust him enough to do this for her, believed these letters to be authentic (although the autograph was very foolish and could never have been the Queen's) and agreed to buy the necklace for the Queen. A late night rendezvous was arranged, where the Cardinal met 'the Queen' (in reality a prostitute who resembled her, called Nicole le Guay d'Oliva) and received forgiveness. The jeweler was contacted and asked to bring the necklace.

The necklace was given to Jeanne de la Motte to pass on to the Queen. This of course never happened, her husband promptly began selling the diamonds in Paris and London.

Because the Queen kept ignoring the Cardinal, and the jewellers came to the Queen for money, the whole scheme was over. The Cardinal and the comtesse were arrested, though, because the Queen's reputation was already down the drain and people actually believed that she spent loads of money on jewelry, they thought this story was probably true as well, and even though there was more than enough evidence against the cardinal, he was acquitted. The comtesse was branded with the letter V on one of her breasts (V for Voleuse, which means 'thief'). The branding was intended to be placed on her shoulder, but she fought her torturer so heavily, the hot iron landed on one of her breasts. She escaped out of prison dressed as a boy (she probably got help from Revolutionist prison guards) and fled to England where she spend the rest of her life spreading pamphlets against the Queen.

The queen was blamed for everything eventhough she had nothing to do with it all.

She was Austrian, a country that France had been in war with for years. The French did not want a foreigner on the throne, especially not an Austrian. Also, even before she came to France, the revolution was already smouldering because of the financial disasters of Louis XV which he did to the national treasury. France was already almost bankrupt when Marie Antoinette stepped in the picture, and because the French needed someone to blame it all on, and she was Austrian, she was the perfect victim. The people tried to make all of France believe that she had no concern for her people, spending money on wigs and dresses and throwing wild parties while the population was starving and desperate. The people did believe it, although she was completely innocent and killed her and her husband, destroying the whole French monarchy and the French credibility all around the world for as far as the French had that anyway.

yea

By guillotine.

No, and the plight of France was not her responsibility She was innocent of any crimes.

There was no logical reason to execute Marie Antoinette, she should have been exiled to her home country of Austria. She was not French, nor had any responsibility for French politics.

Marie Antoinette was a misunderstood queen as Louis XVI showered her in gifts she did not even want. She wanted to help her people but sometimes didn't know how. This led to her being seen by the public as a bad queen. The diamond necklace scandal, which she had nothing to do with, made the public think she was a terrible person when in reality she was not. She was quite young.

Unknown. Her dress maker, Rose Bertin, kept scrupulous records of the cloth acquired to her wardrobe. We know that in 1785, Her Majesty spent 258,002 french livres on cloth (yardage quantity is unclear). Adjusted for inflation in 2012 and converted to USD, that equals $2,716,053.34. ...accounting only for woven piece goods. Labour, embroidery, and decorative elements are in included in that figure and could easily double the amount.

There are much more complete records on the wardrobe of Josephine Bonaparte, Empress of France. The divorce settlement from Napoleon in 1810 is highly detailed with a robust inventory of the Empress's wardrobe.

She was born in Austria.

When Marie Antoinette became queen of France, she didn't know anything about the country. Growing up in Austria, she had a carefree life. When she was told she was to marry Louis the 16 she was only 14 and he was 15. It was hard for her to adjust to the new customs that she was told to follow. She had to leave all of her Austrian life behind. Since France and Austria were enemies, she was unpopular the moment she stepped into France. Even though she was going to be queen in a wonderful palace in a great country, she didn't like her life at all. Her husband ignored her, so they didn't have children for quite some time which is one of the reasons the French despised the royal couple. Since she had no children to take care of she had to find ways to entertian herself. She spent so much money on gowns, jewelry, sweets, gambling, and having plays put on in Paris. She had a horrible gambling problem. In one game she lost a total of $1.5 million. She even earned herself a nickname "Madame Deficit" which means "Miss Debt." One thing that got her into great deal of trouble was the famous qoute she never said when the French people begged her for more bread. "Let them eat cake." After awhile she and Louis managed to have children. Marie decided to try to make the French people appreciate her by having portraits taken of her with her children and sometimes wore plain white gowns when she was at her vacation house with her children.But it didn't work. After awhile when the high price on bread was getting higher, French citizens started to rebel. Many rebels marched for 12 miles from Paris to the Palace of Versailles with fires and pitchforks and killed two of the palace guards. They ordered the king and queen to leave and come to Paris. Marie and Louis tried to make a daring escaped to Austria but were caught and returned to Paris. They were both de-throned and France became a republic. Louis the 16 was sentence to death at his trial and beheaded by the guillotine. Eight months later, during the Reign of Terror, Marie's children were taken away from her and during her trial she was also sentenced to death by the guillotine. Marie had changed since she was de-throned. She was pale and her hair had turned gray and she had gotten thin. She was hardly recognizable. When she stepped up to the guillotine she accidently stepped on her executioners foot. "Monsuir, forgive me, I did not do it on purpose." Those where her last words.

A bunch of dogs and one of them named mops got taken away from her at 15

The Nation was facing bankruptcy.

There was a shortage of grain and bread.

The tax burden was to high and was not shared by everyone.

The people had no say in government and the King was inept and ineffective.

The Queen had been born an Austrian and was wrongfully charged with being a spendthrift.

It was time for some radical changes.

Marie Antoinette was beheaded October 16, 1793.

Louis XVI was a weak and indecisive man. He tried to do some reforms but it was too little and too late. He failed to control his wife's spending.

Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia in Austria. Her mother was Empress Marie Theresa. However her father was French and as such she was the cousin of her husband Louis XVI. When she was first married the people did not like her and would call her the Austrachienne-or Austrian Bitch.

I believe...1 sec...let me look at my notes here...Well, what got them killed was that were on the brink of sending the country into bankruptsy (pardon my spelling!), and couldn't save the country from inflation, unemployment, poor harvests, food shortages, or the rising prices that were tormenting the entire country. But after Louis summoned the National Assembly, word leaked out that he had planned to bring in troops to arrest the assembly.