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Marie Antoinette (/ ˌ æ n t w ə ˈ n ɛ t, ˌ ɒ̃ t-/; French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt] ⓘ; Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen consort of France prior to the French Revolution.
- Marie Antoinette: Early Life
- Marie Antoinette: Life at Versailles
- Marie Antoinette: The French Revolution
- Marie Antoinette: The Terror
- Marie Antoinette: Legacy
Marie Antoinette, the 15th child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and the powerful Habsburg empress Maria Theresa, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1755–an age of great instability for European monarchies. In 1766, as a way to cement the relatively new alliance between the French and Habsburg thrones, Maria Theresa promised her young daughter’s hand ...
Life as a public figure was not easy for Marie Antoinette. Her marriage was difficult and, as she had very few official duties, she spent most of her time socializing and indulging her extravagant tastes. (For example, she had a model farm built on the palace grounds so that she and her ladies-in-waiting could dress in elaborate costumes and preten...
In fact, the nation’s difficulties were not the young queen’s fault. Eighteenth-century colonial wars–particularly the American Revolution, in which the French had intervened on behalf of the colonists–had created a tremendous debt for the French state. The people who owned most of the property in France, such as the Catholic Church (the “First Est...
The royal family was returned to Paris and Louis XVI was restored to the throne. However, many revolutionaries began to argue that the most insidious enemies of the state were not the nobles but the monarchs themselves. In April 1792, partly as a way to test the loyalties of the king and queen, the Jacobin (radical revolutionary) government declare...
The story of revolution and resistance in 18th-century France is a complicated one, and no two historians tell the story the same way. However, it is clear that for the revolutionaries, Marie Antoinette’s significance was mainly, powerfully symbolic. She and the people around her seemed to represent everything that was wrong with the monarchy and t...
3 days ago · Marie-Antoinette (born November 2, 1755, Vienna, Austria—died October 16, 1793, Paris, France) was the Austrian queen consort of King Louis XVI of France (1774–93).
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Marie-Antoinette was queen of France from 1774 to 1793 and is associated with the decline of the French monarchy. Her alleged remark “Let them eat...
- Marie-Antoinette was the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. She was only 14 when her parents had her married...
- As queen, Marie-Antoinette was always unpopular. She spent lavishly, but her extravagance was only a minor cause of France’s growing debt in the 17...
- Marie-Antoinette was the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa and was married to Louis XVI. Though the first sev...
- Marie-Antoinette was guillotined in 1793 after the Revolutionary Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against the state. The royal family had been c...
Jul 11, 2023 · Queen Marie Antoinette helped provoke the French Revolution that led to the monarchy’s end in 1792. Read about her children, death, movies about her, and more.
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Apr 4, 2022 · Marie Antoinette (l. 1755-1793) was the queen of France during the turbulent final years of the Ancien Régime and the subsequent French Revolution (1789-1799). With the ascension of her husband Louis XVI of France (r. 1774-1792), she became queen at the age of 18 and would shoulder much of the blame for the perceived moral failures of the ...
- Born in Vienna on 2 November 1755 as Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna, archduchess of Austria. the 15th child of Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa of Aust...
- A victim of her time and circumstance, she was made a scapegoat for everything wrong with the French monarchy. The lies spread about her were enoug...
- Marie Antoinette had four children: Marie-Thérèse in 1778, Louis-Joseph in 1781, Louis-Charles in 1785, and Sophie in 1786. Only her eldest child s...
- After the rise of the radical Jacobins, during the reign of the infamous Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary Tribunal charged her with a...
- Her last words, after accidentally stepping on the foot of her executioner, were "Pardon, monsieur. I did not do it on purpose."
Marie-Antoinette (-Josèphe-Jeanne d’Autriche-Lorraine), (born Nov. 2, 1755, Vienna—died Oct. 16, 1793, Paris, France), Queen consort of Louis XVI of France. The daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, she was married in 1770 to the French dauphin.
Described by her brother, Emperor Joseph II, as “honest and lovable,” Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess and the wife of King Louis XVI. She remains one of the most iconic characters in Versailles’ rich history.
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