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Marie Antoinette of Hapsburg Lorraine Marie Antoinette Josepha Joanna of Hapsburg-Lorraine, daughter of the Austrian empress Marie Therese of Hapsburg and her husband Francis I of Lorraine, was born on 2nd November 1755 in Vienna. She spent her childhood in Schonbrunn and in 1770 she married the Dauphin and future king of France Louis XVI . On her arrival to Versailles , she was welcomed by Louis XV and his court. However the king's favourite, Madame du Barry , who Marie Antoinette later nicknamed "the creature", would never get on well with the Dauphine because of the countess' controversial past. When Louis XV died and Marie Antoinette became the new queen of France, she had to fight the envy of some privileged courtiers who held high positions and influence under the former king. This envy extended to the favors 20-year old queen bestowed upon her few chosen young friends, such as the countess Yolande Gabrielle de Polignac , princess Marie Therese de Lamballe and the princess de Gu�m�n�e. These and other greedy friends of the queen enjoyed every sort of privilege taking advantage of the Queen's generosity and the King's weakness. However the Queen's popularity had been fading away since her official entrance in Paris on 8th June 1773. Under the pressure of her disloyal friends, she created innumerable useless offices such as that of Superintendent of the Queen's House for the princess de Lamballe. Furthermore she used to buy a great deal of dresses and jewelry making her milliner Madame Bertin famous all over France. Finally the Queen spent enormous amounts for her personal buildings. Marie Antoinette had the Petit Trianon readapted to her taste as well as her exclusive theatre and the Hameau , a miniaturized hamlet built in the park of Versailles, where she and her friends loved to dress and act like peasants. No matter that the Queen's heart was generous and her donation to the poor was considerable the rumors about her oddity increased her people's open criticism - if not hatred. This contributed much to cause the French Revolution. The French had been waiting for long years for a royal heir and at last the queen gave birth to a daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte duchess of Angouleme - Madame Royale - on 19th December 1778 after a very difficult delivery that nearly caused the mother's death. Then Marie Antoinette had three more children. They were Louis Joseph,who died at a very early age due to a respiratory failure, Louis Charles - the duke of Normandy and future Louis XVII - who supposedly died in 1795 at the age of ten, and Marie Sophie Elene Beatrix, who died in just her first year of life of tuberculosis. The happiness for the heir's birth didn't last long though and on 5th October 1789 thousands women marched from Paris to Versailles armed as real soldiers claiming for bread. That night they slept outside in front of the Royal Palace, but at 5 a.m., they entered the Palace and found their way straight to the apartments of the sleeping Queen. While the Queen's guards were murdered in her defense, Marie Antoinette awakened by her ladies rushed to the King's appartaments. The Queen showed great courage when she decided to show herself and greet the crowd. Her bravery much impressed Lafayette who bowed to Marie Antoinette and kissed her hand. The people shouted "Long live the Queen!", but that same day the Royal family was moved from Versailles to Paris into the uninhabited palace of Tuileries. Day by day their lives seemed to be more and more in danger so they decided to escape from the palace with Madame Royale, Louis Charles in a girl's dress, Louis XVI's sister Madame Elisabeth de France and count Hans Axel de Fersen , the most intimate friend of Marie Antoinette who was dressed up like a coachman. ON 22th June 1791, at Varennes, over 200 miles from Paris and almost in sight of their destination and freedom they were recognized and arrested. During that long journey back to the capital the French insulted the Queen calling her " The Austrian". The Royal family was confined in the tower of the Temple and on 21th January 1793 at 8:10 pm, Louis XVI was guillotined. The Queen was separated from her children and brought to the Conciergerie . On 16th October 1793 at 12:15 pm, Marie Antoinette was executed, killed by the same guillotine that would later symbolize the time of Terror. |
