Marie Antoinette, in full Jos�phe Jeanne Marie Antoinette 1755-93
Queen of France

Born in Vienna, Austria, she was the fourth daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa and the Emperor Francis I, and in 1770 was married to the Dauphin of France, afterwards Louis XVI (from 1774). Young and inexperienced, she aroused criticism by her frivolity, extravagance and disregard for conventions, her devotion to the interests of Austria, and her opposition to all the measures devised by Turgot and Necker for relieving the financial distress of the country. The miseries of France became identified with her extravagance. She opposed all new ideas, and prompted Louis into a retrograde policy to his own undoing. She was, however, also capable of strength rising to the heroic, and possessed the power of inspiring enthusiasm. Amid the horrors of the march of women on Versailles (1789) she alone maintained her courage, but she consistently failed to understand the troubled times of the Revolution, and the indecision of Louis and his dread of civil war hampered her plans. She had an instinctive abhorrence of the liberal nobles such as the Marquis de Lafayette and the Comte de Mirabeau, and although she finally reached agreement with Mirabeau (July 1790) she was too independent to follow his advice, and his death in April 1791 removed the last hope of saving the monarchy. She and Louis tried to escape to the frontier, but were intercepted at Varennes. The storming of the Tuileries and slaughter of the Swiss guards, and the trial and execution of Louis (21 January 1793) quickly followed, and soon she herself was sent to the Conciergerie (2 August 1793). After eight weeks the 'Widow Capet' was herself arraigned before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where she bore herself with dignity and resignation. After two days and nights of questioning came the inevitable sentence, and she was guillotined on the same day, 16 October 1793.

Bibliography: Charles Kunstler, La Vie priv�e de Marie-Antoinette (1938, Eng trans The Personal Life of Marie-Antoinette, 1940)