“Let them eat cake.” This is one of the most famous quotes ever, but it was never true. The quote was viciously fabricated by the people of France, leading up to the famous French revolution. Marie Antoinette was accused of saying this by the citizens of France and unfairly portrayed as a selfish, insensitive and thoughtless queen. In reality, Antoinette never uttered those four words and was naive and uneducated.
Marie Antoinette, or Maria Antonia as she was known in Austria, was born on the 2nd of November, 1755. She grew up simply in the court of Vienna, spending most of her time at the palace of Schonbrunn. At the youthful age of thirteen, however, Antoinette’s childhood came to an abrupt end. She was betrothed on June the 6th, 1769 to the Crown Prince of France, Louis-Auguste the XVI. In less than a year, Antoinette was headed to the royal palace of Versailles in France, never to see Austria again. She was literally stripped of her Austrian heritage—she walked over the French-Austrian border completely naked to prove she was now to be a Frenchwoman. After no less than a week and a half in Versailles, Marie Antoinette was married at fourteen to the fifteen year old Louis-Auguste.
Antoinette lived a boring and tiring life as wife to the Crown Prince of France. Every morning, she would rise and be dressed. The princess of the highest rank would have the honour to dress Antoinette, but at times princesses with a higher rank than the last would filter in and it could take hours for the shivering princess to finally get her undergarments on.
Marie Antoinette, while her husband’s grandfather was ruling, had to respect everyone the current king liked, such as Madame Du Barry. Madame Du Barry was King Louis the XV’s mistress and she was considered to be absolutely atrocious. Antoinette showed a great dislike to this preposterous woman and it upset the king very much. When Antoinette came very close to falling out of favour with the elderly king, she decided to acknowledge Du Barry once. It is recorded that she said to the mistress at a royal event, “There are many people at Versailles.” It was the first and last time Marie Antoinette would speak to Madam Du Barry.
Along with the other difficulties at Versailles, Marie Antoinette was continually being reprimanded by her harsh mother, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, the great Maria Theresa. It was known throughout France that Antoinette and her husband had not yet “done the deed”, as many referred to it. If Marie Antoinette did not produce an heir, she could be banished from the court of Versailles.
When Antoinette was just eighteen and her husband, Louis-Auguste, nineteen, they were crowned King and Queen of France after King Louis the XV died of smallpox. A few years after, Antoinette gave birth to a darling daughter, Marie Thérèse of France. It was a disappointment to France as the child was not a son and could therefore not inherit the throne. Nonetheless, Marie Antoinette adored her baby daughter. Marie Antoinette had three other children afterward, two of which died.
Marie Antoinette was spending more and more money, acquiring new things because of her boredom. She renovated her entire house, the Petit Trianon and had a farm-like village called Le Hameau created. Her expenditures were rising and rising. Many financial advisors attempted to approach her, but Antoinette simply waved them off. She was never invited to learn about her country’s economic situation, which was quickly going downhill. In fact, her husband forbid that Antoinette involve herself in government affairs, and so she thought little of her extreme spending.
Everything started crumbling soon after the completion of Antoinette’s Le Hameau. Citizens of France stormed the Bastille and riots broke out everywhere. Still, Antoinette kept spending money.
One horrifying night, a large group of revolutionaries reached the palace of Versailles, brandishing torches and pitchforks. Clearly, they were unhappy with the monarchy. Marie Antoinette and her family were forced to move into Tuileries Palace in Paris where they lived in fear for many years. During the years in Tuileries, Antoinette was revealed to the vicious pamphlets that circulated France, spreading lies and rumours about their queen. Marie Antoinette tried to ignore these, but it was very difficult.
Antoinette and her family once attempted to flee France, but it. They were returned to Tuileries and had limited luxuries. In a few months, the palace of Tuileries was broken into and a mob ravaged everything in it. Marie Antoinette, along with her two remaining children, her sister-in-law and her daughter and the King Louis-Auguste, was moved to La Force prison where they lived in dirty condition for years. They were forced to remove their royal status and were known as the Capets.
King Louis—or Louis Capet—lived for a short time in La Force until he was guillotined in January of 1793. Widow Capet, as Antoinette was now referred, went into a deep mourning, never eating or exercising. Eventually, Widow Capet was taken from the room where her two children, niece and sister-and-law still lived. Widow Capet was ordered to be killed by guillotine.
The day of her execution, Marie Antoinette had all her hair cut off and dressed simply in a white dress. She was taken in a cart used usually for transporting criminals to the place of the guillotine. It is recorded, as a fact, that just before her execution, she trod upon the executioner’s foot and said, “Pardon me, Monsieur, but I meant not to do it.”
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