Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was born on November 2, 1755, in Vienna, Austria. At birth, she
was known as Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna. Marie was the fifteenth child of Holy Roman
Emperor Francis I and the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa. When she was young, the
education she mainly received was about moral principles, religions, manners, dance, music
and appearance. Her early life was simple and similar to the bourgeois.
Because of the Seven Years War, the relationship between France and Austria was
very fragile. To form an alliance between Austria and France, in 1766, Maria Theresa
promised a marriage between her daughter and the future king of France, Louis XVI. Four
years later, they married. At that time, Marie was fifteen years old while Louis was sixteen
years old. Compared to the world today, they married when they were pretty young but, at
their time, it was normal for people at that age to marry. However, her marriage was not easy.
It was quite tough for Maria to adapt her lifestyle to the one French royal family had to live
with. In 1774, Louis XV died and Maries husband Louis-Auguste became Louis XVI. This
change in king made Marie Antoinette the queen of France with the age of nineteen years old.
Being in a spotlight was not always easy for Maria. Her personalities were so
different from her husband that the comparison made her look bad. Marie always expressed
her boredom as a French queen through her letters to mother, Maria Theresa. The life in
French court was elegant, yet, Marie preferred the freedom she used to have back then when
she was just a princess of Austria. Because of this attitude toward France, people didnt really
like her. Also, the king and the queen were not able to have an heir although they were
married for several years. These facts created Frenchs hostility toward their queen. Maria
Theresa heard about her daughters and Louis XVIs unmatching lifestyle and the inability to
produce an heir to the throne. She sent her son, Joseph II, to France to give advices to her
daughter about marriage. Fortunately, Joseph was a good counselor. Marie and Louis then
had an heir, Marie Therese Charlotte, a year later.
Marie didnt have many duties to do as a queen. Her life was filled with boredom.
Thus, she decided to spend her time with her young friends. She spent a lot of money for her
pleasure and entertainment like gambling, masked balls, and promenades. She was very
careless at spending money that people disliked her for this habit. Enjoying life with the
circle of her friends, including Louis XVIs younger brother, Marie earned a bad reputation
and was involved scandals and rumors.
In 1780s, France was in turmoil and faced inflation because of poor harvest. Marie
Antoinettes extravagant lifestyle was accused by French people. They blamed their queen
for the problems France was facing and made fun of her because of their hatred. They even
gave her a nickname Madame Deficit to show that she was overspending money with
things people didnt really agree with.
Many people dislike the king and the queen. The kings brothers themselves disliked
the king for that they were envious of their brother who had a chance to marry such a
beautiful, young woman like Maria. Other people who disliked Marie made up stories to ruin
her reputation as a queen.
During French Revolution, France was in great debt that Louis decided to impose
taxes on the First and the Second Estate, just like what he did to the Third Estate.
Nevertheless, the nobles and the clergymen resisted Louiss decision and blamed Marie
saying she was the one who influenced Louis to make this kind of decision. She, then, got
another nickname as Madame Veto. Because the monarchy needed support from the people
from higher classes, the king had to listen to them. Inspired by the American revolutionists,
the people of the Third Estate declared that theyd revolutionize France for the unequal
treatment of the higher classes and the lower classes. They were not satisfied with French old
voting system. Also, they believed that monarchy was a threat to their revolution. This forced
Louis and Marie to fled Paris.
By the end of their lives, Louis and Marie were both executed by the court. Marie
Antoinettes life was good and bad at the same time. It was good in a way that she got to be a
queen of such a powerful country like France and was able to spend luxurious and
extravagant life. Nevertheless, as an Austrian, being a French queen was not a really easy
thing. People distrusted her since Austria was Frances enemy. Marie had to face with
pressure every day in her life. This pressure was probably the factor that shaped Marie into
who she was. She was actually a kind-hearted person. She gave out alms to the people in
need. Marie favored children. She adopted children of her servants who died when their
children were still young too. Marie and Louis gave liberally to charity. She even established
homes for the unwed mothers. She usually visited the homes of the olds, the widows, and the
blind. She also gave out food and money as she visited poor families.
Thus, because of the stress she had to face due to peoples hatred and distrust toward
her, we cant really say Marie Antoinette was bad by nature. She acted in a particular way
because people made her that way. She had her bad sides but she also had good sides. Let
them eat cake.



Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.