Marie-Antoinette (1755 - 1793)

Marie-Antoinette

Marie Antoinette of Austria, born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen - Queen of France and Navarre, wife of King Louis XVI of France.

Marie Antoinette was the daughter of Emperor Franz I Stephen and Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria. Her marriage to the heir to the throne of France took place in Versailles on May 16, 1770, when she was only 14 years old, and in 1774 Louis XVI ascended to the throne. The couple were not happy together, and Marie Antoinette led a luxurious and very wasteful lifestyle, patronizing favorites and little interest in politics.

During the political crises of 1789 it was Marie Antoinette who became the main target of revolutionaries. Trying to preserve the monarchy, she became an opponent of the constitutional-democratic regime. In October 1789, popular pressure forced the royal family to return from Versailles to Paris, where they became hostages of the revolutionary movement. In June 1791, friends from abroad organized the escape of the king and queen from Paris, but the revolutionaries detained them in Varennes and brought them back to Paris.

After France declared war on Austria in April 1792, Marie Antoinette's intrigues with the Austrians further enraged the French. Hatred of the queen prompted the storming of the Tuileries Palace and the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10, 1792. Marie Antoinette spent the rest of her life in prison. Louis XVI was executed by order of the National Assembly in January 1793, and the queen was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 14, 1793, and two days later was also executed.