Marie Antoinette's Legacy: What Remains In Austria?

Marie Antoinette, born in Vienna, Austria, was the wife of King Louis XVI of France. She was the youngest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. Marie Antoinette was only 14 when she married the Dauphin Louis, grandson of Louis XV of France, for diplomatic purposes. In 1774, when her husband ascended the throne, she became Queen. Marie Antoinette was unpopular as Queen, partly due to her lavish spending, and her rejection of reform and resistance to the French Revolution contributed to the monarchy's overthrow in 1792. She was executed by guillotine in 1793.

Marie Antoinette's legacy is complicated. She was unpopular with the general public, and her rejection of Revolutionary reforms inspired more passion to overthrow the monarchy. However, historians have confirmed that she was not merely an oblivious rich lady, but an increasingly powerful politician who made decisions that her husband was incapable of making. She also had a significant impact on fashion and style, starting many trends that are now emblematic of the Marie Antoinette era, including the pouf hairstyle.

Marie Antoinette's execution took place in Paris, France, and her remains were transferred to the Abbey of Saint-Denis in 1815.

Marie Antoinette's execution

Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution, was executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793. Her death came after a swift trial that found her guilty of treason.

The Trial

Marie Antoinette's trial began on 14 October 1793, and she was given less than a day to prepare her defence. The charges against her included orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres to Austria, planning the massacre of the National Guards in 1792, declaring her son the new king of France, and incest. The latter charge, made by her son Louis-Charles, drew an emotional response from Marie Antoinette, who refused to answer it, instead appealing to the mothers in the courtroom.

The Execution

On the morning of 16 October, Marie Antoinette was forced to change into a plain white dress, had her hair cut, and her hands bound painfully behind her back. She was then taken to the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) in an open cart. She maintained her composure despite the insults of the jeering crowd.

At the scaffold, she accidentally trod on her executioner's foot and apologised—these were her final words. She was guillotined at 12:15 pm, to the cheers of the crowd.

Aftermath

Marie Antoinette's body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery. It was later exhumed, and she was given a Christian burial during the Bourbon Restoration, alongside her husband, King Louis XVI, in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris.

Her hairstyles

Marie Antoinette was known for her extravagant hairstyles, which were an important part of her image as queen. In fact, she is often credited with starting the trend for extremely tall and elaborate hairstyles, known as "pouf", which were popular among French nobility in the late 18th century. These styles could be up to three feet (90 cm) high and were often decorated with sprays of feather plumes, known as "panache".

Creating these hairstyles was a complex and time-consuming process. It required curly hair, which was usually achieved using curlers, and greasy hair, which was considered ideal as it helped the style to hold its shape. Ladies of the court would often go several days without washing their hair to achieve the desired level of grease. The hair was then curled, teased, and shaped using a variety of tools and products, including pins, hairspray, and flour, which was used as a natural dry shampoo and styling product.

The finished hairstyle was often adorned with decorative accessories, such as a "diadème", a type of hairband or diadem, or a "chignon", a large bun created using the wearer's hair or horsehair. These styles were also frequently covered with a layer of white, grey, or blond powder, giving them a distinctive pale colour.

While Marie Antoinette certainly embraced and popularised these elaborate hairstyles, it is important to note that they were not her invention. Similar styles had been popular among French nobility for some time, and she was following a trend set by others. Nonetheless, her adoption and promotion of these styles contributed to their popularity and helped to establish them as a defining feature of late 18th-century French fashion.

Her fashion sense

Marie Antoinette is often described as the first consumer of 'haute couture' fashion. She was the first young and fashionable queen in three generations to hold the public absolutely captivated by what voluminous, heavily decorated creation she would wear next. She was also known for her tall and intensely adorned hairstyles, which were called poufs and were halfway between a hat and a hair arrangement. Poufs would often reference events of pop culture or political significance, including relevant emblems, drawings, written text or motifs.

Marie Antoinette's fashion masterpieces included costumes of extreme extravagance for court appearances. For more casual wear with friends away from the court, she favoured rustic and simple muslin gowns in whites and pastel colours, which also set new trends.

Marie Antoinette's Minister of Fashion, Rose Bertin, became the first famous fashion designer, with her creations inspiring a nation. Marie Antoinette elevated fashion and clothes from a trade to an art form.

Marie Antoinette's penchant for luxury and excess is perhaps as significant for contributing towards the uprising of the French Revolution as it is for its innovation and beauty, and the legacy it leaves.

Her marriage to Louis XVI

Marie Antoinette was just 14 years old when she married the dauphin Louis, grandson of France's King Louis XV, on May 16, 1770. Marie Antoinette's marriage to Louis was a political alliance, intended to unite Austria and France, which had previously been enemies. The marriage was initially by proxy, with Marie Antoinette's brother standing in for her. The official ceremony took place in the Palace of Versailles, with over 5,000 guests and a crowd of 200,000 people watching the fireworks display.

The marriage was not consummated for seven years, which distressed the royal couple and became a political liability. Marie Antoinette was interested in sex, but her husband, who was self-conscious and insecure, was not. Eventually, Marie Antoinette's mother sent her brother, Joseph, to intervene. Soon after, the couple produced four children in quick succession.

Marie Antoinette's husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI in 1774, making her queen. Marie Antoinette was unpopular as queen, in part because of her lavish spending, but also because of her Austrian heritage and her resistance to reform. She was also the target of many false accusations, including that she had defrauded the Crown's jewelers in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace. During the French Revolution, she was known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her spending.

Marie Antoinette played an increasingly prominent political role during the French Revolution, as her husband was indecisive. She resisted the advice of constitutional monarchists who sought to reform the monarchy and, along with Louis XVI, attempted to escape to Austria. They were captured and forced to return to Paris, where they were imprisoned. Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine in 1793, nine months after her husband met the same fate.

Her children

Marie Antoinette had four children: Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Louis-Joseph, Louis-Charles, and Sophie.

Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, born in 1778, was the first child of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, born after four years of a childless marriage. Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte was not the long-hoped-for son, but she provided much-needed emotional support for her mother, whose frivolous appearance and spending masked deep loneliness and insecurities. Marie Antoinette was a devoted mother, though she was often prevented from handling her children's day-to-day care due to strict royal protocol. She retreated with her children to the Petit Trianon, a small chateau at Versailles that Louis XVI had given her. Marie Antoinette was always an affectionate mother and was close to her children.

Marie Antoinette gave birth to Louis-Joseph in 1781. He became his father's heir, known as the dauphin. Tragically, Louis-Joseph died in the summer of 1789, aged seven. A bright but sickly child, he likely died from tuberculosis of the spine.

Marie Antoinette's third child, Louis-Charles, was born in 1785. The timing of his birth set tongues wagging throughout France, as many surmised that he was the son of Axel von Fersen, with whom Marie Antoinette had an emotional, and perhaps physical, affair. Louis-Charles was locked in a dark, fetid chamber where he was fed meagre rations, prevented from seeing any outside visitors, and physically abused by his jailers. He died in June 1795, likely from tuberculosis worsened by his mistreatment.

Marie Antoinette's last child, Sophie, was born prematurely in 1786 and died eleven months later, in June 1787.

Frequently asked questions