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Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755. She was the youngest daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa, They were the Emperor and Empress of the Roman Empire.
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Marie Antoinette was brought up believing her destiny was to become queen of France.
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Marie Antoinette married the prince of France in 1770. Then like four years later she became queen when her husband
was crowned King Louis XVI. -
Like four years later she became queen when her husband
was crowned King Louis XVI. -
Antoinette and Louis were placed in harms way not only by their personalities, but by the face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Because of the financial crisis reduced the royal household staff, eliminating many unnecessary positions that were based solely on privilege, which upset the nobols.
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In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris
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She tried to escape from Paris, and failed and had to keep reciving aid.
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Antoinette sought aid from other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and her sister Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791 Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria
and Prussia declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. -
When Austria and Prussia (a kindond of Germany) declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned.
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Marie Antoinette was cruely treated during her final days of captivity. Her best friend
, the Princess de Lambelle, was killed and her severed head was put on a pike and paraded in front of the Queen. -
On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI (her husband) was convicted and executed on the guillotine.
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Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. She was executed without proof of the crimes for which she was accused. She was only 37 years old.
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Her children Marie Therese and Louis XVII were taken from her. Louis XVII was abused by the family's jailers and later died, supposedly of Tuberculosis and malnutrition. Marie Therese, her firstborn daughter was the only family member to survive.
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The Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon I. The succession went to the closest living relative of Louis XVI who became Louis XVIII. He had escaped to Britain where he sat out the Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. The new monarchy had a bumpy road, lasting until 1848 and the ascension of Napoleon III. After Napoleon III abdicated in 1871, France became a republic.
