The biography of Marie Antoinette is invariably connected with the epoch-making events of France itself. After all, the time of her life and stay in the royal palace falls on an interesting period in European history.
Early biography of Marie Antoinette
The future queen was born in November 1755 in the capital of the Austrian Habsburg Empire - Vienna, in a respected family related to the imperial house. Her father was the Holy Roman Emperor Franz Stefan, and her mother was Archduke Maria Theresa. Maria spent her childhood and youth in the courtyards, mainly it was Schönbrunn Palace. Here she was brought up according to strict noble canons, studying dance, theater, history, spelling, politics, painting, mathematics and foreign languages. Already at the age of fifteen, the girl is married to the French prince Louis, after which the biography of Marie Antoinette is changing dramatically. Soon she becomes queen of France.
Biography of Marie Antoinette: a place on the throne
Already in 1774, the king of France Louis XV died of smallpox, and the country wished good health to the new king - Louis XVI. The next twenty years were marked by a growing deterioration in the country's economic situation, and considerable blame for this lay on the shoulders of the short-sighted monarch. Contemporaries often characterized him as a person with a good heart and good intentions. However, extremely indecisive. He began his reign with encouraging reforms aimed at limiting the arbitrariness of the nobility, and indeed reducing their impact on the life of the state. Objectively, this estate became more and more a relic of the Middle Ages.
To keep up with the development of its eternal rival - England, France needed to get away from the feudal system of relations, replacing it with a new social and economic order. However, the nobles very quickly rebuffed the young ruler, after which the situation of the country began to deteriorate more and more, further aggravated by the king’s further inaction: the treasury was leaked, loans reached record levels, taxes increased, placing a heavy burden on the taxable estates.
Marie Antoinette, whose biography under these conditions was only entertainment, magnificent balls and fashion shows, became a symbol and almost the main object of hatred from the masses. And indeed, having a significant influence on her husband, she to a large extent contributed to the estrangement of the royal court from the people. Up to comic situations, when the highest aristocrats completely lost touch with reality and did not closely understand what was happening in the country. In this regard, her exponential phrase is known in response to the message that people demand bread: “If they do not have bread, let them eat cakes!”
The king’s swan song was the financial crisis of 1788, when the king convened a parliament to try to take another cash loan. After the failure, Louis XVI furiously tried to arrest a number of members of parliament and completely abolish this institution. This led to a long string of events, as a result of which the Bastille political prison was taken by the masses, the Bourbon dynasty was overthrown, and the royal couple was executed in 1793.
Marie Antoinette. Biography. Children
In this marriage, four children were born. Two princes died in childhood, during the turbulent times of the revolution. Sophia's daughter did not even live to see this, having died at a very young age in 1787, but Maria 's eldest daughter , Theresa of France, managed to escape in Vienna. She later returned to France and even became an official princess during the restoration of the dynasty.