Marie-Antoinette French queen, wife of Louis XVI Date of Birth: 02.11.1755 Country: France

Biography of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was a French queen and the wife of Louis XVI. She was born on November 2, 1755, in Vienna, to Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Francis I of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1770, she was married to the heir to the French throne, Louis.

Despite the bright prospects, Louis struggled to deal with France's financial problems, which caused unrest among the people. Marie Antoinette's loyalty to Austria also raised suspicions among the French, who saw her as the cause of their misfortunes. Throughout their marriage, she had a great influence over Louis, causing the royal court to become isolated and disconnected from the common people.

During the crisis, Marie Antoinette displayed more confidence and composure than her hysterical husband. After the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, she failed to convince Louis to temporarily move to Metz. However, she persuaded him not to abolish feudal orders and reduce royal privileges. This made her the main target of revolutionary agitators.

In October 1789, the royal family was forced to leave Versailles and return to Paris, despite the objective danger to their lives as they became hostages of the rebellious crowd. Six months later, Marie Antoinette established a secret correspondence with Count de Mirabeau, a member of the National Assembly, who wanted to restore the monarchy. In April 1791, Mirabeau died, and the queen sought help from royalists in exile.

On the night of June 20, 1791, the royal family left Paris towards the border, but on June 25, the king was recognized by his profile on a gold coin and returned to Paris. Marie Antoinette began a new secret correspondence with Antoine Barnave, the leader of the constitutionalists in the National Assembly. He convinced the king to sign the Constitution of 1791, with the promise to persuade Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire, Marie Antoinette's brother, to start a "counter-revolutionary crusade" against France. However, Leopold refused.

In April 1792, France declared war on Austria. The French people's hatred for the monarchy continued to grow and culminated in the overthrow of the monarchy on August 10, 1792.

Marie Antoinette spent the rest of her time together with her children in various prisons in Paris. Her husband, Louis XVI, was executed in January 1793 by the order of the revolutionary tribunal. On October 14, the queen herself appeared before the tribunal, and just two days later, the harsh sentence was carried out. On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, was beheaded on the central square of Paris by the verdict of the revolutionary tribunal, which had executed her husband just a few days earlier.