Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Marie-Antoinette (French Queen)

Marie-Antoinette (1755–93,) in full Marie-Antoinette-Josèphe-Jeanne d’Autriche-Lorraine (Austria-Lorraine,) born Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna von Österreich-Lothringen, was the Queen of France and the Archduchess of Austria. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, the wife of Louis XVI, and the mother of Louis XVII. Her flamboyant lifestyle led to her broad unpopularity, and, like her husband, she was beheaded during the French Revolution.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Marie-Antoinette was the fourth daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, and in 1770 was married to the Dauphin of France, afterward Louis XVI (from 1774.) Their marriage was an effort to bring about an essential change in the balance of power in Europe and to impair the influence of Prussia and Great Britain. Youthful and inexperienced, she aroused critique by her frivolity, extravagance, and disregard for conventions, her loyalty to Austria’s interests, and her opposition to all the measures devised to ease the country’s financial distress.

The miseries of France became identified with Marie-Antoinette’s extravagance. She was deemed shamefully indifferent to the starving poor’s plight and eternally condemned for comments she made, for which there is no confirmation she ever said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (Let them eat cake.) She resisted all new ideas and provoked Louis into a decaying policy to his downfall. She consistently failed to recognize the troubled times of the Revolution, and the indecision of Louis and his dread of civil war hampered her plans.

Marie-Antoinette and Louis tried to flee to the frontier but were intercepted at Varennes. The storming of the Tuileries, the slaughter of the Swiss guards, and Louis’s trial and execution (21-January-1793) quickly followed, and soon she was sent to the Conciergerie (2-August-1793.) After eight weeks, the ‘Widow Capet’ was summoned before the Revolutionary Tribunal, where she bore herself with dignity and resignation. After two days and nights of interrogation came the fateful judgment, and she was guillotined on 16-October-1793. Her demise jolted royal families throughout Europe, and she became a dominant representation of the consequences of the French Revolution.

Popular biographies of Marie-Antoinette are Hilaire Belloc’s Marie Antoinette (1909,) Dorothy Moulton Mayer’s Marie Antoinette: The Tragic Queen (1969,) and Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Marie-Antoinette

I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.
Marie-Antoinette

If the people have no bread, let them eat cake.
Marie-Antoinette
Topics: Service

Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?
Marie-Antoinette
Topics: Last Words, Famous Last Words

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