Who was Marie Antoinette?

Answer 1

Marie Antoinette
Queen of France
1755 - 1793
Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it
at the moment when my sufferings are to end?
—Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was born November 2, 1755 in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest and most beautiful daughter of Francis Stephen I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Marie Antoinette was brought up believing her destiny was to become queen of France. She married the crown prince of France in 1770. Four years later she became queen when her husband was crowned King Louis XVI (House of Bourbon).

The stories of Antoinette's excesses are vastly overstated. In fact, rather than ignoring France's growing financial crisis, she reduced the royal household staff, eliminating many unnecessary positions that were based solely on privilege. In the process she offended the nobles, adding their condemnation to the scandalous stories spread by royal hopefuls. It was the nobility that balked at the financial reforms the government ministers tried to make, not the King and Queen, who were in favor of change. In truth, Antoinette and Louis were placed in harms' way not only by elements of their personalities, but by the changing face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. From that point on the King and Queen were virtual prisoners. 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. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was convicted and executed on the guillotine.

Antoinette was cruely treated during her final days of captivity. Her children were taken from her, and 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. 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.

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 (Louis XVI son, Louis XVII died in captivity after the revolution). 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.

Answer 2

Marie Antoinette
Queen of France
1755 - 1793
http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95nov/antoinette.html

Marie Antoinette; (November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793) was Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria. She was a daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Regnant Maria Theresa of Austria and was married to Louis XVI of France at age 14. As Louis XVI's wife and mother of "lost dauphin" Louis XVII, she was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution in 1793. She was born Her Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, Princess of Hungary, Bohemia and Tuscany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette

Answer 3

She was the wife of the hapless French monarch, King Louis XVI and the daughter of Austrian empress Maria Theresa. She and Louis wed when they were teenagers but didn't have kids until later on after Louis agreed to have a special operation that would allow him to father children.

Some people believe that she coined the phrase "Let them eat cake," however, that is an urban legend. She raped the French treasury by purchasing scads of expensive clothing, building small but fancy castles for herself, and buying lots of pricey bling-bling. During the French revolution, French peasant women stormed the palace she was staying in (in protest). In the end, she lost her head....literally. Both Marie and Louis were beheaded by the guillotine.

BTW, "let them eat cake" doesn't mean to let someone eat a slice of double-fudge chocolate cake. It means to force someone to eat the bread crumbs left over from the baking.

Answer 4

Watch the trailer for the new movie marie antoinette and you'll find out! she was the queen of France, married there from Austria.

Answer 5

Daughter of Marie-Therse, Dowager Empress of the Austrian Hapsburg Crown. Married to the french dauphin the future Louis XIV,ascended the french crown at 18. popularly regarded as decedant and hedonistic, as she prsided over her husband's court at Versaille. Bore him children. attempt to escape on the eve of the French Revolution, Captured , imprisoned and beheaded in 1793. along with her husband, Her insensitivity to the starving lower classes is best represented by her refrain to the march for food demands by starving woman and children "let them eat cake". Allthough this may have been apocraphyl. She was entertained by a very young Wolfgang Ameudas and his older sister while still in Vienna.

Answer 6

She was married to Louis XVI of France, and was queen during the French Revolution. She was beheaded by the guillotine.

Answer 7

She was the queen of France. Her husband was King Louis. Both of them were guillotined during the French relovution.

Answer 8

Famous for saying "Let them eat cake" after hearing that the peasants had no bread to eat.

Soon to be played by the lovely Kirsten Dunst...

Answer 9

She was an Austrian noble who became the Dauphine, then the Queen of France - see here for more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette

Answer 10

She was my B i T cH