why did they cut off Maria Antoinettes head?

Answer 1

Her and her husband conspired to crush the French government. They were caught attempting to flee to her family outside France, and even had a letter detailing their plans with them. The French goverment originally planned to accomdate the King, but Louis wanted authoritarian rule again.

At first the French government was unsure what to do with the Marie and Louie. The Mountain, an extreme leftist group led by Robspierre pushed for execution. The topic was taken to a vote, first can we place the king on trial (vast majority in favor), next can we execute a king (small majority), and finally should we kill Louis and Marie (nearly no one showed up to vote for fear of regicide and The Mountain, and the king was condemned by a 1 vote majority.

Answer 2

At Chateau Versailles, Marie Antoinette used to dress up as a peasant and sweep around her small cottage in the woods. She liked it so much she invited her friends, the wives of royalty. So Antoinette and her royal friends pretended to be poor, dirty peasants. Those fun and games were over once the French Revolution started. Not only the heads of royalty rolled off the guillotine, but also heads of the clergy. Plenty of priests and bishops lost their heads. It was a bloody time of history.

Answer 3

In the eyes of the French revolutionaries, they wanted to get rid of the aristocracy, the ruling class of France. The French revolutionaries committed 'Regentcide' by executing the king and queen of France.

The aristocracy inherited their titles & power from family lines. So it was very important to 'cut the blood lines' to power. No single aristocrat could remain alive because a heir to the crown could be produced, producing in the future a counter-revolution to re-establish the crown. So from 1792-1794 they used the most relatively humane form of execution at that time, the guillotine, and chopped the heads off the King, the Queen, and every other aristocrat who could claim some kind of blood tie to the throne. During the 'Terror' 1792-4, about 10,000 people (both aristocrat and traitor) lost their heads.

After a while, anyone who was perceived as a threat to the newly formed Republic, aristocrat on no, got a one-way trip to Madame DeFarge (who personifies the guillotine).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine

Answer 4

A lot of the French aristocracy got their heads cut off due to their treatment of the lower-class.

The lower-class people were starving and dying, and the upper-classes were living the high life and loving it.

Eventually, the lower-class had quite enough, and I can't say I blame them.

If you want to see some images, do a google image search of the Rococo period, which lasted from 1700-1750. It shows some of the lifestyles of the French aristocracy while the lower class were starving.

Answer 5

Because it was the French Revolution. The common people were starving, while the nobility lived in luxury. The common people got pissed and started the Revolution. Nobles like Maria Antoinette were executed.

Answer 6

Because the French people rebelled against the monarchy and used the guillotine to chop off their heads.

Answer 7

She was the wife of the King who had been found guilty...ergo, she too had to lose her head.

Interesting enough it was the pratce in that time that the mode of execution was dependent on your class. Poor people and peasants were typically hanged.....and it sometimes took longer to die. While the rich and the aristocracy were beheaded. It was also standard to bribe the executioner so that he could use his sharpest blade.

Answer 8

a palm reader, knew that her future autobiography movie, would suck major @ss, so they chopped her head off.

Answer 9

Because she was found guilty of treason, I believe. And just like lethal injection is our death sentence today, decapitation of the head was their death sentence back then.

Answer 10

that's what ALL french people deserve