2025-12-09

Marie Antoinette - The last Queen of France

Marie Antoinette has often been described as one of the most controversial women in history; accusations against her going as far as intentional sabotage of political affairs in order to harm France. However, many have argued that the last Queen of France wasn’t all that bad and even a victim of injustice herself. Was Marie Antoinette truly the evil Queen she’s been made out to be or just a victim of the circumstances and people around her?

Two of Marie Antoinette’s biggest controversies were the “Diamond Necklace Affair” as well as her infamous quote “Let them eat cake”. Both connect to her alleged disconnection to the French common people who had to live in severe poverty. She was said to have excessively spent the royal court’s money, which was mainly sourced from taxes collected from the already poor French “peasants”. The most famous example of her pompous and extravagant taste in fashion is the “Diamond Necklace Affair” in which she allegedly bought a diamond necklace worth roughly 1.6 million livres (around 100 million USD today). A sum which could’ve been used to help the starving people of France. Naturally, the news of the Queen’s purchase outraged the French population and ended up being one of the final straws before the French revolution and the eventual execution of Marie Antoinette. Another great example of her distasteful behaviour is her infamous quote “Let Them Eat Cake” after finding out that her people couldn’t afford to eat bread. In addition to this she was accused of seriously interfering with and manipulating political affairs. Marie Antoinette was born as Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria to Empress Maria Theresia and Emperor Francis I. France and Austria were in a long-lasting, often violent rivalry and only by marrying Marie into the French royal family, the relationship between the two empires was able to calm down and become friendlier. She essentially acted as a “human peace offering”. Because of the intense tension between Austria and France, most French people, in- and outside the royal court, mistrusted her and accused her of interfering in political decisions and manipulating her husband King Louis XVI to act in favor of Austria and other enemies to damage France. Furthermore her sexual relations caused massive outrage. The marriage between her and Louis was not consummated for 7 years, many accusing her once again of wanting to damage France by not providing an heir to the throne. This not only caused fury in France but also back in Austria. Her mother Empress Maria Theresa urged her to consummate the wedding and birth children as soon as possible because an unconsummated marriage wasn’t considered a ‘proper’ marriage; this brought back some of the tensions between the Empires. Another scandal was caused by the Queen’s infidelity. Her affair with Swedish soldier Axel von Fersen got exposed and the people of France did not react well to it. Not only was it the Queen’s responsibility to serve the country and provide heirs from the King and the King only, but another factor was that as a woman she should not have affairs. Sexuality was nothing a Lady should experiment or be interested in beyond child birth. Affairs by Kings however were tolerated and often very public as seen in the example of Madame du Barry and King Louis XV, making the resentment towards Marie Antoinette’s Affair purely misogynistic. Another argument underlining the evil nature of Marie Antoinette was the accusations of incestuous promiscuity made against her in a trial after the storming of Bastille. She was suspected of having incestuous relations with her son Louis-Charles.

While all of these arguments seem to be extremely damning and would justify the hatred towards Marie, it is important to note that most of them are untrue and were either completely fabricated or extremely blown out of proportion. The Diamond Necklace Affair did occur, however not in the way most people think. The necklace in question was actually commissioned by Louis XV for his mistress Madame du Barry. He unfortunately passed away before the necklace was finished and the jeweler now hoped that the new King Louis XVI would buy the necklace for his new Queen Marie Antoinette. She however declined and discouraged Louis from buying the extremely expensive piece and the necklace ended up languishing in the jewelers possession until it was slyly obtained by Comtesse de la Motte, who wanted to gain wealth and status and used the Queen as her scapegoat, by tricking and manipulating her husband, Cardinal de Rohan, to buy the necklace for the Queen. He took up a loan for the purchase and delivered the necklace to a footman of the Queen. However the footman turned out to be Comtesse de la Motte’s lover who ran off to England with the expensive jewels. When the Cardinal’s first payment was due he could not pay the sum and the jeweler ended up demanding money from the Queen herself who had absolutely no knowledge of the necklace and its purchase. While the Cardinal and Comtesse ended up getting arrested, the already tarnished reputation of Marie Antoinette got even more damaged and it was widely spread that she herself bought the ridiculously expensive necklace while the French population was starving. Her infamous quote “Let them eat cake” is also absolutely false and was never said by her. While Marie was slightly out of touch and had a love for luxury, she was described as being sympathetic and caring for people, even those  “beneath” her. She often donated to charities and cared deeply for children, even taking in an orphan for a short period of time. It should also be noted that she did not spend much more money than other members of the royal court. The spending problem was therefore not just hers but the entire royal courts. The late consummation of her marriage, while first being blamed on her, later ended up being the King’s fault. He apparently had medical problems as well as a lack of interest in sexual acts and struggled deeply with intimacy. She also never meddled with political affairs, simply because she did not hold the power to do so. Her opinion did not matter to the men handling politics and people simply fabricated these rumours in order to have someone to blame for the terrible conditions in the country. The easiest choice obviously being the already disliked foreign Queen originally from Austria. Lastly, and very importantly, Marie never indulged in incestuous relations with her son, proven by the prince himself vehemently denying it in court.

After debunking many of her controversies, I would now like to present further insight on why Marie Antoinette was a victim herself. She was married off at only 14, essentially being treated as a peace offering. The young duchess had to leave her life at home behind and ended up in a foreign country without speaking the french language confidently and pretty much completely on her own. Marie’s fate was set in stone the moment she stepped foot onto french grounds. Due to the conflicts between Austria and France, the resentment the french people carried towards her was completely inevitable and the once extremely beautiful Maria Antonia ended up as the ugly, evil, Austrian Marie Antoinette. Even the royalty within Versailles held her in low regard. Anything and everything she did was picked apart and she was turned into the scapegoat of France’s misery. The Queen most definitely lacked understanding of poverty and didn’t quite grasp just how bad things were in France and she may not have been a perfect Queen but is she really the one to blame for this? She grew up spoiled and extremely privileged. The concept of hunger or financial struggle was completely foreign to her. Even in Austria she was kept away from the common people and was never taught about politics because she simply was never meant to deal with political affairs, her sole role as Queen was to provide an heir for the crown. Additionally, Versailles was not exactly a place to teach a 14 year old princess about responsible and humble consumption. The entire palace as well as its inhabitants thrived off of luxury and splendor. Therefore, her lack of consideration for poverty is not to blame solely on her but the entire concept of monarchy. Marie’s young coronation also impacted her decisions and future. Becoming the Queen of France at the age of 19 is a massive responsibility and no teenager should have the power to rule over a country; After becoming the Queen of France nothing seemed to be impossible for her. She had access to a seemingly infinite amount of money, was dressed in the most glamorous gowns and even got a small palace with an attached pretend-farm village from King Louis XVI as a wedding gift. Marie Antoinette simply did not know anything besides this luxury and privilege. Can she really be blamed for being snobbish while that’s exactly what she was raised to be?

To conclude, while Marie Antoinette was no perfect Queen, her bad reputation stems mostly from circumstantial aspects of the country, the people around her and her upbringing. She ended up having to pay for the corrupt monarchical system’s flaws with her head. She was reported to be a kind-hearted woman, born and forced into damnation and therefore most definitely a victim of her own circumstances.

Von LS

Bildquelle: https://image.geo.de/30043036/t/h8/v3/w960/r0/-/marie-antoinette-gross-jpg–17661-.jpg