First, what did hairstyles look like in 1774? Going out of style was that high tête de mouton look | Marie Antoinette by Jean-Martial Frédou, 1774, Christie’s If you wanted her to look fashion-forward, as the scene tries to imply, you should be going with this higher and wider style with LOTS of decoration | Marie-Antoinette by Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty, 1775, Palace of Versailles Marie Antoinette ( / ˌ æ n t w ə ˈ n ɛ t, ˌ ɒ̃ t-/; [1] French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt] ⓘ; Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.

A diary of the French Revolution 1789–93 & Morris Gouverneur 1939, pp.66–67 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFA_diary_of_the_French_Revolution_1789–93Morris_Gouverneur1939 ( help) In 1782, after the governess of the royal children, the Princesse de Guéméné, went bankrupt and resigned, Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the Duchesse de Polignac, to the position. [78] This decision met with disapproval from the court as the duchess was considered to be of too modest origins to occupy such an exalted position. In contrast, both the king and the queen trusted Madame de Polignac completely, gave her a thirteen-room apartment in Versailles and paid her well. [79] The entire Polignac family benefited greatly from royal favour in titles and positions, but its sudden wealth and lavish lifestyle outraged most aristocratic families, who resented the Polignacs' dominance at court, and also fueled the increasing popular disapproval of Marie Antoinette, mostly in Paris. [80] De Mercy wrote to the empress: "It is almost unexampled that in so short a time, the royal favour should have brought such overwhelming advantages to a family". [81]Despite the general celebration over the birth of an heir, Marie Antoinette's political influence, such as it was, was perceived to greatly benefit Austria. [75] During the Kettle War, in which her brother Joseph attempted to open the Scheldt River for naval passage, Marie Antoinette succeeded in obliging Vergennes to pay huge financial compensation to Austria. Finally, the queen was able to obtain her brother's support against Great Britain in the American Revolution and she neutralized French hostility to his alliance with Russia. [76] [77] While from late 1787 up to his death in June 1789 Marie Antoinette's primary concern was the continued deterioration of the health of the dauphin, who suffered from tuberculosis, [130] she was directly involved in the exile of the Parlement, the May Edicts, and the announcement regarding the Estates-General. She did participate in the King Council, the first queen to do this in over 175 years (since Marie de' Medici had been named Chef du Conseil du Roi, between 1614 and 1617), and she was making the major decisions behind the scene and in the Royal Council. One of the ironies of the French Revolution is this little white dress became basically the uniform of French Revolutionary women,” Weber continues. “The same women who thought Marie Antoinette had been terrible for France and were clamoring to have her head cut off and clamoring to drink her blood were the same women who really liked the little white dress because it was simple, because it was kind of cheap.” 5. Her spending wasn’t a main cause of the French Revolution.

Burke, Edmund (1790). Reflections on the Revolution in France, And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris (1ed.). London: J.Dodsley in Pall Mall . Retrieved 7 September 2021. Lanser, Susan S. (2003). "Eating Cake: The (Ab)uses of Marie-Antoinette". In Goodman, Dena (ed.). Marie-Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-93395-7. Marie Antoinette's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage early in July 1779, as confirmed by letters between the queen and her mother, although some historians believed that she may have experienced bleeding related to an irregular menstrual cycle, which she mistook for a lost pregnancy. [69] On 27 April 1784 Beaumarchais's play The Marriage of Figaro premiered in Paris. Initially banned by the king due to its negative portrayal of the nobility, the play was finally allowed to be publicly performed because of the queen's support and its overwhelming popularity at court, where secret readings of it had been given by Marie Antoinette. The play was a disaster for the image of the monarchy and aristocracy. It inspired Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, which premiered in Vienna on 1 May 1786. [100] By the time of the Flour War of 1775, a series of riots (due to the high price of flour and bread) had damaged her reputation among the general public. Eventually, Marie Antoinette's reputation was no better than that of the favourites of previous kings. Many French people were beginning to blame her for the degrading economic situation, suggesting the country's inability to pay off its debt was the result of her wasting the crown's money. [40] In her correspondence, Marie Antoinette's mother, Maria Theresa, expressed concern over her daughter's spending habits, citing the civil unrest it was beginning to cause. [41]In June 1783 Marie Antoinette's new pregnancy was announced, but on the night of 1–2 November, her 28th birthday, she suffered a miscarriage. [82] Married her cousin, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême, the eldest son of the future Charles X of France. Marie Antoinette was guillotined at 12:15 p.m. on 16 October 1793. [207] [208] Her last words are recorded as, "Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès" or "Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose", after accidentally stepping on her executioner's shoe. [209] Marie Tussaud was employed to make a death mask of her head. [210] Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, located close by in rue d'Anjou. Because its capacity was exhausted the cemetery was closed the following year, on 25 March 1794. [211] Foreign response Before she became queen, the politically themed pornographic pamphlets and books that circulated throughout France only featured the king’s mistresses, who were considered promiscuous for sleeping with a married man. But without a mistress to ridicule, political pornographers targeted the queen.