Marie Antoinette
November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793
Austrian-born Queen of France as the wife of Louis XVI. She was executed in 1793 during the French Revolution.
Biography
Marie Antoinette was born Archduchess Maria Antonia in Vienna in 1755, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. To seal the alliance between Austria and France she was married in 1770 to the dauphin Louis-Auguste, and she became queen when he succeeded to the throne as Louis XVI in 1774.
As queen she was attacked in pamphlets for extravagance, alleged affairs and sympathy for Austria. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace of 1784 to 1785, a fraud carried out in her name, damaged her reputation even though she was innocent of it, and she was blamed for the kingdom's debts and for opposing the reforms of Turgot and Necker.
In October 1789 a crowd from Paris forced the royal family to leave Versailles for the Tuileries Palace, where they lived under a form of house arrest. Their failed flight to Varennes in June 1791 and her role in the war against Austria and Prussia turned opinion further against her. After the attack on the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 the family was imprisoned in the Temple, and the monarchy was abolished in September.
Louis XVI was guillotined in January 1793 and she was moved to the Conciergerie. The Revolutionary Tribunal tried her from 14 October 1793, convicted her of high treason two days later, and she was executed on the Place de la Révolution on 16 October 1793.
