Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 - 16 October 1793), was Queen of France and Archduchess of Austria. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa, wife of Louis XVI, and mother of Louis XVII. She was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution, and is interred with her husband in the Chapelle Expiatoire in Paris.

Imprisonment

Marie Antoinette did not ever truly recover from her husband's death. According to her daughter, "She no longer had any hope left in her heart or distinguished between life and death." She began to suffer from convulsions and fainting fits. She also lost her appetite and lost an enormous amount of weight.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the night of July 3 1793, commissioners arrived in the royal family's cell with instructions to separate Marie Antoinette's son from the rest of his family. He had been proclaimed Louis XVII by exiled royalists after his father's death. The republican government had therefore decided to imprison the eight-year-old child in solitary confinement. Louis flung himself into his mother's arms crying hysterically and Marie Antoinette shielded him with her body, refusing to give him up. When the commissioners threatened to kill her if she did not hand the child over, she still refused to move. It was only when they threatened to kill Marie Thérèse that she came to realise how hopeless the situation was. Two hours after the commissioners had entered her room, Marie Antoinette had to say goodbye to her beloved son.

Related Topics:
July 3 - 1793 - Louis XVII

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She would never see him again.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At two o'clock in the morning of 2nd August 1793, Marie Antoinette was awoken by guards and told to get dressed. She was taken away from her daughter and sister-in-law and transferred across Paris to the Conciergerie Prison. She was re-named "the Widow Capet," after Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian Dynasty. She was no longer to be referred to as "Marie Antoinette" but simply "Antoinette Capet" or "Prisoner No. 280." A young peasant girl, Rosalie Lamorlière, was entrusted to take care of Marie Antoinette's needs, but these were few since the queen did not ask for much.

Related Topics:
August - 1793 - Conciergerie - Hugh Capet

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On 2nd September, the republican journalist and politician, Jacques Hébert, told the Committee of Public Safety, "I have promised the head of Antoinette. I will go and cut if off myself if there is any delay in giving it to me." Most republicans now felt an intense hatred for her and they were determined to see her dead.

Related Topics:
Jacques Hébert - Committee of Public Safety

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She was brought to trial on October 14th. When she entered the courtroom, most people were shocked at her appearance. She was emaciated, prematurely aged, exhausted and care-worn. Forty witnesses were called by the prosecution. They returned to the Affair of the Necklace or alleged that the queen had plied the Swiss Guard with alcohol during the siege of the palace. The most horrific charges came whenever Hébert accused her of having sexually abused her own son. When the queen was pressed to answer this charge she replied, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She was condemned to death for treason on October 15th and escorted back to the Conciergerie. She wrote her final letter, to her sister-in-law Elisabeth. She expressed her love for her friends and family and begged that her children would not seek to avenge her murder.

Related Topics:
Treason - October - Conciergerie

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~