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Marie-Antoinette

Hannah Kellison

Marie-Antoinette was born on 2nd November, 1755 while he passed away on October 16 1993. She was the eleventh daughter of Francis I, a Holly Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa. She was just 14 years when she was married off to Dauphin Louis, the grandson of King Louis XV. Marie-Antoinette’s name is often linked with a heavy decline in moral authority of monarchy towards the closing years of the Ancient regime. Despite being linked to the fall, Marie-Antoinette’s courtly extravagance played a minor role in the financial turmoil the state experienced during her time. Nevertheless, her utmost rejection of the social reforms provoked heavy unrest and her court resistance aimed at the progressing the French Revolution led to the downfall of the French monarchy in August, 1792. The role Marie-Antoinette played in the French internal as well as foreign policy right from the accession of Louis XVI to the eventual outbreak of the French Revolution has been exaggerated quite often. For instance, she tried to foster a return of power to Étienne-François de Choiseul, duc de Choiseul but was not successful. She is also falsely linked to the fall of Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot , the Finance Minister yet at that time she was not actively involved in politics. In Foreign policy, she also encountered opposition from both Vergennes and Louis XVI as she tried to advance Austrian interest in France. Louis XVI’s inability to consummate their marriage and resultant childlessness of their marriage inspired rivals in the 1770’s as she was accused of having an extra marital affair. Marie-Antoinette was confined to the Parisian Prisons following the fall of the Monarchy. She was brought to the Revolutionary tribunal in October 1793 and two days later, she was guillotined.

�Works cited Aulard, Alphonse. The French Revolution. Nelson Press, 2010. Biography ,2017. https://www.biography.com/people/marie-antoinette-9398996 Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Antoinette-queen-of-France Goodman, Dena, and Thomas E. Kaiser. Marie Antoinette: Writings on the body of a queen. Routledge, 2013. Price, Munro. The fall of the French monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the Baron de Breteuil. Pan Macmillan, 2011.