Marie Antoinette – last queen of France

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Today I will write about Marie Antoinette, maybe the most powerful woman in whole history.

Marie Antoinette was born in 1755 in Vienna. She was the youngest daughter of empress Maria Theresa and she was also Austrian duchess. She was the youngest child so she wasn't as educated as her siblings.

Maria Theresa
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After Austria concluded peace with the French, Marie had to marry a French ruler and in the French palace she was supposed to represent the interests of Austria. In 1770 she married a French prince who later became Louis XVI. It is interesting how she got married when she was only 15 years old.

Wedding of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI
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The first few years in the French palace were very bad for her. How France and Austria were not in excessive good relations, people in the palace often mocked her and considered her an enemy. Her mother was also pushing her, in the letters she wrote that she did nothing good for Austria.

Marie Antoinette couldn't handle that big pressure so she started to bet and gamble on many games so she spent a large part of money that she needed to give to the poor people and with whom she was supposed to buy gorgeous dresses.

Marie Antoinette finally became queen in 1775. At the beginning she didn't had any political influence on her husband Louis XVI. She continued to gamble and buy expensive things. Some legends say that she was able to gamble for three days without stopping and with gambling she started to attract many men.

Marie Antoinette as a queen
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Louis XVI., to separate her from bad life, bought her small castle – Petit Trianon. Again, Marie Antoinette spent a lot of money on decorating this castle, even some pieces of castle were covered with gold and diamonds.

Petit Trianon
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Many people in Europe thought she chetaed on her husband because they didn't have children for seven years and many people thought that she loved ladies. She finally got pregnant after seven years. Her first child was born in 1778 and it was a daughter named Marie-Therese-Charlotte. In 1779 she had an abortion and in 1781 she finally gave birth to her son named Louis Joseph.

Marie Antoinette with children
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After giving birth to her son, she decided to devote herself to her children so she got out of politics. In 1783 she had another abortion and two years later, she gave birth to another son Louis-Charles. For her second son many people said that he wasn't son of Louis XVI. because they thought that she had many lovers so maybe that is true. Also, many citizens have began to protest against Marie Antoinette because she lived luxuriously and she spent too much money.

Louis Charles
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After her children grew up she returned to politics. She had first dismissed the Minister of Finance because he had aroused the cost of the palace and he wanted the queen to spend less money. She put her own minister on that place who didn't do a good job so queen and king bankrupt after few years. Marie Antoinette had been nicknamed Madame Deficit.

In 1787 the king disbanded parliament, their oldest son died from tuberculosis and people didn't even care about it because they didn't have any money and prices were high. In 1789, protest across the country began and people fought and made riots. At that time, Marie Antoinette said her famous and glouirous phrase: „let them eat cake if they don't have bread.“

In 1791 the whole family tried to escape from France but they were caught. After that, the royal family was in house custody in Paris. The queen hoped and waited to get release by her brother Leopold II who was ruler of Austria. None of that happened so Louis XVI was executed on guillotine in 1793.

Death of Louis XVI
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A few weeks later there was a trial to Marie Antoinette. She would most likely be released if she wasn't charged for sexual assault of her own son. It is not known whether this is true or not but many believe it is. On the day of death, her hair was cut off and she needed to walk on the streets of Paris with bounded hand for an hour, many people insulted her and beat her as well. She experienced death on guillotine and legends says that before she died, she stepped on the leg of man who killed her and she said to him: „Sorry sir.“

Death of Marie Antoinette
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Marie Antoinette was for some people the greatest French queen ever and for some she was the worst queen ever. Whatever it is, she is one of the greatest historical figures and maybe the greatest woman in whole history. Many also believes that she had a lot of lovers but we can't know that. Although she lived a luxuiorus and disturbing life, my opinion is that she was the biggest woman in whole history because she had great political power and she led French people for few years.

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What do you think about Marie Antoinette and her life?