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Person1755 – 1793

Marie Antoinette

Also called: Marie-Antoinette

Queen of France, wife of Louis XVI, born a Habsburg archduchess of Austria; caught in the flight to Varennes and executed in 1793

Born in Vienna in 1755, the daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa, she was married at fourteen in 1770 to the French dauphin, the future Louis XVI, to seal the Franco-Austrian alliance, and became queen in 1774. Extravagance and scandals such as the Diamond Necklace Affair (1785) made her hated as “Madame Deficit”. In the Revolution she opposed reform, hoped for Austrian help and was a driving force behind the flight to Varennes in 1791. After the fall of the monarchy in 1792 she was held in the Temple and the Conciergerie, and she was guillotined on 16 October 1793 on the sentence of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1789Women’s March on Versaillesrelated figure

    Angered by the price of bread, the women of Paris marched to Versailles, broke into the palace and brought the royal family back to the Tuileries in Paris.

  2. 2
    1791Flight to Varenneskey figure

    Louis XVI and his family slipped out of Paris to flee to the border but were stopped at Varennes, destroying trust in the king.

  3. 3
    1793Execution of Marie Antoinetterelated figure

    Held in the Conciergerie, the queen was condemned for treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined the next day.

People who appear alongside

  • Louis XVI1754 – 1793

    King of France, executed during the Revolution

  • Marquis de Lafayette1757 – 1834

    Nobleman and veteran of the American War of Independence who commanded the Paris National Guard and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and fled abroad in 1792, only to be held captive by the Austrians

  • Jacques-Louis David1748 – 1825

    Neoclassical painter and Convention deputy who painted The Tennis Court Oath and The Death of Marat, staged the revolutionary festivals and later became Napoleon’s court painter

Themes this person appears in

  • The French Revolution1787 – 1799

    From the Assembly of Notables and the Estates-General to the coup of 18 Brumaire — twelve years that toppled the absolute monarchy, founded a republic, passed through Terror and reaction, and ended with Napoleon