11 Interesting Facts About Marie Antoinette

Do you want to learn interesting and fun facts about Marie Antoinette?

Marie-Antoinette, whose full name was Marie-Antoinette-Josèphe-Jeanne d’Autriche-Lorraine, was born on 2 November 1755 in Vienna, Austria, as Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna von Osterreich-Lothringen. She died on 16 October 1793 in Paris, France.

She was the eleventh daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa. She was the pawn on Europe’s diplomatic chessboard as France and Austria tried to figure out how to deal with the complicated web of alliances that changed the continent after the Seven Years’ War.

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Marie Antoinette was a victim of circumstance in her early youth. How come this innocent girl was incarcerated due to a lot of controversies? Keep reading to learn more facts about Marie Antoinette and her tragic death.

11 Interesting Facts About Marie Antoinette

1. Marie Antoinette was born into Austrian royalty

Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna, as she was first called, was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, in 1755. She was the 15th child and the 11th daughter of Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa of Hapsburg.

Having such a big family was good for politics, especially for the Habsburg empress, who used the marriages of her children to strengthen diplomatic ties between Austria and the other royal houses of Europe.

2. She married the future King of France when she was 14 years old

France and Austria had been enemies for a long time, but the Seven Years’ War brought them together. To solidify this new alliance, the Austrian royalties offered the hand of their daughter to Dauphin Louis-Auguste, who was next in line to the French throne.

The 14-year-old royal bride married his 15-year-old groom at the Palace of Versailles the day after they first met.

3. She was forced to give birth in public

Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, said that all French queens and princesses had to give birth in public. This was done to ensure that the child was real and that no fakes could be put in the royal crib.

So, when Marie Antoinette finally gave birth to a child after being married to Louis XVI for eight years, everyone in Versailles came to see the big event. The room got too hot because everyone was in the Queen’s Bedroom, and Marie Antoinette passed out before she could give birth.

4. She was loved by French people in her teen years

Contrary to the time of her reign as queen, Marie Antoinette enthralled the French people back in her first few years in France.

When the royal teenager first appeared in Paris, roughly 50,000 people got out of hand, and at least 30 of them were crushed to death.

5. Marie Antoinette never said the famous quote, “Let them eat cake.”

When told that the French peasants didn’t have any bread to eat, Marie Antoinette is said to have replied, “Let them eat cake” (or, more accurately, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”).

Even though the joke has been linked to the queen for a long time, there is no proof that she ever said it. In fact, the quote – usually attributed to an unnamed princess – was written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1765, when Marie Antoinette was just a child.

6. Her towering hair is the subject of political miscalculation

Her signature look was a pouf adorned with flowers, feathers, and jewels. Marie Antoinette’s hair was ash blond in her youth, then light brown as she grew older.

Unfortunately, her thick locks fell out after her first pregnancy and grew back fine and wispy. Marie Antoinette relied on her personal hairdresser, Leonard Autie, to care for her straggly locks.

The queen then started wearing wigs. Autie decorated them with tulle, ribbon, flowers, feathers, and other embellishments.

Marie Antoinette’s pouf stood four feet tall at one point. The queen’s wigs were said to be flour powdered white.

Given that her people were dying of starvation due to grain shortages, this appears to have been a major political miscalculation on her part.

7. Marie Antoinette loved hot chocolate

Even though she was always around alcohol, Marie Antoinette never drank anything stronger than a sip of champagne. Instead, she enjoyed special water from Ville d’Avray, lemonade, and chocolate.

When she married the future Louis XVI, the French queen was so fond of chocolate that she decided to bring her own chocolatier from Vienna to Versailles.

At the Royal Court, this chocolatier was known as the “Queen’s Chocolate Maker.” His area of expertise was drinking chocolate blended with almond and orange blossom.

8. A diamond necklace destroyed her reputation

Rumors spread about how much she spent on herself, and became known as “Madame Déficit.” France had spent a lot of money on the American Revolutionary War, so the queen’s allowance of 120,000 livres per year to spend on clothes did not go over well.

Marie Antoinette’s bad reputation worsened in 1785 when a minor aristocrat named the Comtesse de La Motte stole a diamond necklace. The thief faked letters and brought a prostitute dressed as the queen to fool the jewelers. She even got a cardinal to promise to pay for the necklace under Marie Antoinette’s name.

When the scandal became public, Louis XVI punished both La Motte and the cardinal in public. But the French people were very angry with the king because they saw his quick action as proof that Marie Antoinette was still involved in some way.

The queen’s reputation never got better, and the movement for change grew stronger.

9. She was charged with incest

After the execution of Marie Antoinette’s husband, King Louis XVI, a Revolutionary Tribunal tried the former Queen for made-up crimes against the French republic. These supposed crimes included high treason and sexual promiscuity. The worst part was probably the shocking accusation that she was having an incestuous relationship with her own son Louis-Charles.

Louis-Charles son was forced to testify that Marie Antoinette, his mother, had sexually molested him.

The trial took only two days, after which Marie Antoinette was found guilty of all scandalous charges and sentenced to death.

10. She died tragically

Marie Antoinette’s death is well-known in history. She was beheaded nine months after her husband. She conducted herself with dignity and courage during her final days in prison. Before her death, she was adamant that she had been wronged by the loss of her husband and children.

Marie Antoinette was beheaded on October 16, 1793, three years after the French Revolution began. Her head was severed from her body at 12:15 pm.

Her head and body were dumped next to her open grave on Rue d’Anjou while gravediggers ate lunch. It was just long enough for Madame Tussaud to carve Marie Antoinette’s face in wax, preserving her death mask for future generations.

11. Marie Antoinette was originally buried in an unmarked grave

After Marie Antoinette was beheaded, her body was placed in a coffin and thrown into a communal grave behind the Church of the Madeline.

After the fall of Napoleon and the establishment of the Bourbon Restoration, King Louis XVIII was reinstated to the throne in 1815. It was then that he gave the order for the remains of his older brother, Louis XVI, and sister-in-law Marie Antoinette to be exhumed and reinterred in the Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis, along with the remains of other French royals.