Queen Marie Antoinette

[Prince_Lieven]

Well said ilyala, but let's not write him off before we see hi act.

[Lisa]

...Louis-Charles answered for me! It is a well-known episode by the French historians.

[frederika]

Marie antoinette had to take al her clothes off in front of the court as well ass dress bath and give birth as it was somthing of a french tradition started by Louis XIV who made his whole court watch him do every thing.

Marie antoinette also never said "let them eat cake" when she hered the parisians were staving it was a combanation of a mix up and a rumer it was actualy said by Marie Theres the wife of Louis XIV.

[umigon]

Not Marie Thérèse, Fredericka, it was Madame Victoire, aunt of Louis XVI and she said:
`
'Oh! They have no bread to eat... then they should get used to eating the crusts of our cakes'

[Prince_Lieven]

Not Marie Thérèse, Fredericka, it was Madame Victoire, aunt of Louis XVI and she said:
`
'Oh! They have no bread to eat... then they should get used to eating the crusts of our cakes'

I've heard different stories abou this - some, like umigon, say it was Victoire, others say Marie Therese, other still say is as far back as Anne of Austria! The one thing we can be sure of is that Marie Antoinette never said it.

[umigon]

No, Marie Antoinette had her own frivolous behaviour but she never said that. I know that Madame Victoire's comment was done in the presence of both the Spanish and the Austrian ambassadors and she said it in 1789. After knowing about the storming of the Bastille, she asked that why had the people started a revolution?Someone answered her that they claimed they had no bread to eat. So, she answered the other thing!

[Prince_Lieven]

Gosh, she really asked why there was a revolution?   The 'Royal Aunts' really must have lived in a very sheltered little world of their own . . .

[Louis_Charles]

The three of them that lived at Versailles --- I think there was a fourth, Clothilde (?), who became a nun --- were responsible for a great deal of Marie Antoinette's early misfortunes. They primed her to oppose Mme. DuBarry, thereby incurring the displeasure of Louis XV, and they worked both ends against the middle, pretending to be her friend and at the same time speaking against the Austrian alliance.

And yes, they skipped France almost as soon as the Revolution began. I have always thought it was a measure of Mare Antoinette's essential sweetness of character that she was concerned about them and their fortunes until the very end of her life.

[Prince_Lieven]

Yes, the aunts high-tailed it at the first sign of trouble . . . And I agree that Marie-Antoinette was kind to remember them fondly . . . she certainly had no reason to like them.  

[Louis_Charles]

Thanks for the information, Michael, I am at the theatre and away from my library! Adelaide is usually regarded as the dominant personality in the trio, nicht wahr?

[Prince_Lieven]

Thanks for the information, Michael, I am at the theatre and away from my library! Adelaide is usually regarded as the dominant personality in the trio, nicht wahr?

Really? I thought it was Victoire?

[clockworkgirl21]

Some more.

[Prince_Lieven]

Not a very beautiful woman, IMO . . .

[russianlover76]

What ever happen to her children before she was executed?

[Prince_Lieven]

Before the Revolution, they lived as any other royal children. With the Revolution underway, they were imprisoned with their parents, until they were separated from each other - the King and the Dauphin were taken away. Marie Therese stayed with her mother and Aunt Elisabeth until MA was executed, as Elisabeth was later.  :-/