MA & LouisXVI's remains

[Sissi]

[helenazar]

Do you have the pictures dear Helen

Here you go:



And this one is a happier one, also from Madame Tussaud's, of the whole family when they were alive:

[Sissi]

  Yes they are different MA`s hair is longer!

Thanks!

[coquelicot]

She was buried separately the very same day of her excecution

Se was put on the ground and left there, her head between her legs, for two weeks, so that, when they finally buried her, they had to take her remains with a shovel. Vive la nation !

[frohsdorf]

My god, you people are morbid.  So much for any interesting, historical, or academic information pertaining to the Bourbon dynasty.  Instead, let's gossip about Marie Antoinette's bloody, severed head!  

[coquelicot]

Sorry, it's a part of her story, too... I think we cannot forget what really happened to her. I know most of the people are more interested in guessing if yes or no with Fersen. Maybe you are ?

But this terrible dead, and the way she was left for days on the ground, definititely belongs to her fate.

There's nothing morbid about that. Just, in my view, an expression of the fact that we don't only love a glamorous queen. But Marie-Antoinette, with all her sufferings and misfortunes.

[bell_the_cat]

Sorry, it's a part of her story, too... I think we cannot forget what really happened to her. I know most of the people are more interested in guessing if yes or no with Fersen. Maybe you are ?

But this terrible dead, and the way she was left for days on the ground, definititely belongs to her fate.

There's nothing morbid about that. Just, in my view, an expression of the fact that we don't only love a glamorous queen. But Marie-Antoinette, with all her sufferings and misfortunes.

I agree with you here, Coquelicot!

Where did you read about the body being left for days on the ground? I find this hard to believe in a city of half a million people. Was the body guarded by soldiers?

[bell_the_cat]

It must have been terrifying for the people "next in line" to see the head in the baskette and to know it was going to be their turn!

   In the case of Madame du Barry it must have been pitiful to see her beg for a little moment more!!!

It was Mme Vigée Lebrun who expressed the opinion in her memoirs that the Reign of Terror would have been shorter if more people had reacted as Mme du Barry did.

Mme Elisabeth had the misfortune of being made to wait until about forty people were executed before it was her turn. However she didn't have to go through the streets alone as Marie Antoinette did.

[Eddie_uk]

Mme Elisabeth had the misfortune of being made to wait until about forty people were executed before it was her turn. However she didn't have to go through the streets alone as Marie Antoinette did.

Yes at least she had the company of some ladies. I don't think it would have bothered Madame Elisabeth in the least though, had she undertaken the journey to the guillotine alone

I think it's an interesting point to make about the aristocrats not showing fear (many victims were not of the nobility though). But they were so well bred what else could you excpect from them?

I think its amazing MA didn't show fear, they hated that!!!

[bell_the_cat]

Yes at least she had the company of some ladies. I don't think it would have bothered Madame Elisabeth in the least though, had she undertaken the journey to the guillotine alone

I think it's an interesting point to make about the aristocrats not showing fear (many victims were not of the nobility though). But they were so well bred what else could you excpect from them?

I think its amazing MA didn't show fear, they hated that!!!

To be fair, the revolutionaries who were executed did not show fear either - so I don't think it was particularly to do with being "well bred" (whatever that may mean).

[Prince_Lieven]

My god, you people are morbid.  So much for any interesting, historical, or academic information pertaining to the Bourbon dynasty.  Instead, let's gossip about Marie Antoinette's bloody, severed head!  

I wouldn't call this discussion morbid. There's no rule that forbids a discussion on Marie-Antoinette's head.

[Eddie_uk]

Many were so well bred with such dignity that they weren't going to show the revolutionaries that they, the creme de la creme, were frightened. The crowds weren't used to bevaviour like Madame du Barrys.

As one of the revolunaries wrote after MA's exectuion she was"audacious and insolent to the end". No she wasn't. She was of high rank and had pride!!!! As you would expect from a Queen.

[frohsdorf]

Yes, sending messages back and forth about Marie Antoinette's head is morbid----"what did it look like", "how long did it lie on the ground", etc.  Well, here are some questions for you:

"Was it full of maggots when it was finally buried?"
"Do you think it smelled of rotting meat?"
"Did anyone cut off an ear for a souvenir?"

Is this a discussion board for historians and scholars or not?  I thought it was, which is why I've been contributing much information that is unknown and many details I've acquired from many years of research and many rare documents.  No more.

[palatine]

My god, you people are morbid.  So much for any interesting, historical, or academic information pertaining to the Bourbon dynasty.  Instead, let's gossip about Marie Antoinette's bloody, severed head!  

Frohsdorf, I agree that the pictures of the head with the blood on it are pretty awful.  If I wasn't flummoxed by my scanner, I would post the picture that I have from the old book about Madame Tussaud's.  That picture is blood and gore free, and I think there is a curious dignity and pathos about it.    

[coquelicot]

"Was it full of maggots when it was finally buried?"
"Do you think it smelled of rotting meat?"
"Did anyone cut off an ear for a souvenir?"

Am I allowed to say that I ind these questions totally irrelevant ? On the contrary, I think it is interesting to know how the Queen of France died exactly, and that the french revolution, yes, let on the ground, for days, the remains of Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine d'Autriche.

This, my dear Frohsorf, fulfills me with the urge to burst in tears.