Marie Antoinette (Josèphe Jeanne) Biography

Queen of France, born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis I. She was married to the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI (1770), to strengthen the Franco-Austrian alliance, and exerted a growing influence over him. Capricious and frivolous, she aroused criticism by her extravagance, disregard for conventions, devotion to the interests of Austria, and opposition to reform. From the outbreak of the French Revolution, she resisted the advice of constitutional monarchists (eg Mirabeau), and helped to alienate the monarchy from the people. However, the famous solution to the bread famine, ‘let them eat cake’, is unjustly attributed to her. In 1791 she and Louis tried to escape from the Tuileries to her native Austria, but were seized at Varennes and imprisoned in Paris. After the king's execution, she was arraigned before the Tribunal and guillotined.