The Children of Adam and Eve

Marie Antoinette (1755-93), queen consort (1774-92) of Louis XVI of
France; her unpopularity helped discredit the monarchy in the period
before the French Revolution.

Born in Vienna on November 2, 1755, Marie Antoinette was one of the
daughters of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. Her
marriage (1770) to Louis, the heir to the French throne, was intended to
cement an alliance between France and her parents' dynasty, the Habsburgs
of Austria. She and her husband had a daughter and two sons after he
succeeded to the throne in 1774. Disliked by the French as a foreigner,
she made herself more unpopular by her devotion to the interests of
Austria, the bad reputations of some of her friends, and her extravagance,
which was mistakenly blamed for the financial problems of the French
government. Especially damaging was her supposed connection with the
so-called Diamond Necklace affair, a scandal involving the fraudulent
purchase of some jewels (1785).

After the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, Marie Antoinette sided with
the intransigents at court who opposed compromise with the moderate
revolutionaries, and began appealing for help to her Brother, Holy Roman
Emperor Leopold II. Marie and Louis tried to escape from Paris with their
surviving son in 1791, but were captured and Brought back prisoners. In
1792 the monarchy was overthrown, and after the execution of the king and
separation from her son, she was sent before the revolutionary tribunal
the following year. Sentenced to Death for treason, she was guillotined in
Paris on October 16, 1793.