The Death of Marie Antoinette


As my readers may know, I am an avid reader of history and studying European monarchies. Today marks a pinnacle event that has touched my heart for years. On this day, October 16, 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette of France was guillotined by French Revolutionaries. Her life has been one of intrigue, mystery, and a reputation in shreds. Many could read this and think, "she was just a Queen who died". That may be true, but her life was more than what a royal stereotype defines. For me, I have felt a connection to her life for a long time. I first read of Marie Antoinette at the age of twelve while studying royal queens. While reading, I will never forget seeing her portrait and the "scandals" of her life; alongside the debunked phrase "let them eat cake." After years of research through later school projects, I came to find the real Marie Antoinette: a woman who was steadfast in faith, charitable to her people and loved her husband and children.


"Marie Antoinette with the Rose" by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783

It was not until biased propaganda and vicious lies were written that slowly but surely ruined the name of Marie Antoinette. Prior to the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette had been a charitable, gracious, and loving monarch who taught her children to give to the poor. Marie Antoinette was very involved within the Roman Catholic Church and became a benefactress of the Carmelite Order. She was a trailblazer in fashion and a sponsor of the arts, particularly ballet and opera. As queen, Marie Antoinette wanted the simpler side of life, and even had a working farm at the Petit Trianon, her preferred residence to the Palace of Versailles. While not engaged in court politics, the queen spent time teaching her children and friends. During her tenure, Marie Antoinette lost two living children, Louis Joesph, and Princesse Sophie. This loss would remain with the queen until her own death. Despite hardships, Marie Antoinette never lost sight of faith and love for her husband. By the time of the French Revolution, such facets of her life changed forever as she watched her best friend gruesomely executed, lost her beloved husband to the guillotine, and had her two remaining children (Marie-Thérèse and Louis Charles) forcibly ripped from her arms. Her life and accomplishments were tainted forever by bloodlust, jealousy, and hatred. While imprisoned at the Conciergerie, Marie Antoinette was condemned for high treason against the new Republic of France through appalling charges. Prior to being given her sentence, Marie Antoinette responded: "I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long." The sentence received would be death by guillotine on October 16, 1793.


The night before her execution, Marie Antoinette wrote a letter to her sister-in-law, Madame Elisabeth which affirmed her Catholic faith, her love for her children, and her clear conscience.


16th October, 4:30 AM

"It is to you, sister that I write for the last time; I have just been condemned, not to an ignominious death — it is such to the guilty alone — but to rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same firmness in my last moments. I experience the tranquility of mind ever attending a guiltless conscience. It grieves me very sensibly to leave my poor children; you know that I existed only for them and you, my kind and affectionate sister; you, who have, through affection sacrificed every thing in order to be with us. In what situation do I leave you! I learned from what passed at my trial, that my daughter had been separated from you. Alas! poor child, I dare not write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not know even whether this will reach you. Receive here my blessing for them both; I hope that one day, when they are older, they will be re-united to you, and enjoy your tender cares without interruption. Let them both reflect on what I have unceasingly taught them, that virtuous principles and the exact performance of every duty, are the first basis of life; that their happiness will depend on their mutual affection and confidence. Let my daughter feel, that considering her age, she ought always to assist her brother with such advice as her reflection and her superior experience may suggest; let my son, in his turn, show his sister every attention and kindness that affection can inspire; in a word, let them both feel, that in whatever situation they may be placed, they will not be truly happy but by being united; let them take example from us: how much consolation in our misfortunes has our affection afforded us! And, in prosperity, happiness is doubled when shared with a friend; and where can one find a friend more tender, more dear, than in the bosom of one’s own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father, which I emphatically repeat to him — Let him never seek to revenge our death. I have to speak on a subject very painful to my feelings; I know how much pain this child must have caused you; pardon him, my dear sister; consider his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever one pleases, and even what he does not understand. A day, I hope, will come, when he will so much the more forcibly feel the full value of your kindness and tenderness to them both. It now remains to confide to you my last thoughts. I would have written them from the beginning of the trial; but besides not being permitted to write, its progress has been so rapid, that I really should not have had time. I die in the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion, that of my fathers, that in which I was educated, and which I have always professed; having no spiritual consolation to expect, not knowing whether there be here any priests of that religion; and, indeed, for a priest to visit me where I now am, would be too dangerous an undertaking. I sincerely ask pardon of God for all the faults I may have committed during my life: I hope that in his goodness he will hear my last prayers, together with those which I have long poured forth, entreating him to receive my soul in his mercy and kindness. I ask forgiveness of all with whom I am acquainted, and of you, sister, in particular, for all the pain, which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I forgive all my enemies the injury they have done me. I here bid adieu to my aunts, and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends! The idea of being separated from them for ever, and of their afflictions, is the greatest grief I feel in dying; let them know at least, that to my latest moment, I thought of them. Adieu, my kind and tender sister; may this letter reach you. Always think of me; I embrace you with my whole heart, as well as those poor and dear children: O my God! how heart-rending it is to leave them for ever! Adieu! Adieu! I must now occupy myself wholly with my spiritual duties. As I am not free in my actions, they will perhaps bring me a priest, but I here protest that I will have nothing to say to him, and that I will treat him as a perfect stranger."

The morning of her execution, Marie Antoinette's white hair was cut short and she was placed in the back of a cart. As she rode to the Place de la Révolution, Marie Antoinette remained dignified and poised through disparaging comments and humiliation. A short moment before her death, the queen accidentally stepped on the foot of her executioner and said "pardon me monsieur, I meant not to do it." As the blade would eventually fall, the thirty-seven-year-old Marie Antoinette remained calm and resolute, never allowing hate to consume her. Afterward, her body was thrown in an unmarked grave in the Madeline Cemetary. 

Following the Bourbon Restoration of 1815, King Louis XVIII had the bodies of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI interred in the Saint-Denis Basilica and given a Catholic burial. In addition to the Saint-Denis monuments, King Louis XVIII gave Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette a chapel built upon the Madeline Cemetary called the "Chapelle Expiatoire" (Expiatory Chapel). In this chapel, Marie Antoinette was depicted holding to "religion" in the form of a woman and the Cross of Christ. Such a tribute reinforced Marie Antoinette's faith and the martyrdom she suffered at the hands of the French Revolution. 


"Marie Antoinette Ascending into Heaven" by  Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. 
The late queen's favored artist, sketched this piece as a farewell to her friend, showing Marie Antoinette surrounded by an angel and her husband; holding the Catholic palm of martyrdom.

I hope whoever reads this finds a time in their life to read about Marie Antoinette or a person in history that may intrigue you. One will never know the truth behind a portrait unless you read the real history.


References: 

Daughter of the Caesars by Elena Maria Vidal

The French Revolution by Nesta Helen Webster

The Guillotine and the Cross by Warren H. Carroll 

Marie Antoinette, The Journey by Antonia Fraser 


Comments

  1. Finally a new blog post! And beautifully written, as always. I really enjoyed reading it and I really understand your fascination for Queen Marie Antoinette. The only thing you mentioned in this text that I already knew about her was the fact about her last words. Tres bien, Katie. ^^

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