Introduction
When the French people revolted against the monarchy in 1789, Louis XVI was King of France. Marie Antoinette was his young and beautiful queen. Many events during the revolution have been attributed to her. She is thought to have contributed to the people’s disdain for the monarchy. The queen’s love for expensive adornments and involvement in various scandals elicited resentment in the French. Excessive taxes and rising food prices increased the loathing they had for Marie Antoinette. She was a victim of the revolution, more than she was a villain.
France on the eve of the revolution
When Louis XVI became king, he inherited, from his grandfather, a country that was in shambles. He had to grapple with escalating prices of basic necessities like bread, growing resentment for the social strata (by the peasantry and common people), high taxes and growing unpopularity in the international community. These are just among a horde of other problems facing France at the time. France was heavily in debt owing to its participation in foreign crusades. At that time, taxes had to be increased in order to raise funds to pay off this debt.
With the ascent to power of a young king, the French expected grand reforms to take place in France. They expected fresh and new ideas that would turn France and their lives around. This, however, was not to be. The young king did not implement the expected reforms, and persistently made bad economic decisions that worsened the situation. He was weak, prone to indecision, and easily gave in when opposition was mounted on him. When a fresh start was not forthcoming, the French became disappointed in the monarchy. They started agitating for its abolition.
Consistent bad weather and prolonged winter had destroyed crops. Food prices also sky rocketed. Bad roads made the situation worse. Food could not be easily transported from rural to highly populated urban areas. King Louis’ financial strategies and policies failed miserably, making the French people to be angry at the crown for not improving their lives. The situation was dire and the resentment and anger towards the monarchy and ruling class that had been building over time reached its peak in 1789. Tired of the current situation and raring for change, the French people had to find a reason to revolt. They found a helpless scapegoat. The queen, who was viewed as an anti-reformist, was perfect for this role.
Queen of France: Victim or Villain?
The character of Marie Antoinette-last queen of France and wife to King Louis XVI has been painted in different shades of criticisms and reverence over the years. She has been projected as the villain during the French revolution. This was by those who thought that the queen was misunderstood, misrepresented and unjustly persecuted by the French people and historians alike. They continuously distorted her image. The true Marie Antoinette remains unknown.
Marie was blessed with abundant beauty. As a young bride and queen, she elicited great admiration from innumerable admirers. The French loved the young Austrian princess (then French queen). In the words of Edmund Burke, “she was a delightful vision, radiating splendor, full of life and joy”. As she spent more time in France, her weaknesses became apparent. The people’s opinions of her started changing. The French started resenting her.
Unlike her husband (who was withdrawn and often perceived as weak willed), Marie was outgoing, cheerful and strong. She easily made friends and preferred spending her time dancing and gambling. She spent what was thought to be a fortune of public funds to satisfy her expensive tastes. The French had to wait for eight years before she produced a child. She was blamed for failing to give the king an heir.
Marie was uneducated, and could scarcely read or write in her native German or French. Her knowledge of French politics and public affairs was scanty, yet she was thought to influence most of Louis’ decisions. People despised her for persuading the king to reject reformatory policies suggested by parliament.11 When the Bastille was stormed in 1789, claims were made that she persuaded the king to reject the suggested reforms. This escalated the flow of events during the initial stages of the revolution.
Being an Austrian princess, she loved her home and was loyal to Austria. During the revolution, she supported plans for France to invade Austria in the hope that France would be defeated. She also solicited her brother-Leopold II’s assistance during the attempted escape by the royal family in 1792. There are also claims that Marie tried to persuade her brother to attack the French revolutionaries in the hope that the revolution would be quelled by Austrian forces. Marie did not hide her loyalty to Austria. This irked the revolutionaries who perceived her an enemy of France. They accused her of treason. She was convicted and executed of the same.
Marie’s personal qualities, descent and relations with other people were exploited by the French people to pile blame on her for the appalling state of their lives and the economy of France. All manner of accusations came her way. The queen was blamed for France’s empty public coffers due to her expensive fashion tastes. However, France was already in debt and the economy had deteriorated even before Marie came onto the scene as queen. By blaming her for their financial woes, the French masses were only satisfying their need for a scapegoat. In any case, as queen of France and a woman of high social standing, she was expected to adorn herself with the finest quality of clothing and jewelry available.
The French public was fixated on destroying their queen’s public image, and it was not long before propagandists started spreading false rumors and distributing leaflets containing false claims about the queen. The leaflets accused her of conspiring with Austria against France, incest with her son, having multiple lovers including the king’s brothers and extravagance among other accusations. The source or truthfulness of these leaflets could not be ascertained, and even if the queen tried her best to defend herself, her public image had already been gravely dented. The king also tried to defend his queen against the falsities to no avail.
One of the most successful assaults on her character and standing as queen was perhaps, the perfectly orchestrated affair involving an expensive diamond necklace. She was rumored to have been engaged in an affair with a cardinal so as to obtain from him, an expensive diamond necklace. The plan was to discredit her moral standing, and it almost worked. The public loathed her after that even though the whole affair was discovered to be false. These were some of the unfair trials that she had to undergo as a young and beautiful queen.
The queen wielded a lot of persuasive power over her husband. She was, therefore, in a position to influence him positively so as to bring change to the lives of French men. Marie, however, was not interested in changing the society or the lives of the masses. She often discouraged the king’s reformist ideas. In spite of this fact, Marie cannot be blamed for her role in the revolution. France was already facing myriad problems before she came to the scene. She really did have a role in the revolution. It was only to aggravate an already existing situation a little bit.
Conclusion
The French masses revolted against the crown for a variety of reasons. The majority of these were economic reasons. Social and religious issues also came up as events unfolded. The king did not draw much public attention as his queen did. She was the more conspicuous of the two. She acted as the symbol of the monarchy and royal family. It is the reason why she was the perfect scapegoat for blaming the monarchy.
Works Cited
Barker, Nancy. “Let Them Eat Cake”: The Mythical Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution”. The Historian. 55.1(1993), 34-42.Web.
Brown, Lorri. What Really Killed Marie Antoinette? How Propaganda Killed the Last Queen of France. 2008. Web.
Burke, Edmund. (n.d.). Reflections on the Revolution in France. n.d. Web.
Doyle, William. Origins of the French Revolution, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.
Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey, London, Anchor, 2002. Print.
Lewis, Jone. (n.d.) Marie Antoinette. n.d. Web.
Roesler, Shirley. Out of the Shadows: Women and Politics in the French Revolution 1789-95, New York, Peter Lang, 1998. Print.
Soboul, Albert. Understanding the French Revolution, New York, International Publishers 1998. Print
Weber, Caroline. Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, London, Picador, 2007. Print.
Winkler, Megan. Marie Antoinette: The French Queen, Scapegoat and Victim of the French Revolution. 2008. Web.