November Books of the Month

Normally I feature just one book that I feel that readers would enjoy but this month we have a plethora of really cool books.

Title:  Writers Between the Covers
Authors: Shannon McKennon Schmidt & Joni Rendon
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Plume (October 29, 2013)

Why did Norman Mailer stab his second wife at a party?  Who was Edith Wharton’s secret transatlantic lover? What motivated Anaïs Nin to become a bigamist?

Writers Between the Covers rips the sheets off these and other real-life love stories of the literati—some with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns, and brawls. Among the writers laid bare are Agatha Christie, who sparked the largest-ever manhunt in England as her marriage fell apart; Arthur Miller, whose jaw-dropping pairing with Marilyn Monroe proved that opposites attract, at least initially; and T.S. Eliot, who slept in a deckchair on his disastrous honeymoon.

From the best break-up letters to the stormiest love triangles to the boldest cougars and cradle-robbers, this fun and accessible volume—packed with lists, quizzes and in-depth exposés—reveals literary history’s most titillating loves, lusts, and longings.

Title: Marie Antoinette's Head: The Royal Hairdresser, the Queen, and the Revolution
Author:  Will Bashor
Publisher:  The Lyon's Press
About:  Marie Antoinette has remained atop the popular cultural landscape for centuries for the daring in style and fashion that she brought to 18th century France. For the better part of the queen’s reign, one man was entrusted with the sole responsibility of ensuring that her coiffure was at its most ostentatious best. Who was this minister of fashion who wielded such tremendous influence over the queen’s affairs? Marie Antoinette’s Head: The Royal Hairdresser, The Queen, and the Revolution charts the rise of Leonard Autie from humble origins as a country barber in the south of France to the inventor of the Pouf and premier hairdresser to Queen Marie-Antoinette.

By unearthing a variety of sources from the 18th and 19th centuries, including memoirs (including Léonard’s own), court documents, and archived periodicals the author, French History professor and expert Will Bashor, tells Autie’s mostly unknown story. Bashor chronicles Leonard’s story, the role he played in the life of his most famous client, and the chaotic and history-making world in which he rose to prominence. Besides his proximity to the queen, Leonard also had a most fascinating life filled with sex (he was the only man in a female dominated court), seduction, intrigue, espionage, theft, exile, treason, and possibly, execution. The French press reported that Léonard was convicted of treason and executed in Paris in 1793. However, it was also recorded that Léonard, after receiving a pension from the new King Louis XVIII, died in Paris in March 1820. Granted, Leonard was known as the magician of Marie-Antoinette’s court, but how was it possible that he managed to die twice?

Title:  Marie Antoinette Serial Killer
Author:  Katie Alender
Publisher: Scholastic Books
Pub Date:  9/24/2013
Overview:  Heads will roll! Paris, France: a city of fashion, chocolate croissants, and cute boys. Colette Iselin is thrilled be there for the first time, on her spring break class trip.

But a series of gruesome murders are taking place around the city, putting everyone on edge. And as she tours the sights, Colette keeps seeing a strange vision: a pale woman in a ball gown and powdered wig, who looks like Marie Antoinette.

Colette knows her status-obsessed friends won't believe her, so she seeks out the help of a charming French boy. Together, they discover that the murder victims are all descendants of people who ultimately brought about Marie Antoinette's beheading. The queen's ghost has been awakened, and now she's wreaking her bloodthirsty revenge.

 

And Colette may just be one of those descendants . . . which means she might not make it out of this trip alive. Acclaimed author Katie Alender brings heart-stopping suspense to this story of betrayal, glamour, mystery, history--and one killer queen.

Title:  Mrs. Poe
Author:  Lynn Cullen
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster
Pub Date:  10/1/2013

 

Overview:  1845: New York City is a sprawling warren of gaslit streets and crowded avenues, bustling with new immigrants and old money, optimism and opportunity, poverty and crime. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is all the rage—the success of which a struggling poet like Frances Osgood can only dream. As a mother trying to support two young children after her husband’s cruel betrayal, Frances jumps at the chance to meet the illustrious Mr. Poe at a small literary gathering, if only to help her fledgling career. Although not a great fan of Poe’s writing, she is nonetheless overwhelmed by his magnetic presence— and the surprising revelation that he admires her work.

What follows is a flirtation, then a seduction, then an illicit affair . . . and with each clandestine encounter, Frances finds herself falling slowly and inexorably under the spell of her mysterious, complicated lover. But when Edgar’s frail wife Virginia insists on befriending Frances as well, the relationship becomes as dark and twisted as one of Poe’s tales. And like those gothic heroines whose fates are forever sealed, Frances begins to fear that deceiving Mrs. Poe may be as impossible as cheating death itself. . . .

Happy Birthday Marie Antoinette!

On this day in 1755, Marie Antoinette (baptised Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna ) was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.

No, this is not Marie Antoinette, this is moi, dressed as Marie Antoinette.  Two years ago, I had the privilege of reading at Lady Jane's Salon here in New York. The date fell on November 2nd which is Marie's birthday as well as mine. So I decided to dress like her and read a piece on Marie and her relationship with Axel Fersen. The dress I liberated from a theatre company that I worked for years ago.

This is the real Marie! Can't you see a resemblance? :) I had planned on writing a post on Marie Antoinette's impact on fashion, but instead I've decided just to post some photos instead. It's clear that in the more than 200 years since her death, Marie Antoinette continues to inspire designers.

These photos are from John Galliano's Spring 2010 collection.  Aren't they gorgeous, allthough it must have been a bit to wear.

Christian Louboutins! Not sure where I would wear these, but they are gorgeous. Definitely not shoes you wear out on the street, running errands. More the 'getting out of the limousine at the gala ball or Academy Awards' shoes.

Imagine trying to get through a door wearing this dress!

The Winner of the Marie Antoinette Giveaway is.....

I'm so pleased by how many people stopped by and left comments on Juliet Grey's excellent post.  I wish I could give you all copies of this wonderful book, but unfortunately I can't!  Using random.org, I can announce that the winner of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE is....

Laura Kay

Congratulations Laura!  I will be emailing you shortly to get your address.

Thank you to everyone who entered! I hope you will keep coming back to Scandalous Women, as I bring you more scintillating stories about some of history's most fascinating women.

Guest Post - Author Juliet Grey on Marie Antoinette et Madame du Barry: Scandalous Women - Scandalous Rivalry

Scandalous Women is very pleased to welcome historical fiction author Juliet Grey to the blog.  Juliet is the author of the new trilogy about Marie Antoinette, the first book BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE is released today.  Regular readers of my blog know that I am a huge fan of Marie Antoinette, in fact I'm a tad obsessed and have been ever since I learned that she and I shared a birthday. So I was very excited to hear that there was going to be new trilogy that examined her life from her childhood to her death. Isn't the cover gorgeous?

Above the strains of the violins and the tinkling of crystal and porcelain, a silvery laugh pierced the air, drawing all attention toward the head of the table. The woman seated at the king’s right had grabbed a morsel off the royal plate with a heavily jeweled hand and popped it into her own mouth. She wore no powder in her flaxen hair, a shade or two more yellow than my own. Her complexion was the color of fresh dairy cream—the better to show off her enviable poitrine in a gown of silver tissue spun with gold and spangled with rubies from a sprinkling of them on her sleeves to a crimson crust that framed her deep décolleté. The sapphires in her ears and the triumph in her eyes lent her more airs of an empress than Maman ever had. My eyes strayed downwards. Immediately I felt inadequate and wished that my own bosom was as pulchritudinous and had been molded to such perfection.

I gazed at her coiffure, which sparkled with emerald combs. Perfectly applied circles of rouge enhanced her natural blush. I surveyed the length of the table; here sat the highest-ranking nobility of France and yet none of the women were so bedecked in brilliants as this fascinating creature, who was so bold as to eat off the king’s plate. I could not take my eyes off her. She took another bit of squab from His Majesty’s dish and fed it to him. Louis took not only the pigeon but her fingers into his mouth, enjoying both with gustatory relish. He shared a full-bellied laugh with the woman.


“What an intriguing person!” I exclaimed. I turned to address Madame de Noailles. “S’il vous plait, madame la comtesse, dîtes -moi—qui est cette belle dame-là? Tell me, who is that very beautiful woman—and what is her office here at court?”


My dining companions grew silent. Madame Etiquette’s back stiffened perceptibly. At the far end of the room, Louis of France and his personal guest of honor paid no heed to anything other than their amusing little game of feeding each other. Mesdames tantes muttered behind their fans in voices too low for me to discern the gist of their discourse. All I could hear, and the word was uttered repeatedly with a derisive intonation, was “elle”—her.


The aunts looked to the comtesse de Noailles to furnish a reply; after all, I had posed the question to her directly. All three, Adélaïde, Victoire, and Sophie, had screwed their mouths into odd little smirks that I did not understand. The dauphin coughed quite audibly into his napkin. His younger brothers stifled a snicker and collectively regarded my dame d’honneur through narrowed eyes, waiting with undisguised amusement for her answer.


“That woman,” began the comtesse, speaking with painstaking deliberateness—and I had yet to hear her speak so slowly—“that woman is Madame du Barry, ci-devant—formerly—the lowly Jeanne Bécu, although some knew her as Mademoiselle l’Ange of the rue de la Jussienne; and her office is to . . . to amuse the king!”


Her nickname, Mademoiselle l’Ange, intrigued me. The Angel. Surely I appeared more seraphic; and it would be my pleasure to charm His Majesty and make him laugh. “Well, then!” I clapped my hands with glee, for nothing would have made me happier than to delight my new grand-père. “I shall be her rival,” I exclaimed.


The dauphin, his brothers and aunts, and most particularly Madame de Noailles, froze as if a portraitist had asked them to hold a pose—cutlery and crystal goblets held aloft, halfway between the table and their lips.


Was it something I had said?

That excerpt is from BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE, the first novel in my trilogy about the life of the doomed last queen of France. In May 1770, the fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles from her native Austria, already wed by proxy to the dauphin, or heir to the throne, the fifteen-year-old Louis Auguste, grandson to the aging, if still debonair, Louis XV.

The young dauphine’s head had been transformed quite literally, both inside and out, in order to make her more attractive to French tastes. Her head had been crammed with French history and she was still mastering the intricacies of the court etiquette laid down by the Sun King Louis XIV. But one subject left off the syllabus was the subject of the king’s voluptuous maîtresse en titre, or official mistress (an actual position in the French court), Madame du Barry. Marie Antoinette’s mother, the formidable Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa was a devout woman who took an exceptionally dim view of adultery, particularly as her late husband (to whom she had been devoted; their royal marriage had been the rare love match) had a paramour, the Princess Auersperg. Maria Theresa had not wished her daughter to learn anything about Madame du Barry’s existence, which unfortunately placed the already naïve adolescent in an inferior strategic position when it came to the machinations of the court.

Marie Antoinette had been instructed to please the French king in all things; so at first, assuming that the luscious blond comtesse du Barry was merely the sovereign’s good friend, the young dauphine treated her warmly. But she soon found out what the comtesse actually did at court, and what her background was. Coached by Mesdames, the king’s daughters, a trio of thirty-something, bitter, backbiting virgins, Marie Antoinette was determined never to countenance the comtesse again.

Jeanne Bécu (1743-93) had a string of lovers before she met the comte du Barry, a professional pimp, who groomed her for Louis XV’s bed. She was the Marilyn Monroe of her day, full-breasted, with a cloud of flaxen blond hair (that needed a lot of maintenance, as it started out brown) floating to her waist and a little-girl lisp that may or may not have been affected, as necessary, to charm important men. She had worked as a milliner’s assistant and so she knew good taste when she saw it. She’d also been groomed to converse with the great minds of the day in posh Parisian salons and to be a tolerable singer and musician—in short, the ultimate courtesan.

One spring day in 1768, Jeanne cleverly managed to be in the right place at the right time (stationing herself on a staircase at Versailles that the king would have to descend on his way to Mass) and once she caught his eye, she never let it go. Louis became smitten for life. She could not be a maîtresse en titre unless she was of noble birth and so he elevated her. He married her off to the comte du Barry’s older brother, although she was styled a comtesse. In order to be presented at court and ride in the king’s carriage one had to show noble lineage dating to the year 1400, so in 1769 the king invented a coat of arms for her. He even devised a motto (cribbed from the Irish Barrymore family’s motto), Boutez en avant—“Push forward.” And Louis was such an obliging lover that he even shaved a few years off her age.

The comtesse du Barry was soon the most influential person at court. No matter how much they disapproved of her low breeding, everyone curried favor with her in order to gain access to the king and remain in his good graces—that is, until headstrong, fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette was finally made to understand who and what she was. Marie Antoinette’s Maman had taught her to despise adulterers and whores; she might have been little more than a child but because the queen was deceased, she was the first woman in France and would not be superseded by a harlot.

Their rivalry nearly sparked an international crisis. In 1771, Austria needed France to look the other way as she was about to join forces with Prussia and Russia to partition Poland, with each empire carving off a slice of territory. Louis XV was disinclined to be so obliging while the dauphine was pointedly snubbing his paramour in front of the entire court. But Marie Antoinette refused to budge an inch, insisting that her mother couldn’t possibly wish her to degrade herself by countenancing the king’s slut. I don’t want to give away the denouement here, but suffice it to say that both sides claimed victory.

In my early drafts of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE I depicted Madame du Barry and her factions plotting against Marie Antoinette, but my editor wanted me to tell the entire story from Marie Antoinette’s point of view, which necessitated substantial reworking of this concept. However, readers will still learn what the comtesse thinks of her young rival, and it tickled me to be able to use du Barry’s actual words. “I for one, see nothing attractive in red hair, thick lips, a sandy complexion, and eyes without eyelashes. Had she who is thus beautiful not sprung from the House of Austria, I assure you, such attractions never would have been the subject of admiration.”

Is this the Marie Antoinette we see depicted by Kirsten Dunst and Norma Shearer? Pas de tout! The comtesse may have been insulting, but it’s the most accurate physical description we have of her rival. Madame du Barry called Marie Antoinette la petite rousse—“the little redhead,” yet another reason we know that she was not the blond she’s always depicted as in the movies and in most current books about her. In fact, Marie Antoinette was a strawberry blond and her hairdressers were perpetually fretting over how to manage her frizzy tresses.

More often than not, rivals’ common bonds outnumber their differences. Unsurprisingly both women were fashionistas, although it would take some time for Marie Antoinette to begin to care about her appearance and find her own sense of style. But the comtesse du Barry set her own trends, being the only woman at court who mixed her gemstones (wearing emeralds with sapphires and rubies, for example). The other ladies would keep to a monochrome palette. And long before Marie Antoinette began to patronize the marchande de modes Rose Bertin, Madame du Barry was one of her best customers. In fact, years before Mlle. Bertin designed the gauzy gaulles for Marie Antoinette that gave her the look of a milkmaid and caused such a scandal because people thought she was running around Versailles in her undergarments, the comtesse du Barry received people at her toilette wearing a very similar silhouette—a filmy white gown with a wide, pastel-hued silk sash. For those who follow fashion, you know that trends are cyclical!

This image is of Marie Antoinette in her gaulle, which was also became known as a chemise a la Reine.

Madame du Barry in her gaulle.

One rival is always mis-portrayed as a blonde in books and movies. The other worked hard to maintain her honeyed hue. Both would have been appalled to concede that they liked the same dress. What this pair of rivals really had most in common was something they would never recognize, being pre-Freudian: they were both “people pleasers.” Their hearts were truly generous. The Marie Antoinette that has been handed down to us by history is largely a creature of propaganda. History is written by the winners and she was the greatest victim of the French Revolution. But she was raised from the cradle to be charitable and philanthropic.

And had Marie Antoinette known what Jeanne Bécu, the comtesse du Barry, was doing during the Revolution, she might have been surprised. While the monarchs were imprisoned in the Tuileries, the former royal mistress, who twenty years earlier had little use for the teenage dauphine and her husband, worked behind the scenes to raise money for the royalist cause, risking her life to sneak across the English Channel and back and allowing monarchist plotters to meet at her home.

One woman was born in Champagne; the other was born to sip it (though to bust the myths where the cinematic Marie Antoinettes are always guzzling the bubbly, she never actually drank wine or spirits). The two women could not have begun farther apart on the social spectrum, but as far as the Revolutionaries were concerned, if they slept with a king they were one and the same. And Madame Guillotine would coolly embrace them both. Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793, climbing the scaffold with regal poise, purportedly apologizing for treading upon the executioner’s foot, and dying with dignity. On December 8, the comtesse du Barry’s execution was delayed for several hours because, kicking and shrieking, she refused to go gently into that good night.

Revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David's intentionally cruel sketch of Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine.

The comtesse du Barry being led to the Scaffold

About the Author

Juliet Grey has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.


Thank you Juliet for gracing the blog today!  In honor of the release of BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE, one lucky winner will receive a copy of the book. Here are the rules for the giveaway. This giveaway will be open to not just Canadian and American readers but International readers as well! The contest runs from today through Friday,  August 12th:

1. Leave your name and email in the comments. Email is very important so that I can contact you for your address.
2. If you are not a follower and become one, you get an extra entry
3. If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.


Good luck

Duchess of Windsor's Jewels on Sale at Sotheby's

The late Duchess of Windsor's jewels went on sale again at Sotheby's. The items up for grabs include this gorgeous bracelet made by Cartier.  The Duke gave his bride many beautiful gifts during their long marriage.  Rumor has it that Madonna has bid on several pieces.  She's currently directing a movie called W.E. about the Windors.  20 pieces of jewelry were sold Tuesday night for 8 million pounds which is roughly I would say almost $16 million dollars.

Here is an article from Hello Magazine regarding the sale and one from the Daily Mail in the UK about the sale itself.  Apparently the Duke didn't always pay for the jewelry that he bought for the Duchess or the jewelers had to wait for a long time for their money.  Perhaps he thought that just the fact that he bought the jewelry and the Duchess was wearing it was payment enough, instead of giving them cold hard cash!

If you had the money, would you have bid on an item from the collection?  Whose jewelry would you like to own? Personally I would love the diamond necklace that caused all the fuss during Marie Antoinette's reign.

Happy Birthday Marie Antoinette and Giveaway

Happy Birthday to Marie Antoinette who was born today (as well as myself and Leah Marie Brown!).  To celebrate Marie's birthday (and mine), I am giving away 2 copies of Carolyn Meyer's YA novel THE BAD QUEEN.  Here is a sneak peek:

History paints her as a shallow party girl, a spoiled fashionista, a callous ruler. Perhaps no other royal has been so maligned—and so misunderstood—as Marie-Antoinette. From the moment she was betrothed to the dauphin of France at age fourteen, perfection was demanded of Marie-Antoinette. She tried to please everyone—courtiers, her young husband, the king, the French people—but often fell short of their expectations. Desperate for affection and subjected to constant scrutiny, this spirited young woman can’t help but want to let loose with elaborate parties, scandalous fashions, and unimaginable luxuries. But as Marie-Antoinette’s lifestyle gets ever-more recklessly extravagant, the peasants of France are suffering from increasing poverty—and becoming outraged. They want to make the queen pay.

 In this latest installment of her acclaimed Young Royals series, Carolyn Meyer reveals the dizzying rise and horrific downfall of the last queen of France. Includes historical notes, an author’s note, and a bibliography.

Here are the rules for the giveaway. Sorry, this is only for Canadian and American readers! The contest runs from today through Monday, November 8th. 

 1. Leave your name and email in the comments.  Email is very important so that I can contact you for your address.

2. If you are not a follower and become one, you get an extra entry

3. If you tweet about the giveaway, you get an extra entry.

Good luck!

Marie Antoinette's Birth Chart

Since Marie Antoinette and I share a birthday, every year I've done a Marie Antoinette themed post. This year, I thought I would examine Marie's birth chart. I've copied the chart from a web-site called astrotheme. If you want to read a longer more in depth version of Marie's birth chart, you can do so at the web-site. I read somewhere on line that when Marie Antoinette was born, an astrologer predicted that she would lead an unhappy life, and her eventual fate. I'm pretty sure that is just a myth. Marie Antoinette was born during the Age of Enlightenment, the era when Kings or Queens had a court astrologer were more than likely over.

I do think that you can learn a lot about a person from a pyschological standpoint by looking at their birthchart. Certainly pyschoanalysts like Carl Jung were fascinating by what a birth chart can reveal about a person. I've personally always been fascinated by astrology ever since I was old enough to know exactly what it was. I'm just going to look at a few key themes in Marie's chart, primarily her Sun, Moon, Venus and Rising Sign.

Marie Antoinette was born on November 2nd in Vienna at 7:30 in the evening. At the time of her birth Cancer was rising, the Sun was in Scorpio, Her Moon was in Libra and her Venus is in Scorpio as well. The Queen's chart is very much balanced between the elements of Water and Earth with a little fire and not much Air.

Sun in Scorpio According to Debbi Kempton-Smith's book people who have the Sun in Scorpio hate and love with equal intensity that lasts forever. That certainly is true of Marie Antoinette. The people that she loathed like Cardinal de Rohan, she loathed, and the people that she loved like Axel Fersen and the Princesse de Lamballe, and the Duchesse de Polignac she loved fervently. People with Sun in Scorpio also are incredibly loyal to the point of stupidity. And Marie Antoinette was certainly a loyal friend, even after she realized that she and the Princesse de Lamballe didn't really have that much in common, she stayed loyal. The same with the Duchesse de Polignac. Sadly her loyalty wasn't often rewarded. Scorpios are also stubborn, and that is true of Marie Antoinette. Once she made up her mind about something or someone, it was very hard for her to change her mind. Witness the whole brouhaha over Madame de Barry who she famously snubbed. It took a great deal of convincing to get Marie Antoinette even to speak to her. Also, no one could get Marie Antoinette to do anything that she didn't want to do. Her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, constantly wrote her letters exhorting her to stop riding so much, to spent more time studying, and Marie much of the time ignored her mother's exhortations.

In her natal chart, the Sun is in the 5th House. Without giving birth to a fulfilling work, or to a child, and without enjoying the thrills of a passionate and dramatic love, life is meaningless. This is certainly true of Marie Antoinette. It wasn't until she had her children that she felt really fulfilled as a woman, that her life had purpose. Once her daughter was born, she began to give up the frivolous pursuits that had filled her life when she first arrived in France. Scorpios also tend to be very private, another reason why Marie created her own little oasis at the Petit Trianon, to have some privacy from always having to be on display, which she hated.

Marie Antoinette's Rising Sign is Cancer. Your rising sign is the face that you present to the world, while your Sun is more your Ego. People with their rising sign in Cancer can be dreamy, which Marie Antoinette certainly was as a child. With this Ascendant, they also have a very warm personality which Marie Antoinette had in spades. Cancers also tend to be homebodies. Marie Antoinette created a home for herself at the Petit Trianon which even the King had to be invited to. That was her own personal space, an oasis where she retreated when the rigid etiquette of the Court at Versailles became too much for her. There Marie Antoinette dressed more casually then she did at Court, where the gauze dresses that later became fashionable.

Marie Antoinette's Moon is in Libra (as is mine): The moon represents the feminine side of the personality. For a woman, the Moon is almost as important as the Sun and the Ascendant. Libra is the sign of balance, Librans would rather have a discussion than fight. Librans are also very sociable. People with their Moon in Libra know how to flatter, and flirt. Marie Antoinette was known for being very flirtatious, but she rarely flirted with intent. In fact her flirting with men at court was often misunderstood. Women with Moon in Libra also are very feminine which Marie Antoinette certainly was very much so. According to Debbi Kempton Smith's book Secrets from a Star-Gazer's Notebook, people with Moon in Libra "give the best gift of all, themselves, wholeheartedly. They get stepped on for their kindness." Librans also live to make other people happy. Marie Antoinette was certainly a people-pleaser in many ways, and easily influenced when she was younger.

And finally, Marie Antoinette's Venus is in Scorpio. Venus represents how one expresses love while Mars represents how one expresses anger and passion. People with Venus in Scorpio are able to love to distraction and to hate at the same time. Marie Antoinette was certainly very passionate in regards to her friends, if not towards the King. Someone with Venus in Scorpio would not be happy with an unsatisfactory love life. Although historians are divided about whether or not she had an affair with Axel Fersen, I think that with her Venus in Scorpio, if Marie Antoinette fell in love with someone deeply, she would want to take the risk to take that next step. Love and sex would be entertwined for her.

I hope this brief glimpse into Marie Antoinette's birthchart has been interesting.

Marie Antoinette and the Affair of the Necklace

It was a tabloid editor’s wet dream. It had everything, Royalty, expensive jewelry, the Catholic Church, and a shady deal. The only problem? The Queen knew nothing about it. But you can just imagine the headlines. "MILLION DOLLAR NECKLACE DISAPPEARS-CHURCH HEAD CLAIMS HE GIFTED QUEEN-PALACE SOURCES DENY" or "QUEEN IN SECRET RENDEZVOUS IN PALACE GARDEN."


On the surface it sounds absolutely absurd like a bad spy movie but you can’t make this stuff up. Once again, real life is more fantastic than anything novelist could dream of. The story of the Affair of the Necklace has intrigued historians and novelists over the past two hundred years. Everyone has had a crack at it, from the English historian Thomas Carlyle to Alexandre Dumas. Several years major Hollywood film starring Academy Award winner Hilary Swank was filmed and bombed (You can read a recent review of the film here. But you can just imagine what the studio memo* was like:


Maverick Studios

To: Sam Strutt, Head of Production

From: Larry Lame, Producer, Tapestry Films

Listen, I just read a script that I think the studio should pick up. It's called The Affair of the Necklace and it's juicy. Based on a true story about Marie Antoinette. Historical films are hot right now, since Gladiator picked up the Best Picture Oscar, and I think we should jump on this. It's set in pre-revolutionary war France. Yes, I know we're not happy with France right now, thanks to Bush, but this movie has it all. Intrigue, romance, royalty, it's a total chick flick. You know how women love those costume flicks. We throw in some sword fighting for the guys, and some nudity and I smell box-office! We don't even have to film it in France. Prague is dirt cheap, and the dollar is strong right now. We can bring the movie in for under $35MM.


Cast of characters:

Jeanne, Saint-Remy de Valois, Countess de la Motte – She's the heroine. Sure she's kind of a con-artist but wouldn't you be the way she grew up? (We can totally get around this by making it that the Queen uses her to buy the necklace, making her a dupe. Yeah, it's not historically accurate but who cares?)

Her ancestor was a French King Henry II and one of his mistresses Nicole Savigny. We'll show lots of scenes of her father squandering what little of the family fortune was left, before dying, and her mother, who was little more than a servant girl, abandoned her children to run off with another man. She was forced as a child to beg for money on the streets by her mother. The audience will totally sympathize with her. I hear that Hilary Swank is looking to play a role that will make her seem more womanly after that movie she made where she played a guy.

Nicolas de la Motte: Marc Antoine Nicolas de La Motte to be precise. Like Jeanne, he lived by his wits, charming rather than handsome.

Rétaux de Villete: Jeanne de la Motte de Valois’s co-conspirator and lover. He was also a common gigolo and a fellow officer of her husband in the gendarmes. Jeanne hires him to be her 'secretary.'

Louis René Édouard, cardinal de Rohan: A member of the illustrious de Rohan family, his aunt was governess to the King’s sisters. You can't tell by the portrait but apparently he was charming and handsome. He first met the Queen when he was sent to bring the her to France. He was later sent to Vienna as Ambassador from France to the court of Maria Theresa, where he proceeded to offend her and the more straight-laced court by his extravagance and roguish ways. Maria Theresa wanted him recalled, afraid that he would corrupt her son, the Emperor Joseph. I see some English actor, like Sam Neill or Alan Rickman, or that guy from Evita, Jonathan Pryce in the role.

The Queen, Marie Antoinette hates him. See, one night her father-in-law's mistress, Madame du Barry read a letter from de Rohan aloud to the King in the Dauphin’s presence. The letter described the Empress Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette’s mother, as holding in one hand a handkerchief with which to wipe away the tears she was shedding over the woes of Poland, while in the other hand she wielded a sword to divide the country. Marie Antoinette was livid that he would dare to criticize her mother and to Madame du Barry of all people. It seems a little petty to me, but you know what rich people are like. I say we play up the sexual tension between Marie and de Rohan, so what if it's not historically accurate. We're making a film here.

We may get a little flack from the Catholic Church about the film. de Rohan was a cardinal as well as the bishop of Strasbourg, grand almoner and the abbot of St. Vaast. But he loved the ladies! He seduces the Countess in the film. Sweet! Despite his many titles and honors, he wished to part of the inner circle of the King and Queen. His ambition is to be Prime Minister. However, the Queen refused to see or speak to him. Desperate to find himself in the Queen’s good graces, he was more than susceptible when approached by the Countess de la Motte.


Count de Cagliostro: An 18th century Rasputin who preyed on the aristocracy. This was one Crazy Dude. I'm thinking of Christopher Walken for the part. He loves to play these nut jobs. He claimed to be more than three hundred years old, although he looked to be only thirty. That was because, he said, that he had found the fountain of youth. Oh, and he could make gold out of thin air. Oy vey! Cagliostro was a magician, a charlatan, and an alchemist. He peddled some kind of ancient Viagra. Get this, he was apparently born in Sicily as plain Giovanni Balsamo! No one knew where his money came from, but he seemed to have plenty of it. He met de Rohan in Strasbourg when the Cardinal was living in his castle at Saverne. Later he followed him to Paris, where he counseled him during the Affair of the Necklace, that he would be completely successful in his endeavors with the Queen. Was Cagliostro in league with the Countess? No one knows for sure. Oh, and he also has a hot young wife!


Marie Antoinette – You know the one who said, "Let them eat cake," although my assistant says that she never really said that. No matter, I'm sure the screenwriters's can squeeze it in some where.

Okay, by 1785, Marie Antoinette had been married for almost fifteen years. Brought to marry the Dauphin in 1770 when she was only 14, she was beautiful and witty, renowned for her fashion sense, the complete opposite of her shy and awkward husband. After trying to consummate her marriage for seven years, she and the Dauphin, Louis-Auguste, were finally successful. The death of Louis XV in 1775 brought the young couple to the throne. After initially being popular, Marie Antoinette suffered from the vicious gossip at the French court. Unhappy in her marriage and unused to the rigid court etiquette; the young Dauphine had, indulged in the more frivolous aspects of court life. However, once the Queen became a mother, she changed considerably. At the time of the scandal, the Queen had given birth to three children, and was soon pregnant with her fourth. We can get one of those English actresses to play the part, or maybe someone French. The role is not that big, so we should be able to get some one relatively cheap to play her.


Boehmer and Bassenge: These guys are German jewelers who had supplied Louis XV’s mistress Madame du Barry with many of her jewels. Boehmer was the vision guy, he wanted to create the most beautiful necklace in the world. But who could afford to pay for such a masterpiece? Why Louis XV of course, for his peasant mistress Madame du Barry. The necklace was so expensive, that the jewelers had to take lines of credit out to buy the diamonds. A row of seventeen diamonds, hanging from these were a three-wreathed festoon, and pendants enough to encircle it. The necklace cost 1,600,000 livres, a fortunate at that time.

Unfortunately Louis XV died from small pox, Madame du Barry was banished from court and Boehmer and Bassenge were stuck with the necklace. Hoping to recoup the huge amount of money, they offered the necklace to the new Queen. Although Louis XVI offered to buy it for his wife as a present, Marie Antoinette refused. Not only did she not want to wear a necklace associated with Madame du Barry, who she despised, but she was also trying to distance herself from her earlier days when she was considered to be a frivolous spendthrift. France was preparing for war against England, and Marie Antoinette declared that “We have more need of ships than of Necklaces.” Boehmer and Bassenge tried their best to sell the necklace to the other crowned heads of Europe but to no avail. They desperately need to unload this thing.


The plot:

We open with Jeanne's father dying. The children are rescued by a local parish priest, and are sent to live with a rich parishioner, the Boulainvilliers. Jeanne’s mission in life from an early age was to restore her family’s fortune and the family name to glory. Louis XVI acknowledges her brother Jacques as the Baron de Valois, and awards her and her sister Marianne a pension of 800 francs each. But Jeanne wants more, right? She can't live off a measly 800 francs, she wants to live in the manner that she feels one of her illustrious name should. Her guardian tries to seduce her and her sister, Jeanne and her sister flee to a convent for a time.

Under pressure to take the veil, Jeanne and her sister leave, traveling to Bar sur Aube, to try and regain the family estates. While there she meets, Nicolas, Monsieur de la Motte, a Calvary officer. After their marriage in 1780, when Jeanne was 24, the two assumed the title of Comte and Comtesse de La Motte Valois. However, de la Motte was as poor as his wife and just as avaricious.

Jeanne resolves to petition the Queen for a more generous royal pension, figuring that she would be more sympathetic than the ministers at court. I picture scenes of poor Jeanne sitting day after day at court trying to see the Queen. Running around delivering petitions left and right and getting increasingly frustrating. However, the Queen refuses to meet with her, earning her Jeanne’s everlasting enmity. We have a great scene where Jeanne faints at court, hoping that the Queen will be moved by her plight. Instead, one of the Queen's sisters-in-law takes Jeanne under her wing for awhile under her husband tries to seduce poor Jeanne. In the meantime, poor Jeanne is being hounded by creditors. Jeanne meets the Cardinal de Rohan through her guardian, the Marquis de Boulainvilliers. He's taken with her beauty, and loans her money. They become lovers (yeah, I know, she's got like 3 guys on the horn in this film. I'm already working with the writers to make her less of a slut.)

Jeanne, her husband Nicolas and de Villette concoct a scheme to fulfill all their ambitions and embarrass the Queen at the same time. Rétaux de Villete who proves to have skills as a forger, writes letters to the comtesse ostensibly from the Queen. The tone of the letters becomes increasingly warm and the cardinal is convinced that the Queen is in love with him. Jeanne even tells the Cardinal to look for signs from the Queen acknowledging him, a nod of the head, or a slight smile. She convinces the Cardinal that she know has the ear of the King, and the Cardinal believes her, because how would he know? The Queen hardly looks at him.

In these faux letters, the ‘Queen’ states that she desires the necklace that Boehmer and Bassenge have created but doesn't dare ask the King to buy it due to the current dismal financial climate of the country. Perhaps the Cardinal can loan her the money, and then she would grant him the stipend that he was seeking. She also names Jeanne as her agent. The cardinal is eager but he wants some more reassurace from the Queen. Our girl Jeanne quickly comes up with a clever idea. A late night rendezvous is arranged so that the Cardinal can speak to the ‘Queen.’ Here's the great part. In reality a prostitute named Nicole Leguay d’Oliva is found and hired to impersonate the Queen. Rohan offers the ‘Queen’ a rose and she forgives him for his actions. See it's dark, and the 'Queen' is wearing a veil, so he doesn't really know who the heck he's talking too. Pretty sweet huh?

Jeanne also borrows large sums of money off the cardinal claiming that the money is for Marie Antoinette’s pet charities. Instead Jeanne used the money to worm her way further in at court. Rohan manages to obtain the necklace from the jewelers by showing them the forged letters from the Queen. When the necklace is safely procured, Jeanne gives it to her husband who takes it to London to sell off the stones. When the Cardinal presses Jeanne for why the Queen is not wearing the necklace, she claims that she wants to wait for a special moment. However, the Cardinal now owes the jewelers 400,000 francs, for the first installment on the payment plan. He needs that money from the Queen. Jeanne, cool as a cucumber, sells some of the diamonds to give to the Cardinal, claiming the money has come from the Queen. The Cardinal tries to renegotiate the terms with the jewelers regarding the payment, but Boehmer is not budging.

The story comes to light when the jeweler Charles Boehmer sends an invoice for the necklace to the palace which Marie Antoinette discards. Undaunted Boehmer comes to Versailles and speaks to Madame Campan, seeking payment for the necklace. He shows the Queen the forged letters allegedly signed by her and explains Cardinal de Rohan’s role in acquiring the necklace. The Queen is outraged, and demands satisfaction against this guy.

Okay, here's one of the big scenes. We have a screen shot to tell the audience that it is August 15, 1785, Assumption Day. The cardinal is arrested and brought before the King and Queen to explain himself. Rohan presents one of the letters to the King who becomes enraged that a prince could have allowed himself to be fooled. The crux of the whole thing is, get this, apparently Queen's only sign their name, and Villette signed all of the correspondance Marie Antoinette de France, which should have been a dead giveaway to Rohan. But Rohan is so desperate that he totally blanks on that.

Rohan is arrested and taken to the Bastille but he's smart enough to burn all the correspondence that he thought had come from the Queen. Jeanne was arrested three days later after burning all her papers. A short time later the other accomplices are rounded up and arrested de Villette, Cagliostro the magician, and the prostitute Nicole Leguay d’Oliva. Rétaux de Villete confesses that he had written the letters and forged the Queen’s signature.

We can have some great court room scenes here where Jeanne takes the stand on her behalf to plead her case. She gets one of her former lovers, Count Beugnot to defend her. Bam, Jeanne is found guilty and sentenced to be whipped, branded and imprisoned. The audience should totally be on her side by now. Hey, but don't worry. Even though she's to the prison at Salpêtrière, she escapes, dressed like a boy. She resurfaces in London where she wrote her memoirs. We'll close the film when a shot of her looking in the window of a book store at her memoirs.

* Okay, I totally made this memo up, but if you've seen the film, I'm not that far off, in Hollywood's depiction of The Affair of the Necklace.

The Countess actually claimed in her memoirs that the Queen used her, that she and the Queen were actually confidantes. That the plot to gain the necklace was the Queen's idea and she was just helping her out. Unfortunately for the Queen, it was too easy for the court to believe that she would be swayed by the charisma of someone like Jeanne de la Motte. Jeanne was exactly the type of person that the Queen palled around with when she first came to France, people who were only interested in advancing themselves, not real friends. The scene in the arbor with Cardinal de Rohan was straight out of Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro, a favorite play of both Jeanne and the Queen. Marie Antoinette played both the Countess of Almaviva and Rosina in productions in her theater at the Petit Trianon.

Jeanne de la Motte eventually died falling out of a hotel window, although there are rumors that she was killed by royalists. She died on August 23, 1791, two years before Marie Antoinette met her fate with the guillotine in Paris. Cardinal de Rohan survived the revolution dying in exile. Cagliostro was tried by the Inquisition. Only Nicolas de la Motte returned to Paris after the revolution. Jeanne is buried in London in St. Mary’s Churchyard, Lambeth.

The matter could have been handled quietly with little publicity but both the King and Queen insisted on a public trial. Breteuil, the chief minister, also wanted to see his rival, de Rohan brought down. Rumors flew around during the public trial that Jeanne and Marie Antoinette had been lovers, and that was why she had Jeanne be her intermediary with the Cardinal. Even though the Cardinal was stripped of his titles and banished after the trial, the damage was done. The Queen’s reputation was thoroughly destroyed as the public saw her as the guilty party. Many people believed that she had used de la Motte to avenge herself on the cardinal or that she and the Cardinal were secretly lovers and the whole Necklace affair was just a cover-up. The stress of the whole thing caused the Queen to go into premature labor several weeks early. She gave birth to her fourth child and second daughter, Sophie Helene Beatrix on July 9, 1785.


The Affair of the Necklace has often been cited as an important factor in the eventual French Revolution. While that might be stretching the truth a bit, it is true that the whole affair damaged the monarch tremendously and Marie Antoinette in particular. She was never able to shake off the image of the frivolous, pleasure loving Queen who perpetuated a fraud to further her own ends. The pamphlets and newspapers detailing salacious gossip about sexual scandals and expensive jewelry made the Queen seem out of touch to the ordinary citizenry of the country who were suffering.

Sources:

The Queen's Necklace - Frances Mossiker (the best book I believe on the whole convoluted affair. She uses the actual eyewitness accounts to tell the story.)

To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette - Carolly Erickson
Marie Antoinette: The Journey - Antonia Fraser
Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution - Caroline Weber

Misunderstood Queen: Marie Antoinette

This is a special post for me, because Marie Antoinette and I share a birthday, and from childhood I've been fascinated with the beautiful Queen who lost her head in the French Revolution. For along time Marie Antoinette suffered from the reputation as being nothing more than an empty-headed beautiful woman who famously declared to the masses, "Let them eat cake!" (Actually according to Antonia Fraser in her biography of the Queen, she never said this.)


But was she a victim of circumstances or did she contribute to the demise of the monarchy by her prolifigate and licentious behavior at court? Recently, several new biographies that are a little more sympathetic to Marie Antoinette have come out and Sophia Coppola's movie was released last year (which I saw on my birthday).

Marie Antoinette was born Maria Antonia on November 2, 1755 in the Hofburg Palance in Vienna, to Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Lorraine. Maria was the 15th of Maria Theresa's 16 children and the final girl. Called Antoine as a child, she was spoiled and petted by her family who could deny her nothing. She was blonde with porcelain skin and vivid blue eyes. The Hapsburg court was relaxed and convivial. Maria Antonia's parents were an actual love match which was rare in the 18th century, particularly among royalty where the most one could hope for was mutual tolerance.

The little Archduchesse's education was left in the hands of her governess who was happy to spend her time spoiling the high spirited girl instead of teaching her. Antoine spent more time playing than studying to the point that she was barely able to read and write in her native German. She did however excel in music, drawing and dancing. When Antoine was ten her father died suddenly. Her mother Maria Theresa wore mourning for the rest of her life, while she ruled Austria with her son Joseph, much to his dismay.

In order to cement an alliance with France, Maria Theresa arranged a marriage between Louis-Auguste and Antoine. Since her older sisters were either already married, disfigured by small pox or dead, Antoine was the only choice. Maria Theresa wanted the alliance in order to stave off the threat of Prussia. Antoine was given a crash course in French history and customs towards which she proved an indifferent student. Her teeth were also straightened to make her conform more to the French idea of beauty. Nothing could be done about her lack of a bosom however, except to hope that she would fill out more when she gave birth.

In April of 1770 when Antoine was still only 14, she was married by proxy to Louis-Auguste with her brother filling in as the groom. At the border to France, Antoine was stipped of her Austrian clothing and regarbed in clothing that was fashionable at the French court, transforming into Marie Antoinette. Even her little pug was taken away from her.

When Marie Antoinette first arrived in France, she was much loved by the French people. However, the aristocracy of France was another matter entirely. A marriage had been promoted between Louis Auguste and the House of Savoy, which would have been more pleasing to certain factions at court. Instead, Louis' two younger brothers married Savoy princesses.

Matters were not helped by the indifference of the Dauphin. At the time of their marriage, Louis was barely fifteen, fat, awkward and shy. He preferred hunting or working in his locksmith shop to spending time with his bride. And then there was the matter of providing an heir for France, a matter that took seven years to resolve. On numerous occasions, and as tactfully as possible, Marie Antoinette tried to bring up the subject of “living in the intimacy” required of their vows, as did his physicians. Finally in 1777, he finally managed the feat. But the impasse was resolved only when Marie Antoinette’s brother, the brusque Emperor Joseph II of Austria, arrived at Versailles to have a talk with his sister about her spendthrift ways. Joseph was digusted at the discovery, he wrote to his cadet, Archduke Leopold, in Vienna, that the King “has strong, perfectly satisfactory erections; he introduces his member, stays there without moving for about two minutes, withdraws without ejaculating but still erect, and bids goodnight.” If he had been there, he swore, he would have had Louis whipped “so that he would have come out of sheer rage like a donkey.”

Apart from the ongoing humiliation of having her bedsheets checked for blood, and her periods monitored by ambassadors to every court in Europe, the ordeal of Marie Antoinette’s prolonged virginity kept her in limbo. As long the marriage could be annulled, she had to cultivate an “appearance of credit” with the King. Cultivating the appearance of virtue might have been a more politic strategy, but Marie Antoinette chose to model her style and behavior on those of a royal paramour. Previous royal Queens had been nondescript and all but invisible. The French court was ruled by the Louis XIV's mistress en titre Madame de Montespan, and Louis XV's mistresses Madame de Pompadour and lastly Madame du Barry.


Court at Versailles was much more rigid than Marie Antoinette was used to. From the time she got up in the morning until she went to bed at night, she was never alone. The thought of which unnerved her. She wrote to her mother about how she despised being dressed by her ladies in waiting and having to eat meals in front of the public. Versailles was not unlike a small city state. It could hold up to 20,000 people. At any given time 3,000 Princes, courtesans, ministers and servants were in residence. Rival factions at court were constantly jockeying for position and favors with the King. The palace was a cesspool of disease, the corridors teemed with human waste and garbage. The palace was also open to anyone wishing to visit. Security, of course, was strict, but any subject, as long as he or she observed proper etiquette was allowed.

Marie Antoinette did herself no favors when she first arrived by refusing to speak to or acknowledge the King's mistress, Madame du Barry. Du Barry took it upon herself to gossip and backstab against the Dauphine until Marie Antoinette was persuaded to finally speak to her, an event that occured a year after she arrived at court. Much of Marie Antoinette's behavior at this time stemmed for her reaction to her marital frustration, her homesickness, and coping with the rigidity of court life. Behind her back, she was called L'Autrichienne, which could loosely be translated as Austrian bitch. Many of the nobility disliked her for no other reason than she was Austrian and foreign.

It didn't help that her mother was constantly sending her letters, criticizing her for her behavior, her failure to produce an heir, and exhorting her to remember her duty to Austria. Marie Antoinette complained to her mother that she had no influence, that the King was not willing to listen to her, because of his own Anti-Austrian sentiment.

As time went by, Marie Antoinette was openly rebellious. She chose her own friends from amongst the younger members of court, in particular the Duchesse de Polignac and the Princesse de Lamballe. She yawned and giggled her way through royal ceremonies. More time and effort was spent on her clothing and redecorating her rooms at court, all to stave off the inevitable boredom that must have been a constant companion. Marie Antoinette began going out alone, or with friends, venturing forth to Paris to attend the theater or balls disguised as ordinary citizens. She insisted on choosing her own clothes instead of having them just handed to her, and even whether or not to wear stays or corsets.

Marie Antoinette loved the outdoors, particularly hunting (probably the only thing that she and her husband had in common), despite the fact that it was considered masculine and too dangerous. She even defied her mother and her advisors by wearing breeches and riding astride like a man, instead of using a sidesaddle. When she had her portrait painted, dressed in her riding clothes, her mother was appalled. She said that it was the portrait of an actress not a future Queen.

In 1774, Louis XV, the Dauphin’s grandfather, died suddenly of smallpox, at sixty-four. “God help us,” nineteen-year-old Louis XVI exclaimed, “for we are too young to reign.” As Queen of France, Marie Antoinette had no official role, and no real political power. Her main role was to provide an heir or two to the throne. Four years later, Marie Antoinette finally presented her husband and France with a child, a daughter named Marie Therese Charlotte, the only member of the royal family to survive the revolution. Over the next several years, Marie gave birth to three more children, the longed for Dauphin who died young, Louis Charles (the fugure Louis XVII) and a daughter Sophie. Once her children were born, Marie Antoinette seemed to calm down, more settled and mature. She was a devoted and besotted mother to her children, and a good spouse to Louis. But the damage was done to her reputation.

18th Century France had no supermarket tabloids, instead they relied on pamphleteers to spread rumors and malicious gossip. Because the pamphlets were printed privately, they were too numerous for the government to surpress. Marie Antoinette was accused of everything from lesbian affairs to affairs with various men at court, including Count Hans Axel Fersen, a Swedish diplomat that Marie Antoinette had first met at court when they were both 18. There is no concrete evidence that they were indeed lovers, but they were certainly intimate friends, and Fersen was the architect behind a later rescue attempt for the Royal family. She was blamed for the country's financial problems, because of her extravagant lifestyle, despite the fact that one could argue that her extravagance provided employment for tradesmen, milliners, dressmakers, mantuamakers and others.

When Marie Antoinete began to favor the more natural chemise look which followed the natural shape of the body, she was accused of mounting an affront to the modesty and dignity of the monarchy. It seemed to confirm the rumors that she was indecent and immoral. The Affair of the Necklace was yet another nail in the coffin of the Queen's reputation, despite evidence that she had nothing to do with it. The Affair was dreamed up by Countess Jeanne de La Motte, and it involved a diamond necklace worth more than 1.6 million livres that was created for Madame du Barry. The King died before he could take possession or even pay for the necklace. The jewelers tried to entice Marie Antoinette, but she wisely refused to accept the necklace as a gift from her husband. He'd already given her the Petit Trianon, her private retreat on the grounds of Versaille where she could have privacy away from the Court to indulge in her love of theatricals and to spend time with her intimate court(which gave rise to even more scurrilous rumors about what went on there).

The Countess de la Motte used the Queen's name to get Cardinal de Rohun to purchase the necklace for her. The Cardinal complied in the hopes of getting into the Queen's good graces. When the scheme was revealed, the Queen demanded that the culprits be brought to justice at a trial to publicly clear her name. Unfortunately the trial did more damage, as the malicious rumors and gossip were brought up to reveal how easy it was for the Cardinal to be duped. The good will of the French people had already evaporated as the King's economic policies failed. When Louis was first crowned, there was hope that the new regime would bring new ideas and reforms to governing France. After awhile, the King seemed to lose interest in government.

In October of 1789, the Royal Family were forced to leave Versailles for the Tuileries. Two years later, the aborted rescue attempt occured. The plan might have succeeded if Marie Antoinette hadn't insisted on not being seperated from her children. Instead of several small coaches, they traveled in one cumbersome one. The Queen's brother awaited the Royal family just across the border, but they were caught at Varennes and brought back to Paris.

The monarchy was abolished in the fall of 1792 by the National Convention, declaring France a republic. In early 1793, after a short trial, Louis XVI was convicted of treason and beheaded. He was allowed one final meal with his family where he urged his young son and heir not to see revenge for his death. Shortly afterwards, Marie Antoinette's two children were taken from her. The Dauphin was fed alcohol and abused in an effort to force him to accuse his mother of incest at her trial in October.

After her husband's death, the Queen wore black in defiance. Her hair had turned white during her confinement and she may already have been dying from uterine cancer. All through her imprisonment, Marie Antoinette bore it stoically. She was a month away from her 38th birthday when she was taken from the prison of the Conciergerie, and paraded in an open oxcart to the scaffold in the Place de la Revolution. There was an eerie silence from the crowd along the route, the same people who probably screamed obscenities at her in 1789. Even on the scaffold, she apologized for stepping on the foot of her executioner. Dressed all in white, Marie Antoinette went to her death like the Queen that she was. Her son, Louis-Charles died in prison at the age of ten, alone and brutalized in the Temple prison, despite persistent rumors that he survived.

Marie Antoinette was an ordinary woman caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Her downfall was almost pre-ordained. The revolutionary spirit was over a hundred years in the making and it would have taken a stronger man than her husband to turn back the tide. Although Marie Antoinette's extravagance and willfullness maybe have contributed to the revolution, it was not the only cause. Perhaps if she had been better educated by not only her mother but also her husband's grandfather, she might have escaped the pitfalls that inevitably tripped her up.

Further reading:

Marie Antoinette: The Journey - Antonia Fraser

Sex with Queens - Eleanor Herman

To the Scafforld - Carrolly Erickson