Above: Marie Antoinette, dauphine of France and, later, queen consort (left).
The Palace of Versailles (right).
On this day in history, 16 May 1770, the ceremonial wedding of Dauphin Louis Auguste of France and his fiance, Marie Antoinette (formerly Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria), took place at the Palace of Versailles just outside of Paris, France. The future queen consort of France had actually only arrived at Versailles that very morning, and must have been swept away by the imposing grandeur of the palace, the most spectacular of its kind in Europe.
In 1765, the series of events leading to the Austrian archduchess' betrothal to the heir to the French throne had begun, when Marie Antoinette's father, the Austrian Emperor, had died of a stroke that year. Because of the deaths of several of her siblings from a smallpox epidemic, Marie Antoinette was the only available daughter for the fourteen-year old French dauphin Louis Auguste. Negotiations for a betrothal began, but as historians such as Caroline Weber point out, the rigorous standards of the French court meant that the prospective bride had to be considerably beautified and perfected to fit in with their exacting standards. Her crooked smile was cosmetically altered so that it would be "very beautiful and straight". The bride's dowry was set at 200,000 crowns and, as Weber states, Empress Maria Theresa, mother of Marie Antoinette, spent 400,000 livres on her youngest daughter's trosseau, far more than she had lavished on her other children.
Above: the future Louis XVI of France, husband of Marie Antoinette.
On 19 April 1770, aged fourteen, Marie Antoinette was married by proxy in the Church of the Augustine Friars in Vienna, Austria, where she had been baptised following her birth. On 7 May, nine days before her official marriage, the new French dauphine was handed over to her French relations on a French island near Kehl, the ceremonial halfway point between the Austrian empire and France. Marie Antoinette was acquainted with her new husband's family, including his amorous grandfather Louis XV of France, the king's daughters Mesdames Adelaide, Victoire, and Sophie, and her future brothers-in-law. On 16 May, she arrived at Versailles, and was married that same day.
The dauphine was dressed in a lavish gown of white cloth-of-silver, which as Weber remarks was the traditionally prescribed material for the wedding gown of a dauphine. It was enhanced by gorgeous diamonds which Marie Antoinette had received from her formidable mother, Empress Maria Theresa, as wedding gifts. However, the wedding gown was far too small in its bodice, which meant that there was, according to one observer, "quite a broad stripe of lacing and shift quite visible". Black thunderclouds filled the summer sky and were perceived to be an ominous omen, according to the Duc de Richelieu. Despite the problems with her wedding dress, Marie Antoinette "cut a breathtaking figure as she made her way to the King's Chapel" (Weber). As Mademoiselle Cosson de la Cressonniere wrote:
Bearing the wishes of her court,
She comes, by noble marriage led;
'Tis Psyche in the bloom of youth
Conducted here to Cupid's bed.
Although the dauphine appeared graceful and elegant, her teenage husband was seen to tremble excessively during the wedding service and blushed when he passed his new wife the wedding ring. At the wedding meal, he ate with gusto, in contrast to Marie Antoinette who ate barely anything, instead appearing as "a statue of Beauty". Clearly, the rigorous lessons she had undertaken in her youth in grace, charm and sophistication had paid dividends in what was, thus far, the most important ceremony and occasion of her life. Following the wedding service and public dinner, the royal couple were publicly put to bed "before the whole world". However, the newlyweds did not consummate their wedding that night. Royal ambassadors learned of this embarrassing detail the following morning and hastily informed their royal masters of this scandalous fact. Marie Antoinette was later to admit that her new husband had not even touched her hand. As Marie Antoinette's biographer Antonia Fraser states, the lack of consummation was to plague the reputation of both Louis and Marie Antoinette for seven years to come.
Thus it was that this tragic teenage couple were married at Versailles in 1770. Surely no one could then have foreseen that, only twenty-three years later, both these figures would be dead, brutally guillotined in the wake of a bloodthirsty Revolution that swept France and enacted devastating and unprecedented change.
Above: the marriage of Mary Tudor, former queen of France, and Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, took place on 13 May 1515.
On this day in history, 13 May 1515, the marriage between Mary Tudor, formerly queen consort of France, to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk and close friend of Henry VIII, took place. Their marriage was a love match and it caused considerable controversy, for Mary's first marriage to the French king, Louis XII, had only recently ended through his death, and Brandon was not royal. Nor had Mary asked her brother, Henry VIII, for permission to marry.
Mary was the youngest surviving daughter of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, and Elizabeth of York. She was born on 18 March 1496 at Richmond Palace in Surrey, reportedly her father's favourite residence. The humanist scholar described the youthful Tudor princess as extremely "beautiful". Her charm and beauty was famous in Europe. The Venetian ambassador was to describe her at the time of her marriage, when she was eighteen, as being 'tall, slender, grey-eyed', in short, 'a Paradise'. A French observer further commented that Mary was 'one of the most beautiful young women in the world'. She had long, red-golden hair and blue eyes. She closely resembled her elder brother, Henry, in looks, and like him she had a fiery temper and could be stubborn and determined, as her pursuit of Brandon demonstrated.
Above: Mary Tudor, the French queen consort.
Although, as a child, Mary had been betrothed to Charles, the future Holy Roman Emperor, and had been groomed for a glorious future as archduchess of Burgundy and princess of Castile, her brother Henry VIII decided to marry her off to his ally, the French king, Louis XII, who was aged in his fifties and had been married twice previously, when relations with the Habsburgs fell into disrepute. In the autumn of 1514, the eighteen-year old Princess Mary was betrothed to a man aged approximately 34 years older than her. Although this might seem shocking to modern sensibilities, it was completely usual for the time, especially for royalty. Mary's later husband, Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, married Katherine Willoughby when Katherine was aged only fourteen and he was aged forty-nine, and Henry VIII, aged forty-nine, married the sixteen-year old Katherine Howard in 1540.
Traditionally, especially in popular culture, Mary has been depicted as a petulant teenager who adamantly refused to marry the elderly French king. When Henry VIII informed her that she had no choice, she allegedly made a bargain with him in which he agreed that, were the French king to die, Mary would be able to marry whomever she liked. However, as historian David Loades states, there is no record of Mary's feelings about her French bridegroom and no such record of any bargain.
Above: Anne Boleyn was briefly attendant to Queen Mary Tudor in 1514, and some nineteen years later, was to become her sister-in-law.
On 9 October, having arrived in France, Mary's marriage to King Louis was celebrated with elaborate ceremony at pomp. On 5 November, Mary was crowned at St. Denis. Unhappiness surfaced, however, when the new French queen's English entourage was by and large dismissed. She was, however, left with one notable attendant - a young English girl (possibly aged as young as six, but more probably twelve or thirteen) named Anne Boleyn, who would nineteen years later, for a very brief spell, become Mary's sister-in-law, but no-one could have foreseen that in 1514. Mary soon felt isolated and vulnerable, and the teenage queen, alone in a foreign land, soon began writing despairing letters to her brother, the King of England. Mary's unhappiness was not to last long, however, for on 1 January 1515, after barely three months of marriage, the ailing and exhausted Louis died, allegedly of being danced to death by his energetic queen.
Above: Louis XII of France, first husband of Mary Tudor.
Following Louis XII's death, Mary's name was soon being linked to that of the duke of Savoy and the duke of Lorraine, for her royal blood, youth and beauty made her an excellent prospect. Whether Mary had been in love with Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, before she had sailed to France, or whether it was an infatuation that developed when Brandon led a delegation of honour to France after the queen's coronation, is impossible to say. It seems, however, that both had strong feelings of passion for one another, and according to Loades, in February 1515 the eighteen-year old dowager queen 'virtually forced him to marry her secretly'. Henry VIII was furious, for not only had Mary not asked for his permission to remarry, but Brandon had married a princess of the blood without royal permission, and which constituted an act of treason. The couple were forced to pay a hefty fine in order to attain royal forgiveness.
On this day, 13 May 1515, three months after their secret union, Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor wed publicly at Greenwich Palace, having arrived safely back in England. Thus, barely six months after being crowned Queen of France, the youngest Tudor princess became Duchess of Suffolk. While Charles was to play an important role at court, thereafter Mary visited court only intermittently. She bore Charles four children: Henry (who died young), Frances Brandon (the mother of Lady Jane Grey), Eleanor Brandon and a second Henry Brandon.
The nature of the Suffolks' marriage is impossible to pinpoint, but romantic tradition and the available historical evidence indicates that it was, at least initially, a love match. On 25 June 1533, Mary died aged thirty-seven, and it is possible that she died estranged from Henry VIII, for she had vocally disapproved of his second marriage to Anne Boleyn, her former maid of honour. Part of this dislike and resentment of Anne may have been because of Mary's closeness with Katherine of Aragon.
As David Loades concludes, Mary Tudor's main importance lies in her 'claim to the English throne that she transmitted via her elder daughter, Frances, to Jane and Katherine Grey, Frances's daughters from her marriage to Henry Grey, seventh marquess of Dorset'. When Charles and Mary wed in 1515, two headstrong young lovers, it is almost certain that they could never then have envisaged that, forty years later, their granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey, would become queen of England - albeit for only thirteen days.
Above: Lady Jane Grey, queen of England, and granddaughter of Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor.
Above: Marie Antoinette, 1783.
On this day in history, 16 October 1793, the thirty-eight year old Marie Antoinette, former Archduchess of Austria and more famously queen of France as consort of Louis XVI, was executed during the bloody and brutal French Revolution then ravaging the country. In Simon Sebag Montefiore, Marie Antoinette was 'a woman more sinned against than sinning'. But Eric Konigssberg intriguingly argues that 'the image of Marie Antoinette - dauphine, villain, tea-party thrower in shepherdess garb - is in the midst of an extreme rehab', and she holds a central and fascinating place in popular culture. Her life was compelling, extraordinary, and ultimately, highly tragic. She in no way deserved her fate, for what crime did she actually commit? In Marie Antoinette's case, it was a brutal but tragic fact that she was, put simply, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Many misconceptions and scandals still attach themselves to the French queen's name, most famously the nonsensical rumour that she coldly claimed in regards to starving peasants: "Let them eat cake". It is perhaps more worthwhile to consider the facts of her life rather than the sensational dramas. Born on 2 November 1755 to the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his formidable wife Maria Theresa, empress, she was the fifteenth child of this illustrious union and, from the very first, would have been very well aware of her worth in European dynastic politics.
Above: Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria; the glamorous palace where Marie Antoinette was born.
Marie Antoinette appears to have enjoyed not only a luxurious but also a protective and peaceful childhood surrounded by her many sisters, with whom she was close, especially Maria Carolina; although Marie Antoinette regarded her mother in awe perhaps even fear. As Antonia Fraser suggests, however, she was probably not academic, and was not noted for her linguistic capabilities in a country in which French, German, and Italian were commonly spoken. She appears though to have had some natural talent in regards to art, and was musically gifted, playing the harpsichord, spinet, harp and clavichord. Her beauty and grace were commended by visitors.
In May 1770, the fourteen-year old Marie Antoinette married the Dauphin of France, Louis, in the Palace of Versailles, although famously the marriage was not consummated, and would not be for several anxious years. At this point, Marie Antoinette due to her beauty and graceful nature was popular with her new subjects. Her portraits at this stage depict a youthful, charming, sweet young girl blossoming within her new country.
Above: Marie Antoinette, aged 13.
But the prevailing tensions between Austria and France rendered the marriage unpopular among courtiers, who resented the alliance, and which was to become increasingly unpopular during the coming years. Marie Antoinette's unorthodox dislike of court protocol rendered her open to ridicule. Her relationships were also unpopular, particularly with women such as the duchesse de Polignac, which was later sensationalised and distorted into a supposed lesbian affair.
Her failure, in the early years of her marriage as Queen of France, to become pregnant, while other royal women such as the comtesse d'Artois were able to bear sons, exposed Marie Antoinette to doubt, anxiety, and ridicule. Satirical pamphlets were published which criticised the king's alleged impotence and claimed that the queen was a whore who sought sexual fulfilment elsewhere with both men and women. This cruelty and anxiety led Marie Antoinette to spend lavishly on fashion, expanding her wardrobe and becoming something of an icon, while earning a reputation as a party-loving queen, renovating the Petit Trianon which soon became associated with her alleged extravagance. Finally, however, in 1778 the queen fell pregnant, and gave birth to her first daughter in December. Still the need for a male heir continued.
In 1781, the twenty-six year old queen finally bore a son, Louis Joseph Xavier Francois. Despite this celebratory event, Marie Antoinette remained uninvolved in political affairs, although she continued to be blamed for allegedly subjecting France to the authority of her home country, Austria. As a result, she began to take an increasingly active role in the upbringing of her children, and in 1785 gave birth to a second son, Louis Charles. The baby was rumoured to be illegitimate, the child of a sordid union between the queen and her favourite, Fersen. By then, the queen's unpopular image among her subjects was rapidly worsening.
Above: state portrait of Marie Antoinette and her children, 1787.
The worsening financial situation in France forced the calling of the Assembly of Notables after a hiatus of 160 years, although it served little good, instead defying the king. At this stage Marie Antoinette became more closely involved in politics, especially on her children's behalf as they grew older. She actively created an image of herself, as preserved in the 1787 painting above, as a caring and dutiful mother. Later, the seven-year old Dauphin died, a tragic and devastating affair which broke the queen's heart, although her subjects were not particularly sympathetic as they grew increasingly bloodthirsty and resentful.
As the National Assembly demanded more rights, the monarchy slowly but surely became more undermined as an institution due to the king's incompetence and the queen's unpopularity amongst her subjects. As the French Revolution evolved, the royal family's position became greatly dangerous, particularly with the advent of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Their friends, including the comte d'Artois and the duchesse de Polignac, escaped abroad due to fear of assassination. Marie Antoinette continued to be harshly and hostilely criticised in satirical pamphlets, which claimed that she was involved in love affairs with the marquis de La Fayette. The worst of the pamphlets suggested that she had even slept with her own son. Clearly, a cruel and untruthful image was being created of the queen, attacking her through her gender, sexuality and political position. There was no credence to any of these spiteful rumours.
Summarising these complex events in brief, Louis was executed in January 1793, although not without dissent and controversy. How this personally affected his wife can only be imagined, but the last scene between husband, wife and children was poignant and tragic. Marie Antoinette's unpopularity had severely worsened with the declaration of war with Austria the preceding year; her status as enemy of the country was now clear to her subjects as never before. She was imprisoned in August 1793 following her incarceration in the Tower. On 14 October, she was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, and was accused of the vilest and most untrue of crimes: orchestrating Versailles orgies, sexually abusing her son, declaring her son to be the new king of France following her husband's execution, sending millions of livre money to Austria, and orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards the previous year. Nonetheless, she remained dignified and answered the charges related to her, but to no avail. She was declared guilty and sentenced to death.
Above: Marie Antoinette's execution, 16 October 1793.
Her hair having been cut off, the former French queen was publicly driven through Paris in an open cart to the execution site, and at 12.15pm, aged thirty-eight, she was guillotined at the Place de la Concorde (Revolution), just one of thousands of innocent victims brutally slaughtered during the Revolution. Dressed in white, Marie Antoinette's outfit made, in the words of Gareth Russell, 'a dazzlingly significant statement to those who had come to watch her die'. Her kindness, charity and goodwill were remembered and immortalised by those loyal to her cause, while others continued to slander her and belittle her after her death. She remains a contentious and controversial figure in modern society today, associated with extravagance, luxury, the ill-fate of rule, the French Revolution, fashion, to name but a few. Maxime de la Rocheterie fittingly wrote of her:
'She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart...'
RIP Marie Antoinette. She deserved better than the cruel, bloody fate she met reservedly and calmly on that warm October day, deserted by her subjects, lost to her husband, separated from her children. Although she may not have been the most effective queen of France, the appalling political and social circumstances which were in place during her rule condemned any attempts she made at being a good queen. We should remember her with fairness, honesty, and integrity. She deserved understanding and compassion not afforded by her resentful subjects during an ill-fated, and ultimately tragic, reign as queen of France.
