(1755–93). The wife of the French King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette contributed to the popular unrest that led to the French Revolution in 1789. Marie Antoinette stood for everything that the people of France disliked about the royal family. According to one story, when she was told that the poor had no bread to eat, she coldly answered, “Let them eat cake!”

Early life

Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on November 2, 1755. She was the 11th daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. Austria and France had been longtime enemies before they signed a treaty of friendship in 1756. In order to strengthen this treaty, Maria Theresa married her daughter to Louis XVI, heir to the French throne. The marriage took place in 1770. Marie Antoinette was 15 years old, and her husband was only 16.

Before the revolution

Louis XVI became king of France in 1774. At the time, France was a feudal society. This means that the aristocracy, or noble class, owned the land, and the peasants paid to farm the land. By the late 1700s the peasants had become less willing to support this system. France had the largest population in Europe, and the French people did not have enough food to eat. The country was also running out of money because the French had spent a great deal to help the colonists during the American Revolution. Even though the French people were suffering, the king and queen spent large amounts of money to pay for their expensive lifestyle.

Between August and September 1789, there were attempts to end feudalism and limit the powers of the royal family and the noble class. Marie Antoinette convinced Louis to resist these attempts. As a result, she became the main target of the revolutionaries.

Events of the revolution

On October 5, 1789, after the French Revolution had begun, a large crowd of Parisian men and women walked from Paris to the palace at Versailles to make their demands to the king. They forced the royal family to return to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. There the revolutionaries held the king and queen hostage.

In 1791, Marie secretly contacted a group of nobles who had fled before the beginning of the revolution. These nobles arranged for the king and queen to escape from Paris on the night of June 20, 1791. The revolutionaries, however, caught up with them at Varennes and took them back to Paris.

Imprisonment and death

Marie then tried to save the monarchy. She asked her brother Leopold II of Austria for help. An Austrian commander threatened to destroy Paris if the royal family was put in danger. This angered the people of Paris. It also led to the capture of the Palace of the Tuileries on August 10, 1792. The royal family was put in prison. On September 21, France was declared a republic.

Louis XVI was beheaded on January 21, 1793. On October 14, the queen was tried and found guilty of treason, or betraying the trust of the people. She was beheaded on October 16, 1793.