Born: November 2, 1755, Vienna, Austria
Died: October 16, 1793, Paris, France
Marie-Antoinette was the queen consort of Louis XVI of France; her unpopularity helped discredit the monarchy in the period before the French Revolution. Born in Vienna on November 2, 1755, Marie-Antoinette was one of the daughters of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. Her marriage to Louis, the heir to the French throne, was intended to cement an alliance between France and her parents’ dynasty, the Habsburgs of Austria. She and her husband had a daughter and two sons after he had succeeded to the throne in 1774. Disliked by the French as a foreigner, she made herself more unpopular by her devotion to the interests of Austria, the bad reputations of some of her friends, and her extravagance, which was mistakenly blamed for the financial problems of the French government. Especially damaging was her supposed connection with the so-called Diamond Necklace affair, a scandal involving the fraudulent purchase of some jewels. After the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, Marie-Antoinette sided with the intransigents at court who opposed compromise with the moderate revolutionaries, and began appealing for help to her brother, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. Marie and Louis tried to escape from Paris with their surviving son in 1791, but they were captured and brought back prisoners. In 1792, the monarchy was overthrown, and after the execution of the king and separation from her son, she was sent before the revolutionary tribunal the following year. Sentenced to death for treason, she was guillotined in Paris on October 16, 1793.
