Marie Antionette

[mdmroyale]

I need help getting more info on Marie Antoinette. I'm trying to defend her against some guy please help!!!!!!!

[royalcello]

Mdmroyale, if you're talking about this discussion on my forum, I can assure you that my friend Gareth is not "against" Marie Antoinette.  He is merely arguing that as a young woman she was not particularly pious, which seems to me to be true.  I like Elena Maria Vidal's Trianon too, but it is not infallible.

Certainly Marie Antoinette faced her downfall, imprisonment and death with heroic faith and virtue, and I hope that she is canonized someday.  But I also think that if one accepts that there was perhaps a bit more to the young Marie Antoinette than the thoroughly saintly picture painted by Vidal, the real woman that emerges is more fascinating and likable than if she were perfect.  

It's also worth noting that Trianon begins its narrative in 1787, after the relatively "frivolous" period of the queen's life was over.

[mdmroyale]

As I said on your forum I am sorry for getting carried away, you may see that I edited my first post I did that because it really wasn't that bad. agian sorry

 

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[CampeadorShin]

I heard that the whole "let them eat cake" mentality was made up to make her look bad.

[royalcello]

I heard that the whole "let them eat cake" mentality was made up to make her look bad.

Yes, that's true.  She never said it.   Wikipedia seems reliable on this point:

Louis XVI's coronation took place at Rheims during the height of a bread shortage in Paris. This is the context in which she is incorrectly quoted as joking, "If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!" ("Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.") There is no evidence that this phrase was ever uttered by Marie Antoinette. When Marie Antoinette actually heard about the bread shortage she wrote, "It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation."

[GrumpyTroll]

That is much like the widespread myth that on the day of the prise de la Bastille, the 14 July 1789 (which gave us French our national celebration of the revolutionary mass-murderers), Louis XVI wrote in his diary: "Rien", that is, "nothing"; the "diary" in question is in fact his hunting notebook. Ah, French history teachers …

Besides, the people of Paris were asking for bread, because the "popular" Revolution had pushed the price of commodities "through the roof", so to say.