July1st
Marie Antoinette was the beautiful Queen of France who became a symbol for the wanton extravagance of the 18th century monarchy, and was stripped of her riches and finery, imprisoned and beheaded by her own subjects during the French Revolution that began in 1789.
January10th
How did the French Revolution begin? With the fall of the Bastille. Similarly – How did the American Revolution begin? – With shots fired at Lexington and Concord.
Those are the stock answers, but neither marked the first act of open defiance against the crown. Americans would say the Boston Tea Party or Boston Massacre or Stamp Act riots marked that.
Frenchman may say the erosion of royal authority that overthrew France’s social order began with the Estates General in 1789, but before that the first event to both rock the foundation of monarchy and also display open defiance of royal authority was the “Diamond Necklace Affair” or the “Affair of the Queen’s Necklace”.
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January14th
She is the queen who danced while the people starved; who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects’ plight. Such is the distorted but widespread view of Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France (1755-1793), wife of King Louis XVI. The recent Coppola film has further damaged the image of the much-maligned, beautiful and charming Austrian archduchess, sent to France at age fourteen to marry the fifteen-year-old Dauphin. Sadly, the picture many people now have of Marie-Antoinette is of her running through Versailles with a glass of champagne in her hand, eating bonbons all day long, and rolling in the bushes with a lover.
An article by E.M. Vidal
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January13th
Come ebbe inizio la Rivoluzione Francese? Con la presa della Bastiglia. E ancora – come ebbe inizio la Rivoluzione Americana? Con gli scontri di Lexington e Concord.
Queste sono le risposte di routine, ma nessuno dei due eventi segnò il primo vero atto di sfida contro la Corona.
Translated by Max Gilardenghi
January13th
Maria Antonietta fu la bella Regina di Francia divenuta simbolo dell’irrefrenabile stravaganza della monarchia settecentesca, che fu privata delle sue ricchezze e raffinatezze, imprigionata e giustiziata dai suoi sudditi durante la Rivoluzione Francese del 1789.
Translated by Max Gilardenghi
