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  • Marie Antoinette – A Biography

    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.

    As her life began, there was little hint of this total reversal of life’s fortunes. Marie Antoinette was born in 1755 at the very apex of the European social pyramid.

    Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, the Later Queen Marie Antoinette of France, at the Age of 16 (1771) by Joseph Kreutzinger. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

    She was born a princess and archduchess, the 15th daughter of Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria. The Hapsburg house of Austria was the oldest royal house of Europe, and the young princess enjoyed the relaxed environment of the Schönbrunn Palace and the indulgence of tutors her parents, brothers and sisters.

    Maria Teresa was a famous Austrian empress who counted among her many accomplishments her ability to marry her many children in ways strategic to the Austrian empire. So it was with Marie Antoinette. For this daughter, she arranged a special marriage to cement the new alliance with France that she had concluded with Louis XV. So, Marie Antoinette was to leave Austria for the most prestigious throne in all of Europe.

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  • The Diamond Necklace Affair

    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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  • A Reputation in Shreds

    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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  • L’Affare della Collana

    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.

    Quest’articolo racconta i fatti avvenuti. L’evento, che aprì la strada la Rivoluzione Francese, fu uno dei più noti scandali pubblici della Storia. Grandi fortune accumulate e perdute, cupidigia, mistero ed intrighi ne furono gli ingredienti; durante il suo svolgimento, i vertici della società francese stettero l’uno contro l’altro, ma alla fine la monarchia ne uscì danneggiata a scapito di entrambi e la reputazione della seconda più alta carica della monarchia francese fu distrutta completamente. La storia comincia con tre giocatori; il primo è quella famosa carica pubblica – la Regina di Francia: Maria Antonietta. Ed è proprio in questa sventurata figura della storia di Francia che questa storia ha la sua causa, il suo credito e il suo richiamo.

    Translated by Max Gilardenghi

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  • Maria Antonietta: Biografia

    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

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