61 comments


  • Marie Antoinette is the most interesting person to learn about for me. (besides Bob Marley) I always am so fascinated by her life and story, no matter how many times I read it, through different versions and such. But this version was most definitely the best, because it was so detailed and extremely accurate. So thank you for providing this, it helped my research paper tremendously.

    October 12, 2009
  • Susan Morgan – Writing has always been a part of my life, the only thing I ever really wanted to do. I started my professional career writing technical manuals but found marketing more to my liking. During my years in the traditional workplace I had the good fortune to work with some amazingly creative people, to learn and grow as a creative pro, to produce quality print catalogs of various sizes, effective, multi piece direct mail packages and some top notch, full page magazine ads. Taking the freelancing leap wasn't easy, but it did give me the chance to be home with my three children and do something I'd always wanted. I finished my first novel, Out of the Ordinary (published by booklocker in 2007) and got started on a second. I explored writing short stories — two won awards (in 2004, another in 2008). Plus I had time to devote to my personal blog where over 600 followers find a growing number of tart, irreverent blog entries.

    Susan

    Awesome post… and great insights on the whole thing. I too find Marie Antionette one of the most fascinating figures… so tragic and maligned.

    I’m not writing a paper, but I do find history fascinating and thank you for such a well researched and easy to understand account.

    Great job,
    Sue

    October 16, 2009
  • this really helped me with my research paper!!! thanks so much 🙂

    October 19, 2009
  • I just visited the smithsonian to see the Hope Diamond in person and it is absolutely GORGEOUS. This whole thing with me wanting to see it was watching that movie about the affair of the necklace and how the french blue was stolen during the revolution. I really was impressed with how beautiful the diamond is.

    November 03, 2009
  • sam

    shes the famous queen..even though i already read the book i always watching the film by Sofia Coppola even she changed the last part in it she was not beheaded they just escape the Versailles..

    November 27, 2009
  • sam

    im just wandering wheres now the necklace??and her glamorous gowns..?shes living with extravagance..

    November 27, 2009
  • thaanks for the information 🙂

    December 21, 2009
  • fox

    It helped me with my paper to

    January 04, 2010
  • I enjoyed this retelling of her life and death. I have just watched the movie by Sofia Coppola. I thought it was beautifully made. I do wish that it would have went further into the scandle and death of the Queen.

    I think that she was very young and had many obsticles facing her in her roll as the Future Queen and then as the Queen of France. I think she was blamed for the transgressions of others.

    A very interesting person in history.

    January 11, 2010
  • wow great telling.personally i am obsessed with marie antoinette.but sometimes i wonder if she really was the wrongly accused beautiful and sweet queen, or if she was evil and vindictive as lamotte claimed.i belive she was just extremely unlucky.everyone watch the 1st marie antoinette in black and white with Norma Shearer

    January 14, 2010
  • I would love to see that. I have yet to see the S. Coppola Version.
    She was wrongly accused of sexually abusing her son. There are no accounts of this since everybody and anybody were allowed in her chambers, even while giving birth.

    She was also accused of stealing money and sending it to Austria which did not occur as she likely didnt actually have access to fund to do so. She was house, furniture and clothing poor. Louis would have had to give her the money which he would not have done.

    She allegedly had an affair with a longtime friend which started when the king would not consumate their marriage for over 7 years. So you blame her if she did?

    January 17, 2010
  • Ann

    Very good account. Lamotte what a bitch? Did she ever repent her vileness? I wonder why she really hated the Queen, when did it start and how it was fueled?

    February 01, 2010
  • Very good account of information. I just watched the Coppala movie and it is not as detailed but then she does explain in the behind the sceens that it’s just her vision of Marie Antionette. Extremely interting,detailed website/article.

    The misinformation and proganda that lead to her demise and her families was started by Lamotte and her greediness. It’s not fair that someone with such good morals,high standards and great queen could die in such a way and that the deceiver could go on to live an extravagant life style.

    February 06, 2010
  • woooow! ive learned so much! i am exremely interested in this topic. ive learned about it in a video game and wanted to know if it was true or not. (parts of it was) Thank you for this.it has helpd alot for my research paper! i wonder if any guys hav read this… ( random much? lol ) wait. cody, i completly agree w u. i wonder if she was as evil as every1 thought or if she rlly was just a wrongly accusd beautiful lady (which othr chicks were jealous of). a mystery is wat Marie is. i also wonder if there is a dairy so ppl couldve seen wat her life was like. Wat SHE was like.
    -13 , Eliana

    February 26, 2010
  • I played that video game too! Haha
    thanks so much for the information, you pretty much saved my life on a history paper I’m writing! Impressed that it was impartial
    -stacy

    March 05, 2010
  • Marie was really dumb but stylish

    April 07, 2010
  • It is a very nice telling. thank you, i benefited and enjoyed reading it.i am happy all the time it took to read was fruitful. thank you very very much.

    April 08, 2010
  • just watched the movie with Hilary Swank (the affair of the necklace) loved it but the movie did not totally follow the above bio but then hollywood had to add a bit of juice

    April 29, 2010
  • One word: WOW 🙂

    June 15, 2010
  • I think you need to change and update this whole post. For one Marie Antoinette att the age of fourteen, on the day of her marriage to Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, she became Dauphine de France. She became Queen of France and Navarre in May 1774 at the age of 19. She had five children on 19 December 1778 Marie-Thérèse Charlotte first child and eldest daughter and the only Serviver of the immediate Royal Family to survive the French Revolution . She was also Queen of France for twenty minutes, in 1830 do to her husband and cousin. Then the was a discovery in there was a pregnancy in 1779. The memoirs of the queen’s lady-in-waiting, Madame Campan, state explicitly that the miscarriage came about after the queen exerted herself too strenuously in closing a window in her carriage, felt that she had hurt herself, and lost the child eight days later do to still birth. Campan adds that the king spent a morning consoling the queen at her bedside, and swore to secrecy all those who were aware of the accident. She also gave birth to Louis-Joseph-Xavier-François in 1781 and Louis-Charles in 1785, and a younger sister, Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix in 1786. It was also dicovered that Louis XVI of France her husband did not have any kind of surgery. did not receive the surgery. The Dauphine’s doctor, Jean-Marie Lassonne, examining the Dauphin in 1773, found him to be “well made”, and judged that the problem was one of “clumsiness and ignorance”.[9] This incident was followed several months later by the above-mentioned consummation of July 1773.[5] In addition, there is no record of the King’s receiving surgery, or of his spending several weeks convalescing, as would have been necessary. The fact that his hunting journals show no such break in activity, despite the impossibility of his sitting in a saddle for several weeks after such an operation, strongly suggests that he did not in fact have the surgery.[11]

    It has also been suggested, although her mother Maria-Theresa insisted otherwise, that the biological hindrance lay with Marie-Antoinette. Medical correspondence of the time stated that, though inexperienced, Louis was simply “too much of a gentleman” to bring himself to impregnate his young and slender mate. Some sources suggest that it was Marie-Antoinette who underwent some minor surgical operation, to relive her vaginal tightness, which then enabled the royal couple to consummate their union.[12]

    The true cause of the couple’s infertility might have been revealed in a letter written by Marie-Antoinette’s brother, Joseph II, to their other brother, Leopold II. In April 1777. Joseph visited Louis and Marie-Antoinette in France, and he had a frank talk with both of them regarding sexual matters. From this, he discovered that the King mated with his wife from a sense of royal duty rather than for the sexual pleasure. There was no problem with the King’s sexual organs: Joseph wrote, “he has strong perfectly satisfactory erections”, and “he sometimes has night-time emissions”. Their problem was reportedly that when the King and Queen had sexual intercourse, “he introduces the member, stays there without moving for about two minutes, withdraws without ejaculating but still erect, and bids goodnight…when he is inside and going at it…[ejaculation] never happens.” In the Emperor’s opinion, this couple consisted of “two complete blunderers”, who had nothing wrong with them aside from lack of sexual knowledge and meaningful desire to mate.[13]

    Joseph, it would appear, remedied the couple’s ignorance during his conversations with the two of them. By August, the marriage was finally consummated, and the pair had thanked him for his advice, to which they attributed the consummation.

    I am a Professor of French History. I think you should update and change this post because you are giving out false information.

    July 27, 2010
  • myrrhine

    Clare

    Thank you for your comments, this is your opinion, the article, specifically about the Diamond Necklace Affair, is the opinion of its author. Perhaps you would care to read the other articles on the site or join the forum if you wish to discuss these matters further?

    July 27, 2010
  • Marc Louis LeRoux – I am a retired doctor of chiropractic. In my time, I've raced motorcycles, won public speaking contests in high school, gone to college to carry on the family tradition, competed in competitive fencing on the national level, trained in equestrian sports, published professionally, and now as a private writer of historical fiction as a self-publisher, Blackhawk Enterprises, LLC.

    Marc Louis LeRoux

    To the professor of French history. I have reason to disbelieve your claim as a professor of history, because your details are correct. However, I am surprised at your poor spelling ability. Is it possible to become a professor (where) with such a deficit? Or do let us know if English is your second language.

    July 27, 2010
  • Marc Louis LeRoux – I am a retired doctor of chiropractic. In my time, I've raced motorcycles, won public speaking contests in high school, gone to college to carry on the family tradition, competed in competitive fencing on the national level, trained in equestrian sports, published professionally, and now as a private writer of historical fiction as a self-publisher, Blackhawk Enterprises, LLC.

    Marc Louis LeRoux

    I was reluctant to post this, but it is true – I had a great aunt whose first name was Marie Antoinette. Many ancestor males are named Louis and it is my middle name. In the years before I knew so much, I was still fascinated by this unfortunate queen. As I study history more (decades) I have come to feel a great sadness whenever the subject of the French Revolution comes up. It was such a horrible waste. It also seems to have begun a modern epic of uprisings, the excesses of which found their (hopefully) final expressions in Stalinist and Maoist purges in the 20th century. Today, French students riot at the drop of a hat. There seems to be a trained in reflex for mayhem built into French culture. That has been seized upon by some of their immigrants, who are now taking it to new dimensions. Violence is never good, but such excesses also create negative “traditions.”

    July 27, 2010
  • Thank you for this account of France before the official revolution.
    What I heard on a PBS special is that the queen in her situation
    of public humiliation and being defenseless (she was pelted with rotted
    and rotting vegetables while bound in the open cart) showed no emotion
    except a plain,perhaps slightly serene expression, on her way to
    the site that where she was beheaded. This woman was worthy
    of great position in life and was not arrogant if you ask me.
    While all events in one’s life can exhibit character and then rated as
    high or low character by others, it is telling of one’s character, in
    my opinion, at a profound level of geniuneness, when a man or woman
    is about to be executed and shamed by individuals living in the same
    country as the individual in question.

    August 11, 2010
  • Thank you for the information and details of this story,
    As a lingerie designer it has given me great inspiration for a new collection. Characterisation is going to be a key element in this for me, aswell as further research into historical facts on this story 🙂 something for me to be excited about.

    October 10, 2010
  • While I have no sympathy for Marie Antoinette and her extravagant lifestyle, I cannot justify Countess de Lamotte and Cardinal Rohan’s actions, why? Countess de Lamotte lied and stole just to have money, she is possibly one of the reasons the French Revolution began. Cardinal Rohan was a male, theoretically in those sexist times, he should have been smart enough to realize that he was beguiled by one of the most treacherous woman in all of history. Countess de Lamotte went to Marie Antoinette for money, when the queen took no notice of her, she besmirched the queen’s name and lied about her encounters with her, when the queen, in reality, had no idea until the scandal about her. Thankfully, she died two years before Marie Antoinette’s own beheading.

    October 10, 2010
  • Kim

    The writing in this story is terrible. It contains run-on sentences, misused words, and is lacking proper punctuation. There is a run-on sentence in the opening paragraph that simply gave me a headache. The section titled The Swindler switches between past and present tense. The queen wasn’t “meeting” out punishment but rather “meting”. “Road” is a noun, not a verb – you mean “rode”.

    In an attempt to sound more intelligent, you have only succeeded in shaming yourself. Please carefully re-read the story and make necessary corrections if you are going to continue to make this available to the public. If English is not your first language, have the story proofread by someone.

    October 19, 2010
  • myrrhine

    Clare

    Kim, your comment is nothing more than a pedantic rant about language. There is no shame for the author of this article, nor did the author compose it with a view to appearing intelligent. Did you understand the content of the article? I dare say you did. In an attempt to sound more intelligent, you have only succeeded in priggishness. Please come back when you’ve got something substantive to contribute.

    October 19, 2010
  • Kim

    Clare: I’m sorry that you think the author didn’t want to appear intelligent. Clearly you are defending either yourself or a friend; a noble effort on your part, however writing what contends to be a scholarly article used to imply that the author was educated in more than the subject at hand. Any high school graduate should know the difference between “rode” and “road”, as well as proper use of punctuation. By allowing poorly written essays such as this, regardless how clear their content, to be published in any medium, we are encouraging the continued decay of the English language. Knowing the subject does not excuse the author from conveying it appropriately. If the author takes pride in his/her research, he/she should also take pride in how it is reported.

    October 20, 2010
  • myrrhine

    Clare

    I am not the author. I maintain this website because I am interested in the subject, the author prefers to remain anonymous and has allowed the article to appear on the site to prompt discussion of the subject matter and to share their interest with other like-minded people. I did not say that the author does not wish to appear intelligent, I said that the article was not written with a view to appearing intelligent. On second thoughts however it’s not really a matter of “appearing” intelligent is it? But as I intimated in my original response, it would seem to me that you are more concerned with appearances than with anything of substance.

    Where does the article purport to be scholarly? In fact it is expressly stated on the about page that the articles on this website are not to be viewed as such. I quote from that page

    “The Marie Antoinette Online website has been online in one form or another for over 10 years. It began life as a collaboration between two individuals interested in the life and times of the famous Queen. Since then it has grown to include a forum and discussion about Marie Antoinette from a range of people including Marie Antoinette scholars, writers and those of us who are simply interested in and fascinated by Marie Antoinette as a woman and the France that she ruled over. …

    Many students visit our site as part of their explorations of Marie Antoinette for school projects right through to college and university papers. Please keep in mind that this is not an academic website. The content is written from the personal perspective of the authors who have offered us their contributions and we make no claims to academic rigor here. We recommend it as a great place for starting out your Marie Antoinette research, for figuring out what questions about her life and times you are most interested in and which controversies you think need further exploration. We strongly recommend that you seek out other sources, particularly primary source documents, paintings and illustrations, but also academic articles and texts to support the work you are doing for your assignments, projects and essays. You will find recommended books both here on the site and in the forum and links to other great resources which are more appropriate for academic research.”

    So, to reiterate, unless you’ve something substantive to discuss, buzz off.

    October 20, 2010
  • I suggest the author submit screenplays to Hollywood. Our Queen’s life was vastly different than the fabrication on this site.

    November 22, 2010
  • Excellent review!

    George Stuart’s vision of the necklace and the players are in the French Group of our website. Here is one image –

    http://www.galleryhistoricalfigures.com/Figurefull.php?abvrname=CntsLaMotteNeck

    December 15, 2010
  • Oh my God! These elegant jewelry are genuinely for soigne people like royalties! It was a superb necklace. Every woman would wish to be a royal blooded just to experience this kind of pleasures. I wish I’m also a queen. Living in luxurious place and wearing precious stones is every woman’s dream. Sigh.

    February 11, 2011
  • I agree with Clare about the horrendous butchering of the English language and spelling in the comments. I am seeing this more and more frequently and I fear we are becoming a nation of ignoramuses.
    I wonder why people who can’t speak any better have any interest in French history.

    February 26, 2011
  • I am doing a research paper for my history class and this entire website has been very helpful.

    March 30, 2011
  • [Edited for relevance]

    The article (whether fact-based or not) was fascinating, lively, and creative. I am descended from Drago of Mantes (henchman for William the Conqueror — Duke William of Normandy) and have a family history which dates back to 854 A.D. My ancestors owned what is referred to as “the Vexin”, a valuable but small spot of land about 20 miles from Paris. However, because of his usefulness in assassinating William’s English enemies (after the invasion of England), Drago (or Drogo) was awarded 72 manors/estates in England alone! (refered to in The Doomsday Book). My fascination with French history has never lagged & Marie Antoinette was someone I never tire of learning about. Keep up the good work!

    April 01, 2011
  • MARIE ANTOINETTE is my heroine in history. It’s interesting that there aren’t that many movies and films about her. The modern film by SOFIA COPPOLA was a joke! Ms. Coppola should stay away from biographical epics. The BEST movie ever amde about the Queen of France was the 1938 MGM tear-jerker starring NORMA SHEARER and TYRONE POWER. This film was highly underrated – it bombed at the box office and was never show in theatres again after its 1938 premier. But when MGM sold its film stock to television in the 1950’s a new generation got to meet the Queen. This film was the most expensive movie ever made by MGM until THE WIZARD OF OZ.

    April 17, 2011
  • Mia

    This article was fantastic, and has helped me greatly with my graduation project. I thank the people of this website for dedicating themselves for finding and displaying the most accurate information possible.
    One thing that bothers me is the constant criticism over the Sophia Coppola film. Many of you seem to be forgetting that it was meant to be an EMOTIONAL insight into the queen’s life. Never would I ever use the film for any school report, but I do respect it. If you want a POLITICAL exploration, go watch a documentary. I personally believe that it humanized her, but I digress…
    Once again, thank you for this article.

    May 07, 2011
  • In ancient Egyot, Queen Hatsepsut had to dress like a man in order to act as the Pharoah. St. Joan of Arc had to handle a lance and a sword in order to be believed as the leader of France in their fight to free France from the clutches of the invaders.Definitely, the French under Queen Marie Antoinette cannot take it upon themselves that she will starve her people and leave them impoverished and undignified! Cutting heads through guillotine may be barbaric but that taught the French a painful lesson in governance!

    June 07, 2011
  • hai
    i need help of this questing

    IF YOU WERE THE HUSBAND WOULD YOU HAVEDONE THE SAME?

    June 19, 2011
  • Thank you for the information. Well told and nicely presented.
    I do find Marie Antoinette an interesting figure to learn about (and I am not writing any papers or doing research). She somehow reminds me of Diana, both of them had an ‘unfortunate’ early marriage life, enjoyed the glamarous peaks of their lives and died a traggic death. Except Diana did charity work and Marie Antoinette let her people starve. ‘Let them eat cake!’

    July 15, 2011
  • To Greg May
    I do believe there’s a movie about her played by Kirsten Dunst. I’ve just re-watched it recently

    July 15, 2011
  • Rash, that film where the Queen was portrayed by Kirsten Dunst was the one produced by Sofia Coppola. Don’t you think it ended too abruptly? Did you know poor Marie Antoinette lost control of her bowels while on the way to the guillotine? She had to beg her executioner, Henri Sanson, to untie her hands so she could relieve herself.

    July 29, 2011
  • To Natalie “The English Professor”
    Copy and Paste much? Those numbers that appear at the end of your paragraphs are for for footnotes (citations). If you are indeed an “English Professor” then surely you know all about plagerism. Posts are for original ideas and thoughts. Do you make cheat sheets too?

    August 17, 2011
  • Eliza S Robinson – Eliza Robinson is a writer based in Glasgow, Scotland.

    eliza

    ok, mia, the sofia coppola film on marie antoinette says on the back its a chick flick, not an emotional thing, and its not emotional, it’s as bad as the libels, because it’s publisizing untrue rumors about somebody who was what everyone seems to be forgetting, a real person, just like everyone else. if you were maried to your cousin at the age of fourteen and had to live in a completely different country with a completelly different culture how would you feel? i know i probably sound kind of mean, but i greatly believe that marie antoinette was completelly miss understood through out her life, and so yes, she had a lot of money at her disposal, so she did what anyone would do and used it, and then it became her way of escaping all the things people were saying about her, because by spending her time making herself beautiful she wouldnt have to listen to what people were saying about her.
    also, this website has let complete crap missuse of information be published, and its unfair to the memory of marie antoinette, i am thirteen and i know more than the person who wrote this, how sad is that?
    i think what the world needs is, (this is going to sound like the ramblings of a silly teenage girl, but thats what i am so), to find a diary of marie antoinette buried somewhere so they can here her side, because i know for a fact that if people are talking about me in two hundred years (which i hope they are, cos i plan to be a historical writer), i would want it to be in a good way! and the s p film (sp sofia coppola, or stupid pathetic?) yes, it was a bloddy stupid chick flick, but the politics they did put in should at least have been correct, and why are there no political films about marie antoinette? and for the record, nobody should make a chick flick about somebody who gets there head chopped of, does anybody have a concience these days? also, they should have ended it so that the underknowledged film watchers should at least know how her life ends! and they should have got an actor for count ferson who had a small face and should have been wearing a white wig, but know, they couldnt even get that right because know one would simpathize with the lies made up about their main character if people looked how they actually did.

    August 21, 2011
  • Awesome Submission… and reflects great insights on the whole history. I Believe Marie Antoinette was one of those most eye-catching figures… so tragic in the end.I believe the was history enthralling and thanking you for such throughout research and easily understanding stuff.

    October 10, 2011
  • Great read! Back in the sixties I did a report on Marie Antoinette for my junior high history class. This lady has always intrigued me.

    October 21, 2011
  • Joe

    Thanks! This helped me with my research project!

    October 31, 2011
  • The story is lovely. Perhaps some of the inconsistencies in grammar or spelling come from a difference in the language spoken by those who submit articles and/or comments? It is often difficult to transition from one to the other with perfect fluidity. After all, there are a great deal of nations interested in French history, not just English and French speaking ones.

    February 18, 2012
  • Hi.
    I appreciate you for posting this useful content. Keep posting:-)

    February 22, 2012

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