MARIE ANTOINETTE DE LORRAINE, JOSEPHINE JEANNE, wife of Louis XVI. of ;France, was the votingest daughter of Francis I., emperor of Germany. Her mother was the famous Maria Theresa (q.v.). Marie Antoinette was born at Vienna, Nov. 2, 41755; at the age of 14 was betrothed to the dauphin ; and in the following year w-as married at Versailles. Her reception by her husband and the king, Louis .XV., was flattering enough; but her Austrian frankness and simplicity, her naYvete, unceremonions pleasantry, and detestation of rigid etiquette, scandalized Versailles. Soon after the :accession of Louis XVI. (May, 1774), libels were circulated by her enemies, accusing her of constant intrigues, not one of which has ever been proved. Her faults as a queen land, in that age, rapidly growing earnest, angry, and imbittered, they were fatal ones) were a certain levity of disposition, a girlish love of pleasure, banquets, fine dress, an aristocratic indifference to general opinion, and a lamentable incapacity to see the actual misery of France. The affair of the diamond necklace (q.v.) in 1785 hopelessly com promised her good name in the eye of the public, althOugh in. point of fact Marie .,Antoinette was quite innocent of any grave offense. Her political role was not more fortunate. Lomenie de Brienne and Calonne were ministers of her choice, and she shared the opprobrium called down upon them for their reckless squandering of the national finances. She strongly opposed tne assembly of the notables, and in the following year, of the states-general; and, indeed, she had good reason to dread their convocation, for one of the very first things the notables did was to declare the queen the cause of the .derangement of the finances. From the first hour of the revolution she was au object .of fanatical hatred to the mob of Paris. Her life was attempted at Versailles by a band
of assassins on the morning of Oct. 6, 1789, and she narrowly escaped.- After this she made some spasmodic efforts to gain the good-will of the populace by visiting. the great inanufactories of the capital, such as the Gobelins, and by seeming to take an interest in the labors of the workmen, but the time was gone by for such transparent shamming to succeed. The relentless populace only hated her the more. At last she resolved on flight. Her husband long refused to abandon his country, and she would not go without him. A dim sense of kingly dut3 and honor was not wanting to Louis, but after the mob stopped his coach (April 18,1791), and would not let him go to St. Cloud, he con sented. The flight took place on the night of the 20th June. Unfortunately, the royal fugitives were recognized, and captured at Varennes. From this time her attitude hecame heroic; but the French people could not rid themselves of the suspicion that she was secretly plotting with the allies for the invasion of the country. After the useless effort to defend the Tuileries (Aug. 10, 1792), she was confined in the Temple, separated from her family and friends, and subjected to most sickening hutniliations. On Aug. 1, 1793, she wts removed to the Conciergerie, by order of the convention, condemned by the revolutionary tribunal (Oct. 15), and guillotined next day. See Nemoires sur la vie _privee de Mai* Antoinette, by Mme. Campan (1823); Feuillet de Conches, Louis XVI., Mark Antoinette et Mdme. Elisabeth (1864-73) ; D'Arneth, Correspondance secrete entre Marie Therese et le Comte Mercy d' Argenteau, avec de,s lettres de Marie Therese et Marie Antoinette (2d ed., 1875); and Yonge, Life of Marie Antoinette (1876).