The trial declared La Motte guilty, casting doubt on the Queen and cementing her reputation as deceitful and extravagant. In the years that followed, France occupied itself with the question of how to recover from its political and economic stagnation.
For Marie Antoinette, the national emergency gathering momentum around her was clouded by personal tragedy. The death of their youngest daughter in was followed by that of their son and heir in June Facing mounting pressure from his nobles, on 8 May Louis XVI ordered the first meeting in years of the Estates General — the general assembly of the representatives of the clergy first estate ; the nobility second estate , and the common people third estate.
Louis hoped that this would allow the representatives of France the opportunity to discuss ways to overcome the increasing state debt. When Marie Antoinette arrived in France, the road ahead did not point irrevocably to revolution, but bad political choices, unfortunate climate conditions and ideological shifts at all levels of society conspired to ultimately undermine the monarchy. From the mids, an economy wracked by wartime taxations and bad harvests was further weakened by the failure of attempts at fiscal reform.
The effects of mounting debts and disasters were felt in rocketing food prices and growing poverty, and inspired no confidence in those in power — the royal tendency for flagrant extravagance did not help. The existing feudal hierarchy was increasingly questioned, and the vacillating and unsure stance taken by the King did nothing to restore faith.
As mistrust of elites and outsiders mounted, the wave of popular feeling increased. The growing print culture — political tracts, bawdy ballads, popular prints — ensured that the message was heard far and wide, and was a key uniting factor for the revolutionary cause.
The increasingly personal attacks on the royals, particularly Marie Antoinette, chipped away at the national consciousness, and in demystifying the monarchy, also facilitated its downfall. On 14 July , this climaxed with the Storming of the Bastille, a symbol of despotic rule, and triggered the spread of revolutionary action across France.
On 14 July , public opposition to the royal family reached its height, and the Bastille — a state prison in Paris — was stormed by an angry, armed mob. Several weeks later, thousands of people surrounded the Palace of Versailles, demanding political reforms and changes to the way in which the monarchy governed. The royal family was then imprisoned within the walls of Tuileries Palace in Paris by the revolutionary forces that opposed the monarchy.
As more people joined the revolutionary cause in Paris, and public opinion of the monarchy deteriorated further, in Marie planned to flee France with her family and find sanctuary in Austria. However, the family was captured while attempting to escape and was taken back to Paris. They faced hostile crowds of people in the streets upon their return. Amid mounting pressure from his political opponents, in September Louis XVI agreed to instigate a constitutional monarchy, and promised to share his political power with the French Assembly.
This failed to quell the rebellion, however: less than a year later, on 10 August , a gang of revolutionaries broke into Tuileries Palace, where the royal family was being kept under surveillance, and took Louis XVI and Marie prisoner.
Its exact origins are unclear, but the story existed long before Marie Antoinette became queen and was first attached to her 50 years after her death. The Republican government was determined to eradicate anyone who opposed the French Revolution. With the king and queen now under arrest, the National Convention ordered that the monarchy should be abolished — and France was officially declared a republic.
On 21 September , the Legislative Assembly in France voted for the monarchy to be abolished. Just four months later, after being put on trial by members of the new republican regime, Louis XVI was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Although the child spent his toddler years running through the gilded halls of Versailles, at 4, everything changed. That year, his older brother perished and Louis Charles became heir to the throne.
But the French Revolution also ruined the dauphin's life. Described by revolutionaries as the "son of a tyrant," Louis Charles was locked in a tower for years. For four years, Louis Charles lived in solitary confinement , separated from his family. His jailers mistreated him and forced the young boy to testify against his mother and aunt. During her trial, Marie Antoinette's accusers claimed she assaulted her own son, backed by false evidence from Louis Charles himself.
That evidence helped send Marie Antoinette to her end. But no one told Louis Charles that his mother had perished. Instead, the boy's jailers beat him as retribution for his royal blood. Infested with fleas and living in a cell filled with human waste, Louis Charles slowly went insane. During the French Revolution, Marie Therese was locked in a tower. From to , the teenage daughter of Marie Antoinette wasted away behind bars, locked in a cell near her brother, Louis Charles.
The siblings had no contact during those years, but Marie Therese could hear her brother crying when his jailers beat him. The young girl had two books in her cell, which she read again and again during her three-year imprisonment. One by one, Marie Therese's mother, aunt, and brother perished.
The jailers kept her family's fate hidden from Marie Therese. In December , after the Reign of Terror, the revolutionaries finally decided to release Marie Therese , the only surviving member of her family. She was sent to Austria to live with Marie Antoinette's family. In , Marie Antoinette went on trial. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.
France's queen said she thought about her son, Louis Charles, constantly. Marie Antoinette knew her child was imprisoned, which left her distressed. The queen had no contact with her children , who didn't even know their mother was on trial. Just before her demise, Marie Antoinette wrote to her sister-in-law, "I grieve bitterly at leaving my poor children; you know that I existed but for them and you.
Marie Antoinette gave birth to four children as the queen of France: two sons and two daughters. But only one of her children lived through the French Revolution. In , France's revolutionary assembly voted to send the royal family , including their young children, to a medieval fortress where jailers watched over them.
The House of Bourbon in Her nephew, who now styled himself as the comte de Chambord , and his sister joined her there. Her death happened three days after the fifty-eighth anniversary of the execution of her mother. Of all the children of Marie Antoinette, perhaps the biggest celebration over a birth happened when Louis-Joseph was born. She went into labor with him just as her husband was preparing to leave to go shooting on 22 October This time instead of an arduous twelve hour delivery, it took just two hours.
Everything went well but to ensure that no one knew the sex of the baby before the King, Louis had forbidden anyone from announcing it until he was personally informed. The king was overjoyed with the news and when the baby was given to his mother, she cradled him in her arms. The birth of the Dauphin was a joyous occasion for France. Frenchmen no longer had to worry about an heir to the throne and the king was so overcome he was practically speechless.
Unfortunately for all the joy over the birth Louis-Joseph was not a robust child. He had a short life and lived only about seven years. His decline began around the age of three when he suffered a series of high fevers.
He eventually recovered from them only to have them return in Yet, most people thought he was fine because no one understood at the time that he was showing the first signs of tuberculosis. The disease then progressed and by January things had worsened.
Marie Antoinette worried about her son and in a letter of 22 February wrote:. For some time he has had constant fevers and as a result is very thin and weak.
A bed was made up, although the ladies around him exchanged glances at the sight; it looked all too much like a lying -in-state of a corpse. Since he could no longer walk, a mechanical wheelchair upholstered in green velvet with white wool cushions was [also] installed.
Time marched on and he died at Meudon on 4 June At the time, the Estates General was meeting, and signals were surfacing that the outbreak of the French Revolution was imminent. A was customary his heart was put in an urn and his remains were placed in a crypt.
Unfortunately, a few years later, on 10 August , on order of the National Convention during the Reign of Terror, his tomb was desecrated, together with those of other kings and queens of France. He arrived on 27 March at in the morning and it was thought at the time that she was carrying twins because she was so large.
Nonetheless, she delivered a single boy who fortunately, unlike his older brother, had a strong constitution and was therefore delivered into the able hands of his new governess, the Duchess de Polignac. Seven-year-old Louis in portrait by Alexander Kucharsky. When Louis-Joseph died, 4-year-old Louis-Charles wept, along with his sister. He did not understand that he was now Dauphin, and that the future of France would one day rest in his hands.
Further, Marie Antoinette mentioned how the nation hardly seemed to mourn the loss of her first son. Although Louis-Charles was now Dauphin, he had one major flaw even from a young age.
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