Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser458 pages. Anchor Books $16.95
ISBN 0-307-27774-7
In her informative and page-turning work Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Antonia Fraser tells the real story of the legendary French queen who played many roles. As a child, Marie Antoinette was a political pawn of her power-hungry mother, Empress Maria Theresa of the Hapsburg Empire.
When she was 18, she became the young Queen of France. For the next decade the public mocked her for her lavish parties, clothes, and lifestyle. Then, eight years into her marriage, she finally produced an heir and became the Mother of France. Marie Antoinette’s life took a tragic turn with the Revolution of 1789. Within two years, the queen went from riches to ruins, from living in castles to being confined to prisons. After her husband was beheaded, she faced her own death on the scaffold. As part of the last true monarchy of France, Marie Antoinette’s story leaves an important mark on history.
Marie Antoinette was betrothed in 1769 to the Dauphin of France to create an unprecedented alliance between the Hapsburg Empire and the French. She left Vienna when she was 14 years old to meet Louis Auguste in Paris. When she crossed into the French border she performed a ceremony that symbolized rejecting her Austrian heritage to become a true French dauphine. Even though Marie Antoinette performed this ceremony, the people still considered her an outsider.
When Marie Antoinette arrived at Versailles she immediately tried to gain the favor of King Louis XV to appease her mother’s political motives. Even at her young age she knew that her future success in the Parisian court and role as a political influence depended on the King’s favor. When Louis XV passed away on May 10, 1774, Marie Antoinette lost an ally and a father figure. The new young King and Queen uttered the words, “Dear God, guide us and protect us we are too young to reign." Marie Antoinette was eighteen years old. Her husband had just turned twenty.
The foremost duty of a queen is to produce a male heir. Unfortunately, the obese and timid King Louis XVI was not interested in spreading his seed. In fact, it took seven years to consummate their marriage. To cope with her husband’s lack of affection, the 18-year-old queen created a lively social circle to entertain her with music, clothes, gambling and parties. Marie Antoinette suffered vicious attacks from the media for her lavish lifestyle. Pamphlets circulated spreading rumors that she was a lesbian and was unfaithful to both her husband and France. While there were rumors that the Queen had affairs with various men of the court, they never pegged the right courtier. Fraser found many documents that refer to a lifetime affair between the Queen and the handsome Count Ferson from Switzerland. However, the Queen and Ferson were so discreet that it is impossible to confirm an affair.
The people called her “l’austrichienne”, the Austrian, because of her attempts to be a political influence on her husband for Austria. Yet it was not until 1789 when King Louis XVI became so depressed he could not rule, that the queen became involved in the political arena.
In December of 1778 Marie Antoinette gave birth to a little girl, Marie Therese. A year later, she fulfilled her duty as Queen by producing a male heir. Sadly, the little boy was born with tuberculosis and died when he was seven years old. She gave birth to two more children, Louis Charles, who became the dauphin when his brother passed away, and one baby girl, Sophie, who died three weeks short of her first birthday.
Marie Antoinette entered a new phase of her life when she became a mother. Although she still hosted lavish parties, she was more interested in cultivating her family life. She created Le Petit Trianon, a small village that resembled the Austrian countryside, to spend time with her children away from the courtiers. Her relationship with Louis XVI became stronger with the birth of their children and they truly appeared to be a happy royal family.
Yet their happiness was cut short by the French people’s dissatisfaction with the monarchy. While the royal family was living a luxurious lifestyle, the people were suffering. Bread and oil shortages led to marches on Versailles and the people began to talk of forming a new type of government. Even though Marie Antoinette never pronounced the infamous words “let them eat cake” in the time of a bread crisis, she was labeled an ignorant and evil queen. In a sense, Marie Antoinette became the scapegoat of her husband’s weak rule. The people blamed her for everything, from the bread crisis to the government’s shrinking National Treasury. Instead of focusing on popular opinion, the queen held her head high and busied herself with her children’s education.
On October 6, 1789, a mob forced the king and queen to leave Versailles and live under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace. Within a matter of months Louis XVI was forced to sign away the monarchy. When the king felt he had no other option, he tried to escape with his family to Belgium. However, they were caught by a Nationalist guard in Varennes, a town next to the border of Belgium. The king and queen surrendered and returned to Paris followed by an angry mob.
The newly empowered National Assembly of France put the royal family in the Temple Tower, where they lived under tight security for over a year. On January 21, 1793 Louis XVI was taken from the Tower and beheaded in front of thousands of people in the royal square. Despite all of her sorrows, Marie Antoinette carried herself with dignity. After her husband was killed, Marie Antoinette was separated from her children and taken to an infamous prison called Le Concergerie where she was held until her trial. Marie Antoinette withstood 18-hour court days where she was accused of treason and sentenced to death. On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette was beheaded in the same royal square as her husband.
Fraser does an excellent job balancing the role of historian and novelist. She fills her book with historical information and makes it read like a page-turner at the same time. She also describes a different side of Marie Antoinette than other books. History has mainly painted Marie-Antoinette as an ignorant, selfish woman who had no interest in the welfare of the French. In reality, Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI were the most frugal of all the other royal families living at Versailles at the time. Interesting tidbits like this make Fraser’s book worth reading.
Director Sofia Coppola was so inspired by Marie Antoinette: The Journey that she based her 2006 movie, Marie Antoinette off of it. The movie stars Kirsten Dunst and won a 2006 Academy Award for Best Costume.
Fraser has a long interest in historical nonfiction. In 1968 she achieved her first literary success with Mary Queen of Scotts. For decades she continued to write about England’s past. She peaked in 2000 with this informative and page-turning work. I highly recommend reading Maria Antoinette: The Journey if you are at all interested in learning about the life of one of France’s most gossiped-about historical figures.
Just make sure you have the time… it is 458 pages!
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