Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Marie Antoinette was born into the House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful ruling families in Western civilization, whose scions controlled much of Europe starting in the 15th century. Marie Antoinette’s parents, Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, ruled the Holy Roman Empire (HRE), a sprawling territory that at its peak comprised what is today Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, and parts of France, Denmark, and Poland. During Marie Antoinette’s childhood, the HRE had been primarily reduced to Germany and Austria, which is why Fraser refers to her as Austrian or German, for instance, Fraser imagines Maria Theresa being concerned that Marie Antoinette “remai[n] a good German” (47) even while living at the French court.

Marie Antoinette came to France at the end of the ancien régime, the monarchical power structure that had ruled France from the 16th century. The ruling dynasty was the House of Bourbon, another powerful European royal family. Louis XIV, the most renowned of the Bourbon kings and Louis Auguste’s great-grandfather, built the famed palace at Versailles—a town about 16 miles outside of Paris—to consolidate power. By forcing nobles who wanted access to the throne to live there starting in the 1680s, he centralized the French government and reduced the influence of noble families over their estates and fiefdoms.