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. Adjoining the palace were thousands of acres of land that served as hunting grounds and leisure gardens; other royal properties were built nearby, including the palaces Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, and the Chateau de Marly.

The marriage of Marie Antoinette and Dauphin Louis Auguste ended a centuries-long Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry. From the 15th century on, France found itself territorially threatened by the ever-expanding HRE, fighting off the Habsburgs in conflicts including the Italian Wars (1494–1559) and the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). Because the Austrians were seen as the traditional rivals of the French by the public and the royal family alike, Marie Antoinette’s entrance into the French court proved particularly difficult.

Louis Auguste’s grandfather, King Louis XV, wanted to ally with the HRE because France was financially imperiled due to ongoing wars with England, such as the French and Indian War in North America (1754–1763), which resulted in the loss of France’s Canadian colonies. It was hoped that cementing France’s alliance with the wealthy and powerful Habsburgs through marriage would provide financial stability.

When he ascended the throne, Louis XVI proved to be a poor politician. His attempts to balance the budget failed, and his response to popular demands for democratization was too slow and tepid to quell unrest. The resulting French Revolution ended the monarchy and the ancien régime by beheading Louis XVI in 1792 and Marie Antoinette soon after.