Marie Antoinette: The Journey

“Six months after the birth of Marie Antoinette, a radical change in the national alliances of Europe put an end to this surface tranquility. By the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 1 May 1756, Austria joined with her traditional enemy France in a defensive pact against Prussia. If either country was attacked, the other would come to its aid with an army specified to be 24,000 strong. No single event in Marie Antoinette’s childhood was to have a more profound influence on the course of her life than this alliance, forged while she was still in her cradle.”

Fraser characterizes Marie Antoinette’s life as one largely driven by historical factors outside of her control. She emphasizes this argument here by stating that the 1756 Treaty of Versailles between France and Austria—the most single important event of Marie Antoinette’s life—took place “while she was still in her cradle,” too young to have any influence over it.

“As one analyses the internal dynamics of the Habsburgs, the idyllic picture that was promoted by Maria Teresa, which Marie Antoinette obediently remembered, takes on a very different aspect. Even the female submission that the Empress preached contrasted rather oddly with much of her own perceivable behaviour.”

Marie Antoinette’s mother, Empress Maria Theresa, was one of the most formidable women monarchs in European history. Fraser uses her to emphasize the contradictory messages about The Power of Women at Court: While women were expected to be overtly obedient to their husbands, they were expected to be subtle political operators in their own right.

“Everyone knew that a glorious future beckoned for the youngest daughter of the Empress, for as in a fairy story, hers was to be the most splendid establishment of all. Or as Maria Teresa told Marie Antoinette: ‘If one is to consider only the greatness of your position, you are the happiest of your sisters and all princesses.’”

The phrase “fairy story” emphasizes the ironic distance between the expectations of Marie Antoinette’s life and its reality. This reference to folkloric princesses whose stories have happy endings contrasts with the tragic and grim ending of Marie Antoinette’s life.