Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Following the execution of Louis, Marie Antoinette was renamed the Widow Capet. She was held in relative isolation in the Tower with her children. She was permitted black cloth to make mourning clothes and was in a “near-catatonic state” (404).

After the execution of Louis XVI, royalist supporters unofficially hailed former Dauphin Louis Charles as King Louis XVII. Public fury against the royal family declined and it was expected that the Austrian government would pay a ransom for Marie and the children. However, Emperor Francis II was indifferent to their fate. Meanwhile, Marie’s health continued to decline. Fraser suggests that she may have had “cancer of the womb” (408) or another gynecological issue like fibroids.

In March, the Prussian military was driven out of France. As the National Assembly considered what to do with Marie Antoinette, Revolutionary leader Robespierre wanted her tried before a Revolutionary Tribunal. On July 3, Marie Antoinette was separated from Louis Charles in the Tower. The Revolutionaries took over the care of the obsequious Louis Charles, eventually turning him against his mother and sister.

On August 1, Marie Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie, the Parisian prison for anti-Revolutionaries, where she was surrounded by other prisoners like her.