Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Marie Antoinette hoped that her family would rescue her, but they never did.

In the Conciergerie, Marie Antoinette was permitted some small luxuries, like mineral water and a private cell. She was questioned for hours by authorities, but never implicated any of her supporters.

On September 3, 1793, authorities learned of the Carnation Plot, an attempt to free Marie Antoinette. This contributed to the government’s decision to try her. Around the same time, eight-year-old Louis Charles was caught by his captors masturbating. He claimed it was his mother and aunt who had taught him the behavior. This, along with a testicular injury caused by a hobby horse, contributed to charges of child sexual abuse against Marie Antoinette. On October 12, Marie Antoinette was privately interrogated by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Unlike Louis XVI, she did not have weeks to prepare for the trial with a lawyer. The lawyers assigned to her case petitioned the Revolutionary Tribunal for a delay, but the request was refused.

On October 14, Marie Antoinette’s trial began. A number of witnesses testified against her. Their testimony was largely fanciful, hearsay, or entirely fabricated, as when a maid claimed to have overheard that Marie Antoinette had been sending money to Austria. Then, Marie Antoinette testified in her own defense for hours over the course of two days. She said little of substance, except to insist that as a mother, she would never have sexually abused her son. Then, both sets of lawyers made their closing arguments. She was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death.

On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette wrote her final letter to her sister-in-law, Madame Elizabeth. Then, her hands were bound and she was led to the guillotine where she was executed. Her head was “exhibited to a joyous public” (440).

Marie Antoinette was buried in a simple coffin near her husband in a graveyard on the Rue d’Anjou. Her few personal effects were sold off or distributed to prisoners. Fersen was heartbroken. He was killed in 1810 by a Swedish mob who believed he had poisoned the heir to the throne of Denmark. Louis Charles died of tuberculosis at the age of 10 on June 8, 1795.

Marie Thérèse languished in prison until she was traded in an exchange of prisoners with Austria in September 1795. Afterwards, Marie Thérèse had a miserable life, throughout which, various con artists posed as the dauphin. She married her cousin, Louis XVIII and returned to France until his death in 1824. The couple never had children, thus ending the line of Marie Antoinette. At 73 years old, Marie Thérèse died.

The remains of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were exhumed and buried in a royal crypt in Saint-Denis in 1815.

In 1901, two British women claimed to have seen the ghost of Marie Antoinette on the grounds of Versailles near the Petit Trianon, sparking new interest in her story from unlikely places: She became a favorite figure of the Russian monarchy; later, the queen, so often accused of lesbian affairs, became a gay icon. Her prison cell in Conciergerie was transformed into a museum exhibit.

Fraser praises Marie Antoinette’s steadfastness in the face of a terrifying situation. She criticizes those who describe Marie Antoinette as flighty and unserious. Fraser argues that “Marie Antoinette was a victim [of circumstances] from birth” (452) who was at a disadvantage because she “was not by nature a political animal” (453). She was no more a spendthrift than other members of the French court. Rather, Marie Antoinette became a scapegoat for all the problems of France’s feudal system.