French Queen Marie-Antoinette continues to fascinate individuals greater than 200 years after her loss of life. To this present day the opulent world she inhabited captivates us. She is a vogue icon within the twenty first century as she was within the 18th century. Uncover the life and occasions of the doomed queen, her vogue model, her household, and the place to search out traces of her legacy in Paris, from her properties to the retailers she frequented…
Marie-Antoinette’s arrival in France
Let’s begin with Marie-Antoinette’s arrival in France. She was simply 14 years outdated when she was despatched to marry the King in ready, Louis XVI, who was only a 12 months older than her. Her marriage to Louis was a diplomatic alliance, and their early years have been marked by awkwardness and distance – a rocky begin for a teenage queen in a overseas courtroom.
Earlier than he was topped, Louis was referred to as the Dauphin, which indicated he was the eldest son of the King, and Marie-Antoinette was referred to as the Dauphine. Louis wrote in his diary on the day she arrived, Could 14, 1770: “interview with Madame la dauphine.” It was the primary time that they had met.
The marriage
Her journey from Austria took virtually three weeks. She stopped at a number of cities alongside the best way together with Nancy, Lorraine the place she stopped at what’s now the Resort de la Reine. When she arrived in France, she had a gorgeous Austrian marriage ceremony gown to put on however she was made to alter it to put on a French model gown – which individuals mentioned “made her a 1000 occasions extra charming.” She was cheered all the best way to Paris by the crowds that gathered to look at her journey to fulfill her husband to be and change into a queen in ready.
And right here’s a enjoyable truth: the King’s Grasp of Ceremonies supplied 12 gold marriage ceremony rings for Marie-Antoinette to strive on, which she did one after the other till one in all them match her completely.
Greater than 5000 company have been invited to the marriage. Because the couple walked by means of the well-known Corridor of Mirrors to the Chapel of Versailles, drums rolled, flutes performed, the ceremony was adopted by days of events, dances, banquets, opera, masked balls, boat rides on the Grand Canal at Versailles and a firework show of 20,000 rockets watched by 200,000 individuals.
Louis wrote in his diary: “My marriage ceremony, house within the gallery, royal feast on the opera corridor.”
Not very romantic. No phrases about love and even liking her.
Life as a queen
Marie-Antoinette’s relationship with the king was in truth not very romantic – no less than to begin. The bride and groom have been each shy and inexperienced which led to hassle within the bed room. Though, over time, they made a number of makes an attempt (nothing at Versailles was personal), their marriage wasn’t consummated till seven years after their marriage ceremony evening. Some say that Louis had a bodily drawback that required slightly surgical procedure, however most proof means that the couple was simply clueless. However, it’s mentioned that they grew fairly keen on one another ultimately.
The queen’s each day routine was something however personal. Rising on the first light, her each second, from dressing to bedtime, was a public affair attended by courtiers. It was recorded that the Queen bathed each day in her linen dressing robe buttoned as much as the neck – who can blame her with all these prying eyes. Louis, her husband was obsessive about recording his each day actions and his diaries and notebooks are preserved within the French Nationwide Archives so we all know as an illustration that in 26 years he took simply 43 baths. In these days in France it wasn’t trendy to wash, individuals simply used to scrub the worst bits when needed! Some even believed that bathing was unhealthy, as a result of so referred to as medical consultants on the Sorbonne College in Paris had declared that heat water opened the pores which let illness in.
When the Queen started to lose her recognition with the individuals, they slandered her for her bathing habits saying it was too “German” for a Queen of France. There have been no bogs like we all know them, no everlasting tub. A bath can be rolled right into a room referred to as a rest room and stuffed, bucket by bucket, with sizzling water. As soon as full, the queen would add perfumes to the water. She used both a particular natural combination that included salt, thyme and marjoram, or perfumed sachets of candy almonds, pine nuts, and lily bulbs which had been designed particularly for her baths by her perfumer. Generally she ate breakfast within the tub! After that she would undergo a public dressing ceremony, although in later years she had it toned down. Which brings us neatly to the queen’s vogue and hair.
Marie-Antoinette’s vogue model
Let’s begin with Marie-Antoinette’s hair! She popularised the pouf, a towering coiffure adorned with something from feathers to miniature ships! Within the eighteenth century, it was trendy for girls to increase themselves. Their attire have been widened with panniers, like the other way up baskets beneath their skirts. And hair was elevated – massive, massive hair, nothing just like the 1980’s penchant for large hair – a lot greater than that. Hair was combed, curled, greased with a mixture of bear or ox fats – good, not – after which dusted with powder.
And in case you assume pink hair and blue hair are a 21st century Kardashian factor – you’re incorrect, the ladies of the royal courtroom usually colored their with powder in shades of blue, lilac, pink and even gold mud!
Cushions or pads fabricated from horse hair have been inserted to provide top, and false hair clipped on to provide size.
The queen and all the lady of the courtroom favored to outdo one another with mad hair types and massive hair. They added toy ships, jewels, even greens and vases that contained actual flowers. One vogue sufferer, and I believe we are able to use that phrase nicely right here, had her stylist weave a concoction on her head that was over three toes tall and included a gilded hen cage with a reside, tweeting hen inside! A duchess had a scale mannequin of her son’s nursery in her hair full with a nanny and servants – not actual ones after all, little scale fashions – like a lego city on her head. Hmmm. How stylish…
The issue with hair that massive is that always the ladies couldn’t match into their carriages and needed to kneel on the ground or journey with their heads out the window! And the massive hair do’s have been undoubtedly a fireplace hazard at candlelit Versailles.
And what with not bathing and never having significantly good hygiene, fleas have been just about on each head, so some trendy ladies carried lengthy skinny sticks with claws for scratching their heads with!
The Queen’s wardrobe was lavish, stuffed with robes of luxurious materials. Marie Antoinette’s model was extravagant She wasn’t simply setting developments; she was a vogue revolution in a corset. Make-up and footwear have been a giant deal for the queen. She favoured a pale, powdered face with shiny rouge.
She liked lipstick, which in these days was a mixture of animal fats and crimson colouring, often from beetroot or crushed bugs. Lipstick was so well-liked within the 1780s that apparently French ladies went by means of two million pots a 12 months.
And she or he liked her high-heeled footwear. Her shoe assortment was so huge that it could make even probably the most avid collector blush! It was claimed that she had something as much as 3000 pairs of footwear in her wardrobe at one time, although it’s possible it was a extra ‘modest’ 500 pairs!
She had tiny toes, dimension 33 (or 2 and half within the US). And as for attire, she apparently ordered as much as 300 attire a 12 months. Her clothes allowance was the equal of about 3 and a half million {dollars} a 12 months, however she usually spent twice as a lot – as much as the equal of 20,000 {dollars} a day. And it was mentioned that she by no means wore the identical factor twice. All this spending gave her the nickname “Madame Deficit.”
She prompted uproar when in 1781 she wore a muslin gown designed by her favorite dress-maker Rose Bertin – she used materials not made in France and it was mentioned the queen regarded like a milkmaid. And when a portrait of her carrying the gown was unveiled in public, individuals have been indignant that she ought to gown like a commoner for enjoyable, when the actual commoners have been ravenous as a result of meals shortages. However the rich of England and Europe lapped up this new “easy” vogue which many contemplate influenced ladies’s fashions of the 18th century in Britain. And naturally, she liked jewelry.
A proper royal scandal
A scandal over a stolen necklace value a king’s ransom, tarnished the Queen’s popularity badly. A thief satisfied a cardinal that the Queen needed him to purchase the necklace on her behalf after which promptly disappeared with it. Though the Queen was confirmed harmless, the mud caught. Not lengthy later the French Revolution started and the Queen’s excesses at a time of poverty for extraordinary individuals definitely didn’t assist. She additionally wasn’t well-liked with a number of the nobles and so they liked so as to add hearth to the smoke of a scandal that concerned her. Marie Antoinette’s identify was usually linked with lovers, however it appears possible that it was faux information of the day. She was watched always so she didn’t actually have that a lot of an opportunity to canoodle. However she is famously mentioned to have had a Swedish lover – one Rely Axel von Fersen.
Marie-Antoinette as a mom
Whereas historians debate the true nature of their relationship, their intimate letters counsel a deep connection, however there isn’t any actual proof that she was untrue to the King. She was a loyal mom and had 4 youngsters, although just one survived to maturity.
Her motherly affection was clear in her letters, stuffed with worries and joys about her youngsters’s well-being. She’s usually portrayed as a egocentric Queen spending the nation’s cash on her lavish life-style, unconcerned in regards to the struggling throughout her. However she had a compassionate facet and a particular place in her coronary heart for youngsters. Actually, she simply adopted a number of youngsters. The primary one was an orphan referred to as Armand in 1776 and he lived with the royal household till the French Revolution when he joined the revolutionaires.
Marie-Antoinette gave start to her first baby in 1778 – Marie Therese Charlotte, and the queen requested that her maid’s daughter of the identical age act as companion to the younger princess. When the maid died, the queen adopted the daughter and instructed that each ladies be handled equally.
She additionally adopted a younger Senagalese boy, and three orphaned ladies, the 2 eldest went to a convent and one lived within the palace. And she or he supported many different youngsters financially. Although she wasn’t good, she does appear to have had a great coronary heart.
Of her 4 youngsters solely the eldest, Marie Therese Charlotte survived her mom. Of her two sons, one died aged 7 of tuberculosis, one died age ten in jail through the Revolution and the youngest baby, a daughter died aged 11 months in 1787. It was mentioned that she died from convulsions triggered by the ache of her tooth coming by means of.
A queen condemned
The queen’s internal circle was a mixture of the Aristocracy and confidantes. She was significantly near the Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchess de Polignac, ladies who grew to become her closest pals and companions within the usually lonely and cutthroat atmosphere of Versailles. These friendships, nevertheless, additionally attracted criticism and envy, as they have been seen as symbols of the queen’s perceived favouritism and extravagance.
Regardless of her luxurious life-style, Marie Antoinette’s life was not with out hardships. The French Revolution dramatically modified her destiny. From a lifetime of opulence, she confronted public hatred, imprisonment, and in the end, a tragic finish. Her final years contrasted starkly together with her formative years that’s for certain.
Even throughout her imprisonment, Marie Antoinette maintained her dignity. She wore a easy white gown to her execution, a marked departure from her earlier lavish apparel, but it was a robust assertion of her grace beneath stress. On October 16, 1793, she died aged 37 by guillotine simply as her husband had earlier than her. The gang cheered and shouted Vive la Republique as her head fell, some rushed to dip handkerchiefs in her blood.
Her physique was hurled into an unmarked grave. 22 years later, she and Louis have been correctly reburied on the Basilica of St Denis in Paris. The guillotine that was used is alleged to be owned by the Tussaud Museum in London, purchased by Joseph, son of Marie Tussaud the waxwork artist from the grandson of the official executioner. Madame Tussaud additionally created loss of life masks for lots of the victims of the guillotine through the Revolution, together with Marie-Antoinette, which is within the Chamber of Horrors on the Tussaud Museum.
The place to observe in Queen Marie-Antoinette’s footsteps in and round Paris.
Janine Marsh is the writer of a number of internationally best-selling books about France. Her newest e-book Methods to be French – a celebration of the French life-style and artwork de vivre, is out now – a have a look at the French lifestyle. Discover all books on her web site janinemarsh.com
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