Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was born an Archduchess of Austria and was later
married to Louis XVI, becoming the Queen of France. She was well
known for her exaggerated expenses and her death. She was killed
for treason and was executed by the guillotine at the height of the F-
rench Revolution (1793).

She was married at the age of 14 and her marriage was a marriage
proposal designed around all the deaths in her family. The available
women in her family had either died to small pox or had come very
close to death, leaving Antoinette the only possible bachelorette for
Louis Auguste. On May 16, 1770 she was married to Louis and be-
came the Dauphine of France. She gave birth to two children a girl
and later one boy, Louis XVII. There are rumors that the boy was not
Louis XVI but actually the son of a Swedish Soldier who Marie was
said to have ad close relations with.

Guillotine.

With their marriage came many problems. Antoinette and Louis were
not only frowned apon because of their personalities, but by the chan-
ging face of political and social ideology in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1789 a mob descended on the palace at Versailles and demanded
the royal family move to the Tuilerie palace inside Paris. From that point
on the King and Queen were virtual prisoners. Antoinette sought aid from
other European rulers including her brother, the Austrian Emperor, and
her sister, Queen of Naples. After a failed attempt to flee Paris in 1791
Antoinette continued to seek aid from abroad. When Austria and Prussia
declared war on France, she was accused of passing military secrets to
the enemy. On August 10, 1792 the royal family was arrested on suspicion
of treason and imprisoned. On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI was
convicted and executed on the guillotine. Marie soon followed.