70 Fun Facts About Marie Antoinette

In which city was Marie Antoinette born?

She was born at the Hofburg Palace on 2 November 1755, the fifteenth and last child of her parents.

Marie Antoinette was the youngest daughter of which formidable ruler?

Maria Theresa had fifteen children before her; the birth of this last daughter brought complications that made doctors fear for the mother's life.

Which royal house was Marie Antoinette born into?

She was an Austrian archduchess by birth, which French pamphleteers never let anyone forget.

Marie Antoinette's birthday fell on which Catholic day of mourning, so was marked a day early?

Her childhood birthday was marked instead on All Saints' Day, 1 November.

Which child prodigy did seven-year-old Maria Antonia meet at Schönbrunn in 1762?

Legend has it the boy proposed marriage to her; the meeting is at least documented for 13 October 1762.

Which composer taught the young archduchess music and later followed her to France?

She learned the harp, harpsichord and flute; as queen she took him under her patronage in 1774.

Which sister, three years older, was Marie Antoinette's lifelong close companion?

She became Queen of Naples and, after 1793, took her rage at the revolutionaries out on reformers in her own kingdom.

Before her marriage, a French dentist was brought in to do what to the future queen?

The makeover, urged by the Duke of Choiseul, also included new hairstyles modelled on Madame de Pompadour.

How old was Marie Antoinette when she became dauphine of France?

The marriage sealed a Franco-Austrian alliance aimed at containing Prussia and Britain.

Who stood in for the dauphin at Marie Antoinette's proxy wedding in April 1770?

She met her real husband a month later at the edge of the forest of Compiègne.

For roughly how many years did the royal couple fail to consummate their marriage?

The delay fed years of gossip and was only resolved after her brother Joseph II paid a frank visit in 1777.

Which royal mistress did the young dauphine pointedly refuse to speak to until New Year's Day 1772?

Her eventual remark was just 'There are a lot of people at Versailles today', but it was enough to end the crisis.

On what date did Louis XVI ascend the throne, making Marie Antoinette queen?

He was crowned on the death of his grandfather Louis XV, who had died of smallpox.

Which small château at Versailles did Louis XVI give his wife two weeks after becoming king?

Louis XV had built it for Madame de Pompadour; rumours soon claimed she had plastered its walls with gold and diamonds.

Which dressmaker created the queen's gowns and the towering 'pouf' hairstyles?

Poufs could reach three feet high, topped with the 'panache' of feather plumes.

The 1775 riots over the price of bread that damaged the queen's reputation are known as what?

Ordinary French people were beginning to blame her personally for the country's inability to pay its debts.

Which princess became Marie Antoinette's close friend and superintendent of her household?

She returned from London to the queen's side at the end of 1791 despite the danger, and was killed by a mob in September 1792.

Under what alias did Emperor Joseph II travel incognito to France in 1777 to visit his sister?

He described the royal couple to his brother Leopold as 'a couple of complete blunderers'.

What was the name of the queen's first child, born in December 1778?

Known as Madame Royale, she was the only one of the four children to survive the Revolution.

Which Swedish count was rumoured to be Marie Antoinette's lover?

Redacted passages of her letters to him, uncovered from 2016, confirm a very strong emotional bond but mention no physical relationship.

Which architect built the queen's Théâtre de la Reine and her rustic 'hamlet' at Versailles?

The hamlet's design was copied from that of the Prince of Condé and was smaller than many other nobles' mock villages.

The layered muslin dress the queen wore in a 1783 portrait, which scandalised the court, was called what?

It replaced heavy makeup and wide hoops with a simpler look that older courtiers disliked.

Which favourite did the queen make governess of the royal children in 1782, to court dismay?

The Polignac family's sudden wealth outraged the older aristocracy and fed popular disapproval of the queen.

Which scientific first did Marie Antoinette encourage and witness in the 1780s?

The pilot was Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, who two years later became the first person to die in an aviation accident.

Which banned Beaumarchais play was publicly performed in 1784 thanks to the queen?

It inspired a famous opera two years later and, ironically, was a disaster for the image of the aristocracy.

Which residence did Louis XVI buy in his wife's name in 1784, causing outrage?

It cost almost 6 million livres before redecoration, at a time when France was struggling to repay its debt.

How many children did Marie Antoinette give birth to?

Two daughters and two sons; the youngest, Madame Sophie, lived only eleven months.

Which Italian adventurer was among those caught up in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace?

The cast also included a forger and a prostitute who happened to look like the queen.

Which senior churchman was tricked into buying the diamond necklace, believing it would win the queen's favour?

The queen had disliked him since he was ambassador to her father's court in her childhood and never addressed a word to him.

Which self-styled countess masterminded the diamond necklace swindle?

Sentenced to life in the Salpêtrière, she escaped to London and published slanders about a supposed affair with the queen.

What nickname was Marie Antoinette given in 1787 for supposedly ruining the nation's finances?

Court expenses were officially about 7% of the state budget, though her secret spending pushed the true figure higher.

Which painter showed the queen with her children at the 1787 Salon to counter propaganda?

The image of a devoted mother was a deliberate response to the pornographic pamphlets circulating about her.

When the queen joined the King's Council in the late 1780s, she was the first since which predecessor?

Marie de' Medici had been named head of the King's Council between 1614 and 1617.

Which finance minister did the queen help reinstate in August 1788, then have dismissed on 11 July 1789?

News of his dismissal set off the riots that ended in the storming of the Bastille three days later.

From what illness did the queen's eldest son, the Dauphin Louis Joseph, die in June 1789?

His death on 4 June was virtually ignored by a public preparing for the next session of the Estates General.

To which Paris palace did the October 1789 march on Versailles force the royal family to move?

They lived there under a form of house arrest, watched by Lafayette's National Guard.

Which leading revolutionary lawmaker did the queen secretly agree to pay 6,000 livres a month in 1790?

He famously wrote that the queen was 'the only man the king had by him'; the alliance died with him in April 1791.

On the flight to Varennes, the royals posed as servants of which imaginary Russian baroness?

The 'baroness' was played by the children's governess, Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ de Tourzel.

Which royalist stronghold was the family trying to reach when they were caught at Varennes in June 1791?

They were arrested less than 24 hours after leaving Paris and brought back within a week to a silent crowd.

According to Madame Campan, what happened to the queen's hair on the night of 21–22 June 1791?

Campan wrote that a single night had aged her hair to that of a seventy-year-old woman.

Because Louis XVI blocked revolutionary laws at his wife's urging, the couple were dubbed what?

The nicknames feature in the revolutionary song La Carmagnole.

On 20 June 1792, a mob that broke into the royal family's Paris palace forced the king to wear what?

The bonnet rouge was meant to show his loyalty to the revolution; the queen was threatened with death the same day.

Which foreign proclamation of 25 July 1792, threatening Paris over the royal family, sparked the 10 August insurrection?

The queen had herself begged the foreign powers to issue exactly such a threat; it backfired catastrophically.

After the monarchy fell, the royal family was imprisoned in the tower of which Marais fortress?

Conditions there were considerably harsher than the earlier house arrest in Paris.

To what non-royal surname was the family downgraded once France became a republic?

After her husband's execution she was referred to as 'Widow Capet'.

Which American revolutionary advocated exiling Marie Antoinette to America rather than executing her?

Others in the Convention proposed exchanging her for French prisoners of war or a ransom from the Emperor.

To which cobbler was eight-year-old Louis Charles handed when taken from his mother in 1793?

Within weeks the boy had been turned against her and was accusing his mother of wrongdoing.

What prisoner number was Marie Antoinette given when she was moved to the Conciergerie in August 1793?

Bumping her head on a lintel as she left the tower, she told a guard 'No! Nothing now can hurt me.'

The failed August 1793 attempt to free the queen from the Conciergerie is known by the name of which flower?

It foundered because not all the guards could be bribed.

How did Robespierre react on hearing that Hébert had pushed the incest charge at the queen's trial?

He called Hébert an imbecile; the queen had appealed to every mother in the courtroom, and the women present were moved.

What colour dress was Marie Antoinette forced to wear to her execution?

She had wanted black; white was the colour worn by widowed queens of France.

What are recorded as Marie Antoinette's last words?

She had accidentally stepped on the executioner's shoe on the scaffold.

Which future waxwork entrepreneur was employed to make a death mask of the queen's head?

Her body was thrown into an unmarked grave in the Madeleine cemetery, which closed the following year for lack of space.

Where were Marie Antoinette's remains reburied in January 1815?

Louis XVIII, her brother-in-law, had the royal couple exhumed on 18 January and given Christian burial three days later.

In which writer's Confessions did 'let them eat cake' first appear, before Marie Antoinette reached France?

Rousseau attributed 'let them eat brioche' to an unnamed 'great princess'; some think he invented it altogether.

Which Ohio city was named in 1788 as a gesture of gratitude to France and its queen?

It was one of several American expressions of thanks for French help in the War of Independence.

How many children did Marie Antoinette adopt in addition to her own?

They included Jean Amilcar, a Senegalese boy given to her as a slave whom she freed, baptised and placed in a pension.

Which 1979 anime features Marie Antoinette as one of its main characters?

Her life has also been filmed in 1938 and 2006 and dramatised in a 2022 Canal+/BBC series.

For whom did Louis XV originally commission the famous diamond necklace in 1772?

The 2,000,000-livre gift was never delivered: the king died of smallpox and his grandson banished du Barry from court, leaving the jewellers stuck with it.

In which room at Versailles was Cardinal de Rohan arrested on 15 August 1785?

It was the feast of the Assumption and Rohan was about to officiate; the letter he produced was signed 'Marie Antoinette de France', a form royalty never used.

Which postmaster recognised Louis XVI at Sainte-Menehould during the flight to Varennes?

He may have known the king's face from the portrait printed on an assignat banknote in his pocket.

How many loyal troops had the marquis de Bouillé gathered at Montmédy for the royal family?

Delays, broken coach traces and the king chatting to peasants while horses were changed doomed the plan before the family got there.

How did the Paris crowd greet the royal carriage when it returned under guard from Varennes?

The king's credibility as a constitutional monarch was shattered, and a republic became an ever more likely outcome.

Which architect designed the Petit Trianon for Louis XV between 1762 and 1768?

It was built for Madame de Pompadour, who died before it was finished, so Madame du Barry inaugurated it in 1768.

What clever feature do the mirrored panels in Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon boudoir have?

Raised at night, they blocked the windows and reflected candlelight; the château also had 'flying tables' planned to rise through the floor.

Where was Marie Antoinette sitting on 5 October 1789 when told of the march on Versailles?

She was alone, as most of her friends had left France after the storming of the Bastille.

To which of his relatives did Napoleon first give the neglected Petit Trianon?

Pauline Borghese was his favourite sister; the château later passed to his second wife Marie Louise and was extensively refurbished.

Which empress created what amounted to a cult of Marie Antoinette at the Petit Trianon in the 1860s?

Her sympathy verged on devotion, even influencing how Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted her.

Marie Antoinette became the first Queen of France to do what, in June 1774?

She made rules 'in the name of the Queen' at the Petit Trianon, with the king visiting only as a dinner guest.

Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, the necklace swindler, claimed illegitimate descent from which king?

Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy became Cardinal de Rohan's mistress in March 1785 and forged a warm correspondence from 'the queen'.