Count Axel von Fersen, after his return from America in June 1783, was accepted into the queen's private society. There were claims that the two were romantically involved, [86] but since most of their correspondence has been lost, destroyed, or redacted, for many years there was no conclusive evidence. [87] However, in 2016, the Telegraph's Henry Samuel announced that researchers at France's Research Centre for the Conservation of Collections (CRCC), "using cutting-edge x-ray and different infrared scanners" had deciphered letters from her that proved the affair. [88] [89] Naslund, Sena Jeter (2006). Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-06-082539-3.

The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste was mixed. On the one hand, the dauphine was beautiful, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first official appearance in Paris on 8 June 1773 was a resounding success. On the other hand, those opposed to the alliance with Austria had a difficult relationship with Marie Antoinette, as did others who disliked her for more personal or petty reasons. [24] Queen Marie Antoinette of France, at the age of 16 years. The pastel portrait was drawn in Versailles and then sent to Austria to her mother, Empress Maria Theresa. Painted by Joseph Kranzinger. Doyle, William (1990). The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp.100–105. Chevrier, M. -R; Alexandre, J.; Laux, Christian; Godechot, Jacques; Ducoudray, Emile (1983). "Documents intéressant E.B. Courtois. In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 55e Année, No. 254 (Octobre–Décembre 1983), pp. 624–28". Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française. 55 (254): 624–35. JSTOR 41915129. Sturtevant, Lynne (2011). A Guide to Historic Marietta, Ohio. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-60949-276-2 . Retrieved 1 September 2011.The taste for spectacular women’s clothing resulted in a return to exceptionally wide skirts held up by a frame underneath. Known as the guardainfante, a distinctive feature of earlier, 17th-century Spanish fashion, the skirt was initially designed to hide pregnancies. It was reimagined in the first half of the 18th century as the pannier, in an allusion to the skirt’s inverted basket shape. Panniers could reach huge sizes, as much as 16 feet in diameter. This type of clothing was never intended to be comfortable or practical. For instance, two women could not pass one another in a doorway or sit beside one another in a carriage. The wig is not WHITE, like most 18th century costume wigs, but it is very very platinum blonde, and very very shiny. It’s also a color very hard to match with hair extensions, if you are wanting to add more hair to your wig.

Romijn, André (2008). Vive Madame la Dauphine: A Biographical Novel. Ripon: Roman House. ISBN 978-0-9554100-2-4. Mémoires de Madame Campan, première femme de chambre de Marie-Antoinette, Le Temps retrouvé, Mercure de France, Paris, 1988, p. 272, ISBN 2-7152-1566-5 MacLeod, Margaret Anne (2008). There Were Three of Us in the Relationship: The Secret Letters of Marie Antoinette. Irvine, Scotland: Isaac MacDonald. ISBN 978-0-9559991-0-9.The abolition of feudal privileges by the National Constituent Assembly on 4 August 1789 and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen ( La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen), drafted by Lafayette with the help of Thomas Jefferson and adopted on 26 August, paved the way to a Constitutional Monarchy (4 September 1791 – 21 September 1792). [148] [149] Despite these dramatic changes, life at the court continued, while the situation in Paris was becoming critical because of bread shortages in September. On 5 October, a crowd from Paris descended upon Versailles and forced the royal family to move to the Tuileries Palace in Paris, where they lived under a form of house arrest under the watch of Lafayette's Garde Nationale, while the Comte de Provence and his wife were allowed to reside in the Petit Luxembourg, where they remained until they went into exile on 20 June 1791. [150] Marie Antoinette was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 14 October 1793. Some historians believe the outcome of the trial had been decided in advance by the Committee of Public Safety around the time the Carnation Plot [ fr] was uncovered. [197] She and her lawyers were given less than one day to prepare her defense. Among the accusations, many previously published in the libelles, were: orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, planning the massacre of the gardes françaises (National Guards) in 1792, [198] declaring her son to be the new King of France, and incest, a charge made by her son Louis Charles, pressured into doing so by the radical Jacques Hébert who controlled him. This last accusation drew an emotional response from Marie Antoinette, who refused to respond to this charge, instead appealing to all mothers present in the room. Their reaction comforted her since these women were not otherwise sympathetic to her. [199] Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine (pen and ink by Jacques-Louis David, 16 October 1793) Marie Antoinette's execution by guillotine on 16 October 1793: at left, Sanson, the executioner, showing Marie Antoinette's head to the people (anonymous, 1793) Jenner, Victoria (12 November 2019). "Celebrating Marie-Antoinette on her birthday". Waddesdon Manor . Retrieved 18 November 2019.

Munro Price & The Road to Versailles 2003, pp.14–15, 72 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMunro_PriceThe_Road_to_Versailles2003 ( help) Paradoxically, for somebody who became infamous for supposedly being frivolous and overly committed to luxurious excess, she was actually all about dressing down,” Weber says. Every morning, a maid brought Marie-Antoinette her kerchiefs and towels for the queen’s morning toilette. Afterward, a maid-servant held a book in front of her in which fabric samples of all the dresses in the royal wardrobe were pinned so the queen could choose what to wear that day. Kates, Gary (1998). The French Revolution: Recent Debates and New Controversies 2nd ed. Routledge. pp. 201–218. ISBN 0-415-35833-7.Elyse: While I was doing research on Marie Antoinette I stumbled across a painting of her wearing a ship in her hair. I knew then that’s exactly what I wanted to do. Marie was famous for putting objects in her “poof” that represented a mood she was in or something that was going on in politics and war. She wore a ship to represent a battle that was won, but I cannot remember the exact one of the top of my head. Fraser, Antonia, Marie Antoinette, The Journey, Anchor Books, USA, 2001, p. 257, ISBN 0-385-48949-8.

The death of the dauphin on 4 June, which deeply affected his parents, was virtually ignored by the French people, [134] who were instead preparing for the next meeting of the Estates-General and hoping for a resolution to the bread crisis. As the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath, and as people either spread or believed rumours that the queen wished to bathe in their blood, Marie Antoinette went into mourning for her eldest son. [135] Her role was decisive in urging the king to remain firm and not concede to popular demands for reforms. In addition, she showed her determination to use force to crush the forthcoming revolution. [136] [137] French Revolution before Varennes (1789–1791) As her correspondence shows, while Barnave was taking great political risks in the belief that the queen was his political ally and had managed, despite her unpopularity, to secure a moderate majority ready to work with her, Marie Antoinette was not considered sincere in her cooperation with the moderate leaders of the French Revolution, which ultimately ended any chance to establish a moderate government. [170] Moreover, the view that the unpopular queen was controlling the king further degraded the royal couple's standing with the people, which the Jacobins successfully exploited after their return from Varennes to advance their radical agenda to abolish the monarchy. [171] This situation lasted until the spring of 1792. [172] Schama, Simon (1989). Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. New York: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-679-72610-4. On 17 July 1791, with the support of Barnave and his friends, Lafayette's Garde Nationale opened fire on the crowd that had assembled on the Champ de Mars to sign a petition demanding the deposition of the king. The estimated number of those killed varies between 12 and 50. Lafayette's reputation never recovered from the event and, on 8 October, he resigned as commander of the Garde Nationale. Their enmity continuing, Marie Antoinette played a decisive role in defeating him in his aims to become the mayor of Paris in November 1791. [169] Samuel, Henry (12 January 2016). "Marie-Antoinette's torrid affair with Swedish count revealed in decoded letters". The Telegraph.As economic inequality grew in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was “easier for patriotic French people to imagine that a foreign-born queen was insensitive to their plight rather than the French king himself,” she says. 2. She was the subject of pornography. Bashor, Will (2013). Marie Antoinette's Head: The Royal Hairdresser, the Queen, and the Revolution. Lyons Press. p.320. ISBN 978-0762791538. Suffering from an acute case of depression the king began to seek the advice of his wife. In her new role and with increasing political power, the queen tried to improve the awkward situation brewing between the assembly and the king. [119] This change of the queen's position signaled the end of the Polignacs' influence and their impact on the finances of the Crown.