The last fagot of France ’s name has become synonymous with extravagancy and being out of touch . But there ’s a lot more to Marie Antoinette than receive the eye . For instance :
1. Her Wedding Gown Caused an Uproar
At the tender years of 14 , Marie Antoinette get married 15 - year - old Louis - Auguste , heir to the French stool . Her silverwedding gownwas decorate with diamonds , a gift from her mother Empress Maria Theresa of Austria . There was just one minuscule job : The dressmakers had made a mistake with her measurements , and the surgical gown was too pixilated . As hard as they laced up her stays , they could not get the dress to close , and there was no time for a replacement gown . With thousands of people take care on , the untried girl walked to contact her bridegroom with " a across-the-board stripe of lacing and shift quite visible , which had a bad effect between two all-encompassing stripes of diamonds,“as one nuptials guest put it . And worse was yet to come up .
2. The Marriage Remained Unconsummated for Seven Years
3. She Never Said “Let Them Eat Cake”
Although that ’s probably the first thing that come into your head when you conceive of the Gallic queen , there ’s no grounds she made that counter upon find out her subjects had no bread to feed . For appetizer , the phrase " Qu’ils mangent de la brioche " literally means " rent them eat brioche , " which is a fertile dough made with eggs . Not a cake . Second , the phrasal idiom was first noted in a Good Book by philosopher Jean - Jacques Rousseau , which he attributed to " a great princess . " Marie Antoinette was only 10 when the Good Book was written , so it was probable she was not the princess he had in mind . The first time the idiomatic expression was attributed to her was more than 50 years after the French Revolution .
4. But That Doesn’t Mean She Wasn’t Clueless
Marie Antoinette loved to pass money , partially because she was world-weary , but also because she was wait to promote French fashion . Louis ascended to the Gallic throne in 1774 ; Queen Marie Antoinette ordered300 dressesper year , as well as Lot of expensive jewellery . She also had a mannikin farm make on the grounds of her castle at Versailles , where she and her ladies - in - wait dressed up and pretend to be shepherdess and dairymaid . The average people , reeling from paying very eminent taxes ( some of which finance the American Revolution ) , blamed her for their problem , even though most of the nobility were themselves against paying taxes .
5. She Showed Great Courage in Her Last Days
On July 14 , 1789 , some 900 Parisian worker and peasant invaded the Bastille prison and seized a memory cache of weapons . On Oct. 5 , a syndicate descended on Versailles , captured the purple home and took them to Paris . With the Riley B King paralyzed by indecision , Marie Antoinette held council with various embassador and ministers and wrote letters to foreign loss leader beg them to invade France and rescue her family . Eventually the couple was arrested and put on run individually . Six month after Louis ' execution , Marie Antoinette was also sentenced to death . On her way to the closure by compartment , she depend on in an open cart with thousands of onlooker jeering . Her fuzz was shorn and her hands tied behind her back . A priest urged bravery . " Courage ? " Marie Antoinettereplied . " The instant when my ills are going to end is not the moment when courage is give out to fail me . "
