The Execution of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette was the queen of France. Her husband was Louis XVI, who was the ruler of France during the French Revolution of 1789. During the Reign of Terror, at the height of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette’s husband was deposed and the royal family was imprisoned. Marie Antoinette was tried, convicted of treason and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793, nine months after her husband. Once upon a time, she was riding around in her coach, She saw unhappy faces of French people during the journey. She asked someone why those people were unhappy? She was told that they didn’t have bread,”. Actually that was the period of failed harvest of 1789 which made bread prices sky rocking. But the Queen, Marie Antoinette replied simply: “If they have no bread, let them eat cake.” This is regarded as the one of the funniest quotes by any Queen in the world history.

She was disliked in France because of her Austrian ancestry and because of her arrogance and extravagance during a time when peasants were starving. These were the days of French Revolution. In 1789 Paris was seized by the revolutionaries and Marie Antoinette and her husband King Louis XVI were held as prisoners at the palace of Tuileries until 1792 when they were charged with treason. Both were sentenced to die by beheading. Louis was beheaded on Jan. 21, 1793 and Marie was also executed in Nov, 1793.

See Marie Antoinette’s execution in the movie “The Affair of the Necklace”, played by Joely Richardson