Preview

Marie Antoinette

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
894 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette

From the very beginning, Marie Antoinette was born as an Austrian princess. She was the favored and most beautiful daughter. Her mother, strategically arranged for Marie to marry in order to form a new alliance with France. Just at the age of 14, she was married and then became queen of a foreign country. Seems like a huge responsibility for such a young girl... And nevertheless it was. At the end of her reign, Marie Antoinette ended up being an unfit ruler and was hated by the majority of France.
France was the most powerful country at the time of Marie Antoinette’s rule. Just before Marie was shipped over to France to become queen, the Seven Years War was ending. To preserve the alliance between France and Austria, it was arranged that Marie had to marry Louis XIV. On May 16th, 1770, Marie was now married to her beloved husband Louis XIV. In 1775, twenty year old Louis XIV was crowned King therefore making Marie a queen. Although everything seemed to be going the way things should, Marie was unsatisfied with her marriage. She felt Louis was “...homely, awkward, and hardly her heart’s desire” (Marie Antoinette Online). They were complete opposites and enjoyed different leisurely activities. Much like everyone else, he admired her physical appearance. Marie Antoinette thought to seek out Louis XIV and try and become intimate with him, but to add to her frustration, Louis could not receive and erection. So for seven years their marriage went without having sexual relations. Meanwhile “...the teenage queen suffered in silence as she was snidely taunted for her inability to produce an heir to the throne” (Marie Antoinette Online).
As time went by, Marie spent less and less time in court fulfilling her duties as queen and more time pleasuring herself. She treated herself with an abundant amount of gifts. She effortlessly blew off her necessary obligations as queen and went to events such as masked balls in Paris, gambling, theatricals, and late

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Louis and Marie Antoinette’s indulgent fashion that so irked the common folk, mammoth costs associated with the upkeep of King Louis XVI’s extravagant palace at Versailles and the frivolous spending of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, did little to relieve the growing debt. Antoinette’s self-indulgent tendencies became a symbol of royal excess and extravagance. A proportion of the Kings revenue went into building or rebuilding castles.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Study Guide

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages

    5. What concepts of courtly love are illustrated by the two lais of Marie de France?…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marie Antoinette Thesis

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How would you imagine your life as a king or queen in the 1700’s? Surely you would love to have royalty but that’s not the whole point of it. Marie Antoinette, born in Vienna, Austria, in 1755, became Queen of France at the age of 19! She married Louis the XVI(16) when she was just 15 years old, a man she never knew just because governments were interested in forming alliances with other countries which meant to unite their leaders with the offspring of other royalty. Marie Antoinette loved children and eagerly looked forward to motherhood but took eight years to have children. Later on in the year’s causes of the French revolution was partly Marie Antoinette fault which led to the end of the alliance between Austria and France!…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Catherine of Aragon

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Did you know that Henry VIII had six wives? Several ended up beheaded or somehow charged for a crime they did not commit. Catherine of Aragon was the first and longest reigning wife of Henry VIII. She ruled more years than all of Henry 's wives put together (Wikipedia int). Their marriage was annulled after her failure to produce a male heir as Henry believed that a strong monarchy depended on a male heir (World History 336). Catherine of Aragon reigned as queen consort of England for twenty-four years.…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Queen Victoria

    • 2037 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The Early Life of Queen Victoria Queen Victoria, the well-known Queen of England did not start out as some would expect. Her Grandfather, King George the third of England had fifteen children, his third child was The Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father. The Duke of Kent married Princess Victoria of Saxe- Coburg- Gotha. Later they had a baby girl together on May twenty- fourth eighteen- nineteen. They christened her as Alexandrina Victoria. Her childhood was not a happy one. She did not have a lot of money and did not have many children her age to play with. Since she was heir to the throne she had a strict education. She was extremely smart and was excellent at languages, yet she had trouble with Latin, and she appreciated history. She enjoyed music and she liked to draw. When she was taught to dance it helped develop her natural poise, which she is most known for. Deportment was important for queens. Her mother would tie a sprig of prickly holly under Victoria's chin to make her hold her head up,' a severe but effective measure (Grant 5). She was supervised persistently, up until she was queen she slept in her mother's bedroom. Victoria's governess and mother would sit in the schoolroom with her throughout her lessons and she was not even permitted to go down stairs without someone holding her hand in case she was to fall. She did not even know she was heir to the throne until she was eleven when she opened her history book and found a new piece of paper positioned in there of the English royalty and she saw that she was in line for the throne. 'She looked up at her…

    • 2037 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Louis XVI was one of the most incompetent and frankly idiotic rulers in the history of France. He would have absolutely nothing to do with his official duties as king, and his horribly decadent lifestyle contributed greatly to the economic plight France was in. The fact that he was married to Marie Antoinette, a native of Austria, France's sworn enemy, was very detrimental as well. Louis XVI inherited debt from previous rulers, but he made no move of any kind toward paying it off. In fact, he borrowed vast sums of money in order to give aid to the Americans in their revolution, which only worsened France's already outstanding deficit. In 1786, bankers refused to lend the government any more money, and Louis XVI was in serious trouble. Of course, all of this put Louis in a highly unfavorable position with the people of France, who absolutely despised him and his wife. Marie Antoinette was a major problem for Louis as well. She gave him poor advice on governing matters, spent large amounts of money on her own vanity, and was generally hated by the people the moment she set foot…

    • 1094 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prior to the revolution, France was going into turmoil due to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette's spending habits. King…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    King Louis Xiv of France

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Absolute monarchs had a significant impact on European history and the way their nation lives today. Absolute monarchs had control over political, social and religious aspects of their nation’s life. Absolute monarch had a positive and negative effect on society and European history.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marie Antoinette's Downfall

    • 2666 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Marie Antoinette was actually extremely popular with the people when she arrived in France. They liked how she looked, how kind she was and the charities she pursued. When she visited the opera and insist everyone applaud, the did so (a moment shown in the movie). She was on display for everyone to see and people watched her and wrote numerous accounts of her grace, her charm, her beauty.…

    • 2666 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    King Louis Xiv

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages

    King Louis XIV is a violent, self-centered villain who manipulates others for his personal gain. He was quick to shed blood, no matter what the cost. Although he expanded France’s borders by conquering countries with his royal army, his methods led to many unnecessary deaths. During his reign, three out of every five years were spent in war. (Popkin Par.3) King Louis XIV’s reign was full of unnecessary violence.…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Love Medicine

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages

    First, Marie Kashpaw was Marie Lazzare before marrying Nector Kashpaw. Many people have ambitions for their career, money, education, luxuries life but Marie is none of this. Marie is the person who has ambitions to have a better identity than her family has. Marie’s family is known for alcoholisms, idleness and horse thieves, but Marie knows from a young age that she wants a different kind of life. She sets out determined to make a name for herself, despite the limit placed on her by having a poor family background. Marie is beginning to define herself; she…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Marie Laveau

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages

    "Voodoo Queen of New Orleans." Marie Laveau. Squidoo, LLC, 2009. Web. 23 Apr 2011. .…

    • 2004 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna Austria on November 2, 1755. She was the 15th child of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. In 1770 she married Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France. She was the Queen of France from 1774-1792. She was the mother of four children. At first, she was adored by her subjects. Eventually, though, she came to be disliked and even blamed for France’s financial crisis. The reasons for this dislike included her loyalties to Austria—France’s sworn enemy—and her extravagant lifestyle, profligate spending, big hair, and even bigger dresses. She was thus nicknamed Madame Deficit (French: Mrs. Debt). With the fall of the French government and the beginning of the French revolution, the royal family…

    • 196 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unknown to Victoria’s parents, Marie-Therese only wanted Victoria to help her access and claim better state benefits. Before Victoria even arrived in France Marie-Therese had already prepared a false passport in the name of her “daughter” Anna. However the family of her intended target “Anna” would not let her go, so it was easier for Marie-Therese to recruit another child of a different name than change the passport. This is the reason Victoria became “Anna.”…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In many ways, she somehow tries to help the French people. The marriage was supposed to bring in peace and friendship to both of the countrys, but instead, it just puts this into a more difficult position than before, married into a royal court that hated anything Austrian at this time.…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays