Marie Antoinette | |||||
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Portrait by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1778
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Queen consort of France | |||||
Tenure | 10 May 1774 – 4 September 1791 | ||||
Queen consort of the French | |||||
Tenure | 4 September 1791 – 10 August 1792 | ||||
Born |
Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria |
2 November 1755||||
Died | 16 October 1793 Place de la Révolution, Paris, France |
(aged 37)||||
Burial | 21 January 1815 Basilica of St Denis |
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Spouse | Louis XVI of France | ||||
Issue | |||||
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House | Habsburg-Lorraine | ||||
Father | Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor | ||||
Mother | Maria Theresa of Austria | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
Signature |
Full name | |
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German: Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna French: Marie-Antoinette-Josèphe-Jeanne |
Marie Antoinette (/ˌæntwəˈnɛt, ˌɒ̃twə-/;French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt]; born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
In April 1770, upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne, she became Dauphine of France. On 10 May 1774, when her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI, she assumed the title Queen of France and Navarre, which she held until September 1791, when, as the French Revolution proceeded, she became Queen of the French, a title she held until 21 September 1792.
After eight years of marriage, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie Thérèse of France, the first of her four children. Despite her initial popularity, a growing number of the population eventually came to dislike her, accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, and of harbouring sympathies for France's enemies, particularly her native Austria. The Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged her reputation further. During the Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker.