Marie Antoinette

Essay by Dog1Junior High, 9th gradeA+, October 1996

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Marie Antoinette was the wife of King Louis XVI of France. She was born in 1755 in France and was the daughter of the Great Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria. Because here parents came from two countries at war with each other, their marriage formed a peace treaty. Marie was very spoiled and grew up with an extravagant lifestyle. She herself became the wife of the next heir to the French throne to further keep the peace. The heir was Louis XVI, who was a very dull and unsociable person. She was the opposite. She was beautiful, vivacious and bent on pleasure. She became very insensitive to the plight of poor people. When she was queen, her spending only aggravated the difficult economic crisis of the country. She didn't seem to care. A famous story about Marie has to do with a court official coming to her to tell her that the people didn't have any bread to eat.

She laughed and just said, 'Let them eat cake, then!'. Whether or not she really said this, the truth of the matter was that this story portrayed the way she really thought. She was either completely naive about the problems of the common people, or she thought that they were of no value.

In 1774, Louis XV died, and his son Louis XVI became the true King. People were dying of starvation and most of the people were blaming it on the Queen Mari Antquonette. On Oct, 5 during the French revolution, thousands of people marched from Paris to Versailles (The Palace) to present there food demands to the king. They some how forced the royal family to come with them back to Paris.

After spending months in the Parisian Palace as prisoners, the Queen and King...