Maria Antoinette Research Paper

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Historical Investigation: To what extent can Maria Antoinette be considered just an innocent victim of the French Revolution in 1789? 1 002111-001 Table of Contents Title Page 1 Table of Contents 2 A. Plan of Investigation 3 B. Summary of Evidence 3-5 C. Evaluation of Sources 5-6 D. Analysis 6-7 E. Conclusion 7 Bibliography 8 2 002111-001 A. Plan of investigation To what extent can Maria Antoinette be considered an innocent victim of the French Revolution in 1789? The personality of Maria Antoinette creates contrasting opinions: was she a callous and selfish queen as history books show us or was she an innocent victim of the French Revolution? Nowadays, the widespread…show more content…
As Antonia Fraser revealed in her biography Maria Antoinette: The Journey, Marie-Antoinette's reputation for sweetness and kindness became even more entrenched in 1774, when as the new Queen she asked the people to be relieved of a tax called "The Queen's belt," a tradition at the beginning of each reign. "Belts are no longer worn," she quipped. It was the onslaught of a propaganda that later ruined her reputation. Unhappy Marriage “Maria Antoinette was not satisfied by her marriage.”7 In fact, as Maria’s lady in waiting Campan wrote in her diary The Memoirs of Maria Antoinette, Louis was insensible and egocentric. Although Louis became a devoted husband and he admired Marie's character, in her early years in France his apathy made Maria Antoinette feel isolated. As recorded in Campan’s diary, even though Maria Antoinette sought out Louis XVI, their marriage went unconsummated for seven years and during this time, the teenage queen endured in silence when she was item of gossip for her incapacity to procreate. Bored by the court rumours and her marriage, Marie Antoinette wanted to escape from Versailles. “As her power as queen…show more content…
Therefore, Maria was an innocent victim of the French corruption that nicknamed her Madame Deficit despite she often gave examples of almsgiving. As Campan observed in her Memoirs of Maria Antoinette, when she married the dauphin, Maria Antoinette was a frightened adolescence who had to defend herself from the enemies of the court. And it was exactly “the mistreatment undergo everyday that made her decide to enjoy life, organize parties, look beautiful and avoid the senseless rule of the French etiquette.”12 Those logical wishes for a 19 year old were used by pamphlets as a way to damage even more the reputation of Maria Antoinette. In fact they exaggerated by assuring that “in one day Maria was able to spend more money than a thousand peasants living in Paris.”13 This was a pure calumny. Though it must be admitted that when Maria Antoinette became queen she refused to understand the privileges that came with the position, she was not the responsible for the poverty and the high inflation of France. Those problems were already registered when Louis XIV was the King but the real responsible of such catastrophic situation in France was the nobility
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