PARIS, France — With the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games opening ceremony over, many of the visuals are making people wonder about a significant chapter in the city's rich history — Marie Antoinette.
Over two centuries ago, on October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution, met her fate at the guillotine. Her execution was a culmination of political, social and personal factors that have since become symbolic of the turbulent period.
More on Marie Antoinette history and influence
Antoinette, born an Austrian archduchess, married Louis XVI at the age of 14 and became Queen of France four years later. Her reign coincided with a period of significant economic and social unrest. As the French populace grappled with rising taxes, food shortages, and widespread poverty, the monarchy's extravagant lifestyle became a focal point of resentment. Marie Antoinette's perceived indifference to her subjects' plight was encapsulated in the infamous, albeit fictitious, phrase, "Let them eat cake."
The onset of the French Revolution in 1789 marked a turning point for Marie Antoinette. The storming of the Bastille prison symbolized the collapse of royal authority and the rise of the revolutionary spirit. The Queen and her family were soon imprisoned, and the monarchy was abolished. The revolutionaries viewed Marie Antoinette as a symbol of royal excess and a foreign influence on French politics.
Marie Antoinette's trial was marked by accusations of high treason, depletion of the national treasury, and even allegations of incest, which were widely viewed as spurious and reflective of the intense personal animosity she faced. Despite a lack of concrete evidence, the revolutionary tribunal found her guilty of treason.
Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793, at the Place de la Révolution (now Place de la Concorde). Her death marked the end of an era and the intensification of the Reign of Terror, during which thousands were executed. The Queen's legacy is complex, viewed by some as a martyr and others as a symbol of the old monarchist system's failures.
