Biography of Queen Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette is known as the beautiful queen of France. She is

also known as Maria Antoinette. Her full name is Maria Antonia Josepha
Joanna, which represent that she is from the Austrian family background.
She was born on November 2, 1775, in the city of Vienna of Austria. She
is the daughter of Maria Teresa, the second to the last of all the 16
children of Maria Teresa. She doesnt really go to education for knowledge
but rather to learn about religious term. She is a kind of person who
wants to follow her own belief rather than listen to other.
Maria Teresa set a marriage event between Marie Antoinette and
King Louis XV of France to strengthen the alliance between Austria and
France. So she has to leave Austria and go to France and become the
queen at the age of 14. While King Louis XV became the king of France at
the age of 11. The marriage event actually happen after the Seven Years
War ended.
The marriage ceremony is actually one of the most important
events for Marie Antoinette. Both of them were married young on May 16,
1770. Marie Antoinette doesnt feel happy either, because it was too early
for her. She wasnt able to adjust to the entire new thing that she has to
face at all. While she was at France, she feels very bad missing her home
and her mother. Just like a young kid that cant stay away from their
parent for a long period of time. Every time she write letter back to her
mom, she always feel sad and cry. She felt bore there in France, and one
of the reason is that King Louis XV cant really grab her desire at all. She
also hates to be in public appearance, that she always has to face from
time to time. She rather wants to live in an environment full of freedom
and relaxation. That is one of the reason that make she feel homesick,
where at Vienna she could do anything she want and she enjoy it more
that living in the palace of France with all the limitation of her action.
As she grows up, her thought and her belief start to change. From
all the boredom she has start to change as she have more friend. Most of
the time she is require to work in the court, but after having friend she
start to leave the court and do thing on her on. She was a beautiful lady
who love fashion and have her own style. She spends a lot of money from
her husband on her outfit. She wears expensive cloth and accessory that
even exceed the allowance her husband can give her, but she doesnt
care about it anyway. At the palace of Versailles, she also wastes a lot of
money on the expensive furniture and decoration for the palace where
she live. She actually love art and try to put all of them in the palace.
From all her expense that she just waste for her own good, the citizen of
France start to question her for all her spending. They start to hate her
for not knowing how to balance or spend the money, while France is in
the decline of economy and running short of the money.
There are many negative sides of Queen Antoinette. She was given
a nickname, Madame Deficit. The nickname represent that Marie
Antoinette is a girl who doesnt know how to manage money at all. As
stated previously she always wastes money for herself. She is also one of
the reasons why France is facing financial crisis during that time, she
always suggest Louis wrong idea that didnt help France from the crisis at
all. Yet all the expenses she spent, it also makes France poor. One more
major problem is that she really loves gambling. She loses most of the
money which also contribute in the loss of the money of the country. She
doesnt know the word enough because all she knows is that whatever
she wants she must have it. So after she loses the bet, she spends more
and more but turn out to lose more. She also likes to support foreign
intervention, instead not supporting France. She is a selfish and greedy
queen, who never thinks of other. She doesnt care about the starvation
of the people at all. She just totally ignores how much the people are
suffering. Yet she is politically weak as well as she cant make good
decision. Many of these factors lead to the French Revolution overthrown
of the monarchy in France.
Marie Antoinette also has many positive sides that people dont
really recognize her in another way. She is the queen who lives with the
entire best outfit. She loves fashion, in which she loves to dress up the
best she can with the most expensive outfit. She is the person who
influences todays fashion. She also inspires many popular designers such
as Chanel. Without her people might still dress poorly with fashion less
outfit. Now a day, Paris is recognizing as the city of fashion as well. Marie
also play role in changing the court life. She makes people feel like they
have to chill out sometime, such as she ignoring the court once in a while.
She is the one who help put Paris in the map of haute couture. One of the
most popular bread around the world is croissant. Its a type of bread
originated from France spread worldwide today. One of the most
important thing she contribute to the country, is that she ensured women
rights, that everyone should take account of. Which mean that we should
not overlook or look down at the women who have equal rights as all of
us.


Biography of King Louis XVI

King Louis is the husband of Marie Antoinette. He was born on
August 23, 1754. He was born in France, at the palace of Versailles. He
married to Marie Antoinette, and was given the throne while Marie
Antoinette is his wife. He is one year older than the Marie. The king is
very shy, yet he grows up strong and healthy. His healthiness makes him
able to join some sport event such as wrestling. Same like Marie, he
grown up learning about religious term and also learn about geography
and some of astronomy. He can speak very well in Latin and English, yet
he can speak French as his native language. Both the king and the queen
have 4 children after they are married for eight years. Both of them didnt
really enjoy life together while both are fresh married because King Louis
is too shy to her, while Marie hates to be in public appearance.
At the age of 20, Louis became the king of France after the death of
King Louis XV. At the time he was given the throne, France was already
having financial crisis that is pass on from his grandfather. France was
rather poor during that time. He wanted to make France more
economically stronger. During that time he also lacks experience, that
result him in trouble leading France. He wasnt able to help improve the
France government as well.
In the first few year after we was the king, he mainly focus on
religious policy for the country. Because he wasnt able to help in other
problems that France face at the time. He also supports the American
colonies to fight for freedom against Great Britain. He provides the
American colonies some part of the pay for the war that results in France
running out of money. The source of the money comes from the tax, yet
he doesnt increase the tax so France almost got bankrupt. So he start to
ask the noble to help pay tax instead, which the noble is not in favor of
Louis anymore.
He wasnt able to solve any of the money problems at all. So he
suggest to people to live in a simple life. He tries to ignore the problem as
well as start to go hiking rather than sitting in the court and making
decision. That led the country in to a revolution.
After his dead, he and Marie doesnt really have a good reputation
at all. People were rather happy because there is no weaker leader.
Historians believed that King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette really spend
lots of money for themselves, and not caring for the population of the
country at all. At the age of 38 due to his guiltiness declare by the
national assembly, he was put to dead.


Work Citation:
Louis-Auguste de France. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 08:26, Oct 16,
2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/louis-xvi-9386943.
Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna. (2014). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 08:29,
Oct 16, 2014, from http://www.biography.com/people/marie-antoinette-9398996.