Melissa Ford
Hist 299
1/29/08
Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of a Misunderstood Woman
Throughout history, Marie Antoinette was criticized as a frivolous, spoiled woman who
was immensely unpopular with the French citizens she ruled over. However, I found that the way
historians often portray her may not do her justice. Whereas at first I prepared to argue that
Marie Antoinette’s family placed a political burden on her that ultimately led to her flippant
attitude, I now find that the argument really lies in whether Marie Antoinette did in fact behave
in such a way, or if over time, her image was distorted by a vast array of historians. This
concludes that the French courts hatred for her was exaggerated by the revolutionaries during the
French Revolution, and was thus conveyed to the male historians of the 1900s, who continued
this biased image. Recently, though, historians argue that Marie Antoinette was a lonely girl who
seemed to do everything wrong despite how hard she tried to conduct herself in a stately manner.
I intend to put the primary documents written about Marie Antoinette back into the contexts they
were written in to evaluate how she was actually seen at the time and prove that it was the fear of
foreigners, mixed with offense, as well as the notion that women should not be politically
influential that led to the inaccurate portrayal of what I believe to be a generous, selfless woman.
With the new sources written by women historians that emphasize Marie Antoinette as a
product of enlightenment ideals that women should not participate in politics, I hypothesize that
Marie Antoinette did not conduct herself in a disgraceful way in the early parts of her life.
Furthermore, due to jealousy and annoyance felt by the French court towards Marie Antoinette,
and due to the historians who read these accounts and judged Antoinette based on the ideals set
forth by the revolutionaries at the time, the image of her as severely unpopular and selfish was
2
created through centuries of prejudice. The proof for this hypothesis comes from many different
primary and secondary sources.
Recent historians have taken to defending Marie Antoinette’s personality in her first few
years as Dauphine and Queen of France. Joan Haslip says in her 1987 history Marie Antoinette
that since Marie Antoinette was the youngest of fifteen children, her upbringing never included
the preparation to become such an influential person later in her life.1 Because of this, and the
fact that most historians, including the aforementioned Haslip, as well as Hilaire Belloc, author
of Marie Antoinette (1924), agree Marie Antoinette was ill-suited for her role from the
beginning. She made many mistakes in the French court due to her ignorance and her lack of
understanding French customs, Belloc explains.2 These mistakes caused scorn among the French
nobles, providing documents that portrayed Marie Antoinette as flighty and disrespectful.
According to Desmond Seward, who wrote in his 1981 book Marie Antoinette, the French court
also condemned her because of the many changes she brought to the Court of Versailles.3 The
elder generation, displeased by the disruption of their traditions, spoke harshly and critically of
the way Marie Antoinette conducted herself. Thus, older historians, particularly male, as in the
case of Andre Castelot, who wrote in his 1957 novel, Queen of France: A Biography of Marie
Antoinette, that she was uncaring and indulged herself in her own pleasures, used these texts as
evidence of her careless nature.4 Lynn Hunt, in her article The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette
(2006) is one of the first recent historians to call into question how Marie Antoinette’s false
image came about. In her article, she explains how the revolutionaries in the French Revolution
1
Joan Haslip, Marie Antoinette (York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987), 3.
2
Hilaire Belloc, Marie Antoinette (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1924), 72.
3
Desmond Seward, Marie Antoinette (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), 54-55.
4
Andre Castelot, Queen of France: A Biography of Marie Antoinette, trans. Denise Folliot (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1957), 98.
3
were a major cause because they thought republican politics could only be studied by men. Marie
Antoinette became the symbol of women trying to participate in politics and play a public role,
an act that was unthinkable at the time.5
Primary sources, such as the Secret Memoirs of Princess Lamballe (1901) which consists
of a journal and recorded conversations written by the Princess Lamballe, and The Guardian of
Marie Antoinette: Letters From the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, Austrian Ambassador to the
Court of Versailles, To Marie Thérèse, Empress of Austria 1770-1780 (1902), consisting of
letters written by the Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, give insight into the real Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette’s dear friend, the Princess Lamballe, provides a more intimate look into the girl
behind the queen, making her account an extremely valuable source. The Comte de MercyArgenteau, the Austrian minister to the Court of Versailles and the appointed guardian of Marie
Antoinette, also displays the girl that the French court does not see. His reports to Marie Thérèse,
the Austrian Empress and mother to Marie Antoinette, are of particular importance as they
document Marie Antoinette from the time she first enters the court until her death.
This research paper intends to defend Marie Antoinette, calling into question the sources
that have misrepresented her. New evidence suggests that the real woman hides under layers of
prejudiced facts that have portrayed her as selfish and uncaring since the French Revolution.
Through the use of primary documents from her friends, and guardians, as well as secondary
documents from both older and newer, male and female historians, I will prove who the actual
Marie Antoinette was, and explore why and how she was falsified in the first place.
Lynn Hunt, “The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of the
Feminine in the French Revolution,” in The French Revolution: Recent Debates and New Controversies, ed. Gary
Kates (New York: Routledge, 2006) 201.
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4
Working Bibliography
Primary Sources
Antoinette, Marie. Secrets of Marie Antoinette: A Collection of Letters. Edited by Olivier
Bernier. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
Blanc, Olivier. Last Letters: Prisons and Prisoners of the French Revolution, 1793-1794.
Translated by Alan Sheridan. London: Andre Deutsch, 1987.
Memoirs of the Duc de Lauzun. Translated by CK Scott Moncrieff. London: George Routledge
& Sons, LTD., 1928.
Secret Memoirs of Princess Lamballe. Edited by Catherine Hyde. Washington: M. Walter
Dunne, 1901.
Claude, Florimond. The Guardian of Marie Antoinette: Letters From the Comte de MercyArgenteau, Austrian Ambassador to the Court of Versailles, To Marie Thérèse, Empress
of Austria 1770-1780. Edited by Lillian C. Smythe. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1902.
Vizetelly, Henry. The Story of the Diamond Necklace: Told In Detail For the First Time.
London: Vizetelly & Co., 1881.
Secondary Sources
Belloc, Hilaire. Marie Antoinette. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1924.
Castelot, Andre. Queen of France: A Biography of Marie Antoinette. Translated by Denise
Folliot. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957.
Cronin, Vincent. Louis and Antoinette. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1975.
Erickson, Carolly. To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette. New York: William Morrow &
Company, Inc., 1991.
Fay, Bernard. Louis XVI or The End of a World. Translated by Patrick O’Brien. Chicago: Henry
Regnery Company, 1966.
Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey. New York: Doubleday, 2001.
Haslip, Joan. Marie Antoinette. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.
Hunt, Lynn. “The Many Bodies of Marie Antoinette: Political Pornography and the Problem of
the Feminine in the French Revolution.” In The French Revolution: Recent Debates and
New Controversies, edited by Gary Kates, 201-219. New York: Routledge, 2006.
5
Jackson, Catherine Charlotte, Lady. The French Court & Society: Reign of Louis XVI and First
Empire. London: Richard Bentley & Son, 1881.
Landes, Joan B. Women and the Public Sphere: In the Age of the French Revolution. London:
Cornell University Press, 1988.
Lever, Evelyne. Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France. Translated by Catherine
Temerson. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000.
Maza, Sarah. Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Célèbres of Pre-Revolutionary
France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
Price, Munro. The Road From Versailles: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and the Fall of the
French Monarcy. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
Seward, Desmond. Marie Antoinette. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981.
Thomas, Chantal. The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette. Translated
by Julie Rose. New York: Zone Books, 1999.
Webster, Nesta Helen. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette Before the Revolution. London:
Constable and Company, ltd., 1936.
Younghusband, Lady. Marie-Antoinette: Her Early Youth. London: MacMillan and Co.,
Limited, 1912.
Zweig, Stefan. Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman. Translated by Eden and
Cedar Paul. New York: Viking Press, 1933.