Marie Antoinette probably never said, “Let them eat cake,” but that doesn’t mean her subjects didn’t have cause to dislike her (it’s not referring to the delicious cake you’re thinking of). The French were initially charmed by this young, pretty queen, but fairly quickly they were calling her “L’Autrichienne,” which is “The Austrian” combined with the French word for a female dog. And soon it would become “Madame Déficit,” as they blamed her lavish spending habits for France’s financial crisis. So it comes as no surprise that the people of France were pretty displeased when their queen built an entire mock peasant village at Versailles despite the fact that it was a very costly exercise in pretending and the real peasants were starving.
Before all of that though, life wasn’t just sunshine and roses even as an Austrian princess. One of the youngest living of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa’s 16 children, Marie Antoinette was married at just 14 years old to the 15-year-old Dauphin Louis-Auguste to cement an alliance between Austria and France (that never quite made it into popular opinion) after the Seven Years’ War. It then took seven years for the kids to consummate their marriage during which Marie (who was very homesick) had to deal with a lot of folks criticizing her sex life, including her own mother and brother who called the couple “two complete blunderers.”
Eventually, the couple worked things out and she went on to give birth to five children (three of which survived…at least past infancy). And then the French monarchy fell. In an attempt to save her family, Marie took her hunky Swedish lover Count Axel von Fersen’s offer to help the family escape France, but life was not going to get any easier for the out-of-touch queen: the entire family was captured and Louis and Marie were condemned to death. The (false) charges used by the Revolutionary Tribunal included: high treason, sexual promiscuity and incestuous relations with her son. Yep. Her son was forced to testify that his mother had molested him. WTF. Only her first daughter survived the ordeal.
But back in happier times, Louis gave Marie the Petit Trianon in 1774 as an escape from the pressures of court, which she hated. Apparently that was a bit too stressful for her too as she then commissioned the building of Hameau de la Reine to escape the pressures of the Trianon.
Her little hamlet featured 11 cottages surrounding a large lake with English-style gardens, a watermill, a dairy and plenty of animals. All visitors were required to take part in the charade, with women wearing simple dresses and playing the role of peasants, but, you know, without the backbreaking work and starving parts. It’s no surprise that the people of France found this to be mocking them rather than standing in solidarity, particularly after the diamond necklace incident, which involved an impostor posing as Marie and using a cardinal to attempt to buy an absurdly elaborate diamond necklace (to break up and sell) during the financial crisis. She was innocent, but those rumors combined with rumors of lesbianism at the hamlet sealed her fate in the court of public opinion.
Today, you can visit the restored Hameau de la Reine during a trip to Versailles if you purchase “The Passport” ticket package, which includes access to the entire palace, grounds, Trianon and Marie Antoinette’s estates (tons of walking, but totally worth it—have lunch in the garden). There are some really cute goats. And pigs (like the rotund fella above). It’s a pretty surreal counterpoint to the opulence of the palaces, which must have been pretty funny (but not, like, in a ha-ha way) for the revolutionaries to stumble upon.
Thomas Jefferson once said of Marie Antoinette, “I have ever believed that if there had been no Queen, there would have been no revolution.” While we’re not entirely sure that’s true, girlfriend definitely might have faired better had she learned the finer points of subtly. Oh, and maybe to not spend a ton of money to play poor for funsies because you are just so stressed.
