Happy Birthday Marie Antoinette

Hello readers,

Today is a very happy day, as you may have guessed by the title, it is Marie Antoinette's birthday! I struggled over what to do for today  but i decided to just, flow with it, talk about what I want to, and what seems natural. I will start with stating how old Marie would be if she was alive today. *Calculating.........2012-1755=.....257* she is two hundred and fifty seven years old today! She was born at Hofburg imperial palace in Vienna. Today, in memory of her i watched "Marie Antoinette" the Sofia Copolla movie (again) and I might be doing a review on that soon. I've written enough nonsense now and its nearly midnight so I'm tired, bye ;)

Thanks for reading,
MG

The Trial and Execution of Marie Antoinette

On the 16th October 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed. You might ask why I started at the end, the answer is that it was recently, it was the 16th October and I planned on posting this on the 16th, but due to school, holiday and general business, I was unable to finish it before that day. Anyway, back to the post. Antoinette's trial began on the 14th of October 1793, she was accused of sending millions of France's money to Austria (her homeland), plotting the murder of the Duke of Orleans, declaring her son as the King of France, molesting her son and others I'm too disgusted to type. Today, there is no evidence proving any of these charges to be correct and they are all based on rumors and things  implied in pamphlets. When accused of molesting her son, she did not reply, when asked why she did not, she replied "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother.". Despite her denying every claim and them having no evidence to condemn her, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. after her trial she went back to her cell and wrote a letter to her sister in law Madame Elisabeth. Elisabeth never received it. Her hair was cut off and she was driven through Paris in a cart. She wore a white dress. She stepped on the scaffold and accidentally stood on the executioners foot. She said to him, (these being her last words) "Pardon me sir, I meant not to do it.". At 12:15, she was executed using the guillotine at what is called today Place de la Concorde. She was buried in an unmarked grave. 

Marie Antoinette's trial

Marie Antoinette's trial

Marie Antoinette's execution

Marie Antoinette on the scaffold 

Thanks for reading, MG

Marie Antoinette in Horrible Histories

 Horrible Histories is a British kids show. It's based on the Horrible Histories book series by Terry Deary. There have been 4 series's which are all approximately 13 episodes long. In the show they have lots of segments (different periods in history), such as,  Angry Aztecs, Awful Egyptians, Frightful First World War, Gorgeous Georgians, Groovy Greeks, Incredible Incas, Measly Middle Ages, Rotten Romans, Smashing Saxons, Woeful Second World War, Savage Stone Age, Slimy Stuarts, Terrible Tudors, Vile Victorians, Vicious Viking and, the one I'm going to be talking about today, Fabulous French. Most of the sketches in the Fabulous French segment are set around the Revolution and some of them include Marie Antoinette, like the Historical Wife Swap Sketch (pretty self-explanatory) and the Revolution Weather Report. I thought instead of talking about them, I would get links of the sketches on YouTube.

Historical Wife Swap ( Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and Mr and Mrs French Peasant): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8pgbnN7PII&feature=relmfu
HH News French Revolution  Weather Report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS-9fNkhkFw&feature=relmfu
HH News Storm of the Bastille report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDKUJNaOxUo&feature=relmfu

Thanks for Reading,  MG xxx

Alice Lowe as Marie Antoinette in Historical Wife Swap

Marie Antoinette (Alice Lowe) and Louis XVI (Ben Willbond)

Marie Antoinette Barbie

This post is about the Marie Antoinette Barbie collectors doll. It is in the Women of Royalty series (along with Queen Elizabeth I and Empress Josephine). The doll was released on the 8th of January, 2003 and is sadly, no longer available from Mattel. It was originally sold at $249.90 (approximately £159.94). You can still get it on other websites like Ebay or Amazon but they are generally way more expensive than the original. Overall, I like this doll. The dress is beautiful, and very similar to one in a painting of her (although the one in the painting is white) and the roses in her hand bring a bit of color variety (instead of just blue). The only thing that I don't really like is the face. Its pretty, but its not her. AT ALL! Her nose isn't upturned like the dolls, her eyes are more relaxed and kind-looking and lips are smaller, not to mention the eyebrows...(eeekk!!) the dolls eye brows are so raised and 

mean-looking. Sadly, I don't have this doll (way too expensive!) but, lets just say, I'm looking forward to Christmas!

This is the  dress (and hair piece) I think it was based on. 

Marie Antoinette and the Madame du Barbie doll (which is based on  Marie's rival and mistress of Louis XV , Madame du Barry)

Collectors photo

Close up of the doll.

Put Your thoughts in a comment, do you agree that the dress looks similar to the white one in the painting? What do you think about the dolls facial features? Do you have or want this doll?

Thanks for reading, MG xxx

Intro to Marie Antoinette

Alright, where to start. Well, how about the obvious. This is a blog, about Marie Antoinette  the last queen of France. If you want to know about Marie Antoinette, this is your place. I consider myself "a Marie Antoinette fanatic". Everything about her from her birth, on November 2nd 1755 to her death October 16th 1793 amazes me. So, on my first post I think for those unfamiliar with the world of Marie Antoinette, I will give a brief outline of her life. She was born an Austrian princess and the youngest of Maria Theresa's eight daughters. She married Louis-Auguste, the dauphin (heir to the throne) of France at fifteen and became the dauphine. Then at nineteen, she became the queen of France (1774). At 23 she had her first child, Marie-Therese Charlotte, then at 26, she had Louis-Joseph who became dauphin but sadly died in childhood. After that, at 30 she had Louis-Charles, then at 31 Sophie-Beatrice who died at 11 months old. She became more and more unpopular after nasty (and never proven) rumors spread around, about her, and the fall of the monarchy was officially declared in 1992. In January 1993, her husband was executed using a guillotine (a French machine used for cutting heads off, considered a more humane way of execution). Then on the 16th of October in the same year, she was guillotined.