Marie Antoinette

Born in Vienna in November 1755, the fifteenth child of Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa, Maria Antonia was betrothed at thirteen to strengthen the Franco-Austrian alliance. She married Louis-Auguste in 1770 at fourteen, becoming dauphine; four years later he inherited the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen consort. The libelles accused her of profligacy, promiscuity, and secret loyalties to Austria; the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, though she was innocent, shredded what remained of her reputation. When France's financial crisis deepened, she was branded Madame Déficit for her spending and opposition to reform. The Revolution placed the family under house arrest in the Tuileries in October 1789; the failed flight to Varennes in June 1791 and her role in the War of the First Coalition sealed her fate. After the assault on the Tuileries in August 1792, the family was imprisoned in the Temple, the monarchy abolished in September, and Louis executed in January 1793. On 14 October her trial began; two days later the Revolutionary Tribunal convicted her of high treason and she was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution.