Marie Antoinette - Research Proposal Example

Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette was Dauphine of France, as well as the Queen of France and Navarre, from 1770 to 1774 and from 1774 to 1792, respectively (Englund 2004, 65). She was the 15th and penultimate daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I together with Empress Maria Theresa. She lived from 2nd November, 1755 to 16th October 1793 (Gengembre 2004, 34). Marie Antoinette was surrounded by a lot of controversy, particularly with regards to her Widow Capet, her trial and her death.

Antoinette’s husband, Louis, was executed on January 21st, 1793, at 38 years. The end result was that the "Widow Capet", as the ex-queen was called following the passing away of her husband, went into deep grief; she declined to eat or perform any exercise (Dwyer 2000, 182). Marie Antoinette was lastly tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on October 14th, 1793. Unlike Louis, who had been offered some time to organise a defence, Antoinette was granted only one day (Hibbert 2004, 56). Among the things that she was indicted of (a majority, if not all, of the indictments were false and almost certainly lifted from rumours started by libelles) were planned orgies in Versailles, planning to murder the Duke of Orléans, transferring millions of livres of treasury funds to Austria, sexual escapades with her own son, announcing her son to be the fresh ruler of France, and planning the mass killing of the Swiss Guards, in 1792 (Parker and Schoenwald 1983, 448).

The most famous accusation was that Antoinette sexually abused her own son (Parker 1990, 140). This was said by Louis Charles, who, during his schooling by Hébert, accused his mother.ReferencesDwyer, Philip. 2000. “Napoleon Bonaparte and the Search for a Sense of Self: Clues to Behavioural Patterns in His Early Writings, 1785-1795.” Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750-1850: Selected Papers, pp. 181-190.Englund, Steven. 2004. Napoleon: A Political Life. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gengembre, Gerard. 2004. Napoleon: The Immortal Emperor. London: Vendome Press.Hibbert, Christopher. 2004. Napoleon’s Women. New York: Oxford University Press.Parker, Harold and Schoenwald, Richard. 1983. “Napoleon’s Changing Self-Image to 1812: A Sketch.” Consortium on Revolutionary Europe 1750-1850: Proceedings, pp. 448-463.Parker, Harold. 1990. “Why Did Napoleon Invade Russia? A Study in Motivation and the Interrelations of Personality and Social Structure.” Journal of Military History 54: 131-146.