Episode 2- Marie Antoinette, From Vienna to Dauphine
Born in Vienna in 1755, she was the 15th of 16 children to Empress Marie-Theresa and Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Spending her days at Schönbrunn Palace running and playing with her brothers and sisters until at the age of 11 it was decided she would marry the next king of France, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste.
Her mother was very strong and tried to instill the virtues her daughter would need to be as a queen. Marie Antoinette wasn’t that willing of a participant and had a short attention span for anything she didn’t like, a problem that would haunt her until her last days.
After the death of Francis I, Marie-Theresa was able to do what she wanted. With hopes of finally uniting France and Austria and ending years of conflict, she offered her daughter's hand to Louis XV. It would take three years and some convincing of Louis XV but after dispatching his own people to be sure she was ready, at the age of 14, Marie-Antoinette was on her way to France.
On May 7, she arrived at the banks of the Rhine for the “surrender of the wife”. Stepping into a lavish tent she walked in one side representing Austria, stripped all her belongings and clothes and redressed in the finest French clothes and emerged as the Dauphine.
Marie Antoinette wanted to stop for mass in Strasbourg. With the Bishop away, a clergy member greeted her, his name was Louis-Prince de Rohan. Rohan will come back into her life later in a key moment that contributed to her downfall. She would finally meet her husband on May 14, just two days before their lavish wedding at Versailles.
Listen to even more on our newest episode of La Vie Creative, Paris History Avec A Hemingway.
I’ve also added some of my favorite Marie Antoinette books in the Boutique.
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