Marie Antoinette (1755-1793)

French queen of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette. Her extravagance and opposition to constitutional reform precipitated the overthrow of the monarchy. Accused of treason during the French Revolution, she was imprisoned with the king and finally beheaded.

As the indulged 18-year-old daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Marie Antoinette was totally unfit to take the throne as queen of France in 1774. Her heedless extravagance and lack of perception have been blamed for helping to cause the French Revolution.

Portrait of Marie Antoinette, by Jean François Janinet (1752-1813). Popular hatred of their Austrian-born queen helped inspire the French people to revolt and overthrow their monarchy in August 1792. Marie Antoinette was imprisoned immediately, and after being held in Parisian prisons for over a year, was executed in October 1793.

Queen of France from 1774. She was the fourth daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, and married Louis XVI of France in 1770. Her devotion to the interests of Austria, reputation for extravagance, and supposed connection with the scandal of the Diamond Necklace made her unpopular, and helped to provoke the French Revolution of 1789. She was tried for treason in October 1793 and guillotined.

Marie Antoinette influenced her husband to resist concessions in the early days of the Revolution - for example, Mirabeau's plan for a constitutional settlement. She instigated the disastrous flight to Varennes, which discredited the monarchy, and sought foreign intervention against the Revolution, betraying French war strategy to the Austrians in 1792.

Although displaying an indomitable courage and dignity which impressed even the judges at her trial, her stubbornness and personal hatred of reformists such as Necker, the finance minister, and Mirabeau thwarted attempts to prevent the destruction of the monarchy, making her at least partially responsible for its violent downfall.