Marie Antoinette Information

Archive for June, 2008

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Marie Antoinette Execution Site

If the French Revolution is a period of history that fascinates you, then a trip to the Conciergerie is a must. This former palace became Paris’ first prison, where thousands were jailed in the late 18th century, most of whom were executed by guillotine.

The building has a dramatic, if unpleasant past. Its most prominent resident was Queen Marie Antoinette, but it also held George Danton, a lawyer involved in the removal of the royal court from Versailles, the romantic poet Andre Chenier, in later years, and Madame Elizabeth, mistress of Napoleon III. Marie Antoinette’s cello is now a chapel to her memory.

The building, with its spiked conical shaped towers and austere grey facade, stands a trifle gloomily in the complex of the Palais de Justice on the Ile de la Cite. It was built in the 14th century as a palace for King Philip IV, but was turned into a prison when the royal family moved to the nearby Louvre. High-ranking prisoners, such as Marie Antoinette, were given their own cells with a few comforts, while common criminals shared damp, dark cells known as oubliettes, or ‘forgotten places’. It is said that many were tortured within its walls, creating fear among the residents of Paris that lasted for decades.

The Conciergerie ceased to be a prison in 1914, and became a centre of Paris’ legal system, housing the law courts. At the same time it was declared a national historical monument and was opened to the public.

Visitors enter through the boulevard du Palais entrance and immediately set foot into the Salle des Gens d’Armes. One of the best-preserved Gothic-style medieval halls in Europe, this room would have been used by the royal household as a place to dine. From here, a tour takes you to the Galerie desPrisonniers, which contains a re-creation of the Salle de Toilette, where prisoners were prepared for execution.

For more great information about Paris, France visit http://www.guidedtourparis.com

Also visit http://www.thehalloweencostumestore.com for a great executioner costume.

Marie Antoinette

Louis Xviii

Question: What happened to Marie Antoinette’s children?

I’ve always wondered, because I can’t imagine the revolutionnaries letting them live, but I know for a fact that there was a Louis XVIII who came after Napoleon.

Answer: Her son Louis Charles (now King Louis XVII) was kept in a dark, filthy cell until he died of tuberculosis in 1795. In future years many men came forward claiming to be the long-lost prince. The most believable was Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, who died in Holland in 1845, but DNA tests later established that Naundorff was not related to Marie Antoinette. Moreover, DNA experts announced in April 2000 that tests conducted on the heart of the boy who died in prison proved once and for all that he was, in fact, Marie Antoinette's son.

Marie Antoinette's daughter, Madame Royale, survived the revolution. She became the duchesse d'Angouleme and lived to see the reigns of her uncles Louis XVIII and Charles X. She had no children.

Luigi Cherubini - Messe solennelle in G-major for the coronation of Louis XVIII - Gloria (3/7)

French Revolution Jacobins

Question: What were the three phases of the French Revolution?

I know they have to do with Moderates in Power(Limited Monarchy 1789-1792),The Reign of Terror(King is executed, Creation of French Republic), and the Return of Moderates(Thermidor (reaction to the Jacobins) until 1799

Can you give me more details and explain everything to me please!? Thank you!

Answer: look it up in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
and in http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ub/h202/frrev1.htm

Žižek on Robespierre and la Terreur

French Revolution Abolition Of Monarchy

Question: Are the Americans being pushed to revolt?

In the same way that the French and British were pushed to revolt a few centuries ago that led to the abolition of the monarchy in France, and in England for the Monarchy to be severely limited.

The last time we were pushed to revolt was the 1960’s, is another revolution coming?
Keep in mind that our government doesn’t listen to us anymore.

They care more about special interests, than the people that voted them in.
And political correctness is deemed more important than telling the truth.

Answer: Yes, we are being pushed to revolt except everyone who knows that a revolt is over due is too busy working trying to get enough money to support their family. Most revolts take place at the level of young people, however most young people that I know (sophomore in high school) have no idea about what's going on in their government anyway. Its sad though, because if no one does revolt, we will just be sticking our heads farther up our asses.

French Revolution And Human Rights

Why are so many people unhappy, discontent with life, often dysfunctional, and disconnected from Source itself? Why are people asleep to the presence of God in them, in others, and in this world? Or, to borrow the simple, but searching question of Jean Jacques Rousseau, whose writings influenced the French Revolution, “Why is everyone so unhappy?”

The simple answer to any of these questions is in a three-letter word: EGO.

Ego is the culprit in all human unhappiness. It is that part of the human self that went south with Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. The human condition-that is, the ego-is the one thing that everyone shares in common. What many people do not seem to know, however, is that the discontent they feel and the dysfunctional way they treat themselves, others, and this planet are caused by ego. Furthermore, it is the ego that interferes with what would otherwise be a natural intimacy with God.

What is the Ego, Anyway?

Ego is your make-believe self-your “social self,” as Martha Beck calls it.1 It is the cover you wear that you often confuse for your real self. Your real self is the inner person behind your social mask. This is a simple and understandable truth. Yet, it took me half a lifetime to figure it out. The following phrase made popular by an educational psychologist may help:

“I see you seeing me; I see the me I think you see.”

The “me” you think others see…well…that’s your social mask, the mental image of

1 Martha Beck, Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live (Three Rivers Press: New York, NY, 2001).

yourself, the self you portray to the world. Much like someone might carry in a wallet, this is the snapshot of yourself you carry around in your head.

This snapshot of you, this ego, attaches itself to many things. One is your physical body, which partly explains the preoccupation with the body and the anxiety virtually everyone feels about how they look. But, the physical “you,” just like the social “you” is really not who you are either. You are not your body. You are infinitely more than this. You are the person behind both your face and your form or your mask and your material frame. Of all the things that I’ve learned through life, this may rank as one of the most important. It will be so for you, too.

Your ego can also be an idea you fashion in your mind about yourself-a function or role you perform. It is the fictitious mind-made, “little me,” as Eckhart Tolle has caricatured it.2 Ego is any identity you pick up that gives some definition as to who you are or, more accurately, who you think you are. But, there is no role that is you, any more than the character an actor assumes on a stage is the actor him-or herself. It is a role, a function, but that’s all it is.

So, ego is your face, form, and function-but, the real you is none of these. You are not the social face you wear, the form or body in which you temporarily live, or the function or role you perform in the world. These are all part of the ego-self.

Want to read more? I’ve put up an entire post on my blog about this. I’d love to share some of the things I’ve learned with you. To get started, visit this “Why are So Many People Unhappy?” article I recently posted. http://stevemcswain.com/blog/happiness/why-are-people-so-unhappy/

Lynn Hunt: Inventing Human Rights