Marie Antoinette Information

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Marie Antoinette Off With Her Head

Question: Why did Marie Antoinette die?

I do know she was guillotined and her son was takening from her. But WHY (what was the reason) for her being guillotined? (guillotine is the machince that cuts your head off for those who didn’t know) :]

Answer: (For the complete story, go to Gooogle:
Type in "The Life and Death of Marie Antoinette
Hit "Search" Key.
You will find a list of sources
Scroll down to and CLICK: "Marie Antoinette - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"

There you will find the entire story of her life and death

In the interim, here is a bit of her story
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Imprisonment
Marie Antoinette did not ever truly recover from her husband's death. According to her daughter, "She no longer had any hope left in her heart or distinguished between life and death." She began to suffer from convulsions and fainting fits. She also lost her appetite and lost an enormous amount of weight.

On the night of July 3, 1793, commissioners arrived in the royal family's cell with instructions to separate Marie Antoinette's son from the rest of his family. He had been proclaimed Louis XVII by exiled royalists after his father's death. The republican government had therefore decided to imprison the eight-year-old child in solitary confinement. Louis flung himself into his mother's arms crying hysterically and Marie Antoinette shielded him with her body, refusing to give him up. When the commissioners threatened to kill her if she did not hand the child over, she still refused to move. It was only when they threatened to kill Marie Thérèse that she came to realise how hopeless the situation was. Two hours after the commissioners had entered her room, the former Queen relinquished her son to them. They would not meet again, since Marie-Antoinette would soon be put on trial for treason and her son would die in captivity in 1795.

At two o'clock in the morning of 2 August 1793, Marie Antoinette was awoken by guards and told to get dressed. She was taken away from her daughter and sister-in-law and transferred across Paris to the Conciergerie Prison. She was re-named "the Widow Capet," after Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian Dynasty. She was no longer to be referred to as "Marie Antoinette" but simply "Antoinette Capet" or "Prisoner No. 280." A young peasant girl, Rosalie Lamorlière, was entrusted to take care of Marie Antoinette's needs, but these were few since the queen did not ask for much.

On August 29, 1793, Marie Antoinette was visited by Alexandre Gonsse de Rougeville, a devoted supporter who passed a secret message hidden in the petals of a carnation. The message informed the queen to prepare herself for imminent rescue. The plan failed when guards intercepted Marie Antoinette's reply, which she had pin-pricked into a piece of paper. The "affair of the carnation" fueled speculation of a widespread royalist conspiracy and the queen was consequently placed under even tighter security.

On September 2, the republican journalist and politician, Jacques Hébert, told the Committee of Public Safety, "I have promised [my readers] the head of Antoinette. I will go and cut it off myself if there is any delay in giving it to me." Most republicans now felt an intense hatred for her and they were determined to see her dead.

Marie Antoinette under arrest.
She was brought to trial on October 14. When she entered the courtroom, most people were shocked at her appearance. She was emaciated, prematurely aged, exhausted and care-worn. Forty witnesses were called by the prosecution. They returned to the Affair of the Necklace or alleged that the queen had plied the Swiss Guard with alcohol during the siege of the palace. The most horrific charges came whenever Hébert accused her of having sexually abused her own son. When the queen was pressed to answer this charge she replied, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."

The following questions were actually put to the jury: Is it established that manoeuvres and communications have existed with foreign powers and either external enemies of the republic, the said manoeuvres, &c., tending to furnish them with assistance in money, give them an entry into French territory, and facilitate the progress of their armies? Is Marie Antoinette of Austria, the widow Capet, convicted of having co-operated in these maneuvres and maintained these communications? Is it established that a plot and conspiracy has existed tending to kindle civil war within the republic, by arming the citizens against one another? Is Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, convicted of having participated in this plot and conspiracy?

The jury decided unanimously in the affirmative, and she was condemned to death for treason on October 15 and escorted back to the Conciergerie. She wrote her final letter known as her "Testament", to her sister-in-law Elisabeth. She expressed her love for her friends and family and begged that her children would not seek to avenge her murder.
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Execution and burial

Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine, by Jacques-Louis David, 1793 On the morning of October 16, a guard arrived to cut her hair and bind her hands behind her back. She was forced into a common, slow-moving cart and paraded through the streets of Paris for over an hour before reaching the Place de la Révolution where the guillotine stood. She stepped lightly down from the cart and stared up at the guillotine. The priest who had accompanied her whispered, "This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage." Marie Antoinette turned to look at him and smiled, "Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me." Legend states that her last words were "Monsieur, I ask your pardon. I did not do it on purpose," spoken after she had stepped on the executioner's foot.

At 12:15 Marie Antoinette was executed. Her head was exhibited to a cheering crowd. The bodies of Marie, Louis XVI and Madame Elisabeth (Louis' sister) were buried in the churchyard of La Madeleine and covered in quicklime. Following the restoration of the Bourbons, a search was conducted for the bodies. On the January 21, 1815, some bone fragments and a clump of gray matter with a lady's garter was discovered. The fragments were buried in the crypt of St. Denis Basilica.

Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Antonia of
Antoinette went down in history as a shallow, weak, self-indulgent and stupid person. Only royalists

Marie Antoinette loses her head

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