Life and Times of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Louis the XVI had a desire to be loved by his people and focused mainly on a united religion and a foreign policy. He was pressured by Jansenist Parliament to expel Jews, from France, which he ultimately did. He felt he was unqualified to be king when he started his rule and that was one of the big reasons why he felt that he needed to be loved by his people. He was not as extravagant as his grandfather, Louis XIV, and this early reign had many attempts to reform France through the ideas of the Enlightenment. He tried to abolish serfdom and increase tolerance towards non-Catholics to make his idea reality, but he ended up banishing the Jews from France. Louis also was known for being too conservative and indecisive, which led people to view him as a tyrant and his popularity with people greatly dropped because of this.
Marie Antoinette had a very intriguing personality and that along with her beauty made her popular with France when she first became queen. However, her continued disputes with the king’s advisors and Parliament over many affairs created chaos in France. She also was very young when she became queen and fell victim to many things young adults become addicted to. She was constantly criticized by her mother and never received love or affection from Louis, she began to gamble often and spend most of her money on that as well as clothing. She also had affairs with both men and women and the paternity of one of her children was even questioned as to whether it was the king’s baby or someone else’s. Marie Antoinette also tried to please the people. Her political influence, however, did not help and the people grew to despise her for that as well as her Austrian heritage. Marie also got involved in a scandal when she was offered a million dollar necklace, which she declined to have, but a con artist got ahold of it and used it to make the people believe she would spend all that money on herself. After all her children were born, Marie focused on politics more than ever and this time went mostly against the interests of Austria, both to please the people and ensure that her children would have a good nation to rule. This did not help her, in the end, as she and Louis were both despised by the people when all was said and done.
Martin Lorayes
Marie Antoinette had a very intriguing personality and that along with her beauty made her popular with France when she first became queen. However, her continued disputes with the king’s advisors and Parliament over many affairs created chaos in France. She also was very young when she became queen and fell victim to many things young adults become addicted to. She was constantly criticized by her mother and never received love or affection from Louis, she began to gamble often and spend most of her money on that as well as clothing. She also had affairs with both men and women and the paternity of one of her children was even questioned as to whether it was the king’s baby or someone else’s. Marie Antoinette also tried to please the people. Her political influence, however, did not help and the people grew to despise her for that as well as her Austrian heritage. Marie also got involved in a scandal when she was offered a million dollar necklace, which she declined to have, but a con artist got ahold of it and used it to make the people believe she would spend all that money on herself. After all her children were born, Marie focused on politics more than ever and this time went mostly against the interests of Austria, both to please the people and ensure that her children would have a good nation to rule. This did not help her, in the end, as she and Louis were both despised by the people when all was said and done.
Martin Lorayes