The extravagant project of the last queen of France: the decorative village of Marie Antoinette

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Marie Antoinette is the last queen of France. She was called "The Rococo Queen" and "Madame Scarcity". She is credited with the scandalous dictum: "If they do not have bread - let them eat cakes!" Her story of a short, despite titles and wealth, yet unhappy life, has inspired many filmmakers, writers and artists. One of her most extravagant projects has survived to this day - a decorative village.

During her lifetime, the queen earned a reputation as a frivolous, selfish and immoral woman who spent the entire state treasury on her whims. Marie Antoinette was recklessly wasteful. She lived in grand style even in the most difficult times for France. How did Marie Antoinette go through her short life, first from the youngest daughter in the royal family to the French queen. The Queen, at whose feet all Europe lay. And how she was overthrown, convicted and guillotined. Marie Antoinette was born in 1775. Her parents were Holy Roman Emperor Franz I Stephen and Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and Bohemia. The future queen was the fifteenth child in the family. No one feared either for the life or health of the empress.

But from the very beginning, everything went wrong. During pregnancy, Maria Theresa became very thin, did not feel well, and became weak. Childbirth began prematurely, complications arose. The day before, a terrible earthquake struck Lisbon that claimed thousands of lives. The Empress considered this a very bad omen, because the king and queen of Portugal had been chosen as godmothers. The mother of Habsburg-Lorraine had no particular hopes for née Maria Antonia Joseph Johannes of Habsburg-Lorraine. The girl had every chance to live a happy life and even marry for love. But fate decreed otherwise. Maria Theresa was very ambitious. The Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties for several centuries entered into marriage alliances. For various reasons, the Austrian empress did not succeed in marrying any of her eldest daughters to the French Dauphin. So, Marie Antoinette became the bride and, subsequently, the wife of the future Louis XVI.

After the solemn wedding in Versailles, festivities were organized. During the festive fireworks, people were injured, and in the resulting panic and stampede, 139 people died. This was not only the second bad omen in the fate of Marie Antoinette, but also a harbinger of the downfall of the French monarchy itself. Marie Antoinette's unhappy marriage was complicated by the fact that the Dauphin suffered from phimosis. To become a full-fledged man, he needed a circumcision operation. Louis was wildly afraid of her. The young dauphine drowned her unhappy female share in wine, amused herself at balls and was very much carried away by gambling. Outfits, balls, expensive whims - she was distracted as best she could. Marie Antoinette was too young and inexperienced. An experienced mentor was assigned to her by her mother - the Austrian Ambassador, Count Mercy d'Argento. Despite this, it was not possible to control the too active young girl, so addicted to the entertainment of the dissolute Versailles. When the young Louis XVI ascended the throne, the people expected an improvement in life. The Dauphin had a good reputation, and Marie Antoinette was spoken of as a kind and cheerful woman. But Louis did not pay any attention to his wife, and the young queen plunged into the dissolute, cheerful life of the court with her head. Time passed. The French people considered the queen to be barren, squandering the treasury for her endless entertainment, a dummy. They wrote indecent pamphlets about her and offered to go back to Austria.

The fate of her daughter worried Maria Theresa very much. Seeing that her Antonia was simply dying, the Empress sent her son Joseph to France. Tom managed to persuade his son-in-law to have the operation. And finally, after seven years of marriage, Louis was able to fulfill his marital duties. After the allotted time, the queen gave birth to her first child - daughter Maria Teresa Charlotte. The birth of a child settled down the young queen. She became a devoted mother and wife. One by one, the queen gives birth to three more children: two sons and a daughter.

Marie Antoinette, wanting to move away from the debauchery and stifling hypocritical etiquette of the royal court, brings to life one of her most extravagant projects - the decorative village. In 1783, construction of the Hameau de la Reine began on the rising tide of popular discontent. After five years of work, the queen's project was completed. There was a meadow with lakes and streams, a "temple of love" in the classical style, on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers, and an octagonal belvedere with a nearby grotto and cascade. The village consisted of many cottages and buildings built in different styles. Each building had its own specific function.

There was a farmhouse, a dairy, a dovecote, a barn, and a mill. Each building was decorated with a garden - fruit trees and flower beds. The largest and most famous of these houses was the Queen's House, connected to the billiard house by a wooden gallery.

The Queen did not allow anyone there, except for her confidants and friends. Even the king himself could not come there without warning. The territory was fenced off with an impregnable fence. And all this gave rise to a lot of gossip and rumors about Marie Antoinette. That, they say, she uses the residence for secret dates with men and arranges orgies there. Historians claim that all this is idle speculation and not true. As, however, too much of what was said about this woman.

Marie Antoinette and her friends dressed like young shepherdesses or milkmaids, wandered around the village, posing as peasants. A team of real farmers appointed by the queen took care of the farm and the animals. Farm-grown fruits and vegetables were consumed at the royal table.

Marie Antoinette sometimes milked the cows and sheep herself to get a taste of country life. Especially for the queen, the animals were thoroughly washed and beautiful ribbons were tied to them. The Queen was extremely proud of her brainchild. She invited the king and the rest of the royal family to garden parties, where at the table she, with her own hands, poured coffee for them. She treated them to berries, bragged about the fat content of her cream, the freshness of her eggs. And she tried in every possible way to show how well she manages this economy.

Despite a significant reduction in their expenses, complete dedication to the family, the image of the queen was hopelessly spoiled among the people. When the French Revolution broke out, Marie Antoinette was arrested and charged with depleting the wealth of the nation, leading to famine among the people, and conspiring against the state. She was sentenced to death.

The Queen was only 37 years old when she was imprisoned. She was young, wild and spoiled. Nevertheless, both at the trial and during the execution, Marie Antoinette behaved calmly and weighed, preserving her royal dignity to the end. She, unlike many men, herself, proudly ascended the scaffold and laid her head on the guillotine. Queen Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 16, 1793. So died the last queen of France, a woman born under an unlucky star. She died and was not understood either by her husband or by the people, having outlived her husband and her two children.

Much of her beloved project, Hameau de la Reine, still exists today. Some parts of the village were destroyed during the revolution, some suffered from time to time. The rest of the estate was renovated in the late 1990s and is open to the public. If you are interested in this topic, read about the controversial personality and fate of the other French queen. Based on materials