An Example of Compassion
In a short amount of time,the new glamorous & new dauphine acquired a reputation of sweetness & kindness.She donated a months income to help families that were crushed by the crowds during the celebration and royal marriage in Paris.She broke protocol by using her carriage to assist injured people struggling alon the roadside.Alone among the royal family, she refused to ride or hunt over farmers' field,damaging crops.Lauded as "an example of compassion,"some of her acts of kindness were commemerated in engravings,tapestries,and on painted fans.
Adored Queen
Marie-Antoinette kept her love of people through her first year as queen.In year 1775,the year of Louis XVI's cornation,a production of Inphigie en Aulide was brought to halt by public enthusiasm for the queen.When in second act the chorus sang,"Let us sing,Let us celebrate our queen",they were inturupted by cries of "long live he queen!" filing the air for 15 minutes.It was a time when the french of every class regarded the queen as one among the sweetest ornaments of fetes that embellished the court.
"I was so affected by their most touching acclamtions"
Austrian Spy
The arrival of Marie-Antoinette daupgter of France's traditional foe,powerful and acquisitive Hasburg of Austria,was not entirely welcomed at Versailles.It is likely that Louis Aguste himself always suspected her Austrian leanings,for he was careful throughout most of their marriage to exclude her from political decisions.
Madame Deficit
As France's finacial troubles countinued to worsen,and with no end in sight.Marie Antoinette was made the primary scapegoat.The fact that the crippling dept had been accumulated mostly to finace the 7years' war,and that now this dept is compounded by the new expense of France's involvment in the American War of Independence,did nothing to dissuade the people that the Queens spending was but a drop in the ocean.
"Let them eat cake"
It is ironic,given Marie-Antoinette's reputation for compassion and charity,that she should be best known for the words"Let them eat cake," supposedly uttered callously on being told that the people of France were without bread and starving.In reality the phrase had already been attributed to various princesses.........Marie Therese,the spanish queen of Louis XIV,Rousseua in 1737, and Madame Sophie in 1751
"Thats such nonsence,I would never say that"