IV.5. THE CURTAIN FALLS

MENU: 4.5. THE CURTAIN FALLS

ECONOMIC GROWTH MEANT THAT "THE BARRIERS TO CAPITALISM HAD TO BE BROKEN. THEY WERE BROKEN" 

-- Karl Marx on the French Revolution 

-- Main source here: Histoire de la Révolution française by Jules Michelet, 1847,

 dir. Pierre Gaxotte, abridged ed. 1971

Transformation was inevitable, the monarchy's fall was not: The queen breaking the codes and the king affirming them explain its end. 

Le Louvre, quai de l'Ecole au moment de l'arrivée du roi Louis XVI à Paris le 17 juillet 1789 by Jean-Pierre Houêl, 1789 / zoom

Louis XVI is welcomed with immense enthusiasm when he comes to Paris a few days after the fall of the Bastille, because his visit is taken to mean that he agrees.

The end of a king and queen

and what came next

• Marie-Antoinette breaks rules that she does not understand

• "Let them eat cake"

• The spirit of the court

• A bubblehead rises to the occasion

• "Bonjour Sire!," the greeting that announces calamity

• The debacle revisited: bright yellow liveries and other puzzles

• The end of the 1500-year-old monarchy

*     *     *

Next,

4.5.1.

 Marie-Antoinette breaks rules that she does not understand

4.5.1. MARIE-ANTOINETTE BREAKS RULES THAT SHE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND

"I WILL ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF A PRIVATE LIFE, WHICH DOES NOT EXIST FOR US [ROYALS] IF WE DO NOT HAVE THE GOOD SENSE TO ASSURE IT" 

-- Marie-Antoinette cited by Madame Campon

"I recall all the charm of the queen's illusion, of which she could grasp neither the impossibility nor the danger."

-- Madame Campan, first chambermaid 

            Le Hameau, petit Trianon by Claude-Louis Châtelet, 1786 / zoom

The fairy-tale farm where Marie-Antoinette would slip away with her clique

The memoir* vividly describes the clans, gossip and intrigues of the late 18th-century court, and explains how the unaware young consort took the path that brought disaster.

*Madame Campan's later life: Napoleon appointed her Directress of his Legion of Honor school for the daughters of military men who died in the wars. But at the Restauration Marie-Antoinette's daughter rejected Campan's adhesion to Napoleon. She died dependent onothers and in disgrace. 

A passage at the start of her memoir

"People sincerely attached to the queen have always regarded as one of her first misfortunes, perhaps even the greatest one [...] to have not met in the person naturally placed to be her counsel, someone who was indulgent, enlightened [...] who would have made the young princess understand that in France her dignity depended a great deal on custom [...] and especially that an imposing entourage would protect her against the mortal stings of calumny."

-- Memoir of Madame Campan, 1988 ed., pp. 46-47, slightly adapted

# # #

Marie-Antoinette, who was barely 15 when she married the Dauphin, was used to the relatively free and simple Austrian court. She had no experience of sham...

Marie-Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, age 12, 1767-1768 / zoom

Such as the king's brother (the future Louis XVIII) hiding his hostility by a fete during which 50 cavaliers on superb horses fought in her honor.

-- Madame Campan, p.11

 ...felt that her pedigree let her ignore court codes... 

"Fix all that as you want to: but don't think that a queen, born an archduchess of Austria, will give it the support and interest of a Polish princess,* become queen of France."

-- Madame Campan, p.372

*Marie Leczinska, whom court intrigue had led to marrying Louis XV though she was only the daughter of the dethroned king of Poland, insisted on etiquette to buttress her lack of status.

...and did not grasp that aside from giving children to France, a queen's role was only ceremonial. By becoming a fashion icon she defied the obligation to stay in the shadows:

 

Marie Antoinette in a Muslin dress, zoom / Countess de Polignac, close friend of the queen, follows the look / zoom, both 1783

Exhibiting the portrait above brought an outcry: The queen was not supposed to set style. This portrait in the old look replaced it.  

Marie-Antoinette with a Rose by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783

# # #

Since Louis XVI had no intimate friend, that spotlight made her inadvertently resemble a favori or favorite,* person closest to the king. Such figures were detested...

*For the opposed but complementary roles of queens and favorites, please click.

 

 

Diane de Poitiers, c.1550; Leonora Galigai, c.1615; Marquis de Cinq-Mars, c.1640;

Marquise de Montespan, c.1670; Marquise de Pompadour, c.1640; Countess du Barry, c.1770

 ...and almost indispensable:

• As nobles, they shared kings' gifts of lands, posts, honors etc. with their clans, giving them temporary access to power without the risk of rebellion.

• The institution evolved: Louis XIV's much stronger monarchy made revolt impossible and Louis XV's favorites of commoner origin (Jeanne Poisson ennobled as the Marquise de Pompadour and Jeanne Bécu ennobled as the Countess du Barry) had no traditional entourage to favor.

But clans were improvised around or against them, encouraging the intrigues and struggles for influence that made the exorbitant expense of life at a stifling court worthwhile.

• They were also lightning rods whose extravagance concentrated popular fury on themselves and away from the ruler, who was thought fatherly but misled.

# # #

As well, in a hierarchical court where proximity to royals was a badge of identity and source of posts, gifts and honors, favoring a few friends brought powerful enemies.* 

*Louis XV had already broken the rules when his favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour, organized and starred in plays to which only a few were invited. The innovation was cancelled on pretext of cost, but really because of excluded courtiers' hostility.

-- La Reine et la favorite by Simone Bertière, 2000, pp. 347-354

The women who became the queen's best friends were disinterested...

Madame Campan wrote of the Countess of Polignac, shown above: "I always thought her sincere attachment to the queen, as well as her taste for simplicity, let her avoid all that suggested a favorite's wealth. She had none of the faults that almost always accompany that title." 

-- Madame Campan, p.100

The Princesse de Lamballe returned from England to be near the queen as clouds darkened. When she refused to retract her support, she was massacred.

                                                                zoom                                                                           zoom

The portrait on the left, of 1776, shows the codes of the court. That on the right (undated) has a much simpler coiffure and the uncovered breast signals freedom from codes.

.

But their clans monopolized favors.

Film for television, gone from the web

The left-out courtiers became enemies. They wrote the scurrilous tracts* that radicals sent throughout the kingdom from Palais-Royal.

*The pornographic La Vie de Marie-Antoinette can be read online.

 

        

# # #

"Without the errors of Marie-Antoinette Parisiens would probably have kept their love for the King...*

*After the flight to Varennes, below.

They liked the plump man who was not at all mean, and who in his portliness had an air that was kindly and paternal, very much to the liking of the crowd. The market women called him bon papa; that was how the people saw him."

-- Michelet, p.77

The queen's ignoring the codes

 contributed to the monarchy's end.

*    *    *

Next,

4.5.2.

"Let them eat cake"

IV.5.2. "LET THEM EAT CAKE"...

WAS SAID BY ONE OF LOUIS XVI'S BIGOTED AUNTS, BUT PALAIS-ROYAL REVOLUTIONARIES USED IT TO ATTACK THE QUEEN 

The phrase and remembrance of the queen's extravagance have entered American culture.

• "What is this, Versailles?" my father would say when we left too many lights turned on.

# # #

• Movie, documentary, musical:

• Marie-Antoinette by Sophie Coppola, 2006

 Zoom

• The true story of a woman whose need to consume is endless and who calls her mansion "Versailles," 2012

 Television documentary 

• Broadway musical, 2025

                                                                                                                                                                    Trailer 

# # #

• "Barack Antoinette," a columnist called Obama* to castigate a fête.

*Maureen Dowd commenting his 60th birthday celebration in The New York Times (in 2021).

 

# # #

• Trump's favoritism, building a giant ballroom and over-the-top festivity while cancelling programs that help the poor, have made the allusion constant: 

Poster by the press of the governor of California / zoom  (please scroll down)

"Trump 'Marie-Antoinette' says, 'No health care for you peasants, but a ballroom for the queen!'

•  "Versailles at discount" is said of his gold decor.

           -- The Meidas Touch podcast

 # # #

• At a "No Kings" protest by Americans in Paris: 

"No Kings" demonstration in Paris, Oct 25, 2025

"At least Marie-Antoinette had Style!"

*    *    *

Next,

4.5.3. 

The spirit of the royal court

IV.5.3. THE SPIRIT OF THE ROYAL COURT

THIS MASTERPIECE SUGGESTS THE EPHEMERAL NATURE OF LOVE, PLEASURE AND LIFE...

                                                                   The Embarcation for Cythèra by Antoine Watteau, 1717 / zoom

Despite the title, whether the figures are leaving for the site of love or returning from it is unclear. In any case the misty atmosphere won't last.

...but usually the style extolled sociability or the arts in an imaginary setting, with no further message:

           Die Freuden des Landlebens ("The Joys of Country Life") by Jean-Baptiste Pater, toward 1730 

   La Camargo danse by Nicolas Lancret vers 1730 / zoom

It might be erotic...

   The Swing, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, toward 1768 / zoom

An elderly man (the husband?) pushes a coquette as a dazzled swain admires her legs and cupids embrace.

      Le Verrou ("The Lock") by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, toward 1770

Was always raffined...

     Les Quatre Saisons : L'hiver ("The Four Seasons: Winter") by François Bourcher, 1755 / zoom

...as was daily life.

                           Madame de Pompadour by F. Boucher, 1756 / zoom                                                                   Zoom

The Sèvres royal manufactory was founded by Louis XV and his favorite, Madame de Pompadour in 1745. It still supplies elites and made the tiles for the renovated Château Rouge métro station.

YouTube / zoom

Madame de Pompadour renewed the château of Champs east of Paris to give Louis XV a respite from the court.

# # #

For the peasantry, that elite had no idea:

Jeune berger dans un paysage ("Young shepherd in the countryside") by François Boucher, no date / zoom

La Petite Laitière ("The Little Milkmaid") by François Boucher, 1766 / zoom

 

Marie-Antoinette's obliviousness

fit that of the world she knew. 

*     *     *

Next,

4.5.4.

 A bubblehead rises to the occasion