Paris from fresh perspectives: MARIE-ANTOINETTE BREAKS RULES THAT SHE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND

Sunday, February 28, 2016

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, her 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.

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 [Austrian] 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

# # #

The unaware young girl, who was not even 15 when she married to the future king, was used to the relatively free and simple Austrian court. Her resistance to the intricate etiquette of Versailles gave the faction that resisted that alliance a weapon...

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

A queen's sole obligation was to give children to France. Otherwise her role was only ceremonial. By becoming a fashion icon Marie-Antoinette highlighted Paris as a center of style, but defied the obligation to remain in the shadows:

Zoom

Worse, since Louis XVI had no intimate best friend, she inadvertently took on the role of favori(te), the person closest to the king. Such figures were official, detested — and almost indispensable:

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

Favoris shared kings' gifts of lands, posts, honors etc. with their clans, which gave 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.

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

# # #

As well, favoring a few friends in a hierarchical court where

proximity to royals was a badge of identity and source of posts, gifts and honors 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 the pretext of cost, but really because of excluded courtiers' hostility.

-- La Reine et la favorite ("The Queen and the Favorite") by Simone Bertière, 2000, pp. 347-354

The two women who succeeded each other as the queen's best friend were disinterested...

Princess of Lamballe / zoom Countess de Polignac / zoom:

An ancestress of the royal family of Monaco

Madame Campan wrote of the Countess of Polignac, "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, and was massacred for it (please read on).

The favors they monopolized and the clique that surrounded them explain the enmity of left-out courtiers. They are the source of the scurrilous tracts* that were popularized later at Palais-Royal.

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

# # #

"Let them eat cake" was said by one of Louis XV's daughters. It too was popularized at Palais-Royal. Though her thoughtlessness allowed it...

Marie-Antoinette by Sophie Coppola, 2006 / zoom

It is interesting mainly as an example of the durability of lies: "Barack Antoinette," a columnist called Obama* to castigate a fête, California's Governor compares Trump to her...

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