Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars

by Elena Maria Vidal

  To put the entire intrigue in perspective, it was the kind of power play that happened every day in courts all over Europe. I sometimes wonder that if Antoinette had lived to be an old lady and had died peacefully in her bed, if anyone in posterity would have given the incident between her and Madame du Barry a second thought. Because Antoinette died stripped of all human dignity, after being destroyed in practically every way a woman can be destroyed, with her reputation in shreds, people are always looking for reasons that led to such a dreadful fate. Hence the focus on the early rift with La Barry, which but for the debacles that followed, would have been forgotten.

  In the end, although Antoinette eventually obeyed the king and her mother and spoke to the mistress, the fact that she had made an issue of it made her someone whom Madame du Barry came to respect. On New Year’s Day, 1772, Antoinette passed La Barry and looking at her said the words which soon became known in all the courts of Europe: “There are many people at Versailles today.”6 Ultimately, it was not Antoinette who gave scandal; it was she who had to resist being scandalized. It was she who had to take a stand, which she would continue to do when as Queen she sought to reform the morals of the court. Madame du Barry tried to send her diamonds to smooth things over, but Antoinette could not be bought.7 Maxime de la Rocheterie has the following reflections on the matter:

  This was the end and proper solution...of that long and scandalous wrangle which, in contempt of all order, natural and divine, a mistress, dragged from the mud, had held at bay a princess of the royal blood, the wife to the heir to the crown of France....For those who reason coldly, with that haughty indifference to the moral aspect of a question, and regard for material interest alone, which is one of the traditions of modern diplomacy, it is easy to understand the disquietude of the empress, her incessant recommendations...but it is more easy to comprehend—we would willingly say, to share—the virginal repugnance of Marie-Antoinette. Perhaps the motives of the empress were more prudent; but those of the dauphiness were incontestably finer....If politics condemn her, public honor absolves her.8

  Most people are not aware that Madame du Barry was raised in a convent and, in spite of her lifestyle, always considered herself to be a Catholic. This is not to mitigate the very real scandal that the King gave to his people by taking a mistress. In Madame du Barry's case, however, at least she was not actively working against the Church like Madame de Pompadour. It was Madame du Barry who built the chapel at Petit Trianon. She never tried to pretend to be anything other than a fallen woman and did not try to bend or break the laws of the Church in regard to reception of Holy Communion, as other people have done in her situation. Also, when Louis XV was dying, Madame du Barry left the King’s side so he could be reconciled with his Savior. She retired to the Abbey du Pont-aux-Dames near Meaux-en-Brie, where the reports of her conduct are mixed; she unfortunately but not surprisingly misbehaved by parading around in all of her dresses and, bizarrely, tearing apart birds’ nests, perhaps giving vent to grief and frustration. 9

  However, Antoinette’s situation in those years before she became a mother was tenuous, especially from a political point of view. Her marriage was not consummated and the potential of an annulment was hanging over her. Even when she became Queen, Louis XVI deliberately kept her out of political matters in the beginning of his reign, encouraging her to divert herself at Petit Trianon. Let us recall that he thought that Madame Pompadour had ruined France and so was suspicious of women meddling in political affairs.

  Since as a child-bride Antoinette noticed that it was Madame du Barry who ruled, it became important for her to give the impression that she was her husband's mistress as well as his wife. She wanted to appear to be the one who influenced his decisions, even though she did not, as the matter of Bavaria proved in 1778, and the American Revolution as well. Her brother frequently pressured her to use her role as consort for Austrian interests. Louis XVI, to Joseph’s frustration, continued to do what he thought was best for France, not what was best for Austria. Placed in a very awkward situation, Antoinette would use clothing to establish herself, dressing in the height of fashion like a courtesan, quite a contrast to the late Queen Marie. Early in their reign, the King and Queen held a costume ball where everyone came in dress from the era of le bon roi Henri, with Antoinette herself garbed as Henri IV’s beloved mistress, Gabrielle d’Estrées. It was part of Antoinette’s attempt to show that she was loved by her husband, and that she was his maitresse en titre as well as his Queen. She wanted to be perceived as the person most influential with Louis XVI. Unfortunately, in an attempt to assert herself at a hostile court, she made it easier for her enemies to portray her as a loose woman. In the minds of many her expensive and fashionable dress was a sign of decadence and careless morals. 10

  Here is one more story featuring the Maid from Lorraine versus the Concubine. Antoinette had only been married for a few weeks when one of her maids, Madame Thibault, fell upon her knees, begging the Dauphine to intervene with Louis XV for Madame Thibault’s son, who was condemned for killing an officer of the King’s guard in a duel. Antoinette went to the King and procured a pardon for the young man. Later Antoinette was told that Madame Thibault had also thrown herself at the feet of Madame du Barry, who had obtained a pardon for the youth as well. Antoinette sweetly replied: “That confirms the opinion I always had of Madame Thibault, she is a noble woman, and a brave mother who would stop at nothing to save her child's life; in her place I would have knelt to Zamore if he could have helped me.”11 Zamore was Madame du Barry’s African page, who later betrayed La Barry during the Revolution. Both Antoinette and Madame du Barry would meet their end on the scaffold, Antoinette calmly and Madame du Barry in a fit of terror.

  5 The Temple of Love

  “Her virtue is intact, she is even austere by nature rather than by reason.” —Joseph II to Archduke Leopold about Marie-Antoinette, 1778

  The Temple of Love is one of the most unforgettable places in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, on a little island directly behind the house. Queen Marie-Antoinette commissioned the architect Mique to design and build the neo-classical structure in 1778. The Temple of Love was not built to celebrate the Queen's mythical love for Count Fersen, as some authors have hinted; Fersen was a mere acquaintance at the time. Lady Antonia Fraser maintains that it was built to celebrate the love of the King and the Queen for each other and the consummation of their marriage, delayed for many years.1

  The consummation took so long because Antoinette was a mere child when she was married; she was fourteen but looked as if she were twelve, and Louis was not eager to deflower a little girl. He waited for her to mature. He also approached his bride in a restrained manner because his tutor Vauguyon had inculcated in him the dangers for France when a king became enthralled by a woman, as had happened to his grandfather Louis XV. Louis could probably see himself becoming quite easily enthralled with Antoinette, and so he held himself back until he could be certain of her. Where, then, did the phimosis theory come from, and the gossip about Louis being impotent, etc? If there was a problem, it was not Louis’ but Antoinette’s. Where do these rumors come from, that end up in books and movies?

  Of the marriage of Louis and Antoinette much has been written. Just as the bed linens would be scrutinized after their nights together by Comte Mercy’s and Comte Aranda’s spies,2 so has every word they uttered or wrote, or what was uttered or written about them, been dissected and analyzed and interpreted in various ways. While such scrutiny has mostly happened in regard to their physical relations as husband and wife, people have also been trying to figure out their feelings for each other. Did they really love each other? Was Louis really an ungracious, impotent dolt, incapable of being a true husband? Was he himself completely unlovable as he has often been described? Did sexual frustration drive Antoinette to spend money, typical of the Freudian interpretation?

  As I wrote in the preface of the novel Trianon, the story of Louis and Antoinette is not a typical love st
ory. Indeed, it is more than a love story. Why? Because of the fortitude and courage they displayed at the gates of hell. Louis and Antoinette, through the trials of their marriage and of their time, fulfilled for each other one of the goals of the sacrament of matrimony, to help each other reach Heaven. That is because, as Philippe Delorme writes in his excellent biography of the Queen, as troubles grew around them, the more Louis and Antoinette turned to each other for support, and the more they were forged into one.3 Although they endured many ups and downs throughout the course of their union, perhaps more than ordinary couples do because of the rarefied atmosphere of the Court, one can trace a pattern of growing affection between them, even from the first difficult years.

  In the beginning we find them two complete strangers, not only from foreign countries and cultures but from families that had recently been enemies. Although they were related by blood and shared the same faith, they both had been brought up in different atmospheres. Antoinette grew up in a loving, casual but highly moral environment; Louis in regimented surroundings where scandal and corruption lurked around every corner. Even their approaches to religion diverged; for Antoinette there had been more of an emphasis of warmth, confidence and trust in God whereas at Versailles there were always the vestiges of Jansenistic prudery to counterbalance the parade of loose morals. In their personalities they appeared to have nothing in common. According to biographer Vincent Cronin:

  In obvious ways they were strikingly different: Louis beginning to put on weight, Antoinette slim; he steady, she quick; he reserved, she open; he with few close friends, she with many; he awkward, she majestic; he seeing the dark side, she the bright; he a keen reader, she bored by books; he unmusical, she happy with harp and clavichord.4

  To Antoinette, Louis must have seemed to be the oddest boy she had ever met, especially when in her experience she had no one to compare him to but her brothers. Likewise, Louis knew only his Aunts and his little sisters compared to whom Antoinette must have seemed like a force of nature descending upon the decorous halls of Versailles.

  Furthermore, they had to contend with the constant scrutiny from their elders, as well as the gossip which filtered into the court from whatever Antoinette confided to the Mesdames. The public atmosphere at the court caused their most private business to be discussed and lampooned. It was the beginning of the obsession with Antoinette’s body which would lead to the pornographic pamphlets designed to destroy her reputation. In the meantime, Antoinette was also being spied upon by Ambassador Mercy, who was reporting to her mother. Mercy had one of Antoinette’s maids and two of her maidservants to report to him every detail of the young girl’s life.5 Louis-Auguste found out that much of what Mercy was passing on to the Empress about himself was not true.6 Mercy, eager to remain at Versailles, wanted to convince the Empress that he was indispensable to her and to the alliance. His reports were calculated to make Louis look bad.7

  Comte Florimund de Mercy-Argenteau (1727-1794), the Austrian ambassador to the court of His Most Christian Majesty the King of France and Navarre, was a career diplomat, and when Antoinette arrived in France, he was next in line to becoming Imperial Chancellor, an office he did not desire. He was comfortable at Versailles and enjoyed his life in Paris, where he kept his mistress at the Petit Luxembourg with 15.000 bottles of wine. In order to remain in France he had to calmly present Antoinette to her mother as being in a continual state of crisis which only an experienced diplomat like himself, trusted by both the Empress and her daughter, could handle. Mercy made all the problems of the marriage sound as if they were Louis’ fault. Ironically, if it had not been for Mercy, I think that the problems between Louis and Antoinette would have worked themselves out sooner. But perhaps not. At any rate, his weekly reports to the Empress contained details of Antoinette’s doings; she later could not figure out how her mother knew about them. It never occurred to her that Mercy was spying on her.

  Mathieu-Jacques de Vermond, known as the Abbé Vermond (1735-1806), was the French priest sent by Louis XV to Austria to help Antoinette learn French. He followed her to France, at his own expense, where he remained Antoinette’s tutor while she was Dauphine, teaching her religion, history and French literature.8 He devised a clever way of teaching which engaged the easily distracted Dauphine, although she did her best to change the topic at hand to one more entertaining. Under his tutelage she read several serious works of history including David Hume’s History of England, which was one of Louis’ favorite books as well. Antoinette liked it, too, although Hume was “a Protestant” she lamented.9 She also truly enjoyed Memoires de l’Estoile about Charles IX, Henri III, and Henri IV.10 Antoinette came to respect and admire Henri IV and Louis XIV, because “One was good and the other was great.”11 When she became Queen, the Abbé served as her Reader and secretary. A homely man, the Abbé was a worthy priest of solid doctrine who advised Antoinette spiritually and at times served as her confessor. He was genuinely devoted to her well-being and she trusted him with her life. However, he tended to view the customs of Versailles as absurd which only encouraged Antoinette to view them the same way.12 He was not liked by Louis-Auguste or the Mesdames because he was known to be passing on information to Mercy. His brother was the physician who would deliver Antoinette’s first child. Antoinette usually ended her letters to her mother by saying “the Abbé places himself at your feet.”13 It was the Abbé whom, in late 1780’s, Louis XVI would send to bring Antoinette the news of her mother’s death.

  Although Antoinette was separated from her mother at a young age, and even before that did not see her on a daily basis, her mother remained a strong presence in her life. From afar, the Empress Maria Theresa gave detailed advice about religious practice, love-making, court etiquette, politics, health, and children. It was incredibly annoying to Antoinette at times but in the long run she emerged with a strong inner sense of her religious and marital commitments. When Antoinette received the first letter from her mother at Versailles in the spring of 1770, the fourteen-year-old lapsed into her native German and exclaimed: “Gott sei Dank!” or “Thanks be to God!”14 For ten years, between 1770 and 1780, Antoinette’s life was shaped by the correspondence with her mother which she anticipated with a mixture of joy and trepidation. The letters are replete with loving words; Antoinette’s are especially full of cheer, liveliness and devotion. She always ended her letters saying things like: “I love and embrace you with all my soul”15 and “Will my dear Mama permit me to embrace her tenderly?”16 Her struggles with homesickness were intense. “I can swear to you that I have not received one of your dear letters without having the tears come to my eyes because I am separated from so kind and loving a mother; and although I am well situated here, I still ardently wish I could see … my very dear family for a moment at least….”17 While the Empress is affectionate as well, she frequently scolds her child, as would any normal mother. However, what was the worst thing for Antoinette’s relationship with Louis was that her mother was using her as a political tool. In her letters the Empress often tries to get Antoinette to use her influence at the French court to benefit Austria.

  Unfortunately, as long as Antoinette was under the thumbs of Mercy and the Empress, Louis-Auguste could not completely trust her with political matters. As King, he overturned Heaven and earth to keep his bride away from politics by encouraging her to be focused on her projects at Trianon and on her friends. He engineered the friendship with Madame de Polignac to pull her away from Mercy’s influence. As Louis XVI he gave into her on any number of small matters that conferred upon her an illusion of power when actually he was keeping her at arm’s length from serious affairs of state. It was not out of weakness or guilt on Louis’ part but deliberately done by him. Louis and Antoinette did not really become close until after the Empress died and Mercy lost his influence.

  The main problem is that they were both too young and psychologically immature to be married. Although many royals married young to perfect strangers, both Louis and Antoinette w
ere more child-like emotionally than many others of the same age. They had both lost fathers to whom they were each devoted. They had both lost their mothers as well, even though Antoinette could still write to hers. If they had each been given a few more years to grow up, the union would have had a happier beginning. But the ambitions of their elders forced upon them a marriage which became a matter of failure and humiliation at a vulnerable age. It is a miracle that they were ever able to have normal marital relations. It was good, as Vincent Cronin points out, that they found at last that they shared much:

  At a deeper level they possessed traits in common. Both had a lot of heart: they felt for those less fortunate than themselves, they loved their children and were happiest when with them. Both had a sense of duty and wanted above everything to do their job well.18

  The first decades of the twentieth century saw the rising popularity of the theories of Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that sexual drives are the basis of all human behavior. While many of Freud’s original disciples diverged from him in various ways, there is no underestimating the widespread influence Freud has had upon modern life and the current attitudes towards the human person. Among Freud’s close friends was the popular Austrian novelist and playwright Stefan Zweig, who in spite of his enormous literary success ended his life in suicide.

  Among Stefan Zweig’s most famous works is his biography Marie-Antoinette: the Portrait of an Average Woman which views the Queen’s life in Freudian terms, especially when it comes to the first seven years of her marriage. Louis XVI is portrayed as a repressed, impotent, dull-witted, indifferent husband, who drove his wife to gambling, dancing and spending exorbitant amounts of money as an outlet for her thwarted impulses. Zweig was the first to impart to the public the image of the sexually frustrated teenaged princess, which successive authors and filmmakers continue to promote to this day. The drawback of the Freudian theory is that it does not explain why others at the French court, who were enjoying unmitigated pleasures of the flesh, were spending much more money than was the adolescent Antoinette.