Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars

by Elena Maria Vidal

  ...Paris was a city dependent on the financial support of the noble and rich to maintain its industries, which were in the main to do with luxury and semi-luxury goods. For foreigners, fashion was part of the point of being in Paris....As the Baronne d'Oberkirch remarked on her first visit to the French capital, the city would be sunk without its luxurious commerce....Against the spectacle of an exquisitely dressed Queen, her appearance a work of art in itself—French art— must be put in the balance of the dress bills that mounted, and the dress allowance that was never enough.2

  Within a very few years, as she matured, the Queen herself had introduced much simpler fashions and hairstyles. Her simple white dresses were not well-received, and were seen as an attempt to patronize the Flemish weavers of the Habsburg Empire over the French silk merchants. How ironic that Antoinette was given the nickname of Madame Déficit by her enemies in the 1780’s at a time when she was trying to be cut expenses in her household and in her wardrobe, which included having old gowns refurbished so that they could be worn again.

  There is no doubt that she went over her budget, especially as a young Queen, on clothes, jewelry, gambling and gardening. Nesta Webster, in Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette before the Revolution, breaks down the Queen's expenditures. It should be noted that in 1774 when Louis XVI became King, Antoinette was put on pretty much the same budget as the staid Queen Marie in 1727. However, the livre had decreased in value, while costs had risen due to inflation. Interestingly, even Queen Marie had exceeded the limits of her privy purse and had to ask for extra money, three times. To quote Webster:

  Under the old régime, the expenses of the Queens of France were paid out of at least three different funds. These were:-

  1. The sum for the maintenance of the Queen's household, which for centuries had stood at 600,000 livres....This sum had long proved inadequate and had to be supplemented by what was called the dépenses extraordinaires, which by July 1774...had mounted up to two million livres....The Queen had no control over these dépenses extraordinaires, which led to great abuses.

  2. The cassette de la Reine (or privy purse) for alms, presents, pensions, and other acts of generosity...but not for anything in the way of dress. For this, Marie Antoinette received the same as Marie Leszcinska, that is 96,000 livres a year, and out of it she continued to pay pensions accorded by the late Queen....

  3. The Wardrobe, for which 120,000 livres was allowed yearly, a fund which was administered entirely by the dame d'autours (lady of the bedchamber).... 3

  Because Antoinette insisted upon paying, out of the cassette de la reine, the pensions of the old servants of the late Queen, although Comte de Mercy begged her to drop them, she went over the budget of her privy purse. In addition, she paid pensions for her own retired servants. She refused to petition her husband for more money; it was Comte de Mercy, the Austrian ambassador, who intervened for her allowance to be increased.4

  The Queen’s ladies were given commissions from various merchants for buying their wares for the royal wardrobe; likewise, the ladies were permitted to sell the gowns after the Queen was finished with them, and pocket the money. Such confusion and potential for abuse contributed to the Queen’s expenses going beyond the budget, along with the high prices of her dressmaker, Rose Bertin.

  Caroline Weber in Queen of Fashion discusses how Antoinette used fashion as previously only royal mistresses had used it, as a means of strengthening her position in a hostile court, where she was a foreigner. Former queens had been less stylish; her clothes, therefore, caused quite a stir.5 Antoinette’s situation in those years before she became a mother was tenuous, especially from a political point of view. Her brother frequently pressured her to use her role as consort for Austrian interests. Placed in a very awkward situation, Antoinette used clothes to establish herself; her interest in fashion was not mere hedonism. Once Antoinette became the mother of a Dauphin, of course, her position changed dramatically, and her influence on the King became genuine. She no longer needed the flamboyance, and dressed with greater moderation. She had become, however, like the mistresses of old, a convenient scapegoat for all the problems of the nation. As the determined and energetic mother of the next king, she was perceived as a threat to the adversaries of the crown. The pornographic pamphlets, the epithets such as Madame Déficit, were only the beginning of the attempts to weaken the esteem of the people for the Queen.

  In spite of Antoinette’s preference for simple attire, a court gown was required on all formal occasions at Versailles for the Queen, the princesses, and all ladies who had been formally presented to the Queen. To be presented, a lady had to be from a family that had been noble before the year 1400 and had to be sponsored by another lady who had already been presented. Also, Antoinette had made it clear that she would not receive ladies who lived apart from their husbands. At the presentation the lady would enter the Salon of Nobles at Versailles and curtsey deeply three times before the Queen, who sat enthroned. Then removing her right glove, she would bow to the ground and kiss the hem of the Queen’s gown, then rise and withdraw, walking backwards. A court gown was comprised of narrow bodice, and skirt wide enough to fit over the side baskets called panniers, and a lengthy train. The back of the bodice never closed all the way so that the sheer chemise showed through the lacings. The fact that the bodice was always low cut, revealing most of the bosom and shoulders must have made many women feel quite exposed when garbed in court dress for the first time. The only excuse not to wear court dress was if a lady were great with child, as Antoinette was once when receiving the Venetian ambassador. She apologized to him for her attire, or else there might have been a diplomatic incident.6 A grand corps corset had to be worn with a court gown; only the highest princesses in the land, including the Queen, had the “privilege” of wearing it, and only on formal occasions. It was stiffer than a regular corset and, made with whale bone stays, covered more of the torso while unnaturally pushing up the bosom. As a young Dauphine, Antoinette refused to wear the grand corps at first but eventually gave in due to pressure from the family.

  Court apparel was required for gentlemen as well, involving breeches, waistcoat and coat, of the finest fabrics and elaborately embroidered with silk and gold and silver threads as well as studded with precious gems. Even hunting clothes were richly embroidered. Men wore jewelry as well, including jeweled shoe buckles, buttons, clips, pins, rings, and scabbards. Some gentlemen, such as Count Axel von Fersen, wore earrings. Men regularly wore high heeled shoes, hair powder and lip rouge. Appearing at court could be ruinous for a nobleman of limited finances. Louis XVI started his own revolution by walking about Versailles in a plain brown suit with his diamond-studded Order of the Saint-Esprit as the sole adornment.

  Antoinette had a wardrobe book for every new season with swatches of her garments and she would use a pin to choose what she was going to wear on any given day. Ladies changed several time a day, wearing different outfits to correspond to the different hours. Every great lady had such a book, not just the Queen. The Queen’s Wardrobe Book of 1782 survives; it was in the care of the Comtesse d’Ossun. It is notable for the many swatches of simple, casual attire. The Queen seemed to prefer various shades of blue, from navy to turquoise to robin’s egg to cornflower. She particularly favored cornflower, which was popular at court at as “the color of the King’s eyes.” The court of Louis XVI was known for names which honored the Royal Family when it came to the colors of cloth, with a blondish colour called cheveux de la reine, being the same shade as Antoinette’s hair.7

  In the early 1780's, Antoinette abandoned the ostentatious styles which characterized her first few

  years as Queen, substituting them with simple attire. Especially at Petit Trianon, the gowns of lawn or muslin were worn not only by the Queen but by all the ladies present. As described in Rocheterie's biography:

  At Trianon there was no ceremony, no etiquette, no household, only friends. When the queen entered the salon the ladies did not quit their work nor
the men interrupt their game of billiards or of trictrac. It

  was the life of the chateau with all its agreeable liberty, such as Marie Antoinette had always dreamed, such as was practised in that patriarchal family of the Hapsburgs, which was as Goethe has said, ‘Only the first bourgeoise family of the empire.’ They all met together for breakfast which took the place of dinner; afterwards they played cards chatted or walked and assembled again for supper which was served early. No fine dressing no complicated head dresses whose exaggerated height had forced the architect to enlarge the dimensions of the doors and provoked the reprimands of Maria Theresa. A dress of white percale, a gauze fichu, a straw hat—such was the toilet at Trianon, a fresh and charming toilet which set off the supple figure and brilliant complexion of the goddess of place but whose extreme simplicity enraged the sellers of silk at Lyons….8

  Indeed, Antoinette’s simple tastes drew even more criticism than her former opulence. With her unpowdered hair and linen and cotton dresses, she was accused not only of trying to put the French silk merchants out of business in favor of her brother's Flemish weavers, but she was blamed for lowering the prestige of the monarchy by being too casual. According to an article on the Queen’s hairstyles by scholar Desmond Hosford:

  Marie-Antoinette’s excesses during the 1770s had been criticized, but when the queen curtailed such luxury she was again found to be at fault. In 1778, Marie-Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, which did not solidify her political situation, but the birth of a dauphin in 1781 meant that she had finally fulfilled her duty to France. Unfortunately, according to Léonard, ‘At the end of the year 1781, that is to say, when the queen had given to France the first Dauphin, who died in 1789 . .. Her Majesty was in danger of losing the charming locks whose suave color had passed into fashion under the name cheveux de la reine.’

  Léonard’s solution to the queen’s predicament was no less than to cut her hair and to abandon the imposing coiffures that he had created. Instead, he invented the coiffure à l'enfant, a simple style frisé with curls in the back, which characterized the second half of the reign. This simplification of the queen’s hairstyle was also effected in her attire as she entered the age of maturity. However, the queen’s new simplicity was as unpopular as her former extravagance. One fashion that Marie-Antoinette adopted, a loose-fitting simple gown of muslin, became known as the chemise à la reine. In 1783, Vigée-Lebrun painted the queen in such a gown, and the work was so severely criticized when it was exhibited at the Salon of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture that year that the painting had to be withdrawn.9

  No matter what she did, there were those who would complain. Some criticism is par for the course when one is a public figure. In Antoinette’s case, her Austrian birth made her an object of suspicion from the moment she stepped onto French soil, even among the royal family. For those who sought political power by undermining the royal regime, the Queen of Louis XVI, with her beauty and youthful imprudences, was the perfect target.

  Many people ask what became of Antoinette’s clothes and jewels after the fall of the monarchy. People particularly want to know what became of her wedding gown. Like many of the Queen’s gowns which were designed for special occasions, the wedding gown was made into a set of vestments and donated to the Church. As for her other gowns, the Queen would usually have them refurbished so that they could continue to be worn. Antoinette tended not to be wasteful but displayed thrift when it came to recycling old clothes and shoes. Those gowns and cloaks that were not eventually made into vestments were given to the lady-in-waiting in charge of the wardrobe, who could then sell them or keep them as souvenirs.10 As for the jewels, a few pieces were smuggled out of the country before the fall of the monarchy and eventually came to the Queen’s daughter Madame Royale. Most of the royal jewels fell into the hands of the revolutionaries in August 1792 and scattered to the four winds. Napoleon managed to gain possession of some of the crown jewels. Over the next several generations, jewels that had belonged to Antoinette would turn up in various places, such as with the Youssopov family in Russia. To trace the fate of all the jewels extensive detective work is required and the findings would certainly fill a tome. The best lesson from it all is Sic transit gloria mundi.

  “Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in the Eucharistic procession on May 4, 1789.”

  “Marie-Antoinette prays before death.”

  12 Marie-Antoinette and Her Journey of Faith

  Je meurs dans la religion catholique, apostolique et romaine, dans celle de mes pères, dans celle où j’ai été élevée et que j’ai toujours professée.

  “I die in the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers, that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed.” — Last Letter of Marie-Antoinette

  In her last letter the Queen said that the Catholic religion is the one which she had always believed and practiced, but like many people she had a faith journey in which her soul grew and matured. Although faith is a private matter there is much to learn about how Antoinette’s belief system strengthened her in difficult times. Many are not aware of Antoinette’s affiliation with the Carmelite Order, a contemplative order which was introduced to France in the thirteenth century under royal patronage. When the Discalced Carmelite Reform came to France from Spain in the early seventeenth century, the Royal Family assisted the nuns. The French court was shaken in 1674 when Louise de la Vallière, the former mistress of Louis XIV, publicly begged Queen Marie-Thérèse for forgiveness and entered a Carmelite monastery. There were many connections of the later Bourbons with Carmel, particularly the patronage of Queen Marie Leszczyńska and her daughter Madame Louise. When Louise herself chose to become a Carmelite nun in 1770, it cemented the spiritual ties between those in the worldliness of Versailles and those in the austerity of the cloister. Antoinette continued the traditional connection between the Carmelite Order and the Royal House of France. Antoinette married the Dauphin in the same year that Madame Louise entered the monastery. The young princess offered to represent Louis XV at the ceremony at which his daughter Louise received the habit of Carmel, since it was too painful for the King and the rest of his family to be present. So it was the teenaged Antoinette who veiled the new “Soeur Thérèse de Saint-Augustin.” The ceremony made a huge impression on her and it is said that she wept copious tears, as girls her age tend to do when overwrought. However, in the years that followed, Antoinette would visit her husband’s aunt three times year at the Carmel of Saint Denis, of which she was a benefactress. It was later claimed by the nuns that Antoinette visited Madame Louise at the Carmel more than anyone else in the Royal Family.1 When Antoinette’s daughter Madame Royale was old enough to visit, Antoinette had a doll dressed as a nun so that the little girl would not be afraid when she saw her great aunt. According to Madame Campan, Madame Louise as a nun was deeply involved in church affairs; she was always petitioning her nephew’s wife, so that Antoinette allegedly called her: “the most intriguing little Carmelite in the kingdom.”2 It is doubtful that the Queen really said such a thing about a woman whom she so highly respected. It was at the request of Madame Louise that Antoinette granted a dowry to a poor, pious

  girl named Mademoiselle Lidoine, so that she could enter the Carmel of Compiègne. Mademoiselle Lidoine became the Mother Prioress of the heroic Martyrs of Compiègne, who like Antoinette, died on the guillotine during the French Revolution.

  Antoinette spent the first fourteen years of her life in Austria, worshiping in rococo churches and listening to the music of Haydn and the Italian composers. Architecture and music in that time and place celebrated the glory of God in the beauty of His creation. As Queen, her desire to promote beauty around her, especially in the lives of those whom she loved, was an outgrowth of the culture in which she was reared. She loved theater, acting, opera, ballet, painting, gardens and everything that enhanced the loveliness of the natural order. Hers was a piety that was loving, gentle and courteous, but real and unflinching nev
ertheless. Antoinette’s approach to faith was joyful and non-judgmental, free from the rigorist approach of Jansenism that so tainted a great deal of French piety in the years preceding the Revolution. Perhaps that is another reason why she did not want to be seen as a dévote.3 Nevertheless, even as a young bride, she had the moral courage to defy the King in regard to Madame du Barry.

  It is known that the young Archduchess Antonia was not an outstandingly pious child, but she was carefully taught her faith. Her mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was a deeply observant Roman Catholic, who prayed novenas with her children and took them on pilgrimages to places such as Mariazell. Mariazell or “Mary’s Throne” is a shrine to Our Lady high in the mountains. Antoinette made her First Holy Communion there in 1769.4 The Empress and the Emperor her husband traveled there with all of their children and left two gold hearts symbolic of their united love for the Mother of Jesus at the foot of her ancient and miraculous statue. She instilled in her daughters the importance of being faithful wives and staying with their husbands, no matter what.