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Characteristics of marie antoinette as one of the causes of the french revolution
Marie Antoinette problems
Essay on marie antoinette
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When the names Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are heard they often forgotten until the end of their lives, where they were both captured and sent to death by the guillotine, but most individuals don’t know or care to look at their policies and lives they had prior to their downfall. While both, louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may have certain characteristics plastered to their names, there is much more insight to be had from their experiences. Louis-Auguste de France also known as Louis XVI was born in Versailles to a family of six, consisting of younger and older siblings. He was often neglected by his parents as his older brother was much more intelligent and good looking, which left Louis with downtime to excel in studies and pickup many hobbies. After his older …show more content…
Prior to gaining right to the throne he married a girl named Marie Antoinette at the young age of 15, whom was the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. This marriage was the first connection between France and the HRE since the Seven Years War, which lead to much skepticism among the french court and the common people. After Louis XVI acquired the throne which was left in a poor state from prior rulers which had left him to deal with a huge amount of debt and the common people began expressing ideas correlating to the enlightenment which depicted freedom from the king, reduction in taxes, freedom, etc. His inability to resolve these problems mostly came from the lack of training or preparations he had received before becoming heir to the throne which had made it much more difficult to appeal to the people. One of his main focuses would be improving foreign policy in attempt to recover some of the land that was lost during the Seven Years War, and to assist the Americans with their endeavors of becoming an independent nation and religious uniformity. Unsuccessfully
Both Louis XIV and Peter the Great aimed to subjugate the powerful nobility, but did so using very different approaches. Louis XIV experienced a Fronde rebellion, a revolt of the nobles, as a child, which caused him to flee Paris and resent the nobles ever since. Peter the Great experienced a similar situation, also as a young man. While Peter was visiting western Europe to learn from his neighbors, the Russian military commanders of the streltsy, made up of politically powerful nobles, led an uprising and caused chaos. Like Louis’s Fronde rebellion, for Peter, the streltsy Uprising left a lasting impression on Peter affecting his policies during his reign. In response to their countries’ respective rebellions by the aristocracy, each ruler
In 1765, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, her father, died of a stroke. He left Maria Theresa his position, and gave their eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, the throne. Because of this political, it became a requirement for Marie Antoinette to marry Louis Auguste. Her mother sent her to France and agreed on this marriage. It was hard to adjus...
The French Revolution, beginning in 1789, was a lengthy process in which the people of France took over the government and instituted a Republic (Chambers). The overarching goal of the Revolution was to place the power of government in the hands of the people. For two years, whilst France was facing internal disorganization and external wartime threats, the government was run by a war dictatorship under Maximilien Robespierre, the head of the Committee of Public Safety (“Reign of Terror”). Amid much internal suspicion and fear, the Reign of Terror began. Much of France was politically divided, and Robespierre’s method for keeping the government stable in a time of crisis involved severe penalties for any suspected of plotting against the new government (Chambers). Soon the accusations began to fly and a handful of people convicted and killed for treason became thousands. Many of the cases turned into the accuser’s word versus the accused, and a government preoccupied with bigger issues often did not care to look into these cases, simply convicting the accused, supposedly to promote a sense of unity and control to the citizens of France, and to forewarn anyone who did attempt treasonous deeds (Chambers). Eventually, Marie Antoinette, guilty of no crime other than marrying the former king, was executed on the grounds of treason (“French Revolution: The Reign of Terror”). Many thought this was taking a step too far. The former Queen was well-respec...
In the book, Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France , the author, Evelyne Lever, paints a beautiful portrayal of the life of Marie Antoinette; from an Austrian princess to Queen of France to her untimely death at the end of a guillotine. Marie Antoinette was the fifteenth child born to the Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor. She lived a carefree childhood until she was strategically married and sent to France when she was fourteen years old. The marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the future King of France, was meant to bring Austria and France closer together politically. Unfortunately, that did not happen; instead the monarchy collapsed with Marie Antoinette managing to alienate and offend a vast
In order to gain the power he desired as an absolute monarch, Louis used a few key techniques that were very successful. His first and most necessary step to get all control was to take all of the nobles’ power, and make it so they were completely under his control. He first did this by taking the nobles’ positions of power, and either getting rid of them by doing it himself, or giving the jobs to loyal middleclass or some nobles who were completely loyal and under his control. Louis had very simple reasoning for doing this, which was that if the nobles had any power or control, they would have a better chance of overthrowing him, and that since there can only be so much total power, the more they had, the less ...
... move, defunding any revolts they might plan, and preoccupying their time with petty social matters instead of matters of the state. If Louis’ reign was not supported by the enabling qualities of the Palace of Versailles, his reign would certainly not be as absolute as it was.
King Louis XIV's 72 year reign was incredibly influential in shaping French history. King Louis XIV’s childhood was traumatic because of “La Fronde” which was a noble rebellion against the monarchy. This experience taught King Louis XIV to distrust the nobles. It was for this reason that he eventually excluded nobility from the council and surrounded himself with loyal ministers whom he could control. He also separated the aristocracy from the people of France by moving the court to the Palace of Versailles. One of the most notable of King Louis XIV’s decisions was that he refused to appoint another Prime Minister after the death of Prime Minister Mazarin. Every decision, from the declaration of war to the approval of a passport, went through him personally. During his reign as king, France participated in several wars including the War of Devolution, in Anglo-Dutch War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Another major action he took was the proclamation of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes, imposing religious uniformity through Catholi...
Politically, Louis was corrupt because of his greed. He fought costly wars--in the high numbers of casualties and monetary encouragement--at the drop of a hat. His country was the most powerful, and was very populous. His armies were large in size at peacetime, and even larger in wartime. Their strength, though, was no match for the failure Louis faced in wars. His wars left France almost bankrupt. He wanted larger borders, went to any extent to get them, but lost all of the three times he tried.
When Marie crossed the border at fifteen into Paris, everything about her previous identity was stripped down and carted away. She became a fine edition to the French court, and the current king, Louis XV wrote in his journal, approving of her being "full-figured and delightful.” She adjusted to a new life and language, and a few months later, at the coronation ceremony, her husband Louis XVI was crowned the next ruler of France, and her in turn, queen. In her early years, she was popular among the aristocracy and nobles (Morris), but as time passed with endless court rituals and strict etiquette, Marie became bored of her position and her failing husband. Louis XVI allowed for his wife to endure the reproachful mockery of the elite, as the pair was unable to produce an heir for nearly a decade, at the faulting awkwardness of the king (Marie Antoinette: Story of a Queen through Primary Sources).
Louis XVI greatly influenced the French Revolution. Rather than absolving the tensions between the estates of France, his policies and decisions ultimately led to the spread of governmental dissent and the Revolution of 1789. After involvement in both the Seven Years War and the American Revolution, France was saddled with great debt. Louis XVI’s predecessor Louis XV had tried to devise tax schemes that would cause the taxation of all estates of the French Government, thus relieving the peasants of some financial burden. To ensure his financial plans were enacted, Louis XV abolished the corrupted parliaments allowing for the implementation of his programs of reforms.
During the eighteenth century, France was one of the richest and prosperous countries in Europe, but many of the peasants were not happy with the way France was being ruled. On July 14, 1789, peasants and soldiers stormed the Bastille and initiated the French Revolution. This essay will analyze the main causes of the French Revolution, specifically, the ineffectiveness of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the dissatisfaction of the Third Estate, and the Enlightenment. It will also be argued that the most significant factor that caused the French Revolution was the ineffective leadership of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The first and main reason for the French Revolution was the terrible leadership of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.
contributed to the execution of King Louis XVI so that French citizens might find a better existence under honest rule. To keep citizens focused on the revolution, he established a
When Jane first meets Helen, Jane sees her being punished by her teacher. Jane admires her strength – ‘not a tear rose to Burns’ eye.’ This is similar in the way to which Antoinette looks up to Tia’s strength – ‘fires always lit for her, sharp stones never hurt her bare feet, I never saw her cry.’ However, Tia’s description implies that what Antoinette looks up to in Tia is her violent strength, suggested by the use of ‘sharp’, and ‘fire’, while what Jane admires in Helen is her ability to resist violence. The use of asyndetic listing makes the list seem longer, as if Tia’s strength is unattainable to Antoinette.
... then a noble. These governors were required to spend a large amount of time at Louis’ extensive palace of Versailles, which allowed Louis to monitor the generalités very closely. Religiously, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes and declared France a Catholic state. Louis hoped that religious unity and centralization would lead to stronger unity in the country as a whole. He expelled or executed any Protestants who refused to convert, and the Catholics supported most of his actions. Although he delegated most of the power in France to himself, Louis did acknowledge the power and authority of the Parlement of Paris, which helped to regulate local administration and taxes, but overall, Louis stripped the nobles and aristocracy of most of their powers. Louis XIV long rule gave France the time it needed to transform from a divided nation to a centralized and powerful one.
King Louis XVI was next in line for the throne in 1774 and gladly inherited it from Louis XIV to become the ruler over France. He drastically changed the whole country and put its people through ghastly conditions. There was not a soul left unharmed. In Paris, nearly half of its population in 1788 was unemployed. They produced no crops due to them not growing and had extremely high prices on food. With the whole nation already furious with his doings, he decided to marry Marie Antoinette who was foreign. They decided to blame her for their problems of their economy because they figured that King Louis was letting her make major decisions and control them. Together, Antoinette and Louis had a total of four children. Their oldest child lived to be seventy-three.