Why Did Marie Antionette Get Killed?

Question

I get that she was killed for treason during the French Revolution - but I don't get what she did, or really what treason is...

Can someone dumb it down for me just a bit. ;)

Xoxox

Answer 1

she was a smackhead

Answer 2

hucklberry finn caught her cheating

Answer 3

She was the queen of france  they didn't want an heir on the thone

Answer 4

Treason is the crime of conspiring against the rulers of your country. To try to destroy the government, or to try and help a foreign power against your own country, is treason. So in this case Marie Antoinette was accused of treason against the revolutionary government.

She was accused of conspiring with Austria, with whom France was at war, and where her brother was emperor.  The charge was true, but ironically they French did not actually have any real evidence against her, they did not know about the military plans she had sent to Austria at the beginning of the war for instance.  The accusations against her were that she had sent millions of francs to her brother the emperor Joseph, that she had squandered millions more on her favourites and the building of Le Trianon (her private palace at Versailles), and that she had corrupted the King and lead him into a policy of lying and deceit, influencing him in his decision to escape and in exercising his veto against the wish of the people.

The most infamous charge against her, brought by Hebert,  was that she had sexually abused her young son.  Apparently he had been caught masturbating by Simon the shoemaker, who was his guardian in prison, and in order to save himself from punishment he said that his mother had taught him how to do it, and when encouraged by his questioners to tell them more, said that his mother and his aunt Elizabeth had taken him into bed with them and watched him perform.

When Marie Antoinette was confronted with this charge in court, she was outraged.  Silent at first with shock, when she was asked why she did not speak, she rose to her feet and said "If I did not reply it was simply because human nature cannot answer such a charge against a mother." And turning to the women in the gallery she cried "I appeal to all the mothers in the room!"  The women in the gallery, who had been shouting for the queen's death minutes earlier, were now applauding her, and screaming abuse at Hebert. Some of them fainted.  That night at dinner Robespierre denounced Hebert as a fool whose revolting allegations had only served as a victory for the Queen.

The trial dragged on for another day, while the Queen had to listen to yet more allegations of her extravagances and intrigues.  Even the president of the court seems to have realised the futility of much of the evidence, for he barely refered to it  in his summing up,and instead concentrated on her relations with the enemies of the republic, her efforts to spread civil war in France and to encourage the King in a policy contrary to the interests of his country.

It was three in the morning when the jury left the hall, and the Queen, half fainting from fatigue, had remained in the dock for nearly fifteen hours, listening to speeches first from the public prosecutor, then from her counsel, who had spoken for over two hours bravely and eloquently in her defence.  "How tired you must be, Monsieur Chauveau, and how I appreciate all the trouble you have taken on my behalf" she said to him.  her smile and thanks were enough for the lawyer to be placed under arrest.

The jury stayed out an hour, but it was only a formality, none of them would have dared bring in a not guilty verdict even if they had wanted to.

Although it is quite true that Marie Antoinette was very extravagent, personal expenditure by the royal family accounted for only a tiny fraction of state expenditure, and did not really make any difference to the economic situation France was in.  it was the money spent on wars (in particular on French support for the American War of Independence) that had really led to serious financial problems for France.

Answer 5

she wasted all of the money on all the fancy stuff & riches she wanted, while the rest of france was dirt poor & couldnt even afford to eat.

Answer 6

This is the simplest version:

She was accused of many things, most of which were probably not true.  These things included:

- hosting orgies in Versailles

- sending lots of France's treasury money to Austria

- plotting to kill the Duke of Orléans

- declaring her son to be the new king of France

- orchestrating the massacre of the Swiss Guards in 1792

- and most seriously, she was accused of sexually abused her son.  She vehemently denied this and it is generally believed to be untrue.

In reality, it didn't matter much what she said in the trial to defend herself, because the outcome of the trial had been pre-determined by the Committee of Public Safety, and she was declared guilty of treason.  

(Treason is basically a betrayal of your country - either purposely doing something to hurt your country, or doing something that helps your enemy.)

She was executed on the same day as the verdict was read, two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday.

Answer 7

Marie and her husband Louis XVI spent money that they did have in the treasury so Louis taxed the common folks

Answer 8

She didn't know how to run her own country and she was known as a "bad queen". She wasted money on the wrong things and her people thought she was leading them into poverty and she was basically not doing things right.

Answer 9

Wasn't she one of those French dames who lost her head making a spectacle of herself?

Answer 10

basically, she and her husband had no idea how to run france, the people got sick of them sitting in their palace spending the tax payers money of fancy clothes and parties so they rebelled, and killed them both. pretty much.

Answer 11

she was a hedonistic w***e who spent the tax money of starving peasants in grotesque orgies.

Answer 12

She spent the entire treasury of France on frivolity while the citizenry were starving to death.  While she was buy expensive clothes, wigs, having lavish parties, someone told her that the people of France had no bread to eat, she simply said, let them eat cake.  She got a free one way trip to the Guillotine.

Answer 13

she suggested that peasants eat cake.