Why didn't Marie Antoinette's brother, Charles II try to save her?

Question

Her brother was the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Austria, etc., so why didn't he intercede and save her?

Only serious and informed responses please.

Answer 1

He was the king of Austria - he had his own problems to worry about - and trying to save his sister would result in a massive war.

After the rebellion at The Bastille, why would he risk his nation to such retaliation?  Truth was his sister was queen of France - she should have been able to solve her own problems.

Answer 2

Additionally, Marie and Louis dressed up like peasants, and attempted to flee to Russia in a carriage. They were discovered and sent back to Versailles.

Answer 3

The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette of Austria, the queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of a subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist emigrants, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France.

To his sister, he gave good advice and promises of help if she and her husband could escape from Paris. The emigrants who followed him pertinaciously were refused audience, or when they forced themselves on him, were peremptorily denied all help. Leopold was too purely a politician not to be secretly pleased at the destruction of the power of France and of her influence in Europe by her internal disorders. Within six weeks of his accession, he displayed his contempt for her weakness by practically tearing up the treaty of alliance made by Maria Theresa in 1756 and opening negotiations with England to impose a check on Russia and Prussia.

Answer 4

Her brother Leopold, Emperor of Austria, died while Marie Antoinette was being held prisoner by the French Revolutionaries.

It is suggested that, before his death, he was more interested in taking advantage of France's chaos then helping free his sister and her family.

Answer 5

Austria and all of the other monarchies feared that the revolution would spill over into their own countries. They wanted nothing to do with it.