Digging Up The Executed Queen Of France - Exhuming Marie Antoinette 

Marie Antoinette was nothing near the woman described. She had come to France a naive teenager. She was not an arrogant person; most "mistakes " she made came from her ignorance of the very strict austere customs and attitudes of the country. One day her carriage had run over a young peasant boy. She rushed to his side very upset and saw that he received the best of care until he recovered. After that, she had him raised as though he were an aristocrat's son, seeing that he was highly educated and thanks to her he lived the life of a royal relative. Her biggest fault was that she knew nothing about royal finances and lived as she thought she was supposed to. Also, people hated her because she did not produce an heir for France. However, once she did, people's attitude towards her changed as she was now a royal mother. She did not deserve the hatred some felt towards her. France would have been a hard place for a young teenage girl used to being raised in a warm and loving family.

As a French Man i would like to tell you ,that i'm.entirely against the execution of the Queen Marie Antoinette,she wasn't guilty at all about what happened in France a this time! She is a scape goat just like her husband the King Louis the 16th!!! I like the way you tell the sad story of Marie Antoinette! I like your calm voice for describing a very sad period of my country! And every thing you said in your video is absolutely true!!! Well done ! Very good job! Thank you very much indeed! Stay safe, God Bless! Denis from France...

Antonia Fraser wrote a sympathetic biography of the ill-fated queen. She really didn't do anything "on purpose" and had little power or control over her life. She was a victim of circumstance and an easy target as symbol of the monarchy.

Marie Antoinette was a sad and tragic woman. As a young queen, she devoted herself to charitable work, established an orphanage for children, bread factories that were constructed to distribute bread to the poor people, and adopted six children. One of the children that she adopted was an African child who was kidnapped in the slave trade.

No, Marie Antoinette did not say, "Let them eat cake". “Let them eat cake,” or Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” attributed to first be found in Jean-Jacqque Rousseau’s Confessions, Book Six, 1765. Also attributed to Marie-Thérése, wife of Louis XIV, again who would have only been 14 years old when Rousseau’s Confessions were written. Brioche [brijɔʃ] is very soft, buttery bread, made of flour, milk or water, eggs, salt, some sugar, yeast and lots of butter. It is usually eaten for breakfast or with afternoon tea versus bread. French bread is made from wheat flour, water, yeast and salt. By law in France, the long loaves and boules (round loaves) cannot have added oil or fat. Brioche, a soft loaf with a high egg and butter content, is considered a pastry or cake. The shortage of flour (wheat) is attributed to the shortage of bread. The Book of Jin, a 7th-century chronicle of the Chinese Jin Dynasty, reports that when Emperor Hui (259-307) of Western Jin was told that his people were starving because there was no rice, he said, "Why don't they eat porridge with (ground) meat?", showing his unfitness Also, "S’il n’y a pas de pain on mangera de la brioche" Marie Antoinette was known as a generous patron of charity and moved by the plight of the poor.

I agree She was a scapegoat. The mob was filled with rage and needed someone to blame for all the wrongs, both real and perceived. We see that same mob mentality at work in many countries today. If we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past…

If you had been in Paris on the 200th anniversary of her death you would have seen how many still cared about her. They walked from the prison Conciergerie to the place of execution praying all the way something I will never forget and the walk ended with her final letter being read. There were so many flowers laid there by the people. There were special things owned by her put in the museums that she had in the prison I wish I had been allowed to take pictures but I was not and these were very special things I think probably owned by family or rich people. In this museum is also a piece of jewelry with a lock of her hair. My daughter was only 9 years old but had this somber face all day:) I have the dairies of Sanson the executioner maybe I should read them again as it's been years since the last time. I saw Marie Antionette's deathmask in Madame Toussaud's in 1977 but it wasn't displayed very well and was in kind of a horror dungeon at this time. I love Paris and its history!!

I felt sorry for her and her children they did not deserve the treatment they got only her daughter one daughter survived they tortured the children daughter one that survived rose that you could hear her brother scream awful what happened to them

Imagine what must have gone through her mind as she was led to the guillotine.

I hate how horrible people are to Marie Antoinette. She was literally a child. I know no 14 year olds who were ready for birthing children or ruling a kingdom. This is probably why in many countries the legal and/or recommended age for many activities is older than 14 years of age.

I think she should be allowed to rest in peace.

Personally, I don't think that she didn't have sympathy for the plight of the people of France. I think she was more or less oblivious. Her mother, Queen Maria Therese, was a very philanthropic queen and had soup and bread given out to the poor. Not to mention, I dont think that Marie, herself, would have adopted the children that she did if she didn't feel any sort of sympathy. Just my opinion

I've been fascinated by Marie Antoinette since I was very young. The whole era of the French Revolution has interested me since I read A Tale of Two Cities at the age of 10. It was an abridged version for children, I was no child prodigy! Some years ago I visited La Conciergerie in Paris and it was very depressing. You could feel a sense of misery, like a black cloud enveloping you. We saw Marie Antoinette's cell. It was tiny and with a guard permanently watching her she had no privacy. We also visited Versailles and saw how she lived in better times. I believe she was innocent. She came from a royal family herself and was married to the Dauphin at the age of 14. The French court at the time was very rigid and full of protocol. She couldn't even get up and get dressed without an audience watching her. She had no clue how ordinary people lived, her extravagance came through naivety. What they did to her in prison was appalling. They took her children away and forced her son to say she'd committed sexual acts on him. He was only 7 or 8 years old. I'm glad so many French people still remember her with fondness. She was a brave and dignified woman 😢

Following the events of 1789, the French royal family was removed by a mob from the Palace of Versailles and detained in the Tuilleries. The great British parliamentarian and orator penned his "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (published in May 1791). Concerning Queen Anne-Marie it contains this passage: “It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness at Versailles, and surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon…glittering like the morning-star, full of life and splendour, and joy. Oh! what a revolution! And what an heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall!...little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honour and of cavaliers. I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. - But the age of chivalry is gone - That of sophisters, oeconomists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever…” Marie Antoinette would go to her death on 19th October 1793.

I think the millions of lives sent to Austria were meant to be millions of livres.

The hypocrisy of all those who consented to the deaths of the king and queen, to show a state of mourning when they were finally buried according to their station.

If you've ever visited Versailles you'll see how isolated the Royal Family was from commoners, they simply did not know the extent that the poor were suffering. I've been to Versailles and to get in and speak with the Sun King you had to go through about 5 or 6 sequential rooms, each one requiring a higher level of authority to approve your visit. Only the very top officials and royalty got as far as the King's bedroom, where he conducted a lot of his official business-often while in bed! And you can imagine how the authorities who issued Approval for you to go through each successive chamber leading up to the King used and abused that authority to secure favors and wealth. It would have been very difficult for the King and Queen to know and appreciate what the average French people were going through until it was too late and the mob marched on Versailles, the level of bureaucracy kept them in the dark. To top it off, they were surrounded by sycophants and 'Yes!' men/women who curried favor and did their best to shield the Royal couple from distressing news out of Paris (Versailles is about 15 miles from the outskirts of Paris). Had the Royal family known sooner how bad things were, they could have done something to alleviate the suffering and probably prevented the revolution, but the cumbersome nature of the Royal Institution couldn't react to events quickly enough. I've also read that a few consecutive seasons of cold, wet weather just before the revolution contributed to destroying the French wheat crops which produced the flour for bread-a staple for French lower classes in particular. The perfect storm of events.

The queen ignored the priest because he was a juring priest. In other words he had accepted the Government was his boss!

Marie Tussaud didn't sneak in to cast her death mask, she was commissioned to do it, aged 17. Making a plaster cast/mould couldntbe done in a hurry

The people are so easily played by the media this hasn’t changed either no wonder they call us sheep

She was just a scapegoat for men seeking political power. Not the first time in history where people rose to power off of firing up the mobs against a scapegoat.

Poor Marie. She kept her dignity until the end though. R.I.P Marie Antoinette.

I wonder then why people weren't more supportive of her, if she was "known for charity". It's too bad the family couldn't have made it to Austria safely. If their carriage were not as obvious, maybe they would have gotten away. It's terrible what the families did though -- send this young girl to another country to marry their prince, and make the two countries get along in alliance. He didn't want a part of it. So she's criticized for spending too much, but she's supposed to look like a queen, and when she tries a simpler look, it's taken as an insult. There was nothing she could win. Everything about that time is tragic. The family, the response of the people, their struggles, and the revolution. Really sad.

To be subjected to arrest, imprisonment, abuse, beheading, and tossed into an unmarked grave is shocking...but to be exhumed, and subjected to an operation at your own funeral is the depth of evil.

I feel so sad about this story

Love your work. Keep the analysis coming. 👍💲

If she was so widely hated and despised, then why would anyone even care where she was buried ?

I read somewhere that hacklers tried to get the public to jeer her on her way to her death, but that people fell silent when she went past, especially because of her white dress.

An example of her lack of self-determination, Marie Antoinette, despite her status as the Queen of France, never once viewed the ocean -- a site she had expressly desired to experience. She was only ever permitted the luxuries of Monarchy whether in the Courts of Vienna or Versailles as a beautiful bird in a gilded cage. In fulfilling her obligations as Queen she would never be permitted to fulfill the simplest desires of her own interests and curiosities, such as the simple act of standing on the shore to behold the Sea. The best defence of Marie Antoinette might well be found in her response to the accusation of incest which she allegedly committed with her eight-year-old son, Louis Charles. When asked about the charges, she replied that she had “no knowledge” of them. However, minutes later a member of the jury demanded a response from the former Queen to which she said: “If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to answer such a charge laid against a mother. I appeal to all mothers here present - is it true?” Her composure in court may have ingratiated her with the audience enough for this first charge brought against her, that it would not be raised again during the trial and was not included among the 3 charges for which she was found guilty: high treason, depletion of the national treasury and conspiracy against state security. The despicable false charge alone would have been enough to send her to the guillotine.

Why not run DNA in both bodies to determine who they really are?

Queen Marie-Antoinette should always be referred y her full name. Never just « Marie”…

Well said.

It's disgraceful the way Marie Antoinette and Louis were treated. I also read what they did to Marie Antoinette's friend Princess de Lamballe 😢

It might be of interest to some. My favourite book on Marie Antoinette is ‘Queen of Fashion, what Marie Antoinette wore to the revolution ‘ by Caroline Weber. Not so fond of Antonia Frazier but that’s a personal choice. I enjoy your content but wish you would check your pronunciations more and your facts. I think you’ll find she wasn’t forced to wear a simple white dress. Having only the one shabby black dress she had worn since her husbands death, she still had the forethought to keep aside one clean white chemise specifically for her last public appearance. She always knew what the end would be and didn’t ride to her death in dirty rags as the propagandist sketches of the time tried to infer but in a simple spotlessly clean white cotton ‘dress’. Was this a final subtle message? White the colour of innocence or simply dressing herself with as much dignity as she could in her appalling circumstances? Consider this in comparison to the death of the Comtesse du Barry dragged to the guillotine crying, screaming, and begging for mercy. You can condemn her frivolous youth but the lady’s courage in the last few years of her life was/is awe inspiring.

Just found your channel really enjoyed it subbed

This is too sad and macabre for me to continue to listen.

Marie Antoinette was not responsible for the dire poverty of her subjects! She lived an insular life and knew virtually nothing about what went on outside the palace wall. Unlike how she's depicted here, she was a compassionate person and gave money to various organization to help those less fortunate including children. One thing that's untrue is she never said "Let them eat cake" when told of bread shortages. It's wrong to depict her as almost an ogre! Do more research and practice pronunciation of names please!

I've been to St. Denis. Even in that extraordinary place, Marie-Antoinette's statue is... arresting. Heartbreaking. Recommend looking for photos when you get a chance. You'll see.

She was a child when when married and thrown into her roll as queen. Seriously, how many of our own children are spoiled and have no regard for anyone but themselves because everything has always been given to them?

The picture of the queen as having very little sympathy for her subjects is at least partly a myth. She never said the words she has been rumoured to, and "famous for" having said. That was propaganda against her- Thank You for interesting information

You have a very beautiful voice, the tempo was excellent, and the pictures - especially that of the head was/ is astonishing. But I miss more facts on that Madame Taussaud saved the head and did a wax copy of it. Your English sounds flawless to me, a swede, but it is a pity that your pronounciation of all the french names are totally English (even Saint Denis). It would have lifted the narrative if the names where pronounced in french!

How long does a body have to be in the ground before you can dig it up?

Girl how I like your videos. Like the way you talk

Has the french revolionary committee send or exile her back to his native austria.she might just fade into a obscurity.

Thank you for the pronunciation guide regarding "Saint Denis" but you had trouble pronouncing the other French names later on in the video

She is in my family tree..a relative. (On my mother's side. French). Unjustly executed! 🇺🇲

I went to the Conciergerie in Paris and saw the cell she had been imprisoned in. It was so small, with absolutely no privacy, which must have been embarrassing as hell for Marie Antoinette, but great for her jailers. It's a horrible vaulted building with stale air that looks like it came out of a horror movie. Yikes.

"Let them eat cake," Very poor choice of words.

The historian Desmond Seward wrote a beautiful book on her, and he defends her in the book Marie Antoinette in 1981

That whole "let them eat cake" deal was not true. I wonder where it came from?

That is a lie that she had no remorse for the starving people. Just like the lie they told, that she said, "Let them eat cake".

The title led me to believe I would see the exhumation. What a load of waffle.

Her death was nothing more than and act of spite and vengeance. Queens were generally spared death and were exiled or imprisoned.

Very well done, I was only peripherally aware of the facts of the queen’s execution, but not her rebuttal.

The wrath of the French peasants that fell on Louis XVl and Marie Antoinette was actually pent-up resentment from the rule of his grandfather Louix XlV "The Sun King" who ruled as an absolute, and tyrannical monarch. Louis XVl's error was to fund the American Revolution against Britain to the point that he broke the French economy. But if he hadn't, the USA would never have come to be. Such is the irony of history. As for Marie Antoinette, all scholars know that she never said anything about eating cake or disdaining of the peasants or French people. Both the king and queen desired pathetically to be loved by the French people but were inept in their own ways. Marie Antoinette tried to live a peasant's life by setting up a cute little petting farm, and Louis got most of his satisfaction repairing clocks. There was a scandal about jewelry Marie Antoinette supposedly bought at an exorbitant cost while the people starved. This was the source of hatred against her, and it turned out to be a completely false rumor.

I have read Antonia Fraser's book and have visited Paris and the place where she died. America shares in her fate, thusly. We were losing the War with England and begged Louis XVI for money to finance the war. France was bordering on bankruptcy, but Louis, simp that the was, agreed to loan the money to America. France had no bread, and Marie did spend extravagantly, but she did cause the downfall of France. She was hated because she was not French, but Austrian. Period. There is so much more to her story, but most would not, lacking a formal history education, get it.

The story is beautifully researched. Unfortunately there is a problem with the pronunciation of french vocabulary and names. It would have been nice if you had put more effort into this.

It’s hard on the ears to hear the majority of these names (st Denis, Angoulême, etc) so terribly mispronounced

Thank you for the history, but please do check pronunciation it is "funeral oration" not funeral operation", Saint "De-nis" not St Deny, etc

I read somewhere that most charges were trumped up. Giving her accusers a reason to execute her. She was maligned by all but was she really that bad? It was indeed a dark time in French history.

Those people had serious mental issues and a savage mentality

It is not true that MA had no compassion for the suffering of the French people. She was known to be kind. She had many poor families living at Versailles. She was however extremely isolated from the outside world so was indeed out of touch with many of the realities. The smear campaign against her was created by the French revolutionaries. MA was not without fault nor was the king, but neither of them were the wicked heartless people they were portrayed as by the propaganda of the revolution.

Just goes to show how dangerous propaganda can be.

Marie Antoinette, the beautiful and much wronged queen.

May we speak a moment about pronunciations? I usually read subtitles along with these videos to avoid word confusion. I’m a retired college professor who has researched the French Revolution my entire life. My French is more than passable. However, without subtitles, I’d often be unable to discern your intent. I don’t know who writes the scripts, but it would greatly heighten the impact of these videos if someone were to proofread along with you and point out specific words and names that need clarification. For example, when you list the charges brought against Marie-Antoinette, you say that she was suspected of “sending thousands of lives to Austria.“ The word you need is “livres,” not lives. A “LEE-vruh” was a denomination of money. The two words may look similar, but they’re worlds apart in meaning. In another video, I noticed you said “the palace of the revolution.” “Place” is correct, though in French, it’s simply “plahss.” Saint Dénis looks more complicated than it is, though it isn’t pronounced “Denny.” “Den-EEE” is fine, though. “Guillotine” will always be pronounced “Gee-yoh-teen.” It’s a bit more contracted than that, but remember that it doesn’t have “gills.” Why don’t you let me go over your scripts with you? I catch everything! With a little tightening, your videos would be useful in academic applications.

She was a kid, when she became queen.

Histoire qui serait bon de le traduire en Français

I don't know much about Marie Antoinette. What happened to their children after she and the King were executed?

She never sais that she was guilty !

There is a plot of land / settlement near Wyalusing, PA close to the banks of the Susquehanna river that was set aside for Marie to escape too, yet she was intercepted before she could leave Paris. It bears her name to this day, and is maintained by local historian groups. Because of this there is a smattering of French surnames in the wider area.

Not trying to be pedantic, but is all this information correct?

A LOT of spite and jeolosy and hatred came to the surface during this revolution. It was an evil hateful period and they even refused religious burial after their deaths. There is a church/chapel in Paris that was built for their burial.

so where is the digging up part then.... ???? 😡

So sad and evil what happened. Thank you Jacobins. Same thing in Ukraine! Thank you Bolsheviks!

Orate means to make a speech, not to operate. The word is perpetuate and means to continue, or cause to keep going. When narrating, it's always nice to read the script through and have a rough idea of the correct term, or at least pronounce the term correctly even if the definition or context is unknown.

I would like to watch a film about this. Be interesting to see a film all about Marie and her and Louis unfortunate demise 😢

😢

Where is the exumation....?

she was Queen of France, to my knowledge they never renounced.

I read that she had a. Peasants cottage built so she could go and sit in it. Outwardly it was typically poor but inside it contained the usual luxurious furniture. It seems she actually believed that is how the poorest lived. Of course she had no idea of the facts. She wasn't exposed to the real facts except to perhaps occasionally pass through a village it town, maybe even through Paris. On such occasions they probably had the curtains or blinds of the coach closed so the peasants (possible threats) wouldn't see if anyone was on board or who was on board. I doubt many of any of them had a clue.

It was sad the propaganda against Queen . However a noble man lived next to cemetery witnessed her burial .He helped exhume n locate the Queen however it is said the King was pretty much decomposed and it was questionable that it was Kings burial spot .This cemetery was overcrowded in very bad condition . So idk wat is true . different stories .I would hope that it is the King entombed with the Queen

Leave the Queen alone😢

Vae principum necatoribus execrationi devotionique omnium saeculorum memoriae exposituris !

I wonder if they will ever do a DNA check to verify it was actually her.

I'm in the UK & have just started watching the dramatised series.MARIE ANTOINETTE on BBC i Player.Also I watched VERSAILLES which is absolutely brilliant!!!👏👏👏

They were able to verify her remains because they were able to identify her son from her and her husband to show they were correct. And apparently after she was beheaded her head was thrown between her legs as a final insult .

👍🏻(a few linguisic tweaks would make it very Good).

I would not advocate not ending the macron tyranny in similar fashion.

I would imagine that you would have to dig in two places

Plass de la revolution, not place.

What happen to her children

The (Imperial) Russian Ambassador wrote to a colleague back home and lamented that the tide of social revolution he was witnessing in France would strike Russia within the next generation. Although his timing was way off, well as they say, the rest is history.

isn't Grave robbing illegal ?

My poor queen Marie

Let her rest in peace.

Don't say "let them eat cake!"

Surely the word 'Place' in 'Place De La Revolution' ought to be pronounced 'Plas' in the French way? And 'obscenities' is usually pronounced 'obsenities'. not 'obseenities'.

Down with monarchy. Up the republic.

She was just a rich out of touch women not a hero. People’s comments acting like she deserved to get away with the actions of the government is sick

How + Y she was captured was the fault of her husband the king! He demanded a full feast 4 his lunch That's HOW they got caught when they had stopped at a tavern!