On the 16th October 1793 inside of Paris, Marie Antoinette the Queen of France was executed
on the guillotine.
Months before her husband King Louis XVI had also met the same fate and he had been executed
on the same device of death.
But to many across France, Marie Antoinette was a figure of loathing and she was a woman
who would whilst people were suffering rub their poverty in their faces but living a
very indulgent lifestyle.
But the death of Marie Antoinette was a shocking one, but what happened to her head following
the execution?
Inside of the Conciergerie, Marie Antoinette’s fall from grace was huge.
He was held inside of a prison, and the final 11 weeks of her life were sent inside of this
cell.
She was a woman who was Austrian, and an Austrian Princess and but in the years before her death
she embraced great frivolity of the French royal court.
She would become Queen four years after coming to France, and she was 18 and was frustrated
by the face her husband had opposite tastes.
But Marie would at court spend her time gambling, partying and buying lavish gifts and items,
and she became known as ‘Madame Deficit.’
But she did have a good heart, and she would adopt some poor children, but despite having
a soft heart she was considered a scapegoat for the problems across the nation.
Millions of people were suffering and the Diamond Necklace Affair made things worse.
A countess tricked a cardinal into buying a hugely expensive necklace on the Queens’
behalf, and many believed Marie tried to get her hands on the necklace without paying for
it, and this ruined her reputation.
But the the French revolution would come, and the French rose up storming the Bastille
and taking up arms and they would riot inside of many major cities over the price of bread,
and they would march to the gates of Versailles.
The royal couple wouldn’t be officially arrested until June 1791 when they tried to
flee to Austria controlled Netherlands.
The royal family were held in the Temple and France declared a republic.
This was an end to the monarchy which had ruled for almost 1000 years in the country,
but in January 1793 King Louis XVI was sentenced to death for treason against the state and
the French people.
HE was allowed to spend some time with his family before he was executed in front of
a huge crowd in Paris.
But Marie Antoinette following her husband’s death was left in prison, and she would be
transferred to the Conciergerie months before her death which became known as ‘the antechamber
to the guillotine,’ and she would held for 2 months before she was placed on trial.
He was 37 years old, and her hair was white and her skin was pale.
She was subjected to a 36 hour trial, with 18 hour days.
But huge accusations including incest were levelled against the Queen, and Marie would
deny these however these accusations shocked the court room.
She was graceful in court, but it did not save her from the executioner’s block.
In the hours of the 16th October 1793 she was found guilty of high treason, depletion
of the national treasury and conspiracy against the security of the state.
Shortly before her execution at the Place de la Revolution, most of the Queen’s white
hair was cut off.
At 12:15pm she walked onto the scaffold to greet Charles Henri Samson, her executioner
who had also took the life and head of her husband the King months before.
He was in a black mask, and he probably never believed that he would have executed the Queen
of France who was his former employer.
Marie was dressed in white, and she accidentally stepped on the executioner’s foot, and she
whispered to him ‘Pardon me sir I did not mean to,’ and this was her final words.
Quickly Sandom strapped her to the wooden board, and slid Marie under the blade before
he released it.
Her head was taken off in one quick blow.
Sanson then held up her head and declared ‘Viva la Republique.’
But following her execution, Marie Antoinette’s remains were taken around half a mile north
and they were taken to the graveyard behind the Church of Madeleine.
However at the time the gravediggers who had been burying many victims of the guillotine
were taking a lunch break, and whilst the Queen’s remains were about to be interred
this allowed Madame Tussaud to then sneak in and take a plaster death mask and cast
of her head.
Following this her body was then thrown into an unmarked grave, and this particular cemetery
would be filled the following year by enemies of the revolution.
Marie Antoinette then had her head it’s believed also thrown inside of the unmarked
grave.
But we know that Marie’s body was exhumed on the 18th January 1815, and then they were
given Christian burials of the royal remains in the necropolis of the French Kings at the
Basilica of St Denis.
But from her death mask, Marie Antoinette would be brought back to life by Madame Tussaud
who utilised the plaster cast to make a model of her head and it would show the French Queen
with short hair and with her eyes closed, with her lips also pursed together with marks
on her face.
This is the closest we have of the Queen of Frances’ head and what it looked like following
execution.
Marie Antoinette to many people was a symbol of what was wrong with the old regime and
with the monarch of France.
It was a royal family that placed further financial problems onto the nation, and Marie
was used as a scapegoat for this.
She was a woman who had a taste for dine things,a nd she spent huge amounts of money on renovating
royal palaces with the best furniture from across Europe.
But she would brutally lose her head on the guillotine like thousands of other people
and her husband would during the French Revolution.
Those who witnessed her execution would not forget the moment they saw the French Queen
lose her head.
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