Mother of a Princess

A little girl looked up as her mother walked through the door. At the mother’s call, both the girl and her little brother rose, and each took their mother’s hand. “My dears, I have an important matter to discuss with both of you. Come with me.” As she spoke, she led the children to the adjoining room and there, before their eyes, was laid out an assortment of the most beautiful toys. Dolls of different sizes with the most detailed, beautiful clothing, and various mechanical toys made the children’s eyes grow wide. The mother’s eyes saddened for a moment but became firm with determination as she thought about the importance of what she was about to do. “Children, I had intended to give you some handsome New Year’s gifts, but I am afraid that because of the cold weather, the poor are in so much need of blankets, clothes and bread, to protect them from the rigour of the season, that my money has been spent.” Kneeling so that both of her children could see her face clearly, she said, “This year you may only have the pleasure of looking at these new playthings, as it is a duty to succor the unfortunate.” The young children, though highly disappointed, nodded their heads. Their mother then led them back to her sitting room and sat with them, one on each side. “Now children, as many other mothers this season will not have enough money to buy their children toys, as I have not, I am rather afraid that the toy man will not be able to sell as many toys. Therefore, do you not think that perhaps we should pay him for his journey here today in bringing those toys, as well as console him that he was not able to sell them?” Forgetting her own loss for the moment, the little girl eagerly nodded her head saying “Oh yes mother please! I should feel sorry if we did not.” Perhaps the little girl had learned a lesson from her mother that day. Her mother was Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.[1]

Image from WikiCommons

Many opinions of Marie Antoinette and her life have been shared throughout time. While I do not in any way claim to be a well-researched scholar of her, the little I have studied fascinates me, especially what I’ve read about her as a mother. I’ve wanted to write about this topic for years, and now that I have, I don’t believe that I have in any way done it justice. Years down the road, when I have done more research, maybe I’ll be able to rewrite this. But in the meantime, here are my thoughts.

While the memoirs of Marie Antoinette, left by those who probably knew her best, are probably considered biased, part of me believes there is something to believing in what the people who knew her best had to say.

Many royals through the ages have seemed aloof from their children, however, several accounts display the opposite of this queen. It is said that when her first daughter was born, she said: “Poor little one, you are not desired, but you will be none the less dear to me! A son would have belonged to the state--you will belong to me.”[2] Professor Hugo Thieme wrote that “After this event the queen gave herself up to thoughts and pursuits of a more serious nature. In 1779 the dauphin was born, and from that period Marie Antoinette considered herself no longer a foreigner.” “During these years she was the most devoted of mothers; she personally looked after her four children, watched by their bedsides when they were ill, shutting herself up with them in the château so that they would not communicate their disease to the children who played in the park.”[3]

Later, when the family were prisoners it was said that both the queen and king tutored their children in academics, and both were loved dearly by their children.[4] Princess Marie Therese Charlotte wrote the following of her mother:

“On the 3d of July, they read us a decree of the Convention ordering that my brother be separated from us and lodged in a more secure room in the Tower. Hardly had he heard it when he flung himself into his mother's arms uttering loud cries, and imploring not to be parted from her. My mother, on her side, was struck down by the cruel order; she would not give up her son, and defended, against the municipals, the bed on which she placed him. They, absolutely determined to have him, threatened to employ violence and to call up the guard. My mother told them they would have to kill her before they could tear her child from her. An hour passed in resistance on her part, in threats and insults from the municipals, in tears and efforts from all of us. At last they threatened my mother so positively to kill him and us also that she had to yield for love of us…”[5]

When finally, the queen was herself taken, away her daughter wrote:

 “My mother, after tenderly embracing me and telling me to have courage, to take good care of my aunt, and to obey her as a second mother, repeated to me the same instructions that my father had given me; then throwing herself into my aunt's arms she commended her children to her. I answered nothing, so terrified was I at the idea that I saw her for the last time; my aunt said a few words to her in a low voice. Then my mother went away without casting her eyes upon us, fearing no doubt that her firmness might abandon her. She stopped once at the foot of the Tower, because the municipals had to make a procès-verbal to discharge the concierge from the care of her person. As she went out, she struck her head against the lintel of the door, not thinking to lower it. They asked her if she was hurt. ‘Oh, no,’ she said; ‘nothing can hurt me now.’[6]

...she went to death with courage, amid curses which the unhappy, misguided people poured forth against her. Her courage did not abandon her in the cart, nor on the scaffold; she showed as much in death as she had shown in life.”[7]

Life is full of misunderstandings, difference of opinion, and biases, but all in all, the opinions which will matter most to me in my life, are those of my family. I don’t believe Marie Antoinette was perfect, and I don’t know as much about her life as I would like, but in the eyes of those close to her at least, she was a woman who had their love and respect.

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^[1]Jeanne Louise Henriette (Genet) Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Book 1, E-book, Amazon Kindle, pages 2780 and 2801. Creative liberty was taken, especially with the dialogue, to help create the narrative. I have tried to stay close to the idea the original author was suggesting. 

^[2]Hugo Paul Thieme, Woman: Women of Modern France, Vol. 7, online book, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32727/32727-h/32727-h.htm, Chapter 12.

^[3]Ibid.

^[4]“Ruin of a Princess,” The Story of My Life, accessed January 28, 2019, http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/wormeley/princess/princess.html#90, 127 and 245.

^[5]Ibid, 266-267.

^[6]Ibid, 269.

^[7]Ibid, 278.