The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France

The Life of Marie Antoinette,
Queen of France

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Title: The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
Author: Charles Duke Yonge
Release Date: January 1, 2004 [EBook #10555] [Date last updated:
October 8, 2005]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Marie Antoinette]
THE LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE.
BY CHARLES DUKE YONGE
1876

PREFACE.
The principal authorities for the following work are the four volumes of
Correspondence published by M. Arneth, and the six volumes
published by M. Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth's two collections[1]
contain not only a number of letters which passed between the queen,
her mother the Empress- queen (Maria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph
and Leopold, who successively became emperors after the death of
their father; but also a regular series of letters from the imperial
embassador at Paris, the Count Mercy d'Argenteau, which may almost
be said to form a complete history of the court of France, especially in
all the transactions in which Marie Antoinette, whether as dauphiness
or queen, was concerned, till the death of Maria Teresa, at Christmas,
1780. The correspondence with her two brothers, the emperors Joseph
and Leopold, only ceases with the death of the latter in March, 1792.
The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conches[2] has been
vehemently attacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather
than of genuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a
few instances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, the
critical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of the
letters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be the authors.
But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid ground for
questioning the authenticity. Indeed, in the later and more important
portion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after
the death of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen's letters
is continually supported by the collection of M. Arneth, who has
himself published many of them, having found them in the archives at

Vienna, where M.F. de Conches had previously copied them,[3] and
who refers to others, the publication of which did not come within his
own plan. M. Feuillet de Conches' work also contains narratives of
some of the most important transactions after the commencement of the
Revolution, which are of great value, as having been compiled from
authentic sources.
Besides these collections, the author has consulted the lives of Marie
Antoinette by Montjoye, Lafont d'Aussonne, Chambrier, and the MM.
Goncourt; "La Vraie Marie Antoinette" of M. Lescure; the Memoirs of
Mme. Campan, Cléry, Hue, the Duchesse d'Angoulême, Bertrand de
Moleville ("Mémoires Particuliers"), the Comte de Tilly, the Baron de
Besenval, the Marquis de la Fayette, the Marquise de Créquy, the
Princess Lamballe; the "Souvenirs de Quarante Ans," by Mlle. de
Tourzel; the "Diary" of M. de Viel Castel; the correspondence of Mme.
du Deffand; the account of the affair of the necklace by M. de
Campardon; the very valuable correspondence between the Count de la
Marck and Mirabeau, which also contains a narrative by the Count de
la Marck of many very important incidents; Dumont's "Souvenirs sur
Mirabeau;" "Beaumarchais et son Temps," by M. de Loménie;
"Gustavus III. et la Cour de Paris," by M. Geoffroy; the first seven
volumes of the Histoire de la Terreur, by M. Mortimer Ternaux; Dr.
Moore's journal of his visit to France, and view of the French
Revolution; and a great number of other works in which there is
cursory mention of different incidents, especially in the earlier part of
the Revolution; such as the journals of Arthur Young, Madame de
Staël's elaborate treatise on the Revolution; several articles in the last
series of the "Causeries de Lundi," by Sainte-Beuve, and others in the
Revue des Deux Mondes, etc., etc., and to those may of course be added
the regular histories of Lacretelle, Sismondi, Martin, and Lamartine's
"History of the Girondins."

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.

Importance of Marie Antoinette in the Revolution.--Value of her
Correspondence as a Means of estimating her Character.--Her Birth,
November 2d, 1755.--Epigram of Metastasio.--Habits of the Imperial
Family.--Schönbrunn.--Death of the Emperor.--Projects for the
Marriage of the Archduchess.--Her Education.--The Abbé de
Vermond.--Metastasio.-- Gluck.
CHAPTER II.
Proposal for the Marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin.--Early
Education