Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, the most famous royal couple in the history of France, were completely opposed.
In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast “At the heart of History”, Jean des Cars looks back on their laborious union.
Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette form a very ill-matched couple, he is reserved, serious and sleeps early while she is lively, spendthrift and socialite. Between them, attraction and intimacy are absent and stir up rumors. In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of history", Jean des Cars tells you about the successive stages of a union that was really not easy!
The first child of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, little Marie-Thérèse, nicknamed Mousseline, was born in 1778, eight years after their marriage.
France was waiting for an heir, a little dolphin.
Empress Marie-Thérèse, mother of the queen, is well aware of this when she writes her daughter, a year later: "Your letter of November 16 reassures me entirely about your health and that of your dear daughter, but do not We are not content with another pregnancy, which I look forward to. Your daughter will soon be a year old. She needs a little companion, which we all want. "
A few days later, the Empress died, suffering an agony of five days.
The news devastated Marie-Antoinette, who had always listened to and admired her mother.
She loved and respected the sovereign who had sacrificed everything to politics.
Marie-Thérèse did not have the satisfaction of sharing the happiness of her daughter when the latter, eleven months later, on October 22, 1781, gave birth to her son, Louis-Joseph-Xavier-François, the new Dauphin of France.
Louis XVI's happiness is total.
Very moved, just after the birth of the child, he leans towards his wife and says to her: "Madam, you have fulfilled my wishes and those of France. You are the mother of a dolphin."
Popular joy is immense, shared by the whole of the Court, with the possible exception of the two brothers of the king, Provence and Artois, who see their chances of acceding to the throne fading away.
And yet… they will both reign under the names of Louis XVIII and Charles X.
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The popular jubilation is such that it is in good taste to decorate furniture and dolphin jewelry.
The king's subjects march through Versailles to see the child and offer him presents.
The shoemakers make small boots, the tailors sew a uniform.
In Paris, the official celebrations will only take place after the queen's relevailles in January.
After a ceremony at Notre-Dame de Paris, a huge feast was organized at the Hôtel de Ville and two days later, at the same place, a large masked ball.
It is the last big Parisian festival of the Ancien Régime.
We invite 13,000 people.
It will come more than the double and Marie-Antoinette will almost be suffocated!
This unanimity around the king and the queen will not last long but it is certainly the apogee of Marie-Antoinette and the greatest happiness of the king since her accession.
It's time to take a look at this special couple.
Louis-Auguste, a shy and embarrassed dolphin
Louis-Auguste, Duke of Berry, the future Louis XVI, was born in 1754. He is, after his brother Louis-Joseph, Duke of Burgundy, the second son of the couple heir to Louis XV, the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand and Princess Marie -Joseph of Saxony.
Other children will follow, the count of Provence, future Louis XVIII, the count of Artois, future Charles X and two daughters, Sophie, future princess of Savoy and the last, born in 1764, Madame Elisabeth.
In the family of Louis XVI's father, the atmosphere is very devout.
The heir is quite hostile to Madame de Pompadour, his father's favorite, Louis XV.
It will take time for her to tame him.
The dolphin is wary of new ideas, in particular those disseminated by philosophers and the Encyclopedia.
If he loves his father deeply, he is nevertheless frustrated because he has extinguished his military vocation after a brilliant start at the Battle of Fontenoy.
The king had not associated him with political affairs either.
Melancholic like Louis XV, the Dauphin will then devote himself to study and to his family.
He is not happy with his status.
He will often say: "If I have the misfortune to ascend the throne ..."
His wife, Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, who came from the brilliant Court of Dresden, has lost all her joie de vivre and her brilliance with this austere husband.
Their second son, Louis-Auguste, the future Louis XVI, will undergo his first trauma upon the death of his older brother, in 1761. The Duke of Burgundy died, carried away by bone tuberculosis, after excruciating suffering.
Now, Louis-Auguste was his permanent companion.
He had boundless admiration for this elder brother, and loved.
Two other tragedies follow: the death of his father from a "languor disease", a kind of permanent depression, when he was only 11 years old.
She makes him the new dolphin.
Two years later, in 1767, his mother died of tuberculosis.
He receives a careful education, is interested in the latest scientific discoveries, enjoys mathematics, physics and cartography.
The navy will always be his passion.
He is interested in everything that comes from England and speaks perfect English.
He devours "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" and "The Fall of the Roman Empire".
But the great problem with the Dauphin is that he does not feel comfortable in the middle of the brilliant court of his grandfather Louis XV.
He is very tall, shy, embarrassed about his body.
He does not know how to dress or introduce himself and he is a poor dancer.
He is totally self-conscious about his two younger brothers with such different temperaments.
Provence, despite its plumpness and ugliness, is brilliantly intelligent.
As for Artois, it is charm and seduction embodied.
The marriage of the dolphin and the dauphine
It is to consolidate the recent alliance between France and its traditional enemy, Austria, that the Empress Marie-Thérèse plans to marry her youngest daughter, Antonia, born in 1755, with the Dauphin of France.
Austrian Chancellor Kaunitz will organize this eminently political marriage with French Minister Choiseul.
Talks began in 1764 but it was only in June 1769 that Louis XV gave his final agreement to the marriage, which would take place in 1770.
It is then that Marie-Thérèse realizes that the last of the tribe of her thirteen children has somewhat escaped her vigilance for her education ... The young Antonia is rather lazy, she does not like studies and does it. steals as soon as she can.
She much prefers to play with her siblings in the park of Schönbrunn.
We managed to make her learn a little French and Italian, she had Gluck as a music teacher and she dances delightfully.
But it is a bit fair for a future queen of France ... The Empress therefore asks Choiseul to send the abbot of Vermont to Vienna to complete the education of the future dauphine.
The clergyman did his best but had to admit, in a letter to Mercy-Argenteau, the Austrian ambassador to Louis XV: "A little laziness and a lot of levity made his education very difficult".
On the evening of April 19, 1770, Antonia's marriage by proxy was celebrated in Vienna in the Augustinian church, the parish of the Court.
It is one of his brothers, Archduke Ferdinand, who takes the place of the Dauphin.
Two days later, she leaves Vienna for good after having shed many tears while taking leave of her mother and her family.
His journey will last twenty-four days and will be punctuated by the same ceremonial at each stage: speeches, bouquets of flowers and music.
It passes the border on the Rhine in protocol.
Now her name is Marie-Antoinette.
It is on May 13, in the forest of Compiègne, that the Archduchess meets her new family for the first time.
She throws herself at the feet of King Louis XV, kisses his hand and calls him "papa" ...
The old monarch was immediately won over by this graceful, lively and smiling teenager with blue eyes and a porcelain complexion.
On the other hand, the future husband is very borrowed.
He kisses his fiancée on the cheek, without showing any enthusiasm.
Marie-Antoinette also meets the three sisters of the king, unmarried, Mesdames Adélaïde, Victoire and Sophie, who embody the devout party at Court and are very hostile to their brother's new favorite: Madame du Barry.
Adelaide loves the dolphin, whom she took care of a lot after the death of her parents.
The arrival of the Dauphine will downgrade her protocol since there is no more queen since the death of Marie Leszczynska, the wife of Louis XV, two years earlier.
The first place at the Court now goes to Marie-Antoinette.
Rumors about the couple's lack of privacy spread at court
The marriage was celebrated on May 16, 1770 in the chapel of Versailles.
A banquet will follow in the new opera hall.
Then the bride and groom will finally be able to retire to the privacy of their apartments.
Very quickly, the rumor will spread: the marriage has not been consummated.
The husband has no desire for his wife and does not even show himself gallant towards her.
For her part, Marie-Antoinette feels no physical attraction for this awkward and shy tall boy.
Obviously, this is not just a rumor, we know practically everything about the couple's physical difficulties thanks to the correspondence imposed on Marie-Antoinette by her mother, but also that of Ambassador Mercy Argenteau with the empress.
A third character, the Abbot of Vermont, who had been Antonia's tutor in Vienna, also informs Marie-Thérèse.
He became a reader of the Dauphine.
Marie-Antoinette is therefore watched, not to say spied on constantly for the benefit of her vigilant mother.
The intimate problem of the dolphin did not escape Louis XV either.
He had it examined in July by his first surgeon.
This one notes that the dolphin is normally constituted and that his difficulties are undoubtedly of a psychological nature.
In fact, the spouses are too young: the groom is 16, the bride is 15. They are totally inexperienced and nature speaks neither for one nor the other.
It only remains to hope that time will fix this situation.
And the time will be long: eight years!
In the meantime, the Dauphine is doing her apprenticeship at the Court of Versailles and it is not easy!
Marie-Antoinette's beginnings at Versailles
The first disappointment of Marie-Antoinette and which will upset her enormously is called the label.
She is embodied by her maid of honor, Mme de Noailles.
Etiquette is much more rigorous at Versailles than at the Court of Vienne, which, thanks to Marie-Thérèse, became family and relaxed.
Shortly after his arrival, during a dinner at the Château de La Muette, Louis XV arrives in the company of Madame du Barry.
The dauphine asks her maid of honor who this lovely person is.
Madame de Noailles replied that she was simply responsible for entertaining the king.
Marie-Antoinette exclaims with great naivety: "In this case, I declare myself her rival!"
She will quickly learn that Mme du Barry is the king's favorite ...
Marie-Antoinette reacts rather foolishly by refusing to speak to him from then on.
Another disagreement with the dolphin ... The latter, after having been very close to his devout aunts, had approached the king his grandfather.
He accompanied him in his hunts, being himself a great hunter.
But above all, the dolphin agreed to participate in the suppers that followed in the company of the favorite.
Marie-Antoinette's attitude towards Mme du Barry becomes a matter of state.
The favorite is upset, the king too, and Marie-Thérèse is obliged to write to her daughter to convince her to change her attitude.
On January 1, 1772, passing through the Hall of Mirrors, Marie-Antoinette stopped in front of du Barry and finally spoke to him.
She lets go of a prosaic: "There are a lot of people today in Versailles!"
Minimum service, but the case is closed.
The king and the Du Barry are delighted and the dolphin relieved.
At the end of April 1774, while he was at the Petit Trianon with Mme du Barry, Louis XV felt ill.
His doctors diagnose smallpox.
He died in Versailles two weeks later.
The dauphin and the dauphine become de facto king and queen of France.
They fall to their knees saying: "My god, guide us, protect us, we reign too young…"
If the marriage is still not consummated, the new King Louis XVI now admires his young bride, radiant, elegant and lovely.
He only knows how to invent to please him.
A month after the death of Louis XV, knowing that she dreams of having a country house, he offers her the Petit Trianon which will become his domain.
She will invite only selected friends, she will free herself from the rigid etiquette and the king will come as her guest, but will never sleep at Trianon!
This place dedicated to her pleasures and which she will adapt to her taste will largely contribute to discrediting her.
The young queen does not hesitate to show the little attraction she has for her husband.
She wrote to a friend: "My tastes are not the same as those of the king who has only those of hunting and mechanical works. You will agree that I would have rather bad grace with a forge. Vulcan will not be there and the role of Venus could displease him much more than my tastes which he does not disapprove of. "
The recipient of the letter shows it to Empress Marie-Thérèse, who expresses her anger in an extremely severe letter to her daughter.
But that does not prevent Marie-Antoinette from reoffending soon after.
During the coronation of the royal couple in Reims on June 11, 1775, she wanted to meet Choiseul, former minister of Louis XV, whom the new king hated.
To get an appointment, the young queen does not know how to go about it.
She is afraid of upsetting her husband.
And finally, she decides to ask him directly for his help.
It is therefore Louis XVI who will summon the disgraced minister Choiseul so that the queen grants him an audience.
Marie-Antoinette recounts the affair in another letter.
She said to her correspondent: "It was my poor husband man who arranged the most convenient time for me for this meeting."
Again, the Empress is informed and shocked.
She sends her daughter a new remonstrance letter because treating her husband as a poor man goes beyond the limits… These letters are indicative of the young queen's contempt for the king.
Ambassador Mercy Argenteau may not be for nothing in this affair.
To Marie-Antoinette, he says that he himself does not understand Louis XVI and that she is much smarter and stronger than him.
The diplomat is probably going a little far ...
An heir who is slow to come and fill the court ...
This is the time when the queen begins to have friendships and coteries.
She also embarks on crazy spending in her toilet.
She discovered the fashion merchant Rose Bertin, who became familiar with Versailles, received at all hours in her private apartments, to the astonishment of the ladies of the Court who did not have access to them.
The king goes to bed early, at 10 a.m.
It might even be said that sometimes an accomplice hand advances the needle to hasten his bedtime ... Louis XVI also always gets up early, at 6 o'clock, to hunt.
But 10 o'clock in the evening is the time when the queen begins to have fun, to play (she loses crazy sums), to go to the ball, to the opera in Paris.
Usually she goes to bed around 3 a.m. and wakes up in the late morning.
Their agendas do not facilitate the intimacy of the couple!
Libels are beginning to circulate on the absence of an heir.
The situation is all the more difficult as the Countess of Artois, sister-in-law of the royal couple, gave birth in 1775 to a son: the Duke of Angoulême.
The future of the dynasty is therefore assured… but not by the king and the queen!
If Louis XVI is unhappy with this situation, Marie-Antoinette is not sorry.
The life of pleasures she leads satisfies her.
She does not want to carry on pregnancies, as she has seen too much around her.
She thinks she has plenty of time to have children.
His mother the Empress is much more lucid about the dangers of the absence of an heir.
She therefore sent her son Joseph II to Versailles, who then shared power with her.
Besides the pleasure of seeing his sister, the emperor is responsible for investigating the behavior of the couple.
He is going to speak frankly to Marie-Antoinette and rebuts her on her futility, her taste for spending and the dangers of her coterie, the little courtyard around her, which benefits from her generosity.
But above all, Joseph II has a very intimate interview with his brother-in-law.
The story he will tell his own brother Léopold is too raw to be told.
Nevertheless, Joseph II gave very concrete advice to Louis XVI to succeed in procreating.
And these tips bear fruit since on December 18, 1778, Marie-Antoinette gives birth to little Marie-Thérèse, Mousseline for her parents.
The royal couple will have three other children, the Dauphin Louis-Joseph, whose birth I told you in 1783. Two years later, a second boy was born, Louis-Charles, titled Duke of Normandy, the future unfortunate Louis XVII.
In 1786, a last unwanted little girl, Sophie, was born in July.
Very weak from birth, she died eleven months later, much to the queen's despair.
Fersen, the Queen's friend?
Everything finally seems to be going for the best in the royal couple if there was not a big shadow on the table: the amorous friendship of the queen for the handsome Swedish officer Axel de Fersen.
Marie-Antoinette was still Dauphine when she first met him at the opera ball in Paris in January 1774. They talked at length and they liked each other.
The queen would not see him again until four years later, when he returned to France.
It was presented to her, as well as to the king, on August 25, 1778. Marie-Antoinette exclaimed: "Ah! She is an old acquaintance!"
She does not hide her attraction for the beautiful Swedish.
It is so visible that Fersen decides to leave Versailles in 1780 to follow Rochambeau to America and fight alongside the Insurgents.
He returned to France in 1783. Thanks to the king, he acquired the charge of the Royal Swedish regiment and began to see the queen regularly.
On June 7, 1784, he was in the suite of his sovereign, Gustave III, on an official trip to Versailles.
On this occasion, the queen is organizing the most beautiful night party ever given at Trianon.
Louis XVI cannot ignore the presence of Fersen, so close to his wife.
Cleverly, Marie-Antoinette opened up to her husband.
She knows that what she calls "her friendship with Fersen" is the object of very daring slander and libel.
She suggests that the king stop seeing the officer in order to put an end to the gossip.
Louis XVI refuses.
Swedish will then be seen more and more at Versailles and Trianon.
How far has their marivaudage gone?
Their correspondence was recently deciphered without being able to draw an unassailable conclusion.
It is the historian Simone Bertière who sums up the situation best: "Were they lovers? We do not have the means to find out. That does not change anything in essence, in the fact that she opposed the laws of the conjugality of the rights of the heart, irresistible in his eyes. "
We can not say it better.
Marie-Antoinette takes advantage of the joys of motherhood, because she is an excellent mother, and of her marvelous domain of Trianon, under the benevolent gaze of her husband.
However, the thunderstorms will not be long ...
Bibliographic resources:
Jean-Clément Martin and Cécile Berly,
Marie-Antoinette
(Citadelles Mazenod, 2010)
Marie-Antoinette, Correspondence 1770-1793
, edition established by Evelyne Lever (Tallandier, 2005)
André Castelot,
Marie-Antoinette
(Perrin, 1962)
Jean des Cars,
Tragic couples in history
(Perrin, 2020)
"At the heart of History" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast
Author and presentation: Jean des Cars
Production: Timothée Magot
Director: Jean-François Bussière
Distribution and editing: Salomé Journo
Graphic design: Karelle Villais