On October 22, 1781, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette finally managed to give France an heir.
But a series of dramas will upset the royal family… In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast “At the heart of History”, Jean des Cars tells you how these two beings that everything seemed to oppose at the start ended up uniting in adversity.
While the Revolution shakes the monarchy, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette finally unite to face the trials and threats that weigh on their families ... In this new episode of the Europe 1 Studio podcast "At the heart of history ", Jean des Cars looks back on the twilight of this tragic couple.
In August 1785, the queen was playing in the theater, when a plot broke out that would seriously impact her: the affair of the necklace.
She is innocent, but the swindle concocted by the adventurer Mme de la Motte and the mage Cagliostro to get Cardinal de Rohan to buy a necklace of immense value supposedly for the queen comes to light.
The cardinal had bought the necklace on credit, he thought for the queen, and also believed that this would allow him to return to favor with Marie-Antoinette.
Obviously, she never received the necklace whose diamonds were sold in London by the crooks.
The king and queen are convinced that the cardinal, whom they detest, acted knowingly to harm Marie-Antoinette.
It's wrong.
They have him arrested and imprisoned while awaiting trial by Parliament.
On May 31, 1786, Parliament, which rules on the facts, condemns the crooks and acquits the cardinal.
The latter is then celebrated in Paris.
Furious, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette exiled him to the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu, in Auvergne, making the acquitted a martyr.
The king and queen clumsily handled this swindle, making Marie-Antoinette, perfectly innocent, guilty in the eyes of the people.
During the acquittal of Cardinal de Rohan, the queen is pregnant with her fourth child.
Very tried by this pregnancy which followed the birth of the Duke of Normandy, she will give birth two months later to Sophie-Béatrice, her last child.
If she recovers quickly, little Sophie does not benefit from her breastfeeding, she is puny.
Her mother returned to Trianon on August 28, very depressed.
It was then that an episode took place that Madame Campan, her first maid, related in her Memoirs.
One morning, when she has just taken up her service with the Queen, she finds the latter in tears, having just read the horrible libels which are scattered on her bed.
Marie-Antoinette repeats: "Ah! I would like to die! Ah monsters! What have I done to them?"
Only her favorite, Mme de Polignac, whom she named Governor of the Children of France can console her for her despair.
The fragile health of the dolphin
On the family level, the following year is marked by sorrows and concerns for the royal couple.
On June 19, 1787, little Sophie died at the age of 11 months.
The queen is more affected than the king by this loss but they are also worried about their eldest son, the dolphin, whose health has deteriorated.
He is feverish, small for his age and very melancholy.
On February 21, 1788, Marie-Antoinette wrote to her brother Joseph II: "My eldest son gives me great anxiety, my dear brother. Although he has always been weak and delicate, I did not expect the crisis. his waist is disturbed, and for one hip which is higher than the other and for the back, whose vertebrae are a little displaced and protruding. For some time now, he has had the fever and is very thin and weak. "
He suffered martyrdom from bone tuberculosis.
He is sent to settle in March at the Château de Meudon where his parents regularly come to see him.
The air is supposed to be cleaner there than at Versailles.
Beyond family concerns, the financial state of France is also disastrous.
In 1788, the Comptroller General of Finances, Calonne, tried to reduce the deficit by proposing a real fiscal revolution.
It is a question of taxing the Privileged Orders.
Once again, the King and Queen are not going to agree.
Louis XVI approves his minister and the queen, who detests Calonne who had not supported her during the affair of the necklace, takes up the cause of the Assembly of Notables, which will refuse the reform.
Calonne is forced to leave.
He is replaced by Loménie de Brienne, who will also be leaving.
The only solution is to call Necker, whom Louis XVI does not like.
It was Marie-Antoinette and Mercy Argenteau who negotiated with the Geneva banker to bring him back to Versailles.
Another humiliation for the king.
But even Necker could not curb the financial crisis and the States General were convened for May 5, 1789. They had not met for 175 years ...
From the States General to the October days
The winter which precedes the opening of the Estates General sees the state of the little dolphin worsening sadly.
It is so bad that on Monday, May 4, he cannot attend the solemn procession for the opening of the States General.
He died a month later, in his eighth year, at the Château de Meudon.
For the king and the queen, it is an immense pain.
When we talk about this period, we often forget that the royal family is in deep mourning.
However, politics took over and on July 11, the king dismissed Necker, replaced by Breteuil.
This dismissal combined with a shortage of bread provokes an insurrection in Paris.
On July 14, the Bastille was stormed and its governor, M. de Launay, was massacred.
The revolution is on.
Only two days later, the Comte d'Artois, brother of the king, and the Polignacs were the first to emigrate.
Versailles is emptying.
On the evening of October 1, the royal family attended a banquet offered by the officers of the Versailles garrison to those of the Flanders regiment arrived from Douai in the opera house of the château.
The king and queen are comforted by this support.
We are going to sing but the distorted echoes will arrive in Paris, relating an orgy during which we would have trampled on the tricolor cockade.
This false news, carefully spread, puts Paris in turmoil.
On October 5, 5 to 6000 unleashed women marched on Versailles.
Many shout at the queen.
The next day, the royal family was forced to leave Versailles to settle in Paris, under surveillance, at the Tuileries.
The trip will last seven hours and will be a real ordeal for the family.
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Paradoxically, this succession of painful days, anguish and humiliations and a complete change of life imposed by their installation in the Tuileries with an extremely small courtyard, promotes the couple's intimacy.
No more hunting for the king, no more escapade to Trianon for the queen.
For the first time, they are leading a real family life.
And curiously, in the misfortune they will meld together.
The king and the queen become united and will support each other in the ordeal.
Marie-Antoinette will write to her brother Léopold, who succeeded Joseph II on May 1, 1790: "I say we are because I do not separate the king from me. If ever we become again not what we were but at least what we were. that we must be, you must and can count on all the loyalty and feelings of a good ally. "
Indeed, since the beginning of this year 1790, while the king is very downcast by all the humiliations imposed on him, tormented by the civil constitution of the clergy and by the progressive limitation of his powers, Marie-Antoinette becomes the engine of the couple and developed an intense political activity.
She gets closer to Mirabeau, thinking he can be an asset.
At the same time, she practiced secret diplomacy to obtain from European sovereigns, and particularly from Austria, intimidating maneuvers in order to counter the will of the Convention to further erode the powers of the king.
On July 14, 1790, the Fête de la Fédération brought together on the Champ de Mars the Federates from all the Departments.
They illustrate the new administrative organization of France.
During this feast, Louis XVI must take an oath to a Constitution ... which has not yet been written.
One year after the storming of the Bastille, this is the last opportunity for the king and queen to receive a standing ovation.
This is the last time we will hear: "Long live the king! Long live the queen! Long live the dolphin!"
The failure of Varenne
On April 18, 1791, the king having been prevented from leaving the Tuileries to do his Easter at Saint-Cloud and his coach having been blocked for two hours, he agreed with the queen's idea: he had to leave Paris.
Louis XVI agrees to go to Montmédy to join the faithful troops commanded by Bouillé.
Axel de Fersen is responsible for organizing the expedition.
They left the Tuileries on the night of June 20.
The King, Queen, Madame Royale, Madame Elisabeth and the Dauphin are dressed as servants, accompanied by Madame de Tourzel, governess of the Children of France, they rush into a heavy sedan.
As we know, having lost too much time at the start and along the way, this flight ended pitifully in Varenne sur Argonne.
Recognized in Sainte-Menehould by the postmaster Drouet, the king and his family were brought back to Paris on June 25.
From now on, they are prisoners at the Tuileries and the king is suspended from his powers.
Marie-Antoinette continues to fight.
She calls on Austria for help and asks MP Barnave for help.
On April 20, 1792, the Assembly declared war on Austria.
The fatal process is set in motion.
On July 25, the Duke of Brunswick, head of the Austrian and Prussian armies, signs a manifesto threatening the people of Paris with reprisals if "the slightest insult to Their Majesties the King and the Queen" were made.
This manifesto was inspired by the queen when Louis XVI was in despair.
The result is appalling.
On August 10, the Tuileries were attacked and invaded.
The Swiss Guards are massacred.
There are 900 victims.
The king and his family had taken refuge in the Assembly before being transferred to the temple, not in the palace where the Count d'Artois received sumptuously, but in the sinister tower which will be their prison.
Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their two children and Madame Elisabeth, the king's youngest sister, went to live in seclusion.
This is when the relationship of the royal couple will completely reverse.
At the Tuileries, it was the king who had collapsed and the queen who was busy trying to turn the tide of events.
The Temple is the penultimate stage of their lives.
Now, it is Marie-Antoinette who collapses and Louis XVI who analyzes the situation with calm and serenity.
He knows how the drama will end.
He accepts it.
In the meantime, he organizes their lives, comforts the queen, her younger sister Elisabeth and the children.
He is responsible for his family, he is its pillar and, for the first time, Marie Antoinette admires her husband.
He will serve as an example.
In January, the king bids heartbreaking farewells to his family.
He was tried and executed on January 21, 1793. Marie-Antoinette remained alone in the Temple with her children and her sister-in-law Elisabeth.
On July 3, his son was taken from him to entrust him to the abominable shoemaker Simon.
On August 5, she was taken to the Conciergerie.
She is preparing her defense.
We know what abominations she will have to endure during her trial.
But the strength and dignity she manifests in these pathetic circumstances, it was her husband, the king, who inspired them.
Their behavior, admirable, in a tragedy which exceeds them, united them forever.
"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
Graphics: Karelle Villais
Bibliographic resources:
Jean-Clément Martin and Cécile Berly,
Marie-Antoinette
(Citadelles Mazenod, 2010)
Marie-Antoinette, Correspondance 1770-1793
, edition established by Evelyne Lever (Tallandier, 2005)
André Castelot,
Marie-Antoinette
(Perrin, 1962)
Jean des Cars,
Tragic couples in history
(Perrin, 2020)