Marie Antoinette

POSTED BY: reginaroadie
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 16:24
VIEWED: 3329
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ZISKER

Sunday, October 15, 2006 4:37 PM

I recall reading somewhere that she did try to influence the court by curbing the excess and eliminating redundant court positions - this in turn pissed off the aristocracy who wanted those jobs for the influence, presteige and money that came with them. So they began fabricating tales of her personal excess when it came to materialism and partying. I'm not saying she didn't do some of it, just that it wasn't to the extent we think of today.

In addition to that, the "Let them eat cake" comment is a fairy tale that's been passed through the ages just because it sounds good.

If you can't do something smart, do something right.

CAVALIER

Monday, October 16, 2006 9:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:

I don’t think you can compare her position directly to the wife of modern day president or PM. She was the wife of a man who, in theory, held absolute power, and by her royal standing, also shared in that absolute power.

I read Simon Schama’s Citizens some time ago, but I do recall that the big issues before the revolution were the “National” debt, reform of the French internal market – especially grain – and a bad harvest. I don’t remember much about the Queen, but I find it hard to believe that anyone expected her to have any significant input into any of these, or that they would have been happy if she had. Spouse-of –the-leader is generally expected to keep-out-the-way.

To be honest, I find it difficult to believe most modern Western governments would have handled things any better. In sixty years of near peace, I doubt if any one of them has managed to balance the budget for even one single year without fiddling the accounts. Louis XVI could at least point to a major fighting-from-America-to-India war as an excuse. Perhaps the war was a mistake, but it was widely supported at the time.

Certainly, it is hard to believe that democratic Weimar Germany was any better run than monarchical pre-Revolutionary France.

Edit: Democracies are pretty good at avoiding really stupid acts like collectivising agriculture (Stalin) or invading Russia (Hitler). But Louis XVI did not do anything like that. The worst he could be accused of was that problems that were genuinely difficult to fix were left a little while, in the hope that they would be easier to solve in the future. And that time never came. A democratic government might have been just as bad, perhaps worse. The classic vice of democracies is to leave difficult problems until after the next election.

SAB39

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:08 PM

"I just don't see why everyone's always picking on Marie Antoinette. I can so relate to her. She worked really hard to look that good, and people just don't appreciate that kind of effort. And I know the peasants were all depressed..."
"I think you mean o-pressed."
"Whatever. They were cranky. So they're like, 'Let's lose some heads.' Uhhh! That's fair. And Marie Antoinette cared about them. She was gonna let them have cake!"

Funny how based on this thread, Cordy kinda had a point...

SERYN

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 6:53 AM

Thats the Scary thing about Cordy - she always kinda had a point.

http://www.myspace.com/seryndippyt

CAVALIER

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 4:24 PM

Didn’t Cordelia say:

“Tact just means not saying true stuff.”

So true. Sums up her view of things, too.

Returning to topic, I think Marie Antoinette got much of the blame simply because someone had to, so why not pick on the foreigner?

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