Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell the story of Marie Antoinette.----more----
Marie Antoinette was an Austrian Princess. She grew up in Austria in a palace. She met the famous composer Mozart when they were both children. She learned to play the piano, the flute and the Harp. She loved to dance and to sing.
When she was 15 it was decided that she should marry the next King of France. He was called Louis – almost all French Kings are called Louis. Traditionally, Austria and France were enemies. However, both countries wanted to be at peace and hoped the marriage would help that.
When Marie Antoinette got married she learned that Louis already had a girlfriend. He wouldn’t get rid of her. The poor people of Paris liked Marie Antoinette. They thought she was beautiful.
However, when the old King died. Louis became King and Marie Antoinette became his Queen. The King realized he couldn’t have his girlfriend any more so he got rid of her. This made Marie Antoinette happy.
All French Kings lived in a huge palace called Versailles. You can go there today and it is beautiful. Louis gave Marie Antoinette her own little palace called the Petit Trianon.
She loved it. She redecorated the whole place. Marie Antoinette also liked jewellery and dresses and spent lots of money on both. This was a time when many people in France were very poor. People felt that she was spending too much money that France could not afford.
Whenever there was a chance that France and Austria might go to war, Marie Antoinette intervened and stopped it. Some people in France rather liked fighting Austria. Some people started to feel that Marie Antoinette was less a French Queen and more of an Austrian Princess.
There was a terrible scandal all about a diamond necklace. A bad woman called Jean pretended to be friends with the Queen. She persuaded a priest to led her money to buy a diamond necklace. The priest agreed because he thought that the Queen wanted him to buy the necklace. However, naughty Jean stole the necklace. The priest asked the Queen for his money. However, the Queen had not known anything about it all. She had never even met Jean. We know that the Queen was telling the truth. However, many people at the time thought that the Queen might have been lying because she did like expensive jewellery.
Then the French revolution happened. The poor people of France attacked the King’s castle – the Bastille. They took control of the government. The King and Queen got scared and tried to flee. They were caught and locked up. The Austrians were angry that an Austrian Princess was held prisoner. So they invaded France. They told the French that if they harmed the King or Queen, then Paris would be burned.
This made the French angry. They decided to execute the King and Queen. Both Louis and Marie Antoinette met their ends bravely by the dreaded Guillotine.
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