On 16 October 1793 Marie Antoinette, consort of Louis XVI, walked the streets of Paris for the last time. That day she was guillotined, but centuries later her figure of her continues to fascinate and intrigue. Stories and legends were born around her figure and the beautiful film by Sofia Coppola was shot about her.
But now let’s find out together the 5 curiosities that you may not know about Marie Antoinette:A new smile for Marie Antoinette
Before Marie Antoinette left for France to marry the heir of Louis XV, she underwent a makeover. In particular, her attention was focused on the young woman’s teeth, which ruined her smile. So, in 1768 a famous dentist of the time was called to the court of Maria Theresa of Habsburg. Pierre Laveran applied an orthodontic appliance to Marie Antoinette that allowed her to straighten her teeth in a very short time. A little torture for little Marie Antoinette. The adopted children
During the first years of her marriage to Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette had no children, given her husband’s resistance. The young woman loved children very much and during this period she suffered a lot. So while she waited to be pregnant naturally, she decided to adopt several children: some of whom lived with her in Versailles, while others were kept in the convent.
One of these was Armand, a child torn from poverty and the countryside to have grown up at court. Armand will become a revolutionary. The Queen’s Secret Apartments
During the first years of marriage, Marie Antoinette used to allow herself to escape from the boring Versailles, to devote herself to masked balls and performances of the Paris Opera. To be more comfortable, given the distance between Paris and the court, Marie Antoinette arranged secret apartments where she could change her dress or rest. These two apartments were located one in the building that now houses the Hotel de la Marine , inside which the Salone Marie Antoinette can still be admired today. The other, on the other hand, was in the Tuileries Palace : the queen could not have known that a few years later it would become the seat of her own prison … Marie Antoinette, lover of animals
Hunting was a particularly popular activity in Versailles, so much so that Louis XVI really made it a disease. In fact, he could not spend a day without doing his usual hunting trip. Of completely different opinion was Marie Antoinette, who loved animals and who considered hunting a boring and cruel pastime. The queen suffered greatly from seeing the bodies of the battered animals, but she could not escape the strict rules of Versailles and therefore she had to indulge her husband’s passions. The accusation of incest
In 1793 Marie Antoinette underwent a trial which, however, was a farce, with a predictable outcome, like all trials during the Revolution: the accused were sentenced to death. During this trial, however, the queen was accused of a very serious and infamous crime: incest. Her favorite son, the third son Luigi Carlo, was removed from his family to be entrusted to a cobbler and his wife, charged with educating him according to revolutionary dictates. The son was prompted to accuse his mother of incestuous practices. During the trial, when Marie Antoinette heard the accusation, she at first she remained silent and then said: “ If I have not answered, it is because Nature itself refuses to answer such an accusation addressed to a mother. I appeal to all mothers who are present. “
