Before judging this unfortunate princess who has been condemned by so many critics, we must take into consideration the demands that were made upon her.  Parade was the primary requisite:  she was obliged to keep up the splendor and attractiveness of the French monarchy; in this she excelled, for her manner was dignified, gracious, and “appropriately discriminating.  It is said that she could bow to ten persons with one movement, giving, with her head and eyes, the recognition due to each one.”  It is said, also, that as she passed among the ladies of her court, she surpassed them all in the nobility of her countenance and the dignified grace of her carriage.  All foreigners were enchanted with her, and to them she owes no small part of her posthumous popularity.

She was reproached by French women for being exclusively devoted to the society of a select, intimate circle.  Moreover, her conduct brought slander upon her; as her companions she chose men and women of bad reputation, and was constantly surrounded by dissipated young noblemen whom she permitted to come into her presence in costumes which shocked conservative people; she encouraged gambling, frequented the worst gambling house of the time, that of the Princesse de Guemenee, and visited masked balls where the worst women of the capital jostled the great nobles of the court; her husband seldom accompanied her to these pleasure resorts.

During part of the reign of Marie Antoinette the country was waging an expensive war and was deeply in debt, but the queen did not set an example of economy by retrenching her expenses; although her personal allowance was much larger than that of the preceding queen, she was always in debt and lost heavily at gambling.  Generally, she avoided interference with the government of the state, but as the wife of so incapable a king she was forced into an attempt at directing public matters.  Whenever she did mingle in state affairs, it was generally fatal to her interests and popularity.  She usually carried out her wishes, for the king shrank from disappointing his wife and dreaded domestic contentions.

He permitted her to go out as she did with the Comte d’Artois, her brother-in-law, to masked balls, races, rides in the Bois de Boulogne, and on expeditions to the salon of the Princesse de Guemenee, where she contracted the ills of a chronically empty purse and late hours.  When attacked by measles, to relieve her ennui—­which her ladies were not successful in doing—­she procured the consent of the king to the presence of four gentlemen, who waited upon her, coming at seven in the morning and not departing until eleven at night; and these were some of the most depraved and debauched among the nobility—­such as De Besenval, the Duc de Coigny, and the Duc de Guines.

While in power, she always sided with extravagance and the court, against economy and the nation.  If we add to all these defects a vain and frivolous disposition, a nature fond of admiration, pleasure, and popularity, and lending a willing ear to all flattery, compliments, and counsels of her favorites, her Austrian birth, and as “little dignity as a Paris grisette in her escapades with the dissipated and arrogant Comte d’Artois,” we have, in general, the causes of her wide unpopularity.