Because Marie Antoinette played a romantic role in French history, it is quite natural to find conflicting and contradictory opinions among her biographers.  The most conflicting may be summed up in these words:  the queen’s influence upon the Revolution was great—­her extravagances, her haughty bearing, her scorn of the etiquette of royalty, her enemies, her prejudices, the arrests which she caused, etc.  Then her pernicious influence upon the king, after the breaking out of the Revolution—­she caused his hesitancy, which led to such disastrous results, and his plan of annihilating the States Assembly; the gathering of the foreign troops and his many contradictory and uncertain commands were all laid at her door, making of her an important and guilty party to the Revolution.  Another estimate is more humane and, probably, is the result of cooler reflection, yet is not always accepted by Frenchmen or the world at large.  It represents her as neither saint nor sinner, but as a pure, fascinating woman, always chaste, though somewhat rash and frivolous.  Proud and energetic, if inconsiderate in her political actions and somewhat too impulsive in the selection of friends upon whom to bestow her favors, she is yet worthy of the title of queen by the very dignity of her bearing; always a true woman, seductive and tender of heart, she became a martyr “through the extremity of her trials and her triumphant death.”

Although history makes Marie Antoinette a central figure during the reign of Louis XVI. and the period of the Revolution, yet her personal influence was practically limited to the domain of the social world of customs and manners; her political influence issued mainly from or was due to the concatenation of conditions and circumstances, the results of her friends’ doings, while her social triumphs were products of her own activity.  The two women—­her intimate friends—­who during this period were of greatest prominence, who owed their elevation and standing entirely to the queen, were women of whom little has survived.  In her time, Mme. de Polignac was an influential woman, wielding tremendous power, contributing largely to the shaping and climaxing of France’s fate; yet this influence was centred in reality in the Polignac set, which was composed of the most important, daring, and consummate intriguers that the court of France had ever seen.  She escaped the guillotine, and by doing so escaped the attention of posterity.

Mme. de Lamballe, who wrote nothing, did nothing, effected nothing, is better known to the world at large, is more respected and honored, than is Mme. de Polignac or even the great salon leaders such as Mme. de Genlis or Mlle. de Lespinasse.  She owes this prominence to her undying devotion to her queen, to her marvellous beauty, and to her tragic death on the guillotine.  She was not even bright or witty, the essentials of greatness among French women—­not one bon mot has survived