View a FREE sample

Part 1, Madame Antoine

• Marie Antoinette was born "Antoine", the fifteenth child in her family. Because of the political upheaval in Europe during the time of Marie Antoinette's birth, her mother, Maria Teresa, planned to use her daughters to create allies through marriage in Europe.

• From an early age, Antoinette and her sisters were expected to adhere to strict social codes that required them to appear docile, gentle, and feminine at all times. Antoinette's eldest brother, Joseph, married a woman from Austria who died in childbirth with their second child. Antoinette's own father, Stephen, died soon after.

• The family contracted small pox and one of Antoinette's sister died. Another was terribly scarred and would be unable to find a husband. The family was in such a desperate state, that young Antoinette was betrothed for marriage soon after, at the age of fourteen. She was married, by proxy, soon after...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 1,396 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample