Marie Antoinette many, leading to doubt as to the parentage of the child and to a noticeable decline of the queen's reputation in public opinion. The majority of Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVII's biographers believe that the young prince was the biological son of Louis XVI, including Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, who believe that Fersen and Marie Antoinette were indeed romantically involved. Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries that the date of the child's conception in fact corresponded perfectly with a period when the king and the queen had spent much time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks
Marie Antoinette and remarked in a letter to Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg, comte de La Marck, that she was the only person the king had by him: "La reine est le seul homme que le roi ait auprès de lui." An agreement was reached turning Mirabeau into one of her political allies: Marie Antoinette promised to pay him 6000 livres per month and one million if he succeeded in his mission to restore the king's authority. The only time the royal couple returned to Paris in that period was on 14 July to attend the "Fête de la Fédération", an official ceremony