Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette (; ; born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. She became Dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she assumed the title Queen of France and Navarre, which she held
Cultural depictions of Marie Antoinette —M. ANTOINETTE The most famous historical fiction which features Marie Antoinette is the Alexandre Dumas, père novel "Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge" ("The Knight of the Red House,") which centers on the Carnation Plot. It is actually the first of a series of six books written by Dumas with Marie Antoinette featured, called the "Marie Antoinette novels", in which the queen is shown in a sympathetic light, particularly during the "Diamond Necklace Affair". Some of the more famous historical novels that have portrayed Marie Antoinette in more recent years includes Carolly Erickson's 2005 novel "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette", as