As the youngest daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette was born into a world of almost unbelievable privilege and power. As wife of Louis XVI of France she was first feted and adored and then universally hated as tales of her dissipated lifestyle and extravagance pulled the already discredited monarchy into a maelstrom of revolution, disaster and tragedy.
This illustrated first biography by historian and writer Melanie Clegg takes a fresh look at the story of this most fascinating and misunderstood of queens, exploring her personal tribulations as well as the series of disasters that brought her to the guillotine in October 1793.
Melanie Clegg is the author of five historical novels and is also a regular contributor to Majesty magazine and her own women's history blog Madame Guillotine. Her second biography, a life of Marie de Guise, is due to be published by Pen and Sword Books in 2016.
Chapter 1. The Archduchess 1755-1770
Chapter 2. Madame la Dauphine 1770-1774
Chapter 3. The Little Queen 1774-1778
Chapter 4. Madame Deficit 1779-1788
Chapter 5. The Austrian Woman 1789-1791
Chapter 6. The Widow Capet 1791-1793
Chapter 7. The Chapelle Expiatoire