Marie Antoinette

Royalty

Name at birth: Maria Antonia

Marie Antoinette was the Queen of France during the French Revolution. Resented by the French citizenry for her foreign birth and extravagant lifestyle, Marie Antoinette has gone down in history as the arrogant and apathetic monarch who said "let them eat cake" when told the peasants were starving because they had no bread. These days most scholars dismiss the quote as being revolutionary propaganda, but Marie was well-known to have spent wildly as a young queen before tempering things a bit as she matured. The daughter of Francis I and Maria Theresa, Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, Marie left Austria for France in 1770 to marry the prince of France. In 1774 the prince became King Louis XVI and Marie became queen. As revolution swept Paris in 1789, the king and queen tried to flee but failed. While the revolutionaries were trying to hash out a new system of government, Marie and Louis XVI were stuck as prisoners at the palace at Tuileries. They tried to get help from royal supporters in England, Prussia and Austria, but in 1792 they were arrested and charged with treason. Louis was beheaded 21 January 1793 and Marie was beheaded 16 October 1793.

Extra credit: According to legend, Marie's last words were an apology to the executioner after accidentally stepping on his foot... Marie was played by Kirsten Dunst in the 2006 film Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola.