Marie Antoinette
Born on 2 November 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, Maria Antonia was the youngest daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and ruler of the Habsburg dominions. She was described as "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess."[1] She was known at the Austrian court as Madame Antoine.[2]
Maria Antonia and her older sister, Maria Carolina, were the two youngest girls and were raised together. They shared the same governess until 1767. They became extremely close. She thoroughly enjoyed music and learned to play the harpsichord, which she played for many people at the court. She also excelled at dancing – an accomplishment often remarked by those who saw her, whether friendly or hostile, having been carefully trained in it since her early youth.[3] She had an "exquisite" poise and a famously graceful deportment.[3] She also loved dolls from when she was young, as captured by a family portrait in which seven-year-old "sweet Antonia" excitedly holds up a doll dressed as fancily as she is.[3] Numerous dolls arrived at the Hofburg as soon as Marie Antoinette turned thirteen, wearing miniature versions of the ball gowns, afternoon dresses, and gold-trimmed gowns proposed for her.[3]
The laxity of court life[citation needed] was compounded by the private life which was developed by the Habsburgs, who resided mainly in the Schönbrunn Palace. In their private life, the family dressed in bourgeois attire, played games with "normal" (non-royal) children, had their schooling, and were treated to gardens and menageries. Maria Antonia later attempted to recreate this atmosphere through her renovation of the Petit Trianon in France.
By many accounts, her childhood was somewhat complex. On the one hand, her parents had instituted several innovations in court life which made Austria one of the most progressive courts in Europe. While certain court functions remained formal by necessity, the Emperor and Empress nevertheless presided over many basic changes in court life. This included allowing relaxations in who could come to court (a change which allowed people of merit as well as birth to rise rapidly in the imperial favour), relatively lax dress etiquette, and the abolition of certain court protocols, including a ritual in which dozens of courtiers could be in the Empress' bedchamber, watching when she gave birth – the Empress disliked the ritual, and would eject courtiers from her rooms when she went into labour.[4]
While she had an idyllic "private" life, her initial role in the political arena – and in her mother's main aim of alliance through marriage – was relatively minuscule. As there were so many other children who could be married off, Maria Antonia was sometimes neglected by her mother; as a result, Maria Antonia later described her relationship with her mother as one of awe-inspired fear.[5] She also developed a mistrust of intelligent older women as a result of her mother's close relationship with Maria Antonia's older sister, the Archduchess Maria Christina, who shared their mother's birthday and was her favourite child.[6] The lack of supervision also resulted in a sub-par education in many regards, and she could barely read or write properly in her native German by the time she was twelve. This was due in large measure, however, to the fact that French, not German, was the language most commonly spoken at the Austrian court. It was for that reason that the young archduchess was usually referred to as "Madame Antoine" and signed herself as "Antoine Archiduchesse" in French.
