This article is about the French Queen. For other uses, see Marie Antoinette (disambiguation).
Marie Antoinette
Queen of France and Navarre
Born November 2, 1755(1755-11-02)
Hofburg Palace,Vienna, Austria
Died October 16, 1793 (aged 37)
Paris, France
Consort May 10, 1774–September 21, 1792
Consort to Louis XVI
Issue Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Louis-Joseph, Louis XVII, Sophie Hélène Béatrix
Royal House Habsburg-Lorraine
Father Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother Maria Theresa of Austria
Marie Antoinette (German: Maria Antonia von Österreich; French: Marie Antoinette d'Autriche; November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793), born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (German: Erzherzogin Maria Antonia von Österreich), and later becoming Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre (French: Marie Antoinette, reine de France et de Navarre) (pronounced /mariː ɑnt̪wanɛt̪/), was the Queen consort of France, as the wife of Louis XVI. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. She was a direct descendant of powerful European royalty, including Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, to whom she can trace her ancestry back through both her parents. At age fourteen she was married to the future Louis XVI, and was the mother of "the lost Dauphin" Louis XVII. Marie Antoinette is perhaps best remembered for her legendary (and, some modern historians say, exaggerated) excesses, and for her death: she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793, for the crime of treason.
Marie Antoinette (who was given the Latin baptismal name of Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna) was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. She was the fifteenth child, and eleventh (and last) daughter, of Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa. Of the names given at her christening, Maria honored the Virgin Mary; Antonia honored Saint Anthony of Padua; Josefa honored her elder brother, Archduke Josef; and Johanna honored Saint John the Evangelist. The court official described the baby as "a small, but completely healthy Archduchess." Her siblings included an older sister Maria Carolina of Austria, a younger brother Maximilian, and three older brothers Joseph, Leopold and Ferdinand Karl, all of whom had already begun to exert their influence over the Habsburg Empire.
Archduchess Antonia grew up in the highly moral environment of her mother's court. Maria Theresa was a strong leader, beloved by her people. The busy empress supervised her children's upbringing as closely as she could, but Antonia's education was left largely in the hands of a governess who was happy to spoil the pretty, high-spirited little girl. Antonia spent more time playing than studying, although she enjoyed her music lessons and became an excellent harpist and dancer.
Unlike so many royal couples, her parents had married for love and truly enjoyed family life. Although the court was a place of great formality on important occasions, in private the imperial family was rather casual. Antonia regarded her mother with awe but was close to her good-natured father.
It was a childhood she remembered with real happiness, clouded only for the first time by her father's death on August 18, 1765. At Innsbruck, while attending the marriage of his son Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, he had an apoplectic fit and died in his eldest son Joseph's arms. Marie Antoinette never forgot his last farewell to her. Already his carriage had left the Palace and was on the road to Innsbruck when he sent a messenger back for his youngest daughter. Taking the child of nine in his arms, he held her tightly. "God knows, gentlemen," he said, "How I wanted to embrace this child once more." It was the last he saw of her but he had taken the precaution of leaving behind a list of instructions to be read by his children twice a year, warning them, among other things, against false friendships. It was soon laid aside and forgotten.
Marie Antoinette's sisters were quickly married off to the heads of European royal houses — Maria Amalia to the Prince of Parma; and her favorite sister, Maria Carolina, to King Ferdinand of Naples, and Maria Christina along with her husband Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen were made the Regents of the Austrian Netherlands. Maria Theresa demanded obedience of her children, sometimes to the point of excess. Marie Antoinette, eleven at the time, remembered with horror how her sister Maria Josephina, engaged to the King of Naples, had been forbidden by Maria Theresa to leave Vienna before praying at the family tomb. The child regarded this order as a certain death warrant as her brother Joseph's second wife, Josephine of Bavaria, had recently been interred there after dying from smallpox. In tears the bride had taken Marie Antoinette on her lap and said her last goodbye before she went down to the crypt. Her fears were realized when, two weeks later, she died of smallpox on the very day she was to have left Vienna for her journey across the alps. If Marie Antoinette was heartbroken at the loss, her mother was more practical. Undaunted, she sent another daughter, Maria Carolina, to fill the dead girl's place.
In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed with the intention of ending nearly a century and a half of intermittent conflict between Austria and France (the two countries subsequently became allies in the Seven Years' War, 1756–1763). In an effort to preserve this alliance, it was proposed that Louis XV of France's heir, his grandson Louis-Auguste, marry one of Empress Maria Theresa's daughters. Following lengthy negotiations, the official proposal for the teenage girl was made by Louis XV in 1769. Only after the marriage treaty was signed did Maria Theresa realize her daughter lacked sufficient knowledge of the French language and customs, and tutors were summoned to prepare the girl for her role as future Queen of France.
On April 19, 1770, a marriage per procurationem, a marriage by proxy with her brother, Ferdinand, standing in for of Louis Auguste, took place in Vienna's Augustine Church. They did this because Marie Antoinette would have entered France as the Archduchess of Austria until she married Louis and the French would not allow it. By this marriage taking place, she could enter the French court as the Dauphine, and then be officially married to Louis Auguste. Two days later, a sobbing Marie Antoinette left Vienna to her mother's parting words, "Farewell, my dearest. Do so much good to the French people that they can say that I have sent them an angel." Traveling along the Danube River and accompanied by a large entourage of nearly 14 carriages, they passed through Munich, Augsburg, Günzburg, Ulm and Freiburg im Breisgau, before finally reaching the Rhine border between Kehl and Strasbourg weeks later.
On May 7, as a symbolic act of loyalty, Marie Antoinette was required to leave her Austrian attire, possessions, servants, and friends behind. After lengthy negotiations, she was allowed to keep her dog, a Shih Tzu named Schnitzy. The 14-year old was stripped of her nationality and her clothes before the entire Austrian delegation that was present, causing her to break down and cry. She was dressed up in French clothing and was taken to Strasbourg for a Thanksgiving Mass, in her honor. The entire city was illuminated in anticipation of her arrival and the streets were covered in flowers. A few days later, she continued her journey to Versailles.
Marie Antoinette, aged 14
Marie Antoinette, aged 14
Marie Antoinette was conveyed to the royal palace at Versailles, where she met her future grandfather-in-law, Louis XV, and other members of the royal family. Her future husband, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste, was very shy and plump. Only one year her senior, he had not had any previous sexual or romantic experience to prepare him for dealing with his fiancée. Their marriage was nevertheless conducted within hours of Marie Antoinette's arrival at Versailles. The Wedding Mass was lavishly celebrated in the Chapelle Royale on May 16, 1770. Just before the wedding, Marie Antoinette was presented with the magnificent jewels traditionally belonging to a French dauphine. The collection included an elaborate diamond necklace which had belonged to Anne of Austria and pieces which had also belonged to Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine de' Medici. The large collection of gems was valued at approximately 2 million livres. Marie Antoinette also received a personal wedding gift from King Louis, a diamond-encrusted fan. The Dauphin and Marie Antoinette were married in front of the court, with the bride wearing a dress decorated by large white hoops covered in diamonds and pearls. The ceremony was followed by a formal dinner during which it is said that Louis-Auguste ate an enormous amount. When the king told him to eat less, the Dauphin replied "Why? I always sleep better when I have a full stomach!" They had an audience at this dinner of over 1,000 French citizens eager to see their new Dauphine. Marie ate almost nothing.
The court then conducted the young couple to their bed, which had been blessed by the Archbishop of Reims. However, the marriage was not consummated and would not be for several years.
Marie Antoinette did not conceive until seven years into her marriage. Rumors began to circulate that Louis-Auguste might be impotent, or that he suffered from a genital anomaly, reputedly phimosis. According to some historians, seven years later, minor surgery prompted by the Austrian emperor corrected the problem. However, modern scholars such as Vincent Cronin and Simone Bertiere have proven that Louis XVI never had the surgery, since it is not recorded in his medical records. Furthermore, he went hunting every day during the time frame in which the surgery was supposed to have occurred, which would have been impossible. The problem may have had more to do with the queen's narrowness of passage, causing intercourse to be painful and difficult. In spite of the physical problems, the couple's first child was born on December 19, 1778. However, they continued to face accusations that the royal marriage was a sham.
The young dauphine also faced the spite of the Louis XV's mistress, Madame du Barry. Du Barry was born Jeanne Bécu, a commoner who gained the notice of nobility as a courtesan. Since Marie Antoinette felt it was beneath herself to associate with such a woman, Du Barry set out to make her life as miserable as possible, beginning by turning the king against his granddaughter-in-law. Her mother and others from the Austrian court told her that to snub the king's favorite was "most unwise in her current position," meaning that of a wife in an un-consummated marriage. Because of rank, Madame du Barry was not allowed to speak with Marie until spoken to by Marie. Also because of rank, Marie would not associate with her until Madame du Barry began spreading vicious lies about her throughout the palace. Then, reportedly, Marie said to her at a ball, "There are a lot of people at Versailles tonight, aren't there," and walked away to mingle with others. At the King's request before his death in May 1774, Du Barry was banished from the court to the convent of Pont-au-Dames, as her amoral presence would have prevented the king from receiving absolution.
Daily life for Marie Antoinette was somewhat monotonous. For example, she was assisted out of bed each morning and dressed by her various ladies-in-waiting. There was much etiquette to the dressing. The lady-in-waiting with the highest rank present was the only one allowed to handle her bloomers, for example. Only a certain lady could tie her petticoats but a different one had to put them on her. After about a month, she finally convinced her ladies-in-waiting to allow her to bathe herself. She accompanied her husband for dinner, which was held in public (anyone who was decently dressed was permitted entry). Louis-Auguste ate enormous amounts of food, while Marie Antoinette ate almost nothing. Marie Antoinette loathed the public spectacle complaining bitterly to her mother, "I put on my rouge and wash my hands in front of the whole world!"
Homesick and melancholic, Marie Antoinette especially missed the companionship she had enjoyed with her sister, Maria Carolina. She found a substitute in Princesse Thérèse de Lamballe. The Princesse de Lamballe was wealthy and kind-natured, and absolutely devoted to Marie Antoinette. Not long after meeting Thérèse, Marie Antoinette formed a deep attachment to the beautiful aristocrat Gabrielle, Comtesse de Polignac. She was also on excellent terms with her husband's youngest brother Charles, the Comte d'Artois.
Marie Antoinette did not involve herself in political matters, possibly because she lacked any real knowledge or interest in it. Her mother's ambassador, le Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, who had been sent to spy on Marie Antoinette, reported with great frustration that she was doing nothing to further Austria's influence in France.
Louis-Auguste and Marie Antoinette's life changed suddenly on the afternoon of May 10, 1774, when King Louis XV died of smallpox. Courtiers rushed to swear allegiance to their new king, Louis XVI, and his wife, Marie Antoinette, then 18. They reportedly said, "Your Majesties, I am at your loyal service." Then the new king and queen fell to their knees in prayer, with Louis supposedly saying, "Dear God, guide and protect us. We are too young to reign."
Louis XVI's coronation took place at Reims during the height of a bread shortage in Paris. This is the context in which Marie Antoinette is incorrectly quoted as joking, "If they have no bread, then let them eat cake!" ("S'ils n'ont plus de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche.") There is no evidence that this phrase was ever uttered by Marie Antoinette. When Marie Antoinette actually heard about the bread shortage she wrote, "It is quite certain that in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness. The king seems to understand this truth; as for myself, I know that in my whole life (even if I live for a hundred years) I shall never forget the day of the coronation."
The royals had been greeted with an outpouring of national joy, and the young queen was especially adored, despite the cost of the coronation. Almost 7,000 livres were spent on a new crown for Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette's magnificent gown was ordered from the fashion house of Paris's most exclusive designer, Rose Bertin.
Shortly after the coronation, Marie Antoinette attempted to bring Étienne François, duc de Choiseul back to court. He had been banished by Madame du Barry because of his loyalty to Marie Antoinette and the alliance with Austria. However, the new queen did not have much success. Although King Louis did meet with Choiseul, he did not bring him back to court permanently. Later, when she tried to have her friend, the duc de Guînes, appointed ambassador to England, Louis XVI said, "I have made it quite clear to the queen that he cannot serve in England or in any other Embassy." It was obvious that Marie Antoinette enjoyed no political influence with her husband.
When Marie Antoinette's sister-in-law, Marie Thérèse, the wife of the Comte d'Artois, gave birth to her first child in August 1775, Marie Antoinette was subjected to cat-calls from market women asking why she had not produced a son as well. She spent the next day weeping in her rooms, much to the distress of her ladies-in-waiting, who felt she was "extremely affecting when in misfortune."
Fulfilling Marie Antoinette's determination to avoid boredom, conversation in her circle shied away from the mundane or intellectual. According to Madame Campan, one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting, "The newest songs from the Comédie, the most timely joke or pun or quip, the bon mot of the day, the latest and choicest titbit of scandal or gossip – these comprised the sole topics of conversation in the intimate group about the queen; discussion on a serious plane was banished from her court."
The queen's circle of friends was very exclusive. This caused resentment in Versailles, where the courtiers thought the queen was deliberately excluding them. Soon, she became the target of the vicious gossip of Versailles. She, however, remained oblivious.
Under the influence of d'Artois, Marie Antoinette began visiting the Paris Opéra balls in disguise. It was not long before gossips began whispering that the queen was orchestrating such events to meet with various secret lovers.
She also began spending more money since she had no real idea of its value. She spent it mainly on clothes, gambling and diamonds. For her twenty-first birthday, she participated in a three-day long gambling party, in which huge amounts of money changed hands.
Marie Antoinette had already caused enough anger at Versailles before she started appointing her friends to places that were traditionally held by others. She made Thérèse de Lamballe the Superintendent of the Queen's Household, despite the fact that there were some aristocratic ladies with a superior claim to that job.
She then began spending less time living at the palace and more time at Le Petit Trianon, which was a small château in the palace grounds. The château was renovated for her and the costs soon spiralled out of control, especially whenever the gardens were re-designed to suit the queen's new tastes.
There were also wider problems affecting France at the time, for the entire country was standing on the edge of bankruptcy. The long series of wars fought by Louis XIV and Louis XV had left France with the highest national debt in Europe. French society was under-taxed and what little money was collected failed to save the economy. Louis XVI was persuaded by Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais to support the American revolutionaries in their fight for independence from Britain. This decision was a disaster for France, despite its victory, because the cost was enormous.
Marie Antoinette's brother, Emperor Joseph II, visited her in April 1777. He had come to inquire about the state of her marriage, since the Austrians were concerned about her failure to produce a son. They went for a long walk in the grounds of Le Petit Trianon, during which Joseph criticised her gambling and her taste in friends. He also had a deep conversation with Louis XVI in which they discussed the couple's sexual problems. Whatever Joseph II said to Louis XVI, it obviously worked, for the marriage was soon consummated, and by April 1778, the queen announced that she was pregnant.
Marie Antoinette's first child was born at Versailles on December 19, 1778. She was forced to endure the humiliation of a public birth in her bedchamber, in front of hundreds of courtiers. The queen actually passed out through a combination of embarrassment and pain. It was the last time such a ritual was permitted; Marie Antoinette refused to give birth in public ever again.
The baby was a girl, and she was christened Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte. In accordance with court etiquette, the baby was soon referred to as Madame Royale, a title always given to the eldest daughter of the French king. Despite the fact that the country had desired a boy, Marie Antoinette was delighted with a girl. "A son would have belonged to the state," she said, "but you shall be mine, and have all my care; you shall share my happiness and soften my sorrows."
Madame Royale was followed by three other children – Louis-Joseph, Dauphin born in 1781, Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy in 1785 and Sophie-Béatrix in 1786.
As she grew older, Marie Antoinette became much less extravagant. She was devoted to her children, and she was very involved in taking care of them. Speaking of her youngest son, Louis-Charles, she said, "Mon chou d'amour ["My cake of love," chou being a popular term of endearment even into modern times in France] is charming, and I love him madly. He loves me very much too, in his own way, without embarrassment."[cite this quote] She was also much more involved in charity work, although she had always been very generous.
After she turned thirty in 1785, Marie Antoinette began to dress with more restraint. She abandoned the more elaborate wigs which had been festooned with jewels and feathers, and she refused to buy any more jewels for her personal collection. She was, however, fiercely criticised for building a small mock-village for herself in the grounds of Versailles in 1786.
The building of these kinds of artificial villages was very popular among French aristocratic ladies, who were keen to experience a rural idyll in the comfort of their own estates. This tradition had begun with Louis XIV's greatest mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan in the 1680s. Marie Antoinette's defenders did not think she deserved so much criticism for building the Hameau, as it was known. Baroness d'Oberkirch complained, "Other people spent more on their gardens!"
Even so, the queen was already unpopular, and she could not possibly understand how much the Hameau would further damage her reputation. Many people began to see her as a clueless spendthrift who liked to play at being a shepherdess, whilst some of the real peasants lived in very hard conditions.
Louis, Cardinal de Rohan, a member of one of France's most prominent aristocratic houses, was not in the queen's favour. He had been the Envoy to Austria: personal letters of his had been intercepted, in which he bragged to friends back home that he had "bedded half the Austrian court" and that Marie Antoinette's own mother the Empress had "begged" him for her turn.[citation needed] He had also jested to friends in Vienna by showing them some of the pamphlets insulting Marie Antoinette's honour. His ambitions to follow in the footsteps of Cardinal Richelieu and become Prime Minister of France meant that he was desperate to return to her favour, as the position was by royal appointment, and Marie Antoinette blocked his progress at every turn.
When an impoverished aristocrat named Jeanne Saint-Rémy de Valois, Comtesse de la Motte, became aware of Rohan's desire to befriend the queen, she first became his mistress and then set about hatching an ingenious plan to make a small fortune for herself in the process.
Marie Antoinette had refused to buy a magnificent diamond necklace from the Royal Jewellers (she said the cost was too high and that the royal family preferred now to spend their money on the Navy). She became impatient with the jeweller and snapped, "Not only have I never commissioned you to make a jewel … but, what is more, I have told you repeatedly that I would never add so much as another carat to my present collection of diamonds. I refused to buy your necklace for myself; the king offered to buy it for me, and I refused it as a gift. Never mention it again."[cite this quote]
The Comtesse de la Motte then pretended to be an intimate friend of the queen's, whilst persuading the cardinal that the queen secretly desired the necklace. He paid the 2 million livres to her (thinking she would then give it to the queen), and the Comtesse collected the necklace from the jewellers (who also thought she would give it to the queen, who would then pay them). The Comtesse, however, disappeared with both the jewels and the money.
When the time came to pay, the jewellers complained to the queen, who told them that she had received no necklace and had never ordered it. She had the story of the negotiations repeated for her. Then followed a coup de théâtre. On August 15, 1785, Assumption Day, when the whole court was awaiting the king and queen in order to go to the chapel, the Cardinal de Rohan was arrested as an accomplice in the scandal; the Comtesse de la Motte was found and subsequently arrested three days later, on August 18, 1785.
The police set to work to find all her accomplices, and a sensational trial commenced with the Cardinal de Rohan accepting the Parliament of Paris as judges. On May 31, 1786, the trial resulted in the acquittal of the Cardinal, among others, while the Comtesse was condemned to be whipped, branded and shut up in the prostitutes' prison.
When the Diamond Necklace Affair was exposed, public opinion was much excited by the trial. Most historians have come to the conclusion that Marie Antoinette was relatively blameless in the matter, that Rohan was an innocent dupe, and that the Comtesse de la Motte deceived both for her own gain. At the time, however, most people in France believed that Marie Antoinette had used the Comtesse as an instrument to satisfy her hatred of the Cardinal de Rohan. Various circumstances fortified this belief, which contributed to render Marie Antoinette very unpopular, such as her disappointment at Rohan's acquittal and the fact that he was deprived of his charges and exiled to the abbey of la Chaise-Dieu. The Parliament's acquittal of Rohan also pointed to an assumption that Marie Antoinette was somehow in the wrong. The Comtesse eventually escaped prison and took refuge in London, where she published her mémoires in which she continued to accuse the queen and proclaim her innocence in the matter.
The Affair of the Necklace further discredited Marie Antoinette's reputation among the French population. Already unpopular for her Austrian roots and past years of extravagant spending, the scandal tainted her image even further; the general public opinion was that she had perpetrated a multi-million pound fraud for her own political ends. Her antagonistic pamphleteers suggested that the queen was also having affairs with both Rohan and the Comtesse de la Motte. The circulation of sexual scandal and arguments about extravagant necklaces made her appear even more out-of-touch with the ordinary people.
Coupled with the political disaster of the Affair of the Necklace, the royal family also suffered some terrible personal tragedies. In 1787, Marie Antoinette's youngest daughter, Sophie-Béatrix, died shortly before her first birthday. The queen was devastated and spent hours weeping over the baby's body.
Not long after, the Royal Physicians informed her that her eldest son, the Dauphin Louis-Joseph, was terminally ill with consumption. The child's condition deteriorated by twisting the body in what was a painful death, and Marie Antoinette spent most of her time nursing him during his last agonizing months.
The French government was seriously in debt, thanks to inefficient taxation and costly foreign wars. The king summoned a council of nobles to discuss the situation. The Assembly of Notables, as it was called, could find no solution to the government's financial crisis. So Louis XVI was left with no alternative other than to call a meeting of the Estates-General in May 1789. The Estates-General was the main representative body of the French population, but it had not been called since the reign of Louis XIII in 1614.
Within days of meeting, the Estates-General was clamouring for reforms and criticising the monarchy and its policies. However, the royal family's attentions were on other things. On June 4, the Dauphin died at age seven. The king sank into sporadic bouts of depression, and the queen was heartbroken. Immediately, some of her enemies began to spread rumours that she had poisoned her own son.
The ultra-royalist circles at Versailles feared and resented the Estates-General. Marie Antoinette was coming to suspect that the reformists in the Estates-General were secretly working to overthrow the monarchy. On July 11, Marie Antoinette and her brother-in-law, the Comte d'Artois, persuaded Louis XVI to dismiss the liberal prime minister, Jacques Necker. Marie Antoinette's ally, the Baron de Breteuil, was made prime minister instead.
Breteuil was a devout Roman Catholic and a committed royalist. The monarchy's enemies painted him as a ruthless tyrant, even though he did have a reputation for being very humanitarian in his treatment of opponents. Even so, the propaganda worked, and Paris was gripped by fear that the royalists were planning a military attack on the city in order to force it into submission.
A large mob marched on the symbol of royal authority in Paris, the Bastille Prison, and seized control of it on July 14, 1789. The governor of the prison was lynched and so were two loyal monarchist politicians. News did not reach the palace until very late that evening. When Louis XVI heard of it, he asked, "This is a revolt?" to which the duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt replied, "No, sire. It is a revolution."
Panic seized the palace, and many courtiers fled for their lives. The Comte d'Artois fled abroad, fearing he would be assassinated. Marie Antoinette's friend Duchesse de Polignac, the governess of her children, fled to Switzerland, where she continued writing to the queen. Marie Antoinette appointed the devout and disciplined Marquise de Tourzel as governess to the two surviving royal children – Princess Marie-Thérèse and the new dauphin, Louis-Charles.
Marie Antoinette also hoped to flee; she felt it was unwise to remain so close to Paris during the current troubles. She hoped that the king would give orders for them to move to their château at Saint-Cloud or even to another royal home at Compiègne. The queen's things were already packed, and so were her children's. However, Louis decided that they would stay at Versailles. The queen could not disobey her husband, and she refused to leave him.
Later, Louis XVI would realize what a mistake he had made in not leaving the Palace of Versailles when he had the chance. His decision to remain at the palace would condemn his entire family to intense suffering and trauma in the years ahead.
On October 5, 1789, rumours spread in Paris that the royals were hoarding all the grain. A hungry and angry mob of burly, knife-wielding fishwives and their husbands decided to march on Versailles. However, one of the king's courtiers, the young Duc de Fronsac, was in the city at the time and ran on foot through the woods to the palace to warn Marie Antoinette of the rowdy crowd's deadly intentions. An emergency meeting was held to determine the royal response with Marie Antoinette once again repeating her plea that the king and his family flee. The king refused.
Since she was aware that she was the primary target of the mob's anger, Marie Antoinette chose to sleep on her own that evening. She left strict instructions with the Marquise de Tourzel that she was to take the children straight to the king if there were any disturbances.
In the early hours of the morning, the mob broke into the palace. The queen's guards were massacred. She and her two ladies-in-waiting only narrowly escaped with their lives before the crowd burst in and ransacked her chambers. Taking the Duc de Fronsac's advice, the three ladies ran to the king's bedchamber. The king's younger sister, Madame Élisabeth, was already there. The two children arrived, and the doors were locked.
A large crowd had gathered in the palace's courtyard and were demanding that the queen come to the balcony. She appeared in her night-robe, accompanied by her two children. The crowd demanded that the two children be sent back inside. So the queen stood alone for almost ten minutes, whilst many in the crowd pointed muskets at her. She then bowed her head and returned inside. Some in the mob were so impressed by her bravery that they cried "Vive la Reine!" ("Long live the Queen!")
The Royals were forced to return with the mob to Paris. They were taken to the dilapidated Tuileries Palace, which had last been used during the reign of Louis XIV. The Marquis de la Fayette, a liberal aristocrat who had embraced many American ideas when he fought for George Washington, was placed in charge of the royal family's security. When he met the queen, he bluntly told her, "Your Majesty is a prisoner. Yes, it's true. Since Her Majesty no longer has her Guard of Honour, she is a prisoner." Other royal "prisoners" included Louis XVI's sister, Élisabeth, and his other brother – the Comte de Provence. The Princesse de Lamballe had refused to abandon Marie Antoinette, as had the Marquise de Tourzel and several other royal servants.
Desperate to reassure her friends, Marie Antoinette sent a short note to the Austrian ambassador saying, "I'm fine, don't worry." When she appeared in public she appeared calm, serene and dignified.
From the beginning of the Revolution, Marie Antoinette remained skeptical about the chances of a compromise. However, she was not yet prepared to give up all hope of a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Certain republicans, like Antoine Barnave, were moved by her plight and many more were thoroughly impressed by her dignity. The Comte de Mirabeau, whom she despised, told many people how impressed he was with the queen's courage and "manly" strength of character.
Trying to re-establish normalcy, Marie Antoinette began inviting charitable commissions to the Tuileries and continued her generous patronage and desire to alleviate the suffering of the poor children of Paris. She also spent as much time as possible with her children, particularly the Dauphin.
Public hatred against the queen was so intense that she had to attend her daughter's first Communion in disguise. The traditional gift for a Princess upon her first Communion was a set of magnificent diamonds, but both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette decided it would be better that Marie Thérèse go without the diamonds since the people went without bread.
Meanwhile, the National Constituent Assembly was drawing up a new constitution which would turn France into a constitutional monarchy. Marie Antoinette opened secret communications with the Comte de Mirabeau, a prominent member of the National Constituent Assembly who hoped to restore the authority of the crown. Nevertheless, her mistrust of Mirabeau prevented the king from following his advice. Catherine the Great wrote to Marie Antoinette from Russia, telling her that the royals should ignore the complaints of their people "as the moon goes on its course without being stopped by the cries of dogs." Louis's sister, Élisabeth, was even more vocal in her hatred of the new system. Élisabeth, like her exiled brother the Comte d'Artois, was so horrified with the French Revolution that she believed a civil war was inevitable.
On July 14, 1790, the royal family had to attend festivities to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. The queen dutifully attended, even though she described the celebrations as symbolising "everything that is most cruel and sorrowful." The king's liberal cousin, Philippe, duc d'Orléans returned from England and publicly proclaimed his support for the revolutionaries. His hatred for Marie Antoinette was extreme, and she believed that he was fomenting the Revolution in order to seize the crown for himself. Ultra-royalists even whispered that the duc d'Orléans had orchestrated the siege of Versailles in the hopes of having Marie Antoinette assassinated. The duke enjoyed enormous popular support amongst the people of Paris, although his Scottish mistress Grace Elliott was a secret royalist who later admitted to having gone to Belgium on a secret mission for the queen. She carried messages to the Baron de Breteuil, who was now acting as Louis and Marie Antoinette's secret Prime Minister-in-exile. With Louis now suffering from periodic depression and chronic lethargy, Marie Antoinette had taken it upon herself to appoint Breteuil. It is generally believed that she forged the official document appointing Breteuil with the king's later approval.
Hope of compromise between the royals and the revolutionaries dimmed with the creation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790. This was a republican attack on the privileges and ancient practices of the Roman Catholic Church. When news was delivered to the royal family, Marie Antoinette whispered to the Marquise de Tourzel, "The Church. The Church... we're next."
By 1791, both the king and the queen had come to the conclusion that the Revolution was going to destroy France. They came to the decision to flee to Montmédy, a royalist stronghold in the east of France. There they would gather their supporters and any foreign assistance they could (Marie Antoinette's brother Emperor Leopold II, Catherine II of Russia, the King of Sweden and the King of Prussia had all promised military aid). They hoped that, once they had escaped, they would be able to negotiate with the revolutionaries, but they were now quite prepared to use force to stop them.
The royals' escape was foiled at the town of Varennes, when the King's head was recognized on a coin as the horses drawing the carriage were being replaced, and they were forced back to Paris by local republicans. They were returned to the Tuileries Palace, but from now on it was clear that the King and the entire royal family were enemies of the Revolution.
Marie Antoinette then tried to preserve the crown's rapidly deteriorating position by secretly negotiating with Antoine Barnave, leader of the constitutional monarchist faction in the Assembly. Barnave persuaded Louis to openly accept the new constitution in September 1791, but the queen undermined Barnave by privately urging her brother, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, to conduct a counterrevolutionary crusade against France.
Louis's attempt, encouraged by the Queen, to regain his authority by making war with her relations in Austria, hoping that a quick defeat of France would cause the Austrians to restore the monarchy, proved disastrous. When the Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Austro-Prussian army invading France, issued a manifesto threatening Paris with destruction if the royal family were harmed, reaction in Paris was swift and brutal. Rather than heeding the Manifesto, the revolutionaries were enraged by it, and they attacked the Tuileries on August 10, 1792.
Marie Antoinette's initial decision was to stand and face the mob, even if it meant doing it on her own. However, her ladies-in-waiting begged her to think of her children, and she reluctantly agreed to accompany the king and his entourage when they fled the palace for the National Assembly. The Palace was invaded in their absence, and the Swiss Guard were massacred. The Governor of the Tuileries, the Marquis de Champcenetz, managed to escape the mob despite incurring heavy wounds. He was sentenced to death by the revolutionaries but managed to escape Paris with the help of Grace Elliott.
Louis XVI was arrested by the republicans on August 13, and just over a month later, on September 21 the National Convention abolished the monarchy. The royal family were then moved to the forbidding Temple Fortress and imprisoned. The king, queen, their two children and Louis's sister Elisabeth were heavily guarded, lest they be rescued by royalists.
After they had been imprisoned, Paris erupted into violence. The mob invaded the prisons and massacred anyone suspected of royalist leanings. Marie Antoinette's dearest friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, was captured and told to repudiate her oath of loyalty to the queen. When she refused, she was murdered by repeated hammer-blows to the head. Her body was then torn apart and her head placed on a pike. Eye-witness accounts of this event were given by the Comte de Beaujolais, Commissioner Daujon and wax-modeller Marie Grosholz (better known as Marie Tussaud, she was forced to make the death-mask of the princess). The head was taken to Marie Antoinette's window and displayed outside it. Cléry and Madame Tison saw it, and Cléry informed the royal couple. According to her daughter the queen was 'frozen with horror', and then she collapsed to the ground in a dead faint. She then spent the night in tears.
Louis was tried for treason on December 11. He was condemned to death on January 17. The duc d'Orléans voted for Louis's death. He was allowed one last farewell supper with his family, and he urged his young son not to seek vengeance for his death. The queen spent the next few hours huddled against her husband, clutching their son. Marie Thérèse sobbed hysterically, whilst Elisabeth clung to her brother. Louis was taken to the guillotine the next day. When she heard the crowds cheer her husband's death, Marie Antoinette collapsed to the ground, unable to speak.
Marie Antoinette did not ever truly recover from her husband's death. According to her daughter, "She no longer had any hope left in her heart or distinguished between life and death." She began to suffer from convulsions and fainting fits. She also lost her appetite and weight.
The Conciergerie Prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her death
The Conciergerie Prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her death
On the night of July 3, 1793, commissioners arrived in the royal family's cell with instructions to separate Marie Antoinette's son from the rest of his family. He had been proclaimed Louis XVII by exiled royalists after his father's death. The republican government had therefore decided to imprison the eight-year-old child in solitary confinement. Louis flung himself into his mother's arms crying hysterically, and Marie Antoinette shielded him with her body, refusing to give him up. When the commissioners threatened to kill her if she did not hand the child over, she still refused to move. It was only when they threatened to kill Marie Thérèse that she came to realise how hopeless the situation was. Two hours after the commissioners had entered her room, the former Queen relinquished her son to them. They did not meet again; her son died in captivity in 1795. At 2 a.m. on August 2, 1793, Marie Antoinette was awoken by guards and told to get dressed. She was taken away from her daughter and sister-in-law and transferred across Paris to the Conciergerie Prison. She was re-named "the Widow Capet," after Hugh Capet, founder of the Capetian Dynasty. She was no longer to be referred to as "Marie Antoinette" but simply "Antoinette Capet" or "Prisoner No. 280." A young peasant girl, Rosalie Lamorlière, was entrusted to take care of Marie Antoinette's needs, but these were few since the queen did not ask for much. On August 29, 1793, Marie Antoinette was visited by Alexandre Gonsse de Rougeville, a devoted supporter who passed a secret message hidden in the petals of a carnation. The message informed the queen to prepare herself for imminent rescue. The plan failed when guards intercepted Marie Antoinette's reply, which she had pin-pricked into a piece of paper. The "affair of the carnation" fueled speculation of a widespread royalist conspiracy, and the queen was consequently placed under even tighter security.
On September 2, the republican journalist and politician, Jacques Hébert, told the Committee of Public Safety, "I have promised [my readers] the head of Antoinette. I will go and cut it off myself if there is any delay in giving it to me." Most republicans felt an intense hatred for her, and they were determined to see her dead.
Marie Antoinette under arrest
Marie Antoinette under arrest
She was brought to trial on October 14. When she entered the courtroom, most people were shocked at her appearance. She was emaciated, prematurely aged, exhausted and care-worn. Forty witnesses were called by the prosecution. They returned to the Affair of the Necklace or alleged that the queen had plied the Swiss Guard with alcohol during the siege of the palace. The most horrific charges came when Hébert accused her of having sexually abused her own son. When the queen was pressed to answer this charge she replied, "If I have not replied it is because Nature itself refuses to respond to such a charge laid against a mother."
The following questions were put to the jury:
Is it established that maneuvers and communications have existed with foreign powers and either external enemies of the republic, the said maneuvers, etc., tending to furnish them with assistance in money, give them an entry into French territory, and facilitate the progress of their armies?
Is Marie Antoinette of Austria, the widow Capet, convicted of having co-operated in these maneuvers and maintained these communications?
Is it established that a plot and conspiracy has existed tending to kindle civil war within the republic, by arming the citizens against one another?
Is Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, convicted of having participated in this plot and conspiracy?
The jury decided unanimously in the affirmative, and she was condemned to death for treason on October 15 and escorted back to the Conciergerie. She wrote her final letter known as her "Testament," to her sister-in-law Elisabeth. She expressed her love for her friends and family and begged that her children would not seek to avenge her murder.
On the morning of October 16, 1793, a guard arrived to cut her hair and bind her hands behind her back. She was forced into a tumbril and paraded through the streets of Paris for over an hour before reaching the Place de la Révolution where the guillotine stood. She stepped down from the cart and stared up at the guillotine. The priest who had accompanied her whispered, "This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage." Marie Antoinette turned to look at him and smiled, "Courage? The moment when my troubles are going to end is not the moment when my courage is going to fail me." Legend states that her last words were, "Pardonnez-moi, monsieur," (Pardon me, monsieur) spoken after she had accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot.
At 12:15, Marie Antoinette was executed. Her head was exhibited to a cheering crowd. The bodies of Marie, Louis XVI and Madame Elisabeth (Louis' sister) were buried in a mass grave near the location of today's La Madeleine church and covered in quicklime. Following the restoration of the Bourbons, a search was conducted for the bodies. On January 21, 1815, more than twenty years after her death, her corpse was exhumed—a lady's garter helped with identification—and Marie Antoinette was buried at the side of her spouse in the crypt of St. Denis Basilica just outside of Paris, the traditional final resting place of French monarchs.
Traditional histories have portrayed Marie Antoinette as a shallow, weak, and self-indulgent person. In recent years, however, that view has somewhat changed. In 1933, Stefan Zweig wrote a biography of her, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Ordinary Woman, in which he argued that the queen achieved greatness during the final years of her life thanks to her extraordinary courage. His biography was later made into a hugely successful movie starring Norma Shearer.
French historians, like André Castelot and Évelyne Lever, have generally been more critical in their biographies of Marie Antoinette, although neither has attacked her with the venom she received during her lifetime.
The trend in recent years, however, has been to focus on Marie Antoinette's strengths rather than her weaknesses. Deborah Cadbury, in her biography of Louis XVII, praised Marie Antoinette's devotion to her family and Munro Price, in his political study on the fall of the French monarchy, wrote "Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette have often been portrayed as weak and vacillating. Far from it; their policy between 1789 and 1792 was entirely consistent, and highly conservative. They were prepared to die for their beliefs, and ultimately did so."
The most thorough biography of Marie Antoinette has come from British historian Lady Antonia Fraser. Marie Antoinette: The Journey was first published in 2001 and became a bestseller. The book was later adapted into a 2006 Hollywood movie, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst. After reading Fraser's book, historian Simon Sebag Montefiore concluded that Marie Antoinette was "a woman more sinned against than sinning."
Marie Antoinette's life provided inspiration for the novel Trianon (first published in 1997) by author and historian, Elena Maria Vidal. Based on Vidal's painstaking research, this novel depicts pre-Revolution life at Versailles and the characters of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI with authenticity, in an attempt to dispel previous misconceptions about the royal couple. Trianon is the prequel to Madame Royale which is inspired by the life of Princess Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, daughter of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.
Marie Antoinette was a leading fashion icon and trendsetter of her time. The cover story of the September 2006 issue of Vogue magazine was about the 2006 Sofia Coppola movie, with an accompanying feature article about Marie Antoinette's contributions to fashion styles of the era. In February 2007, costume designer Milena Canonero received an Academy Award for Achievement in Costume Design for her work on Coppola's film. The queen popularized the pouf, an aristocratic hairstyle where the hair was teased as high as possible, coated with powder, elaborately curled, and then adorned with various ribbons, ornaments and feathers. Created by fashion designer Rose Bertin, a pouf typically had a theme or message conveyed in its details: a pouf for attending a funeral, for example, would be adorned with black decorations and a veil. The pouf became Marie Antoinette's signature style, and the trend spread rapidly among the French nobility of the time. Another trend that the queen established during her reign was that of encouraging her fashion designers to retain their other customers while working for her, so that she could stay abreast of every shift in fashion trends—a sharp break from tradition, which dictated that stylists and designers cater to only one client at a time.
A disagreement amongst modern historians is the role played by the Swedish aristocrat, Count Axel von Fersen. There were unsubstantiated rumours at court that the dashing Fersen was at one time Marie Antoinette's lover. The two were close, and Fersen risked his life many times to try to free her from prison. Some historians, like Evelyn Farr and Antonia Fraser, seem convinced that at one point the two did enjoy a physical relationship based on Fersen's famous line "Resté là" in his diary entry whenever he spent time with his other lovers. Others remain skeptical, arguing that there is no concrete evidence to support the idea that the two were lovers in the physical sense. Some even have claimed that Louis-Charles, later dauphin of France, was the biological child of Marie Antoinette and Fersen—this suggestion has however been rejected by Louis-Charles's most recent biographer, Deborah Cadbury. Many historians (Seward, Webster, Bertiere, Chalon, Delorme, Belloc) not only doubt that the queen ever slept with the handsome, brooding Count Axel von Fersen, who was a representative of Louis and Antoinette's ally the King of Sweden, but there is scant evidence that she was even in love with him. If one over-analyzes the few remaining lines of correspondence that exist, in which she addresses the count in a gushing and loving manner, one must keep in mind that she wrote in a similar florid fashion to all of her friends and family.
In an age of expressive and poetic letter-writing, Marie-Antoinette's style was excessively emotional and sentimental, always covering everyone with kisses and expressing the pain she felt at separation from those she loved. Count Fersen was a loyal friend of Louis XVI as much as he was a friend of the queen's.
Literature
In the novel Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge published in 1845 by Alexandre Dumas, père, Marie Antoinette is depicted as a kind and gentle woman who bears the trials of her captivity with grace and dignity. The novel follows the adventures of Maurice Lindey, a young Republican who is unwittingly caught up in a royalist plot to free the queen from prison. Events in the novel were inspired by "the affair of the carnation".
Various modern novels have also been inspired by the queen's life. These range from popular literature like The Secret Diary of Marie Antoinette to works like those of Elena Maria Vidal, whose novel Trianon, is a deliberately Catholic interpretation of Marie-Antoinette's life and times. A well-received French novel, Les Adieux á la Reine by French historian Chantal Thomas (published in English as Farewell, My Queen) is an accurate take on the last three days of Marie-Antoinette's court at the palace of Versailles in 1789.
A Royal Diaries series has been based on Marie Antoinette's teen years and gives young children a simple way of learning the life and roles of Marie Antoinette.
Wicca is a nature-based religion found in various countries throughout the world. It was first popularised in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witchcraft religion, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. The veracity of Gardner's claims cannot be independently proven, and it is thought that Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s.
Various related Wiccan traditions have since evolved or been adapted from the form established by Gardner, which came to be called Gardnerian Wicca. These other traditions of Wicca each have distinctive beliefs, rituals, and practices. Many traditions of Wicca remain secretive and require that members be initiated. There is also a movement of Eclectic Wiccans who do not believe that any doctrine or traditional initiation is necessary in order to practice Wicca.
Because there is no centralised organisation in Wicca, and no single "orthodoxy", the beliefs and practices of Wiccans can vary substantially, both between individuals and between traditions. Typically, the main religious principles, ethics and ritual structures are shared, since they are key elements of traditional teachings and published works on the subject.
As practised by initiates in the lineage of Gerald Gardner, Wicca is a variety of witchcraft founded on religious and magical concepts. As such it is distinguished not only by its religious beliefs, but by its practise of magic and its ethical philosophy, initiatory system, organisational structure and secrecy. Some of these beliefs and practices have also been adopted by others outside of this lineage, often termed Eclectic Wiccans, who generally discard the institutions of initiation, strict secrecy and organisational heirarchy, and tend to have more widely varying beliefs. Some Eclectic Wiccans neither perform magic nor identify as witches. Wiccans generally will not proselytise, and initiatory groups may even deny membership to some individuals, since an initiate is considered to be a priest or priestess and is expected to develop the skills and responsibility that that entails.
Wicca is only one variety of pagan witchcraft, with distinctive ritual forms, seasonal observances and religious, magical and ethical precepts. Other forms of witchcraft exist within many cultures, with widely varying practices. Many Wiccans, though not all, call themselves Pagans, though the umbrella term Paganism encompasses many faiths that have nothing to do with Wicca or witchcraft.
For most Wiccans, Wicca is a duotheistic religion. In the book Nature Religion Today, the authors write: "The deities of Wicca are understood as embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature." The Goddess and God are seen as complementary polarities and this balance is seen in nature. They are sometimes symbolised as the Sun and Moon, and from her lunar associations the Goddess becomes a Triple Goddess with aspects of "Maiden", "Mother" and "Crone". Some Wiccans hold the Goddess to be pre-eminent, since she contains and conceives all. The God is the spark of life and inspiration within her, simultaneously her lover and her child. This is reflected in the traditional structure of the coven. In some traditions, notably Feminist branches of Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is seen as complete unto herself, and the God is not worshipped at all. Wicca is essentially an immanent religion, and for some Wiccans, this idea also involves elements of animism. A key belief in Wicca is that the goddesses and gods are able to manifest in personal form, most importantly through the bodies of Priestesses and Priests. The latter kind of manifestation is the purpose of the ritual of Drawing down the Moon (or Drawing down the Sun), whereby the Goddess is called to descend into the body of the Priestess (or the God into the Priest) to effect divine possession.
According to Gardner, the gods of Wicca are ancient gods of the British Isles: a Horned God and a Great Mother goddess. Gardner also states that a being higher than any of these tribal gods is recognised by the witches as Prime Mover, but remains unknowable.
Some Wiccans have a monotheistic belief in the Goddess and God as One. Many have a duotheistic conception of deity as a Goddess (of Moon, Earth and sea) and a God (of forest, hunting and the animal realm). This concept is often extended into a kind of polytheism by the belief that the gods and goddesses of all cultures are aspects of this pair (or of the Goddess alone). Others hold the various gods and goddesses to be separate and distinct. Still others do not believe in the gods as real personalities, but see them as archetypes or as thoughtforms. A unified supreme godhead is also acknowledged by some groups. Patricia Crowther has called it Dryghten. Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone have observed that Wicca is becoming more polytheistic as it matures, and embracing a more traditional pagan world-view.
The classical elements are a key feature of the Wiccan world-view. Every manifest force or form is seen to express one of the four archetypal elements — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — or several in combination. Some add a fifth or quintessential element called Spirit (also called aether or akasha). The five points of the frequently worn pentagram symbolise, among other things, the four elements with spirit presiding at the top. In the casting of a magic circle, the four cardinal elements are visualised as contributing their influence from the four cardinal directions.
When practising magic and casting spells, as well as when celebrating various festivals, Wiccans use a variety of rituals. In typical rites, the coven or solitary assembles inside a ritually cast and purified magic circle. Prayers to the God and Goddess are said, the "Guardians" of the North, South, East and West are welcomed, and spells are sometimes worked.
An altar is usually present in the circle, on which ritual tools are placed. Before entering the circle, some traditions fast for the day, and/or ritually bathe. After a ritual has finished, the God, Goddess and Guardians are thanked and the circle is closed.
A sensationalised aspect of Wicca, particularly in Gardnerian Wicca, is the traditional practice of working in the nude, also known as skyclad. This practice seemingly derives from a line in Aradia but may be honoured more in the breach than the observance. Skyclad working is mostly the province of Initiatory Wiccans, who are outnumbered by the less strictly observant Eclectics. When they work clothed, Wiccans may wear robes, cords, "Renaissance-faire"-type clothing or normal street clothes.
Many Wiccans use a special set of magical tools in their rituals. These can include a broom (besom), cauldron, chalice, wand, Book of Shadows, altar cloth, athame, boline, candles, crystals, pentacle and/or incense. Representations of the God/Goddess are often displayed. Each of these items has a different significance. The tools themselves are just that — tools — and have no innate powers of their own, though they are usually dedicated or charged with a particular purpose, and used only in that context. For this reason, it is considered rude to touch another's tools without permission.
Wiccans hold a wide range of occassions with religious significance. Each full moon, and in some cases a new moon, is marked with a ritual called an Esbat.
Wiccans also follow the Wheel of the Year and celebrate its eight festivals known as Sabbats. Four of these, the cross-quarter days, are greater festivals, coinciding with old Celtic fire festivals. These are Samhain, Beltane or May Eve, Imbolc, and Lammas or Lughnasadh. The four lesser festivals are the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, which are referred to by some groups as Litha, Yule, Ostara and Mabon, respectively.
The names of jews are often taken from Germanic pagan and Celtic polytheistic holidays. However, the festivals are not reconstructive in nature nor do they often resemble their historical counterparts, instead exhibiting a form of universalism. Ritual observations may display cultural influence from the holidays from which they take their name as well as influence from other unrelated cultures.
Handfasting is another celebration held by Wiccans, and is the commonly used term for their weddings. Some Wiccans observe the practice of a trial marriage for a year and a day, which some traditions hold should be contracted on Lammas (Lughnasadh), as this was the traditional time for trial, "Telltown marriages" among the Irish.
Infants in Wiccan families may be involved in a ritual called a Wiccaning, which is analogous to a Christening. The purpose of this is to present the infant to the God and Goddess for protection. Despite this, in accordance with the importance put on free will in Wicca, the child is not necessarily expected or required to follow a Pagan path should they not wish to do so when they get older.
Wiccan morality is largely based on the (often misunderstood) Wiccan Rede: An it harm none, do what ye will. This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions. Another element of Wiccan Morality comes from the Law of Threefold Return, which is understood to mean that whatever one does to another person or thing (benevolent or otherwise) returns with triple force.
Many Wiccans also seek to cultivate a set of eight virtues mentioned in Doreen Valiente's Charge of the Goddess, these being mirth, reverence, honour, humility, strength, beauty, power and compassion. In Valiente's poem, they are ordered in pairs of complementary opposites, reflecting a dualism that is common throughout Wiccan philosophy. Some lineaged Wiccans also take note of a set of 161 laws, commonly called the Ardanes. Valiente, one of Gardner's original high priestesses, has noted that these rules were most likely invented by Gardner himself in mock-archaic language as the by-product of inner conflict within Gerald Gardner's Bricket Wood coven.
Although Gardner initially demonstrated an aversion to homosexuality, claiming that it brought down "the curse of the goddess", it is now accepted in many traditions of Wicca.
In Wicca a private journal, history or core religious text known as a Book of Shadows is kept by practitioners, similar to a grimoire. In lineaged groups, such as Gardnerian Wicca, the books contents are kept secret from anyone but the members of the lineage concerned (i.e. those initiating and initiated by a particular coven). However, several proposed versions of the Book have been published. Sections of these published versions, such as the "Wiccan Rede" and the "Charge of the Goddess", as well as other published writings about Wicca, have been adopted by non-initiates, or eclectic Wiccans. For many eclectics, they create their own personal books, whose contents are often only known by themselves.
A "tradition" in Wicca usually implies the transfer of a lineage by initiation. There are many such traditions and there are also many solitary or Eclectic Wiccans who do not align themselves with any particular lineage, some working alone, some joining in covens. There are also other forms of witchcraft which do not claim origins in Wicca. Traditions within the United States are well described in Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and Chas S. Clifton's Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America.
The lack of consensus in establishing definitive categories in Wiccan communities has often resulted in confusion between Lineaged Wicca and the emergence of Eclectic traditions. This can be seen in the common description of many Eclectic traditions as traditional/initiatory/lineaged as well. In the United States, where the confusion usually arises, Wiccans in the various linages extending from Gardner may describe themselves as British Traditional Wiccans.
Lineaged Wicca is organised into covens of initiated priests and priestesses. Covens are autonomous, and are generally headed by a High Priest and a High Priestess working in partnership, being a couple who have each been through their first, second and third degrees of initiation. Occasionally the leaders of a coven are only second-degree initiates, in which case they come under the rule of the parent coven. Initiation and training of new priesthood is most often performed within a coven environment, but this is not a necessity, and a few initiated Wiccans are unaffiliated with any coven.
In contrast, Eclectic Wiccans are more often than not solitary practitioners. Some of these "solitaries" do, however, attend gatherings and other community events, but reserve their spiritual practices (Sabbats, Esbats, spell-casting, worship, magical work, etc.) for when they are alone.
A commonly quoted Wiccan tradition holds that the ideal number of members for a coven is thirteen, though this is not held as a hard-and-fast rule. Indeed, many U.S. covens are far smaller, though the membership may be augmented by unaffiliated Wiccans at "open" rituals. When covens grow beyond their ideal number of members, they often split (or "hive") into multiple covens, yet remain connected as a group. A grouping of multiple covens is known as a grove in many traditions.
Initiation into a coven is traditionally preceded by a waiting period of at least a year and a day. A course of study may be set during this period. In some covens a "dedication" ceremony may be performed during this period, some time before the initiation proper, allowing the person to attend certain rituals on a probationary basis. Some solitary Wiccans also choose to study for a year and a day before their self-dedication to the religion.
As practised by Gerald Gardner and his followers, Wicca was and is a secretive and exclusive society of religious witchcraft, with entry to the society only gained through initiation by another Wiccan. However since the 1960s other, non-initiated people have adopted the term "Wicca" to describe their beliefs and practices, which vary from those of traditional, lineaged Wicca to a greater or lesser extent. Wiccans without a lineage to Gardner are termed Eclectic Wiccans, "who are liberal in their practices, following the technique of using anything that works no matter where it came from." Eclectic Wiccans now significantly outnumber lineaged Wiccans, and their beliefs and practices tend to be much more varied.
In the Eclectic Wiccan movement there is much more variation in religious beliefs, and secrecy and organisational structure play a less important role. Generally, Eclectic Wiccans will adopt similar ritual structures and ethical principles to Traditional Wiccans. A few Eclectic Wiccans neither consider themselves witches nor practice magic.
Some practitioners of lineaged initiatory Wicca consider that the term 'Wicca' correctly applies only to an initiate of a traditional branch of the religion (Gardnerian or Alexandrian Wicca, or their offshoots such as Seax-Wica) because eclectic Wicca is different in practice from the religion established by Gardner. However, the term has increasingly come to be adopted by people who are not initiates of a traditional lineaged coven. Eclectic Wiccans may undertake rituals of self-dedication, and generally work alone as solitary practitioners or in casual groups, rather than in organised covens. Thus eclectic Wicca shares some of the basic religious principles, ethics and the ritual system of traditional, lineaged Wicca, but not the organisational structure, or the belief that Wiccan initiation requires a transferral of power from an initiator. Therefore, some lineaged Wiccans have adopted the term 'British Traditional Wicca' to differentiate themselves from this movement.
Within traditional forms of Wicca there are three degrees of initiation. First degree is required to become a witch and gain membership of a coven; those who aspire to teach may eventually undergo second and third degree initiations, conferring the title of "High Priest" or "High Priestess" and allowing them to establish new covens.
At initiation, some Wiccans adopt a Craft name to symbolise their spiritual "rebirth", to act as a magical alter-ego, or simply to provide anonymity when appearing as a witch in public.
The history of Wicca is much debated. 'Gardner claimed that the religion was a survival of matriarchal Pagan religions of pre-historic Europe, taught to him by members of the New Forest Coven; their rites were fragmentary, and he had substantially rewritten them. It has been posited by authors such as Aidan Kelly and Francis X. King that Gardner invented the rites in their entirety, incorporating elements from the thesis of Dr. Margaret Murray, incantations from Aradia and practices of ceremonial magic.
Heselton concludes that while Gardner may have been mistaken about the ancient origins of the religion, his statements about it were largely made in good faith. Gardner's account is as follows: After retiring from adventuring around the globe, Gardner encountered the New Forest coven. Subsequently fearing that the Craft would die out, he worked on his book Witchcraft Today, releasing it in 1954, followed by The Meaning of Witchcraft in 1959. It is from these books that much of modern Wicca is derived.
Much of Gardner's rites and precepts can be shown to have come from the writings of earlier occultists and other extant sources, and the remaining original material is uncohesive and mostly takes the form of substitutions or expansions within unoriginal material. Roger Dearnaley describes it as a patchwork
Some, such as Isaac Bonewits, have argued that Valiente and Heselton's evidence points to an early 20th century revival pre-dating Gardner, rather than an intact old Pagan religion. This argument points to some of Gardner's historical claims which agree with the scholarship of that period but contradict later scholarship. Bonewits writes, "Somewhere between 1920 and 1925 in England some folklorists appear to have gotten together with some Golden Dawn Rosicrucians and a few supposed Fam-Trads to produce the first modern covens in England; grabbing eclectically from any source they could find in order to try and reconstruct the shards of their Pagan past."
The idea of a supreme Mother Goddess was common in Victorian and Edwardian literature: the concept of a Horned God — especially related to the gods Pan or Faunus — was less common, but still significant Both of these ideas were widely accepted in academic literature and the popular press at the time.
Gardnerian Wicca was an initiatory mystery religion, admission to which was limited to those who were initiated into a pre-existing coven. Wicca was introduced to North America by Raymond Buckland, an expatriate Briton who visited Gardner's Isle of Man coven to gain initiation. Interest in the USA spread quickly, and while many were initiated, many more non-initiates compiled their own rituals based on published sources or their own fancy.
Another significant development was the creation by feminists in the late sixties and seventies of an eclectic movement known as Dianic Wicca, or feminist Dianic Witchcraft. Dianic Wicca has no connection of lineage to traditional Wicca, and creatively interprets published materials on Wicca as a basis for their ritual structure. This specifically feminist, Goddess-oriented faith had no interest in the Horned God, and discarded Gardnerian-style hierarchy and lineage as irrelevant. Rituals were created for self-initiation to allow people to identify with and join the religion without first contacting an existing coven. This contrasts with the Gardnerian belief that only a witch of opposite gender can initiate another witch.
In the United Kingdom, initiates of Gardner had begun to perform their own initiations, and a number of lines of Gardnerian descent began to arise. From one of these (although it was originally claimed to derive from a traditional, non-Gardnerian source) came the line known as Alexandrian Wicca. Increasing popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, and in other countries, along with the increasing availability of published material, meant that many people started to practice a form of Wicca without being part of a coven or having participated in an initiation. In response to this, traditionally initiated Wiccans in North America began to describe their version as British Traditional Wicca.
The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey estimated that at least 134,000 adults identified themselves as Wiccans in the United States, compared to 8,000 in 1990. This works out to a doubling of numbers every thirty months.
The term Wica first appears in the writings of Gerald Gardner (Witchcraft Today, 1954, and The Meaning of 'Witchcraft, 1959). He used the word as a mass noun referring to the adherents of his tradition of witchcraft ('the Wica'), rather than the religion itself. The religion he referred to as witchcraft, never Wica. The word seems to be based on the Old English word wicca (pronounced /w?t??/), which meant "wise". Old English wicca and its feminine wicce are the predecessors of the modern English witch.
In 1921 etymologist Ernest Weekley noted the possibility of a connection to the Gothic weihs ("holy") and the Germanic weihan ("to consecrate"), and reasons the connection is likely because "…the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents…."
Gardner himself claimed he learned the term from existing members of the group who initiated him into witchcraft in 1939: "I realised I had stumbled on something interesting; but I was half-initiated before the word Wica which they used hit me like a thunderbolt, and I knew where I was, and that the Old Religion still existed."
The spelling Wicca was not used by Gardner and is first attested 1969. The term Wiccan (both an adjective and a noun) was not used until much later, but is now the prevalent term to refer to followers of Wicca.
According to the traditional history of Wicca as given by Gerald Gardner, Wicca is a survival of the European witch-cult that was persecuted during the witch trials (sometimes called the Burning Times). Since then theories of an organised pan-European witch-cult have been discredited, but it is still common for Wiccans to feel solidarity with the victims of the witch trials.
In modern times, Wiccans have been associated with black magic and Satanism, especially in connection with Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria; however, Wiccans deny any association with either of these. Because of the popular negative connotations associated with witchcraft, many Wiccans continue the traditional practice of secrecy, concealing their faith for fear of persecution. Revealing oneself as Wiccan to family, friends or colleagues is often termed "coming out of the broom-closet".
In the United States, a number of legal decisions have improved and validated the status of Wiccans in that country, especially Dettmer v. Landon in 1985. However, there is still hostility from some politicians and Christian organisations, and many Wiccans feel it necessary to conceal their faith.
COMMENTS
-