The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France

THE LIFE OF MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE.

BY CHARLES DUKE YONGE

1876

PREFACE.

The principal authorities for the following work are the four volumes ofCorrespondence published by M. Arneth, and the six volumes published by M. Feuillet de Conches. M. Arneth’s two collections[1] contain not only anumber of letters which passed between the queen, her mother the Empress-queen (Maria Teresa), and her brothers Joseph and Leopold, whosuccessively became emperors after the death of their father; but also aregular series of letters from the imperial embassador at Paris, the CountMercy d’Argenteau, which may almost be said to form a complete history ofthe court of France, especially in all the transactions in which MarieAntoinette, whether as dauphiness or queen, was concerned, till the deathof Maria Teresa, at Christmas, 1780. The correspondence with her twobrothers, the emperors Joseph and Leopold, only ceases with the death ofthe latter in March, 1792.

The collection published by M. Feuillet de Conches[2] has been vehementlyattacked, as containing a series of clever forgeries rather than ofgenuine letters. And there does seem reason to believe that in a fewinstances, chiefly in the earlier portion of the correspondence, thecritical acuteness of the editor was imposed upon, and that some of theletters inserted were not written by the persons alleged to be theauthors. But of the majority of the letters there seems no solid groundfor questioning the authenticity. Indeed, in the later and more importantportion of the correspondence, that which belongs to the period after thedeath of the Empress-queen, the genuineness of the Queen’s letters iscontinually supported by the collection of M. Arneth, who has himselfpublished many of them, having found them in the archives at Vienna, whereM. F. De Conches had previously copied them, [3] and who refers to others, the publication of which did not come within his own plan. M. Feuillet deConches’ work also contains narratives of some of the most importanttransactions after the commencement of the Revolution, which are of greatvalue, as having been compiled from authentic sources.

Besides these collections, the author has consulted the lives of MarieAntoinette by Montjoye, Lafont d’Aussonne, Chambrier, and the MM. Goncourt; “La Vraie Marie Antoinette” of M. Lescure; the Memoirs of Mme. Campan, Cl�ry, Hue, the Duchesse d’Angoul�me, Bertrand de Moleville(“M�moires Particuliers”), the Comte de Tilly, the Baron de Besenval, theMarquis de la Fayette, the Marquise de Cr�quy, the Princess Lamballe; the”Souvenirs de Quarante Ans, ” by Mlle. De Tourzel; the “Diary” of M. DeViel Castel; the correspondence of Mme. Du Deffand; the account of theaffair of the necklace by M. De Campardon; the very valuablecorrespondence between the Count de la Marck and Mirabeau, which alsocontains a narrative by the Count de la Marck of many very importantincidents; Dumont’s “Souvenirs sur Mirabeau;” “Beaumarchais et son Temps, “by M. De Lom�nie; “Gustavus III. Et la Cour de Paris, ” by M. Geoffroy;the first seven volumes of the Histoire de la Terreur, by M. MortimerTernaux; Dr. Moore’s journal of his visit to France, and view of theFrench Revolution; and a great number of other works in which there iscursory mention of different incidents, especially in the earlier part ofthe Revolution; such as the journals of Arthur Young, Madame de Sta�l’selaborate treatise on the Revolution; several articles in the last seriesof the “Causeries de Lundi, ” by Sainte-Beuve, and others in the _Revue desDeux Mondes_, etc. , etc. , and to those may of course be added the regularhistories of Lacretelle, Sismondi, Martin, and Lamartine’s “History of theGirondins. “