Marie Antoinette’s life by the eyes of her chambermaid | EUROtoday

In May 1770, when she was not even 15 years previous, Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, was married to the inheritor to the French throne (Dauphin), the longer term Louis XVI. She had to surrender what linked her along with her homeland and settle into circumstances that have been sophisticated, overseas – the court docket in Versailles adopted fully totally different maxims than these in Vienna – suspicious, even resentful. And then the connection between the couple was dangerous. Marie Antoinette didn’t appear to arouse the Dauphin’s erotic curiosity; she was unable to get pregnant, one thing that was blamed on her in France, but in addition in Vienna. Her mom reproached her for missing the zeal for seduction, however the issue was most likely phimosis on the a part of her husband, which was solely resolved years after the wedding.

In any case, Marie Antoinette suffered from the state of affairs. She needed kids, and never only for political or so to talk skilled causes, to stabilize the dynasty. She appears to have longed for youngsters, and doubtless as a result of this want didn’t come true for eight years, she felt her life was empty. When her mom as soon as once more complained about her daughter’s wastefulness and lack of seriousness, she had the well-known response: “What does she want? I’m afraid of getting bored.”

This is the picture that Marie Antoinette left for posterity, and it’s most likely not completely improper. In the memoirs that Henriette Campan, the dauphine’s chambermaid and queen, started writing eleven years after her dying beneath the guillotine, it’s stated: “With the exception of the king, this entire youthful family indulged only in pleasure.” And Campan describes her mistress with sympathy, emphasizing her magnificence, grace and, above all, good-heartedness.

Your ebook has not been obtainable in German for many years, however now Hans Pleschinski has re-translated it (with minor cuts) and commented on it. The Memoirs of Henriette Campan is a broadly used ebook; all depictions of the revolution and the unlucky queen, together with the most important movie diversifications, have been evaluated, a lot of it’s not unknown. And but you need to hear the tone of the contemporaries.

France is taken into account the primary energy in Europe within the eighteenth century; A princess can not obtain greater than marrying the inheritor to the throne. And but, in some ways, Versailles is a poor world. Despite all of the waste, sources are sometimes scarce, even for the training of Louis XV’s daughters. Savings have been made; on the age of twelve, Madame Louise “had not yet learned the entire alphabet”. Her father cherished the tough tone; he referred to his daughter as “the fat pig” to servants.

The etiquette, based on Campan, corresponded to its formation beneath Louis XIV, “only dignity was missing”, piety in addition to cheerfulness. Rounds, “where one saw spirit and grace unfold, one no longer needed to look for in Versailles”. Benjamin Franklin, the primary US ambassador to France, as a naturalist (he invented the lightning rod) and apostle of freedom, impressed “the lively spirit of the French women.” A medallion from Sèvres confirmed his head and the motto “Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis”: “From heaven he snatched lightning, from tyrants the scepter.” Louis XVI felt provoked, he had a chamber pot made in Sèvres with the medallion depicted on the underside and despatched it as a New Year’s reward to an admirer of Franklin.

The most fascinating factor about Henriette Campan’s reminiscences are the descriptions of life at court docket. Everything is public, every part is thought. “If a courtier sees what is given to another, he thinks it has been taken from him.” It could be the identical in different milieus, however the court docket is the one place for the the Aristocracy to make their fortune; there is no such thing as a various. In this coolness and careerism, Marie Antoinette longed for “tender friendship,” however what probability might this sense have between the queen and a topic, “where the traps of the courtiers threaten all around”?

Where conventional ceremonies are not perceived as an expression of greatness and obligation, such non secular wants enhance. Versailles had grow to be an unpopular place for the royal household. “You only felt at home in simple surroundings, beautified by English gardens.” But the court docket equipment continues to rattle, the variety of those that reside from it’s too giant, from the financial system of the Paris space to the the Aristocracy to the servants, who’re entitled to the wealthy stays of the desk, the hardly used clothes of their highnesses, the candles that have been solely burned for a short while – as a result of rooms that the king entered have been lit by freshly lit candles.

From her personal perspective, Henriette Campan solely studies on the primary part of the revolution, for which, as a royalist, she has little understanding. But as a commoner, she complains concerning the fixed neglect of succesful folks from her class. Marie Antoinette exhibits her in her time of want as a courageous and insightful lady who acknowledges how every part favors the reason for the revolution, the “obsessed innovators” in fact, but in addition the weak spot of the king, the celebration of émigrés with their intrigues, the unreasonable overseas powers – and he or she herself, sad as a result of, based on Campan’s personal verdict in his story, she is “to blame for their misfortune”.

Henriette Campan survived the revolution and opened a prestigious women’ boarding college in 1794, the place Napoleon housed his youthful sisters. He later based an institute for the daughters of fallen officers, appointed Campan as its director and gave her the duty: “Educate believers and not rationalists.” In 1815 she misplaced the put up and needed to retreat to the countryside. She died in 1822.

“The brief and lavish happiness of Queen Marie Antoinette”. The notes of her chambermaid Henriette Campan. Edited and translated from French by Hans Pleschinski. CH Beck Verlag, Munich 2025. 348 pages, illustrations, hardcover, €26.