Editing Marie Antoinette (section)

==French Revolution before Varennes (1789–1791)==
The situation escalated on 20 June as the Third Estate, which had been joined by several members of the clergy and radical nobility, found the door to its appointed meeting place closed by order of the king.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Doyle|first=William|title=The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford University Press|year=1990|pages=100–105}}</ref> It thus met at the tennis court in Versailles and took the [[Tennis Court Oath]] not to separate before it had given a constitution to the nation. On 11 July at Marie Antoinette's urging, Necker was dismissed and replaced by Breteuil, the queen's choice to crush the revolution with mercenary Swiss troops under the command of one of her favourites, [[Pierre Victor, baron de Besenval de Brünstatt|Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brünstatt]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=280–85}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Morris|1939|pp=130–35}}</ref> At the news, Paris was besieged by riots that culminated in the [[storming of the Bastille]] on 14 July.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=282–84}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=474–478}} On 15 July [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette]] was named commander-in-chief of the newly formed [[National Guard (France)|National Guard]].<ref name="Fraser 2001 284–289">{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=284–89}}</ref><ref name="Browning1885">{{cite book |title=Despatches of Earl Gower |editor-first1=Oscar |editor-last1=Browning |location=Cambridge |publisher =Cambridge University Press|date=1885 |pages=70–75, 245–50}}</ref>

[[File:Anonymous - Prise de la Bastille.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[Storming of the Bastille]] in Paris, and the arrest of its Governor [[Bernard-René de Launay]], 14 July 1789]]

In the days following the storming of the Bastille, for fear of assassination and ordered by the king, the [[French emigration (1789–1815)|emigration of members of the high aristocracy]] began on 17 July with the departure of the [[Charles X of France|Count of Artois]], the [[Princes of Condé|Condés]], cousins of the King,<ref>''Journal d'émigration du prince de Condé. 1789–1795'', publié par le comte de Ribes, Bibliothèque nationale de France. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6530679p/f28.image] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307191951/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6530679p/f28.image|date=7 March 2016}}</ref> and the unpopular Polignacs. Marie Antoinette, whose life was as much in danger, remained with the king, whose power was gradually being taken away by the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Constituent Assembly]].<ref name="Fraser 2001 284–289"/><ref>Castelot, ''Charles X'', Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris, 1988, pp. 78–79</ref><ref name="Browning1885" />

The [[Abolition of feudalism in France|abolition of feudal privileges]] by the National Constituent Assembly on 4 August 1789 and the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] (''La Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen''), drafted by Lafayette with the help of [[Thomas Jefferson]] and adopted on 26 August, paved the way to a [[Kingdom of France (1791–92)|Constitutional Monarchy]] (4 September 1791 – 21 September 1792).<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|p=289}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=484–485}} Despite these dramatic changes, life at the court continued, while the situation in Paris was becoming critical because of bread shortages in September. On 5 October a [[Women's March on Versailles|crowd from Paris descended upon Versailles]] and forced the royal family to move to the [[Tuileries Palace]] in Paris, where they lived under a form of house arrest under the watch of Lafayette's National Guard, while the [[Louis XVIII|Count of Provence]] and [[Marie Joséphine of Savoy|his wife]] were allowed to reside in the [[Petit Luxembourg]], where they remained until they went into exile on 20 June 1791.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/presidence1.html|title=dossiers d'histoire – Le Palais du Luxembourg – Sénat|website=senat.fr|access-date=18 October 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093643/http://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/presidence1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Marie Antoinette continued to perform charitable functions and attend religious ceremonies, but she dedicated most of her time to her children.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=304–08}}</ref> She also played an important political, albeit not public, role between 1789 and 1791 when she had a complex set of relationships with several key actors of the early period of the French Revolution. One of the most important was Prime Minister of Finances Necker.<ref>''Discours prononcé par M. Necker, Premier Ministre des Finances, à l'Assemblée Nationale, le 24. Septembre 1789''.[https://books.google.com/books?id=OSh8riUvV_UC&dq=necker+premier+ministre+des+finances&pg=PP1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203145325/https://books.google.fr/books?id=OSh8riUvV_UC&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&dq=necker+premier+ministre+des+finances&source=bl&ots=j1FO3K8sSy&sig=deQBeYTngT_4IybHN8BCis-xEIA&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwA2oVChMI8JShrtiSxwIVxVUUCh1I_wCi#v=onepage&q=necker%20premier%20ministre%20des%20finances&f=false|date=3 December 2022}}</ref> She blamed him for his support of the revolution and did not regret his resignation in 1790.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|p=315}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=536–537}}

Lafayette served as the warden of the royal family. Despite his dislike of the queen—he detested her as much as she detested him and at one time had even threatened to send her to a convent—he was persuaded by [[Mayor of Paris]] [[Jean Sylvain Bailly]] to work and collaborate with her, and allowed her to see Fersen a number of times. He even went as far as exiling the Duke of Orléans, who was accused by the queen of fomenting trouble. His relationship with the king was more cordial. As a liberal aristocrat, he did not want the fall of the monarchy but rather the establishment of a liberal one, similar to that of [[History of the United Kingdom|Great Britain]], based on cooperation between the king and the people, as was to be defined in the [[French Constitution of 1791|Constitution of 1791]]. Despite her attempts to remain out of the public eye, Marie Antoinette was falsely accused in the ''libelles'' of having an affair with Lafayette.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|p=319}}</ref> Publication of such calumnies continued to the end, climaxing at her trial with an accusation of incest with her son. There is no evidence to support the accusations.

===Mirabeau===
A significant achievement of Marie Antoinette in that period was the establishment of an alliance with [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau]], the most important lawmaker in the assembly. Like Lafayette, Mirabeau was a liberal aristocrat. He had joined the Third Estate and was not against the monarchy but wanted to reconcile it with the revolution. He also wanted to be a minister and was not immune to corruption. On the advice of Mercy, Marie Antoinette opened secret negotiations with him and both agreed to meet privately at the [[Château de Saint-Cloud]] on 3 July 1790, where the royal family was allowed to spend the summer, free of the radical elements who watched their every move in Paris.{{sfnm|Castelot|1962|1p=334|Lever|1991|2pp=528–530}} At the meeting, Mirabeau was much impressed by the queen and remarked in a letter to [[Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg]], [[Comte de la Marck]], that she was the only person the king had by him: ''La Reine est le seul homme que le Roi ait auprès de Lui.''<ref>''Mémoires de Mirabeau'', tome VII, p. 342.</ref> An agreement was reached turning Mirabeau into one of her political allies: Marie Antoinette promised to pay him 6000 livres per month and one million livres if he succeeded in his mission to restore the king's authority.{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=524–527}}

The only time the royal couple returned to Paris in that period was on 14 July to attend the ''[[Fête de la Fédération]]'', an official ceremony held at the [[Champ de Mars]] in commemoration of the fall of the Bastille one year earlier. At least 300,000 persons participated from all over France, including 18,000 National Guards, with [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], bishop of [[Autun]], celebrating a mass at the ''autel de la Patrie'' ("altar of the fatherland"). The king was greeted at the event with loud cheers of "Long live the King!", especially when he took the oath to protect the nation and to enforce the laws voted by the Constitutional Assembly. There were even cheers for the queen, particularly when she presented Louis Joseph to the public.{{sfnm|Fraser|2001|1pp=314–316|Castelot|1962|2p=335}}

Mirabeau sincerely wanted to reconcile the queen with the people, and she was happy to see him restoring much of the king's powers, such as his authority over foreign policy and the right to declare war. Over the objections of Lafayette and his allies, the king was given a suspensive veto allowing him to veto any laws for a period of four years. With time, Mirabeau would support the queen, even more, going as far as to suggest that Louis XVI "adjourn" to [[Rouen]] or [[Chateau de Compiègne|Compiègne]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|p=313}}</ref> This leverage with the Assembly ended with the death of Mirabeau in April 1791, despite the attempt of several moderate leaders of the revolution to contact the queen to establish some basis of cooperation with her.

===Civil Constitution of the Clergy===
In March 1791 [[Pope Pius VI]] had condemned the [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy]], reluctantly signed by Louis XVI, which reduced the number of bishops from 132 to 93, imposed the election of bishops and all members of the clergy by departmental or district assemblies of electors, and reduced the pope's authority over the Church. Religion played important roles in the lives of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, both raised in the Roman Catholic faith. The queen's political ideas and her belief in the absolute power of monarchs were based on France's long-established tradition of the [[divine right of kings]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zevin |first=Alexander |date=Spring 2007 |title=Marie Antoinette and The Ghosts of the French Revolution |journal=Cineaste |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=32–34 |via=Academic Search Ultimate}}</ref>

On 18 April, as the royal family prepared to leave for Saint-Cloud to attend Easter mass celebrated by a refractory priest, a crowd, soon joined by the National Guard (disobeying Lafayette's orders), prevented their departure from Paris, prompting Marie Antoinette to declare to Lafayette that she and her family were no longer free. This incident fortified her in her determination to leave Paris for personal and political reasons, not alone, but with her family. Even the king, who had been hesitant, accepted his wife's decision to flee with the help of foreign powers and counter-revolutionary forces.{{sfnm|Fraser|2001|1pp=321–323|Lever|1991|2pp=542–552|Castelot|1962|3pp=336–339}} Fersen and Breteuil, who represented her in the courts of Europe, were put in charge of the escape plan while Marie Antoinette continued her negotiations with some of the moderate leaders of the French Revolution.{{sfnm|Fraser|2001|1pp=321–325|Castelot|1962|2pp=340–341}}