Editing Marie Antoinette (section)

==Trial and execution (14–16 October 1793)==
[[File:Jacques-Louis David - Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine. Pen and ink by [[Jacques-Louis David]], 16 October 1793]]
[[File:Exécution de Marie Antoinette le 16 octobre 1793.jpg|thumb|upright=1.65|Marie Antoinette's execution by [[guillotine]] on 16 October 1793: at left, Sanson, the executioner, showing Marie Antoinette's head to the people. Anonymous, 1793]]
Marie Antoinette was tried by the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] on 14 October 1793. Some historians believe the outcome of the trial had been decided in advance by the [[Committee of Public Safety]] around the time the [[Carnation Plot]] was uncovered.{{sfn|Castelot|1962|pp=496–500}} She and her lawyers were given less than one day to prepare her defense. Among the accusations, many previously published in the ''libelles'', were: orchestrating orgies in Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, planning the massacre of the National Guards in 1792,<ref>''Procès de Louis XVI, de Marie-Antoinette, de Marie-Elisabeth et de Philippe d'Orléans'', Recueil de pièces authentiques, Années 1792, 1793 et 1794, De Mat, imprimeur-libraire, Bruxelles, 1821, p. 473</ref> declaring her son to be the new king of France, and incest—a charge made by her son Louis-Charles, pressured into doing so by the radical [[Jacques Hébert]] who controlled him.

This last accusation drew an emotional response from Marie Antoinette, who refused to respond to this charge, instead appealing to all mothers present in the room. Their reaction comforted her since these women were not otherwise sympathetic to her.{{sfnm|Castelot|1957|1pp=380–385|Fraser|2001|2pp=429–435}} Upon being pressed further by a juror to address the accusations of incest, the queen replied, "If I did not respond, it was because it would be against nature for a mother to reply to such an accusation. On this I appeal to all mothers who may be here." When a juror, [[Joachim Vilate]], told Robespierre of this over dinner, Robespierre broke his plate in anger, declaring "That imbecile Hébert!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Hardman|first=John|title=Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2019|page=304}}</ref>

Early on 16 October, Marie Antoinette was declared guilty of the three main charges against her: depletion of the national treasury, conspiracy against the internal and external security of the state, and [[high treason]] because of her intelligence activities in the interest of the enemy; the latter charge alone was enough to condemn her to death.<ref>''Le procès de Marie-Antoinette'', Ministère de la Justice, 17 October 2011, (French) [http://www.justice.gouv.fr/histoire-et-patrimoine-10050/proces-historiques-10411/le-proces-de-marie-antoinette-22697.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921132933/http://www.justice.gouv.fr/histoire-et-patrimoine-10050/proces-historiques-10411/le-proces-de-marie-antoinette-22697.html|date=21 September 2015}}</ref> At worst, she and her lawyers had expected life imprisonment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Furneaux|1971|pp=150–54}}</ref> In the hours left to her, she composed a letter to her sister-in-law [[Élisabeth of France|Madame Élisabeth]], affirming her clear conscience, her Catholic faith, and her love and concern for her children. The letter did not reach Élisabeth.<ref>{{citation |author=Elena Maria Vidal |author-link=Elena Maria Vidal |url=http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2007/05/last-letter-of-marie-antoinette.html |title=Last Letter of Marie-Antoinette |date=26 May 2007 |work=Tea at Trianon}}</ref> Her will was part of the collection of papers of Robespierre found under his bed and was published by [[Edme-Bonaventure Courtois]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zwx_FBzaUxEC&q=Courtois&pg=PA101|title=Papiers inédits trouvés chez Robespierre, Saint-Just, Payan, etc. supprimés ou omis par Courtois...|first1=Edme-Bonaventure|last1=Courtois|first2=Maximilien de|last2=Robespierre|date=31 January 2019|publisher=Baudoin|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Documents intéressant E.B. Courtois. In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 55e Année, No. 254 (Octobre–Décembre 1983), pp. 624–28|journal=Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française|volume=55|issue=254|pages=624–35|jstor = 41915129|last1 = Chevrier|first1 = M. -R|last2=Alexandre|first2=J.|last3=Laux|first3=Christian|last4=Godechot|first4=Jacques|last5=Ducoudray|first5=Emile|year=1983}}</ref>

Preparing for her execution, she had to change clothes in front of her guards. She wanted to wear a black dress but was forced to wear a plain white dress, white being the colour worn by widowed queens of France. Her hair was shorn, her hands bound painfully behind her back and she was put on a rope leash. Unlike her husband, who had been taken to his execution in a carriage (''carrosse''), she had to sit in an open cart (''charrette'') for the hour it took to convey her from the Conciergerie via the [[rue Saint-Honoré]] thoroughfare to reach the guillotine erected in the Place de la Révolution, the present-day [[Place de la Concorde]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Furneaux|1971|pp=155–56|}}</ref> She maintained her composure, despite the insults of the jeering crowd. A [[Civil Constitution of the Clergy|constitutional]] priest was assigned to hear her final confession. He sat by her in the cart, but she ignored him all the way to the scaffold as he had pledged his allegiance to the republic.{{sfnm|Castelot|1957|1pp=550–558|Lever|1991|2p=660}}

Marie Antoinette was executed by beheading by guillotine at 12:15 pm on 16 October.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|p=440}}</ref><ref>[http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1793-10-23-03-001&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1793-10-23-03&pageId=undefined The Times 23 October 1793] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101184818/http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/viewArticle.arc?articleId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1793-10-23-03-001&pageId=ARCHIVE-The_Times-1793-10-23-03&pageId=undefined |date=1 November 2009 }}, ''[[The Times]]''.</ref> Her last words are recorded as, "Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès" or "Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose", after accidentally stepping on her executioner's shoe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/oliver-miller/2012/05/famous-last-words-2/|title=Famous Last Words|date=23 May 2012}}</ref> [[Marie Tussaud]] was employed to make a [[death mask]] of her head.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Marie_Tussaud.aspx|title=Marie Tussaud|website=encyclopedia.com|access-date=28 March 2016}}</ref> Her body was thrown into an [[unmarked grave]] in the [[Madeleine cemetery]], located close by in rue d'Anjou. Because its capacity was exhausted, the cemetery was closed the following year, on 25 March 1794.<ref>Ragon, Michel, ''L'espace de la mort, Essai sur l'architecture, la décoration et l'urbanisme funéraires'', Michel Albin, Paris, 1981, {{ISBN|978-2-226-22871-0}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=a9ZY3Kv0jtYC&dq=cimeti%C3%A8re+de+la+madeleine+ferm%C3%A9+en+1794&pg=PT125] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203145327/https://books.google.fr/books?id=a9ZY3Kv0jtYC&pg=PT125&lpg=PT125&dq=cimeti%C3%A8re+de+la+madeleine+ferm%C3%A9+en+1794&source=bl&ots=U55hqYOABk&sig=A-0nSU6aAWpd__C0Cu9pFaSQGlA&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAmoVChMIvcHKqZ7dyAIVg1YaCh2zww8Z#v=onepage&q=cimeti%C3%A8re%20de%20la%20madeleine%20ferm%C3%A9%20en%201794&f=false|date=3 December 2022}}</ref>

===Foreign response===
After her execution, Marie Antoinette became a symbol abroad and a controversial figure of the French Revolution. Some used her as a scapegoat to blame for the events of the revolution. [[Thomas Jefferson]], writing in 1821, claimed that "Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of her clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the Guillotine," adding "I have ever believed that, had there been no Queen, there would have been no revolution."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bartleby.com/400/prose/471.html |title=Passages from his autobiography |date=1854 |language=en |publisher=[[bartleby]] |access-date=17 May 2021}}</ref>

[[File:Chapelle Expiatoire 3, Paris 2010.jpg|thumb|''Marie Antoinette supported by Religion'' at the [[Chapelle expiatoire]], the chapel constructed on the grounds where she was initially buried]]

In [[Edmund Burke]]'s 1790 treatise ''[[Reflections on the Revolution in France]]'', which was written during Marie Antoinette's imprisonment in Paris but prior to her execution, he laments "the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever" and "Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex."<ref>{{cite book |last=Burke|first=Edmund|year=1790 |title= Reflections on the Revolution in France, And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris |edition= 1|publisher= J.Dodsley in Pall Mall |publication-date=1790 |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/reflections00burkuoft/page/n119/mode/2up |access-date=7 September 2021}}</ref> After receiving the news, [[Maria Carolina of Austria|Maria Carolina]], Queen of Naples and close sister to Marie Antoinette, spiraled into a state of mourning and an anger against the revolutionaries. She quickly suspended protections of reformers and intellectuals in Naples, allowed Neapolitan bishops wide latitude to halt the secularization of the country, and offered succor to the overflowing number of ''[[French emigration (1789–1815)|émigrés]]'' fleeing from revolutionary France, many of whom were granted pensions.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/maria-carolina-1752-1814#:~:text=On%20October%2015%2C%201767%2C%20the,journey%20to%20Italy%2C%20Josepha%20died.&text=Maria%20Carolina%20cried%20and%20entreated,Neapolitan%20match%20must%20be%20cursed |title=Maria Carolina (1752–1814) |date= 2019 |language=en |publisher=[[Cengage]] |access-date=17 May 2021}}</ref>

===Bourbon Restoration===
Both Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVI's bodies were exhumed on 18 January 1815, during the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], when the Count of Provence ascended the newly reestablished throne as [[Louis XVIII]], King of France and of [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]]. Christian burial of the royal remains took place three days later, on 21 January, in the necropolis of French kings at the [[Basilica of Saint-Denis]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=411, 447}}</ref>