Editing Marie Antoinette (section)

===Prelude to the Revolution: scandals and the failure of reforms (1786–1789)===
====Diamond necklace scandal====
[[File:Collier_reine_Breteuil.jpg|thumb|274x274px|A reconstruction of the diamond necklace in the [[Château de Breteuil]], in France]]
Marie Antoinette began to abandon her more carefree activities to become increasingly involved in politics in her role as queen of France.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=248–52}}</ref> By publicly showing her attention to the education and care of her children, the queen sought to improve the dissolute image she had acquired in 1785 from the "[[Affair of the Diamond Necklace|Diamond Necklace Affair]]", in which public opinion had falsely accused her of criminal participation in defrauding jewelers of the price of an expensive diamond necklace they had originally created for Madame du Barry.

The main actors in the scandal were [[Louis-René de Rohan|Cardinal de Rohan]], [[Henri Louis, Prince of Guéméné|Prince de Rohan-Guéméné]], and [[Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy]], Countess de La Motte. Marie Antoinette had profoundly disliked Rohan since the time he had been the French ambassador to Vienna when she was a child. Despite his high clerical position at the Court, she never addressed a word to him. Others involved were [[Nicole Le Guay d'Oliva|Nicole Lequay]], alias ''Baronne d'Oliva'', a prostitute who happened to look like Marie Antoinette; [[Rétaux de Villette]], a forger; [[Alessandro Cagliostro]], an Italian adventurer; and the Count de La Motte, Jeanne de Valois' husband. Madame de La Motte tricked Rohan into buying the necklace as a gift to Marie Antoinette, for him to gain the queen's favour.

When the affair was discovered, those involved were arrested, tried, convicted, and either imprisoned or exiled—except Count de La Motte and Rétaux de Villette, who both managed to flee. Madame de La Motte was sentenced for life to confinement in the [[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital]], which also served as a prison for women. Judged by the [[Parlement of Paris]], Rohan was found not guilty and allowed to leave the [[Bastille]]. Marie Antoinette, who had insisted on the arrest of the cardinal, was dealt a heavy personal blow, as was the monarchy, and despite the fact that the guilty parties were tried and convicted, the affair proved to be extremely damaging to her reputation, which never recovered from it.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

====Failure of political and financial reforms====
Suffering from an acute case of depression, the king began to seek the advice of his wife. In her new role and with increasing political power, the queen tried to improve the awkward situation brewing between the Parlement and the king.<ref name="Fraser248-250"/> This change of the queen's position signaled the end of the Polignacs' influence and their impact on the finances of the Crown.

Continuing deterioration of the financial situation despite cutbacks to the royal retinue and court expenses ultimately forced the king, the queen and the Controller-General of Finances [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]]—at the urging of Vergennes—to call a session of the [[Assembly of Notables]] after a hiatus of 160 years. The Assembly was held for the purpose of initiating necessary financial reforms, but the Assembly refused to cooperate. The first meeting took place on 22 February 1787, nine days after the death of Vergennes on 13 February. Marie Antoinette did not attend the meeting, and her absence resulted in accusations that the queen was trying to undermine its purpose.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=246–48}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=419–420}} The Assembly was a failure; it did not pass any reforms and instead fell into a pattern of defying the king. On the urging of the queen, Louis dismissed Calonne on 8 April.<ref name="Fraser248-250">{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=248–50}}</ref>

On 1 May [[Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne]], [[Archbishop of Toulouse]] and one of the queen's political allies, was appointed by the king at her urging to replace Calonne, first as controller-general of finances and then as [[Chief minister of France|chief minister]]. He began to institute more cutbacks at court while trying to restore the royal absolute power weakened by the Parlement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=250–60}}</ref> Brienne was unable to improve the financial situation, and since he was the queen's ally, this failure adversely affected her political position. The continued poor financial climate of the country resulted in the 25 May dissolution of the Assembly of Notables because of its inability to function, and the lack of solutions was blamed on the queen.<ref name="Fraser 2001 218–20"/>

France's financial problems were the result of a combination of factors: several expensive wars; a large royal family whose expenditures were paid for by the state; and an unwillingness on the part of most members of the privileged classes, aristocracy, and clergy, to help defray the costs of the government out of their own pockets by relinquishing some of their financial privileges. As a result of the public perception that she had single-handedly ruined the national finances, Marie Antoinette was given the nickname of "Madame Déficit" in the summer of 1787.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=254–55}}</ref> While the sole fault for the financial crisis did not lie with her, Marie Antoinette was the biggest obstacle to any major reform effort. She had played a decisive role in the disgrace of the reformer ministers of finance, [[Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot]] (in 1776), and [[Jacques Necker]] (first dismissal in 1781). If the secret expenses of the queen were taken into account, court expenses were much higher than the official estimate of 7% of the state budget.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=254–60}}</ref>

[[File:Marie Antoinette and her Children by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|This State Portrait of Marie Antoinette and her three surviving children, Marie Thérèse, Louis Charles (on her lap) and Louis Joseph holding up the drape of an empty bassinet signifying the recent death of Marie's fourth child Sophie was meant to improve her reputation by depicting her as a mother in simple, yet stately attire, by [[Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun]], 1787.]]

The queen attempted to fight back with propaganda portraying her as a caring mother, most notably in the painting by [[Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun]] exhibited at the [[Paris Salon|''Royal Académie Salon de Paris'']] in August 1787, showing her with her children.<ref>Facos, p. 12.</ref><ref>Schama, p. 221.</ref> Around the same time, Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy escaped from prison and fled to London where she published damaging slander concerning her supposed amorous affair with the queen.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=255–58}}</ref>

The political situation in 1787 worsened when, at Marie Antoinette's urging, the ''[[Parlement of Paris]]'' was exiled to [[Troyes]] on 15 August. It further deteriorated when Louis tried to use a ''[[lit de justice]]'' on 11 November to impose legislation. The new [[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Duke of Orléans]] publicly protested the king's actions and was subsequently exiled to his [[Château de Villers-Cotterêts]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=257–58}}</ref> The May Edicts issued on 8 May 1788 were also opposed by the public and parlement. On 8 August Louis announced his intention to bring back the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]], the traditional elected legislature of the country, which had not been convened since 1614.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=258–59}}</ref>

While from late 1787 up to his death in June 1789, Marie Antoinette's primary concern was the continued deterioration of the health of Louis Joseph, who suffered from [[tuberculosis]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=260–61}}</ref> she was directly involved in the exile of the ''Parlement'', the May Edicts, and the announcement regarding the Estates General. She participated in the [[Conseil du Roi|King Council]], the first queen to do so in over 175 years (since [[Marie de' Medici]] had been named ''Chef du Conseil du Roi'', between 1614 and 1617), and she was making the major decisions behind the scene and in the Royal Council.

Marie Antoinette was instrumental in the reinstatement of Necker as finance minister on 26 August 1788, a popular move, even though she herself was worried that it would go against her if Necker proved unsuccessful in reforming the country's finances. She accepted Necker's proposition to double the representation of the Third Estate (''tiers état'') in an attempt to check the power of the aristocracy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=263–65}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|2001|pp=448–453}}

On the eve of the opening of the Estates General the queen attended the mass celebrating its return. As soon as it opened on 5 May 1789, the fracture between the democratic [[Estates of the realm|Third Estate]] (consisting of bourgeois and radical aristocrats) and the conservative nobility of the Second Estate widened, and Marie Antoinette knew that her rival, the Duke of Orléans, who had given money and bread to the people during the winter, would be acclaimed by the crowd, much to her detriment.<ref>{{cite book |title=A diary of the French Revolution 1789–93 |last=Morris |first=Gouverneur |date=1939 |pages=66–67 |editor=Beatrix Cary Davenport |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015011239764&seq=9}}</ref>

The death of the Louis Joseph on 4 June, which deeply affected his parents, was virtually ignored by the French people<ref>Nicolardot, Louis, ''Journal de Louis Seize'', 1873, pp. 133–38</ref> who were instead preparing for the next meeting of the Estates General and hoping for a resolution to the bread crisis. As the Third Estate declared itself a [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]], and as people either spread or believed rumours that the queen wished to bathe in their blood, Marie Antoinette went into mourning for her eldest son.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=274–78}}</ref> Her role was decisive in urging the king to remain firm and not concede to popular demands for reforms. In addition, she showed her determination to use force to crush the forthcoming revolution.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fraser|2001|pp=279–82}}</ref>{{sfn|Lever|1991|pp=462–467}}