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170-547: In 1911, Moberly and Jourdain published a book entitled An Adventure under the names of "Elizabeth Morison" and "Frances Lamont". Their book describes a visit they made to the Petit Trianon , a small château in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles , where they claimed to have seen the gardens as they had been in the late eighteenth century, as well as ghosts , including Marie Antoinette and others. Their story caused

340-473: A hot air balloon for the first time in human history; this extraordinary feat which represented a turning point in human civilization was done by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier . On 27 April 1784, Pierre Beaumarchais 's play The Marriage of Figaro premiered in Paris. Initially banned by the king due to its negative portrayal of the nobility, the play was finally allowed to be publicly performed because of

510-438: A 90-minute radio dramatisation in 2004 and 2015. A non-supernatural explanation of the events was proposed by Philippe Jullian in his 1965 biography of the aristocratic decadent French poet Robert de Montesquiou . At the time of Moberly and Jourdain's excursion to Versailles, Montesquiou lived nearby and reportedly gave parties in the grounds where his friends dressed in period costume and performed tableaux vivants as part of

680-427: A botanical library in this large room on the ground floor, but this was never built and, until the mid-nineteenth century, it housed the bodyguards. For this reason, the décor was simple: the walls were decorated with a false stone panel and the parquet floor was made of thick planks. A few beds with mattresses and blankets had been installed, along with some storage units. Following the restoration work in 2006-2008,

850-399: A broad design punctuated by oval medallions with rooster heads, originally bearing the figure of Louis XV, later replaced by that of Marie-Antoinette, and the letters M and A interlaced. The walls are simply decorated in ashlar, forming an ornamental transition between the interior and exterior. The floor is tiled in white veined marble and Campan green, a color reminiscent of the greenery in

1020-460: A centered plan. The project was delayed by the Seven Years' War , but these events allowed more time for reflection and fixed the hesitations of the first plans. The 1761 plan included only three windows per façade. Only the facade overlooking the botanical gardens has four transoms without a projection, but it is poorly adapted to the leveling. A circular pediment tops each central crossing,

1190-528: A child, but from which the pain he had felt in this refuge on the occasion of several bereavements had distanced him. Encouraged by his favorite, Madame de Pompadour, he had several buildings constructed on new plots of land to the north-east of the marble château, reviving the idea of a small country fantasy that had once prevailed at his grandfather's porcelain Trianon. A menagerie was devoted to farm and barnyard animals, and two small pavilions were built within

1360-531: A dome of silk embroidered in gold that concealed the original woodwork. She resumed her pre-1789 lifestyle: a ring game was reconstituted near the château, The small theatre was restored and sumptuous parties were held in the gardens. With the July monarchy, the royal family moved to the Grand Trianon in 1837. The Château du Petit Trianon was given to the young couple then destined to succeed Louis-Philippe:

1530-501: A few of the characters they saw, including Marie Antoinette herself as the lady sketching on the lawn." As Moberly and Jourdain admitted they had been lost on the vast grounds of Versailles, Dunning notes that their descriptions of footbridges and kiosks could fit any number of existing structures. Dame Joan Evans , who owned the copyright to An Adventure , accepted the Jullian explanation and forbade any further editions. However, after

1700-463: A hotel, was made available to Pauline Borghese, favorite sister of Emperor Napoleon I , in keeping with the tradition of this residence, which remained the "women's castle". In 1805, all the rooms were repainted in various shades of grey. Carpenter Benoît-François Boulard was commissioned to refurnish the flats similar to that of the Ancien Régime. Empress Josephine, who would never live at

1870-533: A known conjugal visit from the King. Courtiers at Versailles noted in their diaries that the date of the child's conception corresponded perfectly with a period when the King and the Queen had spent much time together, but these details were ignored amid attacks on the Queen's character. These suspicions of illegitimacy, along with the continued publication of the libelles and never-ending cavalcades of court intrigues,

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2040-467: A large sombrero hat" came up to them, and showed them the way to the Petit Trianon . Moberly said she noticed a lady sketching on the grass who looked at them after they crossed a bridge to reach the gardens in front of the palace. She later described the lady as wearing a light summer dress and a shady white hat with much fair hair. Moberly reported that she thought she was a tourist at first, but

2210-409: A makeover to bring her more in line with the fashion of French royalty. This included the straightening of her teeth by a French dentist, the diversification of her wardrobe, and hairstyles reminiscent of Madame de Pompadour . She was also instructed by Jean-Georges Noverre , who taught her to walk in the gliding fashion characteristic of the court of Versailles. Following the Seven Years' War and

2380-672: A miscarriage. In 1783 the Queen played a decisive role in the nomination of Charles Alexandre de Calonne , a close friend of the Polignacs , as Controller-General of Finances , and of the Baron de Breteuil as the Minister of the Royal Household, making him perhaps the strongest and most conservative minister of the reign. The result of these two nominations was that Marie Antoinette's influence became paramount in government, and

2550-523: A new formal garden. This garden space, the King's New Garden, which allowed the King to develop his taste for botany and horticulture, was soon no longer sufficient. In 1758 thought began to be given to the construction of a small country château to close off the perspective of the French parterres. The first sketches were inspired by the Prince de Croÿ's brand-new Château de l'Hermitage, designed according to

2720-465: A result of all these fashion activities, Marie Antoinette presided over one of the most important and fashionable courts in history and she was dominant over all of the other ladies of the court; as for her bearing and appearance the queen was very majestic and charismatic in spite of the fact that she gained much weight over the years due to her many pregnancies. By the time of the Flour War of 1775,

2890-493: A review of the history of the Moberly-Jourdain adventure and the extensive public reaction to it, Terry Castle noted with skepticism the claim that a shared delusion may have arisen out of a lesbian folie à deux between the two women. Castle concludes that, when all proposed explanations have been considered, a core of mystery remains as much in relation to the psychological dynamics of the pair as to any aspects of

3060-522: A rose-shaped piece of parquet flooring of the same size. This device had the dual advantage of surprising guests and preserving the privacy of conversations by eliminating the presence of servants and prying eyes. The process was exhibited at the Louvre in May 1769 and the work for Trianon was entrusted to the locksmith Gamain and the mechanic Richer. To enable the installation of the pulleys and counterweights for

3230-451: A rustic retreat built by her favoured architect, Richard Mique , according to the designs of the painter Hubert Robert . Its creation, however, caused another uproar when its cost became widely known. However, the hamlet was not an eccentricity of Marie Antoinette's. It was en vogue at the time for nobles to have recreations of small villages on their properties. In fact, the design was copied from that of Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé . It

3400-496: A sensation and was subject to much ridicule. Charlotte Anne Moberly, born in 1846, was the tenth of fifteen children. She came from a professional background; her father, George Moberly , was the headmaster of Winchester College and later Bishop of Salisbury . In 1886, Moberly became the first principal of a hall of residence for young women, St. Hugh's College in Oxford . It became apparent that Moberly needed someone to help run

3570-533: A series of riots, due to the high price of flour and bread, had damaged her reputation among the general public. Eventually, Marie Antoinette's reputation was no better than that of the favourites of previous kings. Many French people were beginning to blame her for the degrading economic situation, suggesting the country's inability to pay off its debt was the result of her wasting the crown's money. In her correspondence, Marie Antoinette's mother, Maria Theresa, expressed concern over her daughter's spending habits, citing

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3740-400: A square floor plan measuring twenty-three meters on each side, the building owes its distinctiveness to its four façades comprising five high windows punctuated by Corinthian columns or pilasters. Due to the sloping ground, the ground floor of the château is only accessible from the south and east sides; this floor is reserved for service areas. The "noble" floor, entered via a grand staircase in

3910-596: A target of criticism by opponents of the domestic and foreign policies of Louis XVI, and those opposed to the monarchy in general. The French libelles accused her of being profligate, promiscuous, having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for France's perceived enemies, including her native Austria . She was falsely accused of defrauding the Crown's jewelers in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace , but

4080-472: A tavern. By 1801, the use of the grounds for dances and festivals led to neglect and vandalism. The buildings of the hamlet were reported to be dilapidated. Some improvements in the layout of the gardens were subsequently made, and a school located in part of the complex. After some years of semi-neglect, the Petit Trianon resumed its traditional role when the new emperor, Napoleon , granted the use of

4250-407: A vestibule designed as an inner courtyard, contains the reception rooms and the Queen's flat. An entresol with three rooms houses Marie-Antoinette's library. On the attic floor, several flats that once belonged to Louis XV and his entourage now evoke the "Ladies of Trianon", the women who left their mark on these walls. The decoration, entrusted by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to Honoré Guibert,

4420-478: Is a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles , France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV of France . The Petit Trianon was constructed within the park of a larger royal retreat known as the Grand Trianon . The Petit Trianon was built on the site of a botanical garden developed about a decade earlier by Louis XV, within

4590-418: Is entirely based on nature and a taste for antiquity. A true architectural extension of the neighboring gardens, the château is adorned with sculptures of flowers and fruit, the paintings are allegories of the seasons or flowers, and the furniture is embellished with rural motifs. A symbol of the new monarchy, which aspired to more intimacy and tranquillity than the permanent representation imposed by Louis XIV,

4760-467: Is in contrast to the rocaille style of the French Pavilion, built by the same architect in 1750. Inspired by neo-Palladian architecture and possibly by drawings by Jean-François Chalgrin, the building, with its square plan and balustrade, rises over three levels and has a total surface area of 1,458 m . Surrounded by gardens, it can be seen from all sides, a form that was to be very popular until

4930-424: Is marked by a subtle evolution in art and not by an absolute victory for modernity; while certain old habits remain, such as the shell or trophies of Love, they rub shoulders with new forms, in the sculpture or woodwork, whose motifs are directly inspired by the gardens of Trianon, such as the garlands of leaves or the profusion of fruit. The ground floor, which is only accessible from the south and east sides due to

5100-400: Is still known as the "King's Pavilion". Seventy-five stonemasons and one hundred and twenty masons were mobilized. The foundations were laid at the end of 1762. The structural work was carried out over the next two years, and the building was roofed in 1764. During the campaigns of 1765 to 1768, the sculptures, joinery, metalwork, and painting were completed. To give the decoration a fresh look,

5270-624: The Abbaye du Pont-aux-Dames in Meaux , pleasing both his wife and aunts. Two and a half years later, at the end of October 1776, Madame du Barry's exile ended and she was allowed to return to her beloved château at Louveciennes , but she was never permitted to return to Versailles. On 10 May 1774, upon the death of Louis XV , the Dauphin ascended the throne as King Louis XVI of France and Navarre with Marie Antoinette as his queen consort . At

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5440-590: The American Revolution by securing Austrian and Russian support for France, which resulted in the establishment of the First League of Armed Neutrality that stopped Britain's attack, and by weighing in decisively for the nomination of Philippe Henri, Marquis de Ségur , as Minister of War and Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix as Secretary of the Navy in 1780, who helped George Washington defeat

5610-674: The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, King Louis XV of France. Their common desire to destroy the ambitions of Prussia and Great Britain , and to secure a definitive peace between their respective countries led them to seal their alliance with a marriage: on 7 February 1770, Louis XV formally requested the hand of Maria Antonia for his eldest surviving grandson and heir, Louis Auguste , Duke of Berry and Dauphin of France . Maria Antonia formally renounced her rights to Habsburg domains, and on 19 April 1770 she

5780-642: The Duchess of Polignac . In 1774, she took under her patronage her former music teacher, the German opera composer Christoph Willibald Gluck , who remained in France until 1779. Amidst the atmosphere of a wave of libelles , the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II came to France incognito, using the name Comte de Falkenstein, for a six-week visit during which he toured Paris extensively and

5950-534: The Duke of Coigny , the Duke of Guines , Count Valentin Esterhazy , and the Baron of Besenval . This was in violation of court etiquette, causing gossip to circulate at Versailles and "the malicious insinuations against her which became so common later on." The building was designed to require as little interaction between guests and servants as possible. To that end, the table in the salles à manger (dining room)

6120-581: The Franco-Austrian Alliance and Marie Antoinette's marriage, and in exiling his sister, the Duchess of Gramont , one of Marie Antoinette's ladies-in-waiting. Marie Antoinette was persuaded by her husband's aunts to refuse to acknowledge du Barry, which some saw as a political blunder that jeopardized Austria's interests at the French court. Marie Antoinette's mother and the Austrian ambassador to France, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau , who sent

6290-591: The French First Republic . Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI . Born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria , she was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I . She married Louis XVI, Dauphin of France , in May 1770 at age 14. She then became the Dauphine of France . On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen. As queen, Marie Antoinette became increasingly

6460-597: The Louvre in 1914 an apparition of the Roman emperor Constantine , a man of unusual height wearing a gold crown and a toga; he was not observed by anybody else. During the First World War, Jourdain, the dominant personality of the pair who had succeeded as Principal of St. Hugh's, became convinced that a German spy was hiding in the college. After developing increasingly autocratic behaviour, she died suddenly in 1924 in

6630-603: The Parlement of Paris , Rohan was found innocent of any wrongdoing 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. Suffering from an acute case of depression,

6800-634: The Théâtre de la Reine built for her by Richard Mique . Repayment of the French debt remained a difficult problem, further exacerbated by Vergennes and also by Marie Antoinette prodding Louis XVI to involve France in the American Revolutionary War . The primary motive for the queen's involvement in political affairs in this period may arguably have had more to do with court factionalism than any true interest on her part in politics themselves, but she played an important role in aiding

6970-468: The Théâtre de la Reine . She limited the audience to her intimate circle and a few musicians, among them the Chevalier de Saint-Georges . "Admitted to perform music with the Queen," Saint-Georges probably played his violin sonatas for two instruments, with Her Majesty playing the fortepiano . She also supported some scientific endeavours, encouraging and witnessing the first launch of a Montgolfière ,

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7140-464: The château Trompette in Bordeaux. This was unpopular, particularly with those factions of the nobility who disliked the Queen, but also with a growing percentage of the population, who disapproved of a queen of France independently owning a private residence. The purchase of Saint-Cloud thus damaged the public's image of the Queen even further. The château's high price, almost 6 million livres , plus

7310-418: The mezzanine where Madame du Barry resided. In Marie Antoinette's time, the attic apartment remained reserved for Louis XVI, though he never slept at the Petit Trianon. The private staircase of Louis XV was removed, allowing a library to be constructed by Richard Mique . The mezzanine, which is above the Queen's apartment, was reserved for Marie Antoinette's lady-in-waiting and first lady-in-waiting. Within

7480-665: The "Treaty of Schœnbrunn", named after the palace where Marie-Antoinette grew up. But she freed herself from these symbols and the difficult memories associated with the château, probably without thinking about it or out of inconsistency, and enjoyed Trianon. From the Grand, she escaped to the Petit, which reminded her of the Château de Laxenburg of her childhood and where she began to leave her mark. She stayed in her great-aunt's room, which had been completely redecorated with extravagance, under

7650-521: The 1911 and later editions, had been considerably aggrandized well after the events described and after the ladies had begun their investigations, while the original accounts had little or nothing to suggest a supernatural experience. He also questioned the rigour and reliability of the ladies' subsequent research, pointing out that few, if any, of their informants are named and that most of their literary and historical references were taken from unreliable sources. Psychologist Leonard Zusne suggested that it

7820-829: The British in the American Revolutionary War, which ended in 1783. Marie Antoinette's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage early in July 1779, as confirmed by letters between the Queen and her mother, although some historians believed that she may have experienced bleeding related to an irregular menstrual cycle, which she mistook for a lost pregnancy. Her third pregnancy was affirmed in March 1781, and on 22 October she gave birth to Louis Joseph Xavier François , Dauphin of France. Empress Maria Theresa died on 29 November 1780 in Vienna. Marie Antoinette feared that

7990-413: The Château de Versailles. The ground floor, known in the 18th century as "the underground passageways", is accessed via a vestibule with two doors opening onto a modest porch in the entrance courtyard to the south of the château. To the left is the guards' room and to the right is the billiard room, with the rest reserved for use by the service. Before the restoration work was completed in 2008, this floor

8160-510: The Duke and Duchess of Orléans. They occupied the former Queen's bedroom and an attic flat, largely retaining the Empire furniture, which was nonetheless rearranged and refurnished. Very quickly, with two new cabinetmakers, Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter and Louis-Édouard Lemarchand, providing additional new furniture, the château was refurbished to provide a level of comfort it had never before known. It

8330-488: The Empress secret reports on Marie Antoinette's behaviour, pressured Marie Antoinette to speak to Madame du Barry, which she grudgingly agreed to do on New Year's Day 1772. She merely commented to her, "There are a lot of people at Versailles today", but it was enough for Madame du Barry, who was satisfied with this recognition, and the crisis passed. Two days after the death of Louis XV in 1774, Louis XVI exiled du Barry to

8500-549: The Hofburg Palace and Schönbrunn , the imperial summer residence in Vienna, where on 13 October 1762, when she was seven, she met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , two months her junior and a child prodigy. Despite the private tutoring she received, the results of her schooling were less than satisfactory. At the age of 10 she could not write correctly in German or in any language commonly used at court, such as French or Italian, and conversations with her were stilted. Under

8670-507: 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. 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

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8840-456: The King's traditional sculptors, Jacques Verbeckt and Jules-Antoine Rousseau, were replaced by a new artist, Honoré Guibert, who worked "in the Grec style". Although the building was described as a masterpiece, it was not for its innovation or originality. Quite simply, the architect was able to assimilate various references, draw inspiration from the inventions and trends of the day, and assemble

9010-634: 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

9180-571: The Palace of Versailles as part of several trips around Paris, detailing how, on 10 August 1901, they travelled by train to Versailles. They remembered not thinking much of the palace after touring it, so they said they decided to walk through the gardens to the Petit Trianon . Upon reaching the Grand Trianon they found it was closed to the public. They recollected travelling with a Baedeker guidebook, but said they became lost after missing

9350-507: The Parc de Versailles, in the French department of Yvelines in the Île-de-France region. Built by King Louis XV's architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, between 1762 and 1768, it is considered a masterpiece of neoclassicism, combining the most modern taste with integration into the surrounding natural environment. Built for Madame de Pompadour, who died before it was completed, it was inaugurated by Madame du Barry in 1768, almost twenty years after

9520-459: The Parisian populace and press. The measure also blocked the access of 'commoners', mainly sons of members of the professional classes, and of more recently elevated nobility to important positions in the armed forces. As such, the decree became an important grievance for social classes that had been habitually supportive of the monarchy and established order, and which went on to supply the bulk of

9690-473: The Petit Trianon and its construction and recent restoration, as well as a three-dimensional model of the first floor. Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette ( / ˌ æ n t w ə ˈ n ɛ t , ˌ ɒ̃ t -/ ; French: [maʁi ɑ̃twanɛt] ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France prior to the French Revolution and

9860-476: The Petit Trianon château also reflected the fragility of the system condemned by the French Revolution of 1789. Nevertheless, the "women's castle" remained spared by the years, benefiting in the nineteenth century from the infatuation of the sovereigns Marie-Louise, Marie-Amélie, and Eugénie. The restoration campaigns carried out at the beginning of the 21st century have restored it to the look it had on

10030-562: The Petit Trianon, was involved in the choice of fabrics and furniture, which were intended to be richer and more elegant than under the Ancien Régime. Although the architect Trepsat ordered the return of the paintings deposited at the Musée de Versailles during the Revolution, most of the frames remained empty during the Empire were replaced by wallpapers depicting landscapes or plain green. The work cost over 150,000 francs. The princess, who

10200-416: The Polignacs' dominance at court, and also fueled the increasing popular disapproval of Marie Antoinette, mostly in Paris. De Mercy wrote to the empress: "It is almost unexampled that in so short a time, the royal favour should have brought such overwhelming advantages to a family". In June 1783, Marie Antoinette's new pregnancy was announced, but on the night of 1–2 November, her 28th birthday, she suffered

10370-619: The Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research suggested that the women had misinterpreted normal events that they had experienced. In 1903, an old map of the Trianon gardens was found and showed a bridge that the two women had claimed to have crossed that had not been on any other map. The identity of the authors of An Adventure was not made public until 1931. Both women claimed many paranormal experiences before and after their adventure. In one of them, Moberly claimed to have seen in

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10540-416: The Queen got into the habit of staying at "her" château, with the King only coming to dine as a guest. Rules were made "in the name of the Queen", not of the King; Marie-Antoinette behaved like a simple châtelaine, breaking away from royal ceremonial and dress: "At Trianon, I have no court, I live there as a private person". She entertained her intimates: they played, sang, danced, played music, and strolled in

10710-533: The Queen was able to obtain her brother's support against Great Britain in the American Revolution and she neutralized French hostility to his alliance with Russia. In 1782, after the governess of the royal children, the Princesse de Guéméné , went bankrupt and resigned, Marie Antoinette appointed her favourite, the Duchess of Polignac , to the position. This decision met with disapproval from

10880-510: The Queen's apartment, the décor of her boudoir features mirrored panels that, by the turning of a crank, can be raised or lowered to obscure the windows and reflect the candlelight. Her bedroom was provided with furniture from Georges Jacob and Jean Henri Riesener . Jacob designed a set of furniture for the room known as the Mobilier aux épis , elaborately carved with flowers and garlands and upholstered in embroidered Lyon silk. The wallpaper

11050-567: The Queen's support and its overwhelming popularity at court, where secret readings of it had been given by Marie Antoinette. The play was a disaster for the image of the monarchy and aristocracy. It inspired Mozart 's The Marriage of Figaro , which premiered in Vienna on 1 May 1786. On 24 October 1784, putting the Baron de Breteuil in charge of its acquisition, Louis XVI bought the Château de Saint-Cloud from Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans in

11220-407: The Queen's use". The restoration cost 5,000 francs. Following this event, the Petit Trianon became a museum dedicated to the eighteenth century and to Marie-Antoinette, the queen whose myth was gradually beginning to take hold. For more than a century, little attention was paid to the château, despite the efforts of curators, architects, and historians to bring the presentation more in line with what

11390-532: The Queen), none were permitted to enter the property without the Queen's permission. Only the Queen's "inner circle" (including the princesse de Lamballe and Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac ) were invited, which alienated the court nobility. In the spring of 1779, Marie Antoinette retired to the Petit Trianon to recover from illness after the birth of her daughter Marie-Thérèse . Her entire household came with her, as well as four male friends to attend her:

11560-512: The Roi, measuring 414 by 219 cm, was made of solid oak and ivory, with fifteen turned legs. It was accompanied by twenty iron plates for the candles, twelve ivory balls for the Guerre or Carambole and around thirty tails, at a total cost of 3,000 livres. In 1784, Marie-Antoinette had it transferred to the first floor and it was replaced by another billiard table, of lesser elegance, for the officers of

11730-402: The accusations damaged her reputation further. During the French Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to social and financial reforms proposed by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker . Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government placed

11900-512: The actions of Joseph II in the Kettle War , the purchase of Saint-Cloud and the Affair of the Diamond Necklace combined to turn popular opinion sharply against the Queen, and the image of a licentious, spendthrift, empty-headed foreign queen was quickly taking root in the French psyche. A second daughter, her last child, Marie Sophie Hélène Béatrix , Madame Sophie , was born on 9 July 1786 and lived only eleven months until 19 June 1787. She

12070-432: The age of 13, important writing skills. Nonetheless, he also complimented her, stating, "Her character, her heart, are excellent." He found her "more intelligent than has been generally supposed," but since "she is rather lazy and extremely frivolous, she is hard to teach". Under the recommendation of Étienne François de Choiseul, Duke of Choiseul , a strong supporter of her prospective marriage, Maria Antonia also received

12240-478: The age of ten dancing with her brothers a ballet-pantomime by Gluck, while the other depicts her older sisters performing the four Muses in an opera. On 18 March 1778 she received these works, of which she said: "They will increase the pleasure I get when I am in Trianon". This corner room on the ground floor originally housed Louis XV's billiard table, which has now disappeared. The one commissioned by Louis XVI in 1776 from Antoine-Henry Masson, paumier-billardier of

12410-484: The archives reveal. However, the resurgence in Marie-Antoinette's popularity at the end of the 20th century, accompanied by the release of blockbuster films devoted to her which helped to propagate the myth, has once again shed light on this small country château of a queen of France who was alternately adored and reviled, and who, without realizing it, contributed to her tragic fate. The neoclassical style

12580-462: The arsenals. The sculptor Amable Boichard was appointed in April 1794 to remove "emblems of royalty and feudalism" from the property. Under the new Republic, the Petit Trianon underwent a number of changes. Declared national property, the land was divided into ten lots. The City of Versailles proposed that a botanical garden be established, but this plan was never adopted. In 1796, the land was leased to

12750-434: The best models from the most admired houses. This almost self-evident balance between the ancient and the modern - two seemingly incompatible genres - is concealed behind an apparent simplicity: in his novelty, Gabriel adds the elegance of the eighteenth century to the strength and nobility of the classicism inherited from Mansart. The château was not completed until 1768, four years after the death of Madame de Pompadour. It

12920-502: The brief conflict, with the Queen imposing French mediation at her mother's insistence and Austria's gaining the Innviertel territory of at least 100,000 inhabitants—a strong retreat from the early French position which was hostile towards Austria. This gave the impression, partially justified, that the Queen had sided with Austria against France. Meanwhile, the Queen began to institute changes in court customs. Some of them met with

13090-406: The building to his sister Pauline . Extensive refurbishing of roofs, piping, floors, and chimneys was carried out. The main rooms were repainted, and mirrors were installed to replace those sold or vandalized. Finally, paintings were hung and a bridge de la Réunion constructed to link open areas across a hollow road. The Château du Petit Trianon is a building located in the Petit Trianon estate in

13260-596: The building, despite its modest dimensions, a monumental character while preserving the harmony of its proportions. The final decision was taken on 20 May 1762, and 700,000 livres were allocated to the construction as soon as the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years' War was signed. Louis Le Dreux de La Châtre, one of the best architects in Ange-Jacques Gabrielo's team, was commissioned to build what

13430-416: The child and to a noticeable decline of the Queen's reputation in public opinion. The majority of Marie Antoinette's and Louis XVII's biographers believe that the young prince was the biological son of Louis XVI, including Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser , who believe that Fersen and Marie Antoinette were indeed romantically involved. Fraser has also noted that the birthdate matches up perfectly with

13600-411: The château, linked to the warming room by a long series of sheltered corridors. Its wide, flat ashlar vault, designed by Gabriel, is considered a masterpiece. There is a large fireplace with a Greek-style hood and a masonry stove used to heat dishes. Marie-Antoinette had it removed because of the odors it gave off and the room was assigned to the "Queen's wives ". In 2008, it was restored on the model of

13770-441: The château, which she found sad and considered herself to be "in exile". The place fell into oblivion after the departure of this last princess. Empress Eugénie de Montijo felt a sympathy for Marie-Antoinette that verged on devotion and devoted a veritable cult to her, so much so that this need for identification, pushed to the point of syncretism, can be seen in paintings by Franz Xaver Winterhalter depicting her in an evocation of

13940-710: The civil unrest it was beginning to cause. As early as 1774, Marie Antoinette had begun to befriend some of her male admirers, such as the Baron de Besenval , the Duc de Coigny , and Count Valentin Esterházy , and also formed deep friendships with various ladies at court. Most noted was Marie-Louise, Princesse de Lamballe , related to the royal family through her marriage into the Penthièvre family . On 19 September 1774, she appointed her superintendent of her household, an appointment she soon transferred to her new favourite,

14110-613: The college, and Jourdain was asked to become Moberly's assistant. Eleanor Jourdain, born in 1863, was the eldest of ten children. Her father, the Reverend Francis Jourdain, was the vicar of Ashbourne in Derbyshire . She was the sister of art historian Margaret Jourdain and mathematician Philip Jourdain . She went to school in Manchester , unlike most girls of the time who were educated at home. Jourdain

14280-504: The country was facing a grave financial crisis and the population was suffering. Rose Bertin created dresses for her, and hairstyles such as poufs , up to three feet (90 cm) high, and the panache — a spray of feather plumes. She and her court also adopted the English fashion of dresses made of indienne , a material banned in France from 1686 until 1759 to protect local French woolen and silk industries, percale and muslin . As

14450-492: The court as the duchess was considered to be of too modest origins to occupy such an exalted position. In contrast, both the king and the queen trusted Madame de Polignac completely, gave her a thirteen-room apartment in Versailles and paid her well. The entire Polignac family benefited greatly from royal favour in titles and positions, but its sudden wealth and lavish lifestyle outraged most aristocratic families, who resented

14620-476: The date. Shortly after her birth she was placed under the care of the governess of the imperial children, Countess von Brandeis. Maria Antonia was raised together with her sister, Maria Carolina of Austria , who was three years older, and with whom she had a lifelong close relationship. Maria Antonia had a difficult but ultimately loving relationship with her mother, who referred to her as "the little Madame Antoine". Maria Antonia spent her formative years between

14790-478: The dauphins. It was in this château that the King, who came in the company of his favorite on 26 April 1774, felt the first symptoms of the illness that took his life two weeks later. The royal mistress, who had already been away from Versailles for five days, did not return, having received a missive from the new king, transmitted by the Duc de la Vrillière, instructing her to go to the convent of Pont-aux-Dames. For

14960-637: The day Marie-Antoinette left it for the last time, as if time had stood still. Together with the Château de Versailles and its outbuildings, it was listed as a historic monument in 1862 and by decree of 31 October 1906; and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. It is now open to the public as part of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, within the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette. In 1749, King Louis XV decided to regain possession of Trianon, which he had "loved so much" as

15130-409: The death of Louis XV, the king gave his wife the Petit Trianon , a small château on the grounds of Versailles that had been built by Louis XV for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour . Louis XVI allowed Marie Antoinette to renovate it to suit her own tastes; soon rumours circulated that she had plastered the walls with gold and diamonds. The Queen spent heavily on fashion, luxuries, and gambling, though

15300-465: The death of her mother would jeopardise the Franco-Austrian alliance, as well as, ultimately, herself, but her brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, wrote to her that he had no intention of breaking the alliance. A second visit from Joseph II, which took place in July 1781 to reaffirm the Franco-Austrian alliance and also to see his sister, was tainted by false rumours that Marie Antoinette

15470-410: The disapproval of the older generation, such as the abandonment of heavy make-up and the popular wide-hooped panniers . The new fashion called for a simpler feminine look, typified first by the rustic robe à la polonaise style and later by the gaulle , a layered muslin dress Marie Antoinette wore in a 1783 Vigée-Le Brun portrait. In 1780 she began to participate in amateur plays and musicals in

15640-514: The dress appeared to be old-fashioned. Moberly came to believe that the lady was Marie Antoinette . Jourdain, however, did not see the lady. At their return to the palace, they reported that they were directed round to the entrance and joined a party of other visitors. They said that after they toured the house, they had tea at the Hotel des Reservoirs before returning to Jourdain's apartment. According to Jourdain and Moberly, neither woman mentioned

15810-578: The early leadership of the French Revolution. Count Axel von Fersen , after his return from America in June 1783, was accepted into the Queen's private society. There were claims that the two were romantically involved, but since most of their correspondence has been lost, destroyed, or redacted, for many years there was no conclusive evidence. Starting in 2016, scientists at the Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France (CRCC), uncovered some of

15980-524: The end of the eighteenth century. Its four comparable facades, however, conceal subtle differences, dictated by the slope of the land, among other reasons. The façade facing west, the French Garden, is the richest: it is adorned with a forecourt of four isolated columns in the Corinthian style surmounted by capitals. On the south courtyard side, the ground floor is embossed horizontally, while

16150-512: The estate it would face. The Corinthian order predominates, with two freestanding and two engaged columns on the side of the formal French garden, and pilasters facing both the courtyard and the area once occupied by Louis XV's greenhouses. Overlooking the former botanical garden of the king, the remaining façade was left bare. Marie Antoinette would visit the Petit Trianon to escape the formality of court life and to rest from her royal responsibilities. Since all were de par la Reine (by order of

16320-481: The festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding . The couple's longtime failure to consummate the marriage plagued the reputations of the royal couple for the next seven years. The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI was mixed. On the one hand, the Dauphine was beautiful, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first official appearance in Paris on 8 June 1773

16490-507: The first few years, she made very few alterations. Her attempt to remove two paintings in the main dining room that offended her modesty was in vain. She inscribed her number on the banister of the staircase and removed the northeast staircase. The installation of moving mirrors in front of the windows of her boudoir nevertheless began to cause a stir. It was only later, after completing her major garden landscaping project, that she undertook some renovations to her flats. In defiance of protocol,

16660-406: The first gardens were laid out in the King's New Garden. Although it was the most imposing building on the Petit Trianon estate, it was not the first, but rather the continuation of a project spanning four decades. On his accession to the throne, Louis XVI gave it to his young wife Marie-Antoinette, who gave it her stamp, forever associating the building with the queen in the public imagination. With

16830-428: The first time, a French queen became the owner of a château: in June 1774, Marie-Antoinette received the Petit Trianon estate as a gift from her husband, the new King Louis XVI. The place suited her aspirations perfectly, and she felt at home in the floral atmosphere that she had wanted but had not decided on: The bowls of fruit carved into the paneling by Guibert, the metamorphoses of divinities into flowers according to

17000-413: The fruit room were restored according to period plans, as was the fireplace. A narrow staircase gives access to two small cellars, the only ones in the château, where the machinery for operating these "flying tables" would have been installed. In 1782, a gallery was built behind the fruit factory, leading to the ring game. Multimedia terminals have been installed to provide visitors with information about

17170-539: The gardens of the Petit Trianon or in a late eighteenth-century style dress by the Reine. On the occasion of the Universal Exhibition of 1867, the Empress wanted to organize a retrospective in homage to the sovereign, welcoming the fact that "her soul, after more than a century of wandering, was finally returning to its haven at Trianon". Eudore Soulié, the first true curator of the Château de Versailles ,

17340-439: The gardens. Set back under the flights of stairs, a door gives access to the low-vaulted warming room. On the half-landing of the staircase at the seventh step, another small door on the left leads to the former Chinese ring gallery via a long corridor created in 1781 - Marie-Antoinette's most important transformation of the château - and located under the terrace facing the French Garden. An initial project in 1763 provided for

17510-542: The gardens. Men were invited, but neither they nor the King slept in the castle. The women were the mistresses of the house, and several of them stayed in the Queen's suite: Madame Élisabeth, who looked after Madame Royale, the Countess de Polignac, but also the Princess of Chimay, the Countess of Ossun and Madame Campan, the chambermaid. In ten years, she spent one hundred and sixteen days in her château. This lifestyle

17680-405: The ground floor is the central kitchen, or "grand office", accessible from the vestibule via an intermediate gallery. Two small pantry rooms were attached to it. From 1770 onwards, it became more precisely a warming room, mainly intended to perfect the preparation of dishes made in the common areas. In order not to disturb the occupants of the château, the kitchens were located in a vast wing close to

17850-491: The grounds of the Grand Trianon, Louis XIV 's retreat from the Palace of Versailles to the southeast. It was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel by order of Louis XV for his long-term mistress, Madame de Pompadour , and was constructed between 1762 and 1768. Madame de Pompadour died four years before its completion, and the Petit Trianon was subsequently occupied by her successor, Madame du Barry . Upon his accession to

18020-438: The grounds were haunted, they decided to publish their story in a book An Adventure (1911) under the pseudonyms of Elizabeth Morison and Frances Lamont. The book, containing the claim that Marie Antoinette had been encountered in 1901, caused a sensation. However, many critics did not take it seriously on the grounds of the implausibilities and inconsistencies that it contained. A review of the book by Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick in

18190-542: The guard. It was sold for 600 livres to a second-hand dealer called Rouger in 1794 during the revolutionary sales. As the original billiard table had not been found, a restoration was undertaken in 2005 as part of a 50,000 euro skills sponsorship with the Chevillotte company, respecting the original materials and colors. After being displayed in the château's Petits appartements du Roi, it was returned to its original position in 2008. The walls are fully paneled and

18360-477: The herringbone parquet flooring has also been restored according to the original plans. On the mantelpiece is a plaster bust of Marie-Antoinette based on the marble work by Louis-Simon Boizot, commissioned in 1781 by the Comte de Vergennes, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Two paintings hang on the wall: one by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun depicts the Queen and the other, the royal family. The main service room on

18530-482: The history of the Trianon. They thought they might have seen events that took place on 10 August 1792, only six weeks before the abolition of the French monarchy, when the Tuileries palace in Paris was besieged and the king's Swiss guards were massacred. According to their narrative, they visited the Trianon gardens again on several occasions, but were unable to trace the path they took. Various landmarks, such as

18700-514: The incident to one another until a week after leaving Versailles when Moberly, in a letter to her sister about their trip, started writing about the afternoon of the Versailles incident. She reportedly asked Jourdain if she thought the Petit Trianon was haunted, and Jourdain told her that she thought it was. Three months later in Oxford, the pair said they compared their notes and decided to write separate accounts of what happened while also researching

18870-471: The inexperienced—then still only 22-year-old—Louis XVI had confided in him the course of action he had been undertaking in their marital bed; saying Louis XVI "introduces the member," but then "stays there without moving for about two minutes," withdraws without having completed the act and "bids goodnight." Suggestions that Louis suffered from phimosis , which was relieved by circumcision , have been discredited. Nevertheless, following Joseph's intervention,

19040-492: The jewelers Boehmer and Bassenge of the price of an expensive diamond necklace they had originally created for Madame du Barry . The main actors in the scandal were Cardinal de Rohan , Prince de Rohan-Guéméné , Grand Almoner of France , and Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy , Countess de La Motte, a descendant of an illegitimate child of Henry II of France of the House of Valois . Marie Antoinette had profoundly disliked Rohan since

19210-528: The kiosk and the bridge, were missing, and the grounds were full of people. Trying to come up with an explanation, they wondered if they had stumbled across a private party or an event booked that day. However, they found that nothing had been booked that afternoon. Through their research, they thought they recognised the man they reportedly saw by the kiosk as the Comte de Vaudreuil , a friend of Marie Antoinette, who herself Moberly had claimed to see. Convinced that

19380-401: The life of the mother. Her godparents were Joseph I and Mariana Victoria , King and Queen of Portugal; Archduke Joseph and Archduchess Maria Anna acted as proxies for their newborn sister. Maria Antonia was born on All Souls' Day , a Catholic day of mourning, and during her childhood, her birthday was instead celebrated the day before, on All Saints' Day , due to the connotations of

19550-405: The main decoration being intended for the pleasure gardens, to the detriment of the glasshouses and flowerbeds reserved for study. The sculptures adorning the cornices, architraves and window frames are nevertheless identical on all four sides, indicating a certain severity in this return to Antiquity. The Italian-style flat roof is concealed by a balustrade with openwork guilloches. The decoration

19720-478: The main floor and attic are punctuated with Corinthian pilasters. The north-facing facade has the same composition, but with only the two upper storeys, it opens onto the English Garden via two ramps similar to those on the west side. The eastern facade overlooking the former botanical garden has a ground floor entrance, also with horizontal bosses creating a continuous base is devoid of columns or pilasters,

19890-454: The marriage was finally consummated in August 1777. Eight months later, in April 1778, it was suspected that the queen was pregnant, which was officially announced on 16 May. Marie Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte , Madame Royale , was born at Versailles on 19 December 1778. The child's paternity was contested in the libelles , as were all her children's. In the middle of

20060-412: The meeting and her absence resulted in accusations that the Queen was trying to undermine its purpose. 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 XVI dismissed Calonne on 8 April 1787. On 1 May 1787 Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne , Archbishop of Toulouse and one of the queen's political allies

20230-469: The men as "very dignified officials, dressed in long greyish green coats with small three-cornered hats". Jourdain recalled that she noticed a cottage with a woman holding out a jug to a girl in the doorway, describing it as a " tableau vivant ", a living picture, much like Madame Tussauds waxworks. Moberly did not observe the cottage, but remembered that she felt the atmosphere change. She wrote: "Everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant; even

20400-543: The middle of an academic scandal over her leadership of the college, her conduct having provoked mass resignations of academic staff. Moberly died in 1937. The story of the adventure was made into a television film , the Anglia Television Production, Miss Morison's Ghosts , written and produced by Ian Curteis and directed by John Bruce, in 1981, with Dame Wendy Hiller as Moberly/Morison and Hannah Gordon as Jourdain/Lamont. The BBC broadcast

20570-416: The name of his wife, which she wanted due to their expanding family. She wanted to be able to own her own property, one that was actually hers, to then have the authority to bequeath it to "whichever of my children I wish," choosing the child she thought could use it rather than it going through patriarchal inheritance laws or whims. It was proposed that the cost could be covered by other sales, such as that of

20740-488: The necklace as a gift to Marie Antoinette, for him to gain the queen's favour. When the affair was discovered, those involved, except de La Motte and Rétaux de Villette, who both managed to flee, were arrested, tried, convicted, and either imprisoned or exiled. 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

20910-470: The new ministers rejected any major change to the structure of the old regime. More than that, the decree by de Ségur, the minister of war, requiring four quarterings of nobility as a condition for the appointment of officers, mainly served the interest of older noble families including poorer provincial ones, who were widely seen as a reactionary interest group by ambitious members of the middle and professional classes, by some more recent nobility, and even by

21080-420: The original room in the Queen's hamlet and copper tables and utensils were installed in the style of the period. Louis XV wanted to install "flying tables", like those at the Château de Choisy, so that tables previously laid on the lower floor could appear in the center of the first-floor dining room. The inventor, Loriot, designed this mechanism, which allowed one or more tables to be moved up or down, replacing

21250-449: The outset, the new queen had limited political influence with her husband, who, with the support of his two most important ministers, Chief Minister Maurepas and Foreign Minister Vergennes , blocked several of her candidates from assuming important positions, including Choiseul. The queen did play a decisive role in the disgrace and exile of the most powerful of Louis XV's ministers, the Duc d'Aiguillon . On 24 May 1774, two weeks after

21420-406: The pair wrote that Moberly did not mention the sketching woman to Jourdain until three months after their visit to Versailles, and Jourdain did not remember such a thing. In contrast, Moberly did not remember much of what Jourdain described. "It was only after much discussion, note-sharing, and historical research that Moberly and Jourdain came up with the time period as 1789 and assigned identities to

21590-443: The paranormal associated with their story. Without fully endorsing the de Montesquiou explanation, Michael Coleman carefully examined the story and, in particular, the two published versions of the ladies' accounts (the earlier-written of which, from November 1901, had only previously been published in the second, small print-run, edition of An Adventure in 1913). Coleman concluded that the more widely available texts, as published in

21760-478: The party entertainments. Moberly and Jourdain may have inadvertently gatecrashed a gay fancy dress party that they confused for a haunting. The Marie-Antoinette figure could have been a society lady or a cross-dresser, the pockmarked man Montesquiou himself. It was suggested that a gathering of the French decadent avant-garde of the time could have made a sinister impression on the two middle-class Edwardian spinsters who would have been little used to such company. In

21930-460: The porch. Seemingly open onto the gardens, the drawing room floor is located above a ground floor that overlooks, on the Versailles side, a small rectangular courtyard of honor rounded at the corners, redesigned in Marie-Antoinette's time, framed by a small wall and a hedge of hornbeams and closed by a soft green gate flanked by two sentry boxes. Opposite is the Avenue du Petit Trianon, which leads to

22100-456: The queen and a variety of other nobles in a political statement decrying the immoral practices of the court. As time went on, these came to focus more on the queen. They described amorous encounters with a wide range of figures, from the Duchess of Polignac to Louis XV. As these attacks increased, they were connected with the public's dislike of her association with the rival nation of Austria. It

22270-547: The queen's pregnancy, two events occurred which had a profound effect on her later life: the return of her friend, the Swedish diplomat Count Axel von Fersen the Younger to Versailles for two years, and her brother's claim to the throne of Bavaria , contested by Saxony and Prussia. Marie Antoinette pleaded with her husband for the French to intercede on behalf of Austria. The Peace of Teschen , signed on 13 May 1779, ended

22440-401: The redacted text of the queen's letters to Fersen. The revealed texts do not mention a physical relationship, but do confirm a very strong emotional relationship. Around this time, pamphlets describing farcical sexual deviance including the Queen and her friends in the court were growing in popularity around the country. The Portefeuille d'un talon rouge was one of the earliest, including

22610-550: The room now serves as an entrance for visitors to the estate, via a formerly closed corridor that links it to the chapel garden. The two paintings on display, by Austrian painter Johann Georg Weikert, were commissioned to be placed in the large dining room on the first floor and both depict the show given on 24 January 1765 at Schönbrunn on the honor of Joseph II's second marriage to the Princess of Bavaria. Marie-Antoinette had asked her mother Marie-Thérèse to make copies of these two paintings that she loved; in one of them, she appears at

22780-786: The royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789. The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition were immensely damaging to her image among French citizens. On 10 August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family to take refuge at the Assembly , and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on 13 August 1792. On 21 September 1792, France

22950-421: The royal mistresses, the notion of harmony between the decoration and the surrounding gardens was omnipresent. In a departure from his status as king, Louis XV gave up his inner chambers, the best situated in the château, to Madame du Barry, who made them her bedroom, while he took up residence in the attic. She was the first to stay regularly at the Petit Trianon, far from the hostility of the King's daughters and

23120-410: The site. The principle of four pilasters or columns, depending on the cardinal orientation, which regularly punctuate the high windows, was retained. In the end, stereotomy was preferred, characterized by purely geometric ornamental decoration. The building had a square plan and its dimensions, twelve toises per sideé, were determined by the width of the French garden. This choice of colossal order gave

23290-420: The sloping ground, essentially houses the outbuildings. The terraces make it possible to conceal the passageways needed to service the Petit Trianon and in particular the connections with the ancillary buildings, such as the theatre and chapel. The first floor contains the reception rooms and the Queen's flat. The King's flat and the guests' flats were located in the attic. The noble floor is accessed directly from

23460-404: The substantial extra cost of redecorating, ensured that much less money was going towards repaying France's substantial debt. On 27 March 1785, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a second son, Louis Charles, who bore the title of Duke of Normandy . The fact that the birth occurred exactly nine months after Fersen's return did not escape the attention of many, leading to doubt as to the parentage of

23630-471: The teaching of Christoph Willibald Gluck , Maria Antonia developed into a good musician. She learned to play the harp , the harpsichord and the flute . She sang during the family's evening gatherings, as she was known to have had a beautiful voice. She also excelled at dancing, had "exquisite" poise, and loved dolls. The death of her older sister Maria Josepha from smallpox during the epidemic in Vienna in October 1767 made an everlasting impression on

23800-538: The throne in 1774, the 20-year-old Louis XVI gave the château and its surrounding park to his 19-year-old Queen Marie Antoinette for her exclusive use and enjoyment. The Petit Trianon is an example of the transition from the Rococo style of the earlier part of the 18th century to the Neoclassical style of the 1760s and onward. It attracts interest in its four façades , each designed according to that part of

23970-561: 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 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

24140-476: The trees seemed to become flat and lifeless, like wood worked in tapestry. There were no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees." They reported reaching the edge of a wood, close to the Temple de l'Amour , and coming across a man seated beside a garden kiosk, wearing a cloak and large shady hat. According to Moberly, his appearance was "most repulsive ... its expression odious. His complexion

24310-488: The turn for the main avenue, Allée des Deux Trianons , and entered a lane, where they bypassed their destination. Moberly reported that she noticed a woman shaking a white cloth out of a window while Jourdain recalled noticing an old deserted farmhouse, outside of which was an old plough. At this point they described a feeling of oppression and dreariness coming over them after which men who they thought looked like palace gardeners told them to go straight on. Moberly described

24480-496: The two planned tables, two rooms on the ground floor were given over to him, which led to an initial enlargement of the offices in 1770. However, due to the high cost of this mechanism, its installation was canceled, on 16 March 1772, by a letter from Marigny to Loriot. Only a few improvements were made, in particular the hopper that can be seen in the ceiling, and its inventor was compensated. The two small rooms were once again used simply as pantry rooms and two storage units from

24650-413: The whole being richly decorated, even overloaded. The proportions are poorly balanced and the staircases are too modest. It was not convincing and failed to overcome the indecision to which the King was often subjected. The idea, later described as "brilliant", was to increase the number of crossbeams per façade to five, giving the building more majesty than the first drafts and satisfying the demands of

24820-410: The wishes of Cochin and the brushes of Lépicié or Jollain, the country scenes composed by Lagrenée or Vien, the flower gardens and botanical gardens beneath her windows designed by Richard or Jussieu, the floral motifs on the furniture by Foliot or Joubert, everything was designed to satisfy the Queen's aspiration to escape the constraints of the court of Versailles to a world devoted to nature. During

24990-743: The work came out of copyright , it was republished in 1988 as The Ghosts of Trianon: The Complete 'An Adventure' by Thoth Publication and again in 2008 by CreateSpace, both times crediting Moberly and Jourdain as the authors. Historian Roy Strong has noted that although the Moberly-Jourdain story has been debunked it "retained its hold on the public imagination for half a century". 48°48′57″N 2°06′35″E  /  48.8158°N 2.1097°E  / 48.8158; 2.1097 Petit Trianon 48°48′56″N 2°06′35″E  /  48.815639°N 2.109675°E  / 48.815639; 2.109675 The Petit Trianon ( French pronunciation: [pəti tʁijanɔ̃] ; French for "small Trianon")

25160-514: The young Maria Antonia. Maria Antonia, in her later life, recalled the ailing Maria Josepha taking her in her arms. She told her that she would not be traveling to Naples to marry King Ferdinand IV of Naples , to whom she was betrothed, but for the family vault . Later in 1768, Mathieu-Jacques de Vermond was dispatched by Louis XV to tutor Marie Antoinette as she became the future wife to Louis XVI. Serving as an educator, Abbé de Vermond found her to be unsatisfactorily educated and lacking in, at

25330-479: Was married by proxy with Louis Auguste at the Augustinian Church, Vienna , with her brother Archduke Ferdinand standing in for the Dauphin. On 14 May 1770 she met her husband at the edge of the forest of Compiègne . Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name: Marie Antoinette. A further ceremonial wedding took place on 16 May 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, after

25500-405: Was a hallucinatory experience embellished over time by the two women finding out more about the history of the Palace. Brian Dunning of Skeptoid concluded that "Moberly and Jourdain were simply human" and were mistaken. He notes that editions of An Adventure were embellished each time they were published, and inconsistencies in their memories were apparent. For example, in the second edition

25670-537: Was a guest at Versailles. He met his sister and her husband on 18 April 1777 at the Château de la Muette , and spoke frankly to his brother-in-law, curious as to why the royal marriage had not been consummated, arriving at the conclusion that no obstacle to the couple's conjugal relations existed save the Queen's lack of interest and the King's unwillingness to exert himself. In a letter to his brother Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany , Joseph II described them as "a couple of complete blunderers." He disclosed to Leopold that

25840-456: Was a resounding success. On the other hand, those opposed to the alliance with Austria had a difficult relationship with Marie Antoinette, as did others who disliked her for more personal or petty reasons. Madame du Barry proved a troublesome foe to the new dauphine. She was Louis XV's mistress and had considerable political influence over him. In 1770 she was instrumental in ousting Étienne François, duc de Choiseul , who had helped orchestrate

26010-411: Was also adapted to modern conveniences, with the creation of two small bathrooms in the center of the building and a private spiral staircase allowing better communication between the spouses' apartments. The residence was no longer a royal palace but a country home, adapted to the tastes of the time. The duchess, who continued to stay at Trianon after her husband's accidental death, was no longer fond of

26180-420: Was also significantly smaller and less intricate than many other nobles'. Around this time she accumulated a library of 5,000 books. Those on music, often dedicated to her, were the most read, though she also liked to read history. She sponsored the arts, in particular music. Marie Antoinette preferred to hold her musicales in the salon of her Petit appartement de la reine in the Palace of Versailles, or in

26350-470: Was also the author of several textbooks, ran a school of her own, and after the incident became the vice-principal of St. Hugh's College. Before Jourdain was appointed, it was decided that the two women should get to know one another better; Jourdain owned an apartment in Paris where she tutored English children, and so Moberly went to stay with her. Moberly and Jourdain recounted that they had decided to visit

26520-626: Was appointed as curator of the gardens and plant nursery in 1792 by the Minister of the Interior. After the overthrow of the monarchy in July 1792, all of the furniture, artworks, and other valuables of the Petit Trianon were sent to auction, under a decree of the National Convention dated 10 June 1793. The auction began on Sunday, 25 August 1793, and continued until 11 August 1794. The properties sold were widely scattered. Silverware, lead, and brass fixtures were requisitioned for use in

26690-437: Was appointed by the King at her urging to replace Calonne, first as Controller-General of Finances and then as Chief Minister . He began to institute more cutbacks at court while trying to restore the royal absolute power weakened by the Parlement. 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

26860-614: Was born on 2 November 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna , Archduchy of Austria, at 20:30. She was the youngest daughter and 15th child of Empress Maria Theresa , ruler of the Habsburg monarchy , and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor . Maria Theresa gave birth to all of her previous children without any problems. During the birth of her last daughter Maria Antonia, serious complications arose, and doctors even feared for

27030-455: Was conceived to be mobile, mechanically lowered and raised through the floorboards so that the servants below could set places while remaining unseen. The tables were never built, but the delineation for the mechanical apparatus can still be seen from the foundation. In the attic, a suite was constructed for Louis XV by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, consisting of antechamber, bedroom, and a private chamber. A staircase led from his private chamber down to

27200-400: Was dark and rough." Jourdain noted "The man slowly turned his face, which was marked by smallpox ; his complexion was very dark. The expression was evil and yet unseeing, and though I did not feel that he was looking particularly at us, I felt a repugnance to going past him." They said that another man whom they described as "tall ... with large dark eyes, and crisp curling black hair under

27370-558: Was declared a republic and the monarchy was abolished . Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Marie Antoinette's trial began on 14 October 1793; two days later, she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed by beheading by guillotine on 16 October 1793 at the Place de la Révolution during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette, full name Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna,

27540-478: Was named after the King's aunt, Princess Sophie of France . Marie Antoinette began to abandon her more carefree activities to become increasingly involved in politics in her role as queen of France. 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 "Diamond Necklace Affair", in which public opinion had falsely accused her of criminal participation in defrauding

27710-509: Was painted by Jean-Baptiste Pillement . On 5 October 1789, Marie Antoinette was in the gardens of the Petit Trianon when a page brought news of the imminent arrival of an armed crowd from Paris . With the enforced departure of the royal family the next day, the Petit Trianon was almost abandoned, except for the gardeners and other staff who continued to live there. Renovations that had been underway were interrupted, leaving large sums owed to builders. The former queen's gardener, Antoine Richard,

27880-422: Was publicly suggested that her supposed behaviour was learned at the Austrian court, particularly lesbianism, which was known as the "German vice". Her mother again expressed concern for the safety of her daughter, and she began to use Austria's ambassador to France, Comte de Mercy , to provide information on Marie Antoinette's safety and movements. In 1783, the Queen was busy with the creation of her " hamlet ",

28050-448: Was responsible for assembling the works. On the instructions of Louis-Joseph Napoléon Lepic, aide-de-camp to Napoleon III and supervisor of the worksite, the small château was emptied of its Empire furniture, the façades cleaned, the paintings repainted, the damaged floors replaced and the doors repaired. In the absence of historical accuracy, the first floor was entirely furnished with 144 objects "having been or presumed to have been for

28220-481: Was sending money to him from the French treasury. Despite the general celebration over the birth of an heir, Marie Antoinette's political influence, such as it was, was perceived to greatly benefit Austria. During the Kettle War , in which her brother Joseph attempted to open the Scheldt river for naval passage, Marie Antoinette succeeded in obliging Vergennes to pay huge financial compensation to Austria. Finally,

28390-400: Was therefore awarded to Madame du Barry, Louis XV's new favourite. While the Grand Trianon remained the venue for parties and receptions, the Petit Trianon quickly became a place of intimacy. La Pompadour had marked the project with avant-garde refinement in terms of art and decoration. The château was dedicated to flowers, the main ornament, but it belonged to the king: beyond the symbolism of

28560-466: Was used to receive the public and provide services, and has now been returned to its original purpose; the entrance is via the Swiss house, as it was in the old days. The vestibule leads to the château's main staircase, which has two straight flights, is built of Saint-Leu limestone and adorned with gilded bronze and wrought iron railing, the work of locksmiths Louis Gamain and François Brochois. It has

28730-462: Was very fond of the château, stayed there for almost two months in June and July 1805, then one last time in December 1809, when Napoleon returned to Trianon to prepare the estate for his new wife. The empress, Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, was the great-niece of the queen guillotined during the French Revolution. Her marriage to Napoleon, whom she had been taught to hate, was a consequence of

28900-409: Was worthy of a carefree youth with apparent simplicity, luxury, and pleasure. This is how the "black legend" of a sovereign who, dreaming only of intimacy, withdrew from public view, gave substance to the most terrible rumors. The Petit Trianon, abandoned following the departure of the royal family in 1789, stripped of all its furniture at the auction sale of 1793 and even temporarily transformed into

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