2-612-393 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), born an Archduchess of Austria, she was Dauphine of France from 1770 to 1774 and Queen of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1792 (1912).The daughter of Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) married the French Dauphin (the future King Louis XVI) in 1770. Louis became king in 1774, but Marie-Antoinette's unpopularity due to her perceived extravagance, indifference to the plight of ordinary people and opposition to reform, contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the overthrow of the monarchy. She was tried and executed by the guillotine in 1793 after a year's imprisonment. After a portrait by Louis Cournerie (1820-1897). Taken from R. J. Lea, Ltd's first series of Chairman Miniature cigarette cards, 1912.