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Why Was Marie Antoinette Executed? Headless Women Dressed in Red Give Tribute to Beheaded Queen at Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony
The trial and execution of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the former queen of France, were part of the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony.
Headless Marie Antoinettes lined the banks of the Seine from her former jail during the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, July 26. Figures clothed in crimson bearing decapitated heads gazed from the windows of the Conciergerie.
There was Lady Gaga as well who sang "Do You Hear the People Sing" from Les Miserables during the ceremony. Organizers abandoned the usual stadium format in favor of highlighting the city's views and noises, with athletes expected to parade down the river in a stunning spectacle.
Why Was Marie Antoinette Executed?
The trial and death of Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the former queen of France, was one of the first events of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution (1789-1799). Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16, 1793, after being convicted of high treason for plotting with foreign powers against France's security.
Marie Antoinette has been extremely unpopular in France since at least the period of the diamond necklace controversy in 1785 when she was the focus of wild rumors and scandalous libels. Accused of being an Austrian spy, a thoughtless spendthrift, and a morally bankrupt deviant, her relationship with France's monarchy contributed to the monarchy's decline in favor at the onset of the Revolution.
When the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797) broke out, she wanted to destroy the Revolution by transferring military secrets to her friends in Austria, but she and her family were imprisoned by the revolutionaries after the storming of the Tuileries Palace in August 1792.
Marie Antoinette final days
Marie Antoinette, no longer the Queen of France, was now known as "the Widow Capet". Capet was the name of a French royal dynasty that ruled in the Middle Ages and from which her husband descended. Marie Antoinette was now 37 years old. Her health had deteriorated significantly at this point, as a result of the anguish and sadness she had endured during the French Revolution.
She was slender, had white hair, and wore basic black and white clothes. Her husband's death devastated her; all she had left were her children. Her eldest son, the Dauphin, died of disease in the year the Revolution began, and one of her daughters perished as an infant.
This left her with her eldest daughter, Marie Thérèse, and her younger son, Louis Charles. The former French queen was dealt another blow when her son Louis Charles was separated from her, and then again when she was separated from her daughter and put to the Conciergerie on August 2, 1793.
Following a two-day trial, Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and sentenced to execution by guillotine. Before this trial, the need for Marie Antoinette's death was debatable, but it was now decided. On October 16th, 1793, she penned her testament and final words: “I have just been condemned to death, not to a shameful death, that can only be for criminals… I am calm, as people are whose conscience is clear. My deepest regret is having to abandon our poor children… I only lived for them…”
Marie Antoinette death
Finally, the procession reached Place de la Concorde. Marie Antoinette had to suffer jibes and insults from the audience, but she had become immune to them following her time in jail, so she held her head high. Some witnesses characterized her as a stately figure, while her opponents accused her of arrogance even now.
As Marie Antoinette approached the stairs to the scaffold, she stepped on her executioner's foot by accident. She apologized to him at the end, saying, "I did not do it on purpose." At 15 minutes past midday, the former queen of France lost her head. Marie Antoinette's death was now complete.
Why did Marie Antoinette get tribute at the Paris Olympics after treason?
Cause her treason was forgotten. Marie Antoinette was put to rest in a manner befitting a queen, but it took 22 years after her death. She was given a Christian burial after the Bourbon Restoration, and she and her king are buried with other French royalty in Paris' Basilica of St. Denis.
Madame Tussaud created a wax sculpture of Marie Antoinette's face while the grave diggers ate their lunch. It had been abandoned on the grass, along with her body. The head and body were buried together in a mass burial.
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