Marie Antoinette enjoyed entertainment and was influential in choosing shows to be put on at Court. Louis XVI was besotted with his wife and allowed her to take on a role at Court that had never been bestowed on the two previous queens, Maria Theresa of Spain and Marie Leszczyńska. Marie Antoinette became Queen when she was not yet twenty years old. The ageing King had in fact become very unpopular and his death on was looked on with relief throughout the kingdom.

In the eyes of the public, she and her husband symbolised the promise of a new reign which, given Louis XV’s advancing age, was expected to begin soon. The young Dauphine became the first lady at Court.

The marriage nonetheless met with a lukewarm reception from the French public, who had not forgotten their country’s long-standing enmity towards the House of Austria. A highlight of the lavish festivities to mark the royal wedding was the inauguration of the Royal Opera. Her marriage with the future Louis XVI, celebrated in the Royal Chapel at Versailles on 16 May 1770, was partly the work of the Duke de Choiseul, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and one of the principal architects of the reconciliation between France and Austria.

Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa.

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