The contemporary attitude towards Marie Antoinette was generally unfavourable and was one of the key elements in causing the French public to turn against the aristocracy of France. Marie Antoinette led a pampered childhood in Austria until she was sent to France to marry Louis XVI and eventually become queen in 1774. Marie had arrived in France during a very unstable time and having no prior knowledge or experience of politics, especially French politics. Consequently, she proved to be inept at dealing with the political instability that was present in France.
Marie Antoinette was at first unpopular with the French public as a result of the long-standing animosity between Austria and France, which her marriage was arranged to settle; the French populace resented Antoinette from the…show more content… The diamond necklace affair of 1785 was the development that solidified the widespread hatred of Marie Antoinette, despite the fact that she was in fact blameless for the incident and was simply set up by Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy. The people of France were infuriated at the idea of the Queen wasting money on such extravagancies. According to Madame Henriette Campan’s Memoirs of the court of Marie Antoinette, the incident ‘brought an end forever to respect and reverence’ for the monarchy. The source is a valuable insight as to how Marie Antoinette was viewed; even Henriette Campan, her lady-in-waiting who would have spent a lot of time with Marie Antoinette and was generally sympathetic towards her, could see how much the public loathed the Queen. In spite of the fact that the Queen was in this circumstance innocent, she was an easy scapegoat for the French people to push the responsibility of their suffering on to and, as stated by Henriette Campan, Marie Antoinette was unable to clear her tarnished
