Ah Maria, She’s the Most Powerful Woman in France

Maria Theressa of Austria sent her daughter, Marie Antoinette, off to France with little preparation and many fears. Prince Louis didn’t help matters when he put off the consummation for years.

Wrote Maria to Marie on the subject of getting her husband to…cooperate…so to speak.

“On no account any peevishness, but only tenderness and caresses; for too much eagerness could ruin everything. Gentleness and patience are the only things that can help. Nothing so far is lost. You are both so young. On the contrary, it is better this way for the health of both of you. You will both grow stronger. All the same, it is only natural that we old parents long for the consummation.”

According to one historian; “As time went by she forgot about patience.”

Once a month Marie sent mom a letter telling her how things were going. Mom would respond to these letters. Indeed, mom was sending out detailed letters every two weeks. It seems never to have occurred to Marie to ask her mother how she came to possess such detailed information about stuff she had never even written home about.

This is perhaps not so surprising when we consider that gossip was a very valuable commodity at court. It was a tangible product that could be traded for favors and other, equally valuable information. And it would play a not insignificant role in the destruction of Marie and her family in France. Indeed, it was Marie’s inability to come to grips with the power and pervasiveness of court gossip that would cause her no end of misery long before the revolution.

As I mentioned earlier, there was much loose talk about the Dauphin. He didn’t seem to particularly care. He didn’t like it, of course, but what could he do about it? It may have been some of that proverbial French fatalism. But it was talk about Marie, The Dauphine, that was doing real damage. It started, more or less, right after Marie got off the bus. And it involved someone fifteen year old Marie should have been ever-so-careful around; Madame Dubarry.

I’m betting my readers have heard of her. She was something of a name around Versailles back in the day. Around France, also. Around Europe, now that I think on it. Madame Dubarry’s position at the Court of Versailles was hardly unique to French, or any other European countries, history. She was the King’s mistress.

As occasionally happens in such relationships, she wielded much more power than her official social position would normally allow. Marie had inherited, or at least absorbed through osmosis, her mother’s unfortunate tendency to get on her moral high horse over matters sexual. At least her mother’s indignation stemmed from having to put up with the libertinism both her father and her husband.

Marie, on the other hand, imitated her mum without understanding why. Fifteen year old puritans tend not to be taken seriously, except by other puritans. Of which there were none at Versailles. This weakened her position at court without her even realizing she was hurting herself. Another contribution to Marie’s troubles were her new hubbies sisters. These ladies had a bone to pick with Madame Dubarry that had nothing to do with Marie.

But with Marie as the newly minted Dauphine, a girl with no understanding whatsoever as to how the court really worked, they saw a way to put dad’s jumped up whore of a girlfriend in her place. What this would cost Marie, well, that was her problem. You see, Marie would one day be Queen of France. That being one of the big selling points of the whole deal. This, officially, placed Marie at the head of every list. In theory, Marie was the Alpha-female bar none. Officially.

Unofficially, the King’s jumped-up whore ran things because the King let her. Realistic and unscrupulous persons, usually one and the same at Versailles, which included, by Royal Decree, everyone who was anyone in France, curried Madame Dubarry’s favor. Need I add that Madame Dubarry was a very wealthy woman? The Royal Daughters went to work on Marie before she had time to unpack her teddy bear and dolly dishes. They pointed out to Marie that she was now in charge of danged near ALL aspects of court social life.

And did Her Highness know how that Dubarry wench got her position? She did it by…(whisper, whisper, whisper.) And then she…(Whisper, whisper, whisper.) And then, while the King was roaring drunk and barely conscious, she…(Whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper!) With a set of ivory handled escargot tongs and an ostrich feather! True Story!

It was time to set things right and, by golly, their dear brother’s brand new Austrian child-bride who couldn’t string two sentences together in French was just the person to do it. Court protocol demanded that Marie always came first. These were the rules everyone understood. Madame Dubarry certainly didn’t have a problem deferring to this young lady who would, after all, one day be Queen of France.

Unfortunately for Madame Dubarry, she could not speak until spoken to while in Her Highnesses presence. Marie simply made a point of never speaking to her. This didn’t go over well …At…All. Marie got an entirely illusory sense of her own power. If all deferred to her, it was because she really was in charge! Just like her new sisters-in-law had said! With no idea of what she was allowing herself to get dragged into the middle of, Marie Antoinette decided to deliberately make an enemy of the most powerful woman in France.

All of this was duly reported to mom back in Austria. Count Mercy knew exactly what was happening, but he was in no position to counter what the Princesses were telling Marie. It was, officially, none of his damned business. All of this was WAY too close to the throne for a mere Count. He reported everything to Maria and begged her to intervene. The thing was, mom was in Vienna. There wasn’t much she could do. Not directly anyway. Everyone was about to get a harsh lesson in how the mini-universe of Versailles REALLY functioned.

— Mr. Al