Marie Antoinette

{{Infobox Historical Figure
 * name = Marie Antoinette
 * nationality = Austrian Empire, later Kingdom of France
 * birth = 1755
 * death = 1793
 * cause of death = Execution by decapitation
 * relatives = Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (brother)
 * spouse = Louis XVI of France (d. 1793)
 * children = Four, two of whom predeceased her{{Clearright}}{{In High Places Historical Character
 * type of appearance = Posthumous reference}}{{Stack end}}Marie Antoinette (2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793), archduchess of Austria, was queen-consort of France from 1774-1792 as the wife of King Louis XVI. Widely reviled during reign for accusations of spendthrift habits, callous disregard for the suffering of poorer people, and adulteries with foreign diplomats, she has come to be regarded by many modern historians as a well-intentioned victim of circumstances who had little real power.

During the French Revolution, which began in 1789, the French Monarchy gradually decreased in power, until a scandal in 1792 caused it to be abolished altogether in favour of a Republic. The royal family put in house arrest in the former home of the Knights Templar. Louis XVI was executed by decapitation in January 1793 for having betrayed French military information to Marie's native Austria, which was then ruled by her nephew and at war with France.

Later in 1793, Marie was brought up on various charges of "treason," primarily of transferring embezzled funds to Austria, being behind numerous recent assassination attempts against prominent persons, and organizing pedophilic orgies during her years at Versailles Palace. Though there was hardly any evidence, the revolutionary tribunal was a kangaroo court where any charge was sure to receive a guilty verdict. Marie was allowed only one day to prepare a defence, and was soon sentenced to death like her husband.

In popular culture, the best known image of her is from portraits painted in extravagant, comical dresses which have inspired numerous fashion statements and examples of satiric humor.

Marie Antoinette in ''In High Places
When Annette Klein, who had been pressed into slavery in an uncharted alternate, learned that the hapless Celtic slave Birigida was really a rich home timeline native named Bridget Mallory and had paid for two weeks of slavery as a thrilling roleplay, she recalled that Marie Antoinette, in the France of Home, had an eccentric hobby of having a peasant village mock-up built on her palace grounds, where she and her retainers "played at being milkmaids." . But Mallory's hobby was much more bizarre and unhealthy than Antoinette's had ever been.