Marie Antoinette Queen of France

	Louis XV Louis XV (1710-1774), son of the Duke Louis of Burgunday and Marie Adelaide of Savoia, Louis XIV's great-grandson, succeeded to him on 1715 under the regency of his cousin the Duke Philip of Orleans. At the age of 13, Louis XV appointed as first minister the Duke Louis Henry of Bourbon who concluded Louis XV's marriage with Marie Leszcynska. The King, who had very little interest in political life, was addicted to the amusements and to the love affaires, left full liberty to his ministers. To the negligence of the King, of his mistresses (as Madame Mally, Madame Vintimille, Madame Chateauroux, Madame de Pompaduor or Madame du Barry), and of the court, they are due the ruinous France interventions to the Polish succession war (1733-1738), the Austrian succession war (1741-1748) and the Seven years war. Louis XV died for smallpox and he was buried by night for the fear of popular demonstration.
	Royal Princess , daughters of Louis XV Mesdames, as were called the daughters of Louis XV, were Madame Adelaide, Madame Victoire, Madame Sophie and Madame Louise (the fourth daughter of Louis XV who entered in convent). They were all spinsters and they formed a faction against the incredible power of Madame du Barry. They watched over the Dauphine Marie Antoinette involving her into their plots and opposing her accession to the throne: in fact Madame Adelaide called Marie Antoinette the "Autrichienne".
	Madame Du Barry Janne Bécu, Comtesse of Barry (1743-1793), was Louis XV's mistress and thanks to her large influence to the King, she formed a fearful plot's center into Versailles. The cohabitation with the Dauphine Marie Antoinette was always very cool and contentious. When Louis XV died on 1774, the Comtesse was banished by Marie Antoinette. Madame Du Barry went to Louveciennes, at the pavilion presented to her by the King, but during the French Revolution she was arrested and guillotined.
	Madame Elisabeth Elisabeth Philippine Marie-Helene (1764-1794), was the younger sister of Louis XVI (the eldest was Maria Chlotilde who married on 1775 Carlo Emanuele of Savoia). She was very close with her brother and Marie Antoinette, in fact she was with them during the escape to Varennes and during the Revolution till the end. She was guillotined on 10th Maj 1794.
	Axel Fersen, Carl Fredrik von Breda, Löfstad Castle, Sweden The Sweden Count Hans Axel von Fersen (1755-1810), went very young in France as student and diplomatic under the service of the King Gustav III of Sweden. On 30th January 1774 he met the Dauphine Marie Antoinette, during a masked ball in Paris where Antoinette went as incognito. Fersen became early one of the most close friends of Marie Antoinette and he was always near the Queen in a discreet and trustworthy way. He gets the coach where the King and the Queen flight to Varennes and just in that occasion he met for the last time Marie Antoinette. It was the 20th June 1791. During the French Revolution, Fersen came back in Sweden, but on 1810 the King Gustav III was murdered and, during the obsequies of him, the people belived the Fersen was one of the guiltyes; for that reason Fersen was captured and killed by the crowd.
	Madame Lamballe Marie Therese Louise di Savoia Carignano, Princesse of Lamballe (1749-1792), married Louis Stanislas, Prince of Lamballe (1747-68) and brother of Louise Marie Adélaïde de Penthièvre (the future Duchess of Chartres) on 1767: she was left widow only a year after her wedding, at the age of 19 became a close friend of Marie Antoinette. She had been appointed Superintendent to the Queen's House and she was always devoted to the sovereign. On 3rd September 1792 she returned to France from England to stay near to the Royal family, but she was killed; her body was lacerated and her head stuck on a spike, was shown to Marie Antoinette from the Temple's window where the Queen was incarcerated.
	Madame Polignac Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Countess and after Duchess of Polignac (1749-1793), married the Duke Jules de Polignac, but she was never faithful to her husband, and she betrayed him with the Duke de Vaudreuil. After her first steps in court life, she became the most close friend of Marie Antoinette. The charming and ambitious Countess received many favours for her and her family and she was appointed Governess of the Queen's children. With her influence she contributed to the Queen's unpopularity and left Paris when the France Revolution started. She died in Vienna on 1793.
	M.me Campan (1752-1822) She was carefully educated under the direction of her father, a head-clerk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the age of fifteen she spoke English and Italian, and read so well that she was appointed reader to the young princesses, Victoire, Sophie, and Louise, the daughters of Louis XV. Soon afterwards she married M. Campan, whose father was secretary to the queen's cabinet. She then entered the service of Marie Antoinette, as first lady of the bed-chamber (1770), and retained that position till 20 June, 1792. When the unfortunate queen was sent to prison, Mme Campan courageously asked to be allowed to share her sad lot. Her request was denied, and she retired to Coubertin, a small village in the Chevreuse valley. She found herself in straitened circumstances, having to provide for her young son and for her husband who was heavily in debt and in poor health. With a nun as associate, she established a boarding-school for girls at Saint-Germain, which soon achieved success and counted among its pupils Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Joséphine. Napoleon was so much pleased with the order, elegance, and distinction of the school that he appointed Mme Campan superintendent of the Imperial Academy of Ecouen, founded for the education of the daughters of members of the Legion of Honour (1807). She adopted the programme of the old Saint-Cyr house, modifying it to suit the new conditions. Her chief aim was to train girls to be useful women and good mothers. In 1814 the school was abolished and Mme Campan bitterly denounced as a traitor by the Royalists, because she accepted the favours of the "usurper". She retired to Mantes and spent her time in writing didactic and historical essays.
	Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun "Self-portrait painting the queen Marie Antoinette", 1790, Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Marie Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was born on 16th April 1755 in Paris, son of the painter Louise Vigeè, and the hairdresser Jeanne Maissin. Elisabeth was very affectionate to her father and when he died on 1768, she mourned because her father was been her first teacher too. Thanks to her talent and her love for the art, she made much improvements and on 1774 she became a memeber of the Saint-Luc's Academy. One year later she met Jeanne Baptiste Pierre Lebrun, a dealer in paintings who would become Elisabeth's hausband, because she could not stand her stepfather, then she wanted to go uot from her house. On 1778 Elisabeth was invited to Versailles to made some portraits of Marie Antoinette and very early all of nobles will paid homage to her talent and her beauty. On 12th February 1780 was born Jeanne Julie Louise, her only child. Thanks to the sovereign's personal intervention, Elisabeth came in the "Royal Académie de peinture et de sculpture". On 1784 her younger brother, Etienne Vigée, was married, but this is also the year when Elisabeth painted the portrait of Calonne and which the slanders to the young paintress accused to have many love relations with Calonne and other lovers. On 1789, while the parisians went to Versailles to capture the King and the Queen, Elisabeth decided to escape from the France to Italy. Here she visited the most important city and she made many portraits of herself, her daughter or the Italians sovereigns. On 1792 she went to Vienna and stayed there three years. On 1795 she went to Saint Petersburg and she lived there six years (she considered Russia as her second fatherland). On 1800 she decided to came back in France, but during her travel she stop for six month in Berlin: when she arrived in Paris, she was welcomed with great warmth by everyone, but all was changed and Elisabeth, caught by the discouragement, went to England for three years. When she came back in her motherland, she visited Switzerland, but on 1809 she stay once and for all in Louveciennes. Her terms with Napoleon were always strained, in fact, when Louis XVIII ascended the France throne, Elisabeth was very happy. On 8th December her daughter Julie died, and only one year after her brother Etienne died, also. On 1829 the paintress wrote her "Souvenir" helped by her niece. Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun died on 29th May 1842 in Paris and she was buried in Louveciennes.