Yesterday, November 2, marked the 252nd birthday of Marie Antoinette! It seems to call for an elaborate cake, some big hairdos and gowns, but since I’m still tired out from Halloween (and all those mini Kit Kats), a Risky Regency post will have to do.

Archduchess Antonia Josefa Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna in 1755, the 15th child of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen (after that many kids, I’m surprised they still had so many names to bestow). She grew up in one of the more innovative and informal courts of Europe (informal, of course, being a relative term). Some of her parents’ changes included a relaxation of who could be received at court (which allowed many people of merit as well as high birth to rise in Imperial favor), a laxer etiquette in dress, and the abolition of certain protocols (like the one that allowed dozens of courtiers to crowd around while the empress gave birth). There was also a new and strange emphasis on private family life. None of this would much help young Antoine, as she was called, when she went to uber-strict Versailles.

As there were so many other daughters to be married off first, Antoine was the subject of benign neglect. Her sub-par education meant she could barely read or write, even in her native German, before her 12th birthday, when things started to change. Thanks to various earlier betrothals, and a smallpox epidemic that killed or disfigured several of her sisters, she was the only daughter left when there was a chance for an alliance with old enemy France. She was betrothed to the Dauphin Louis Auguste, and her education and beautification (and lectures from her mother) were rapidly stepped up. She was married to the Dauphin by proxy on August 19, 1770 in the Church of the Augustine Friars, with her brother Ferdinand standing in for bridegroom. The “real wedding” took place May 16 the next year in the chapel at Versailles. It was quickly followed by the ritual bedding, and then–well, not much. The marriage was not consummated for another 7 years.

The reactions to the marriage in France were mixed. On one hand, the pretty young Dauphine was quite popular with the people, who saw her as a breath of fresh air after long years with the debauched Louis XV. On her first appearance in Paris in June 1773, over 50,000 people turned out to cheer her. But in the court, the new alliance between France and Austria was a tense one. The Dauphin’s aunts (Mesdames Tantes) nicknamed her “l’Autrichienne” (a pun on “bitch”–nice in-laws), and there was a brewing feud between Marie Antoinette and the king’s mistress Madame Du Barry. They did not actually speak to each other until New Year’s Day 1772, after many long lecturing letters from Maria Theresa about the dangers of alienating the king’s favorite.

To make up for the lack of action in her marriage, Marie Antoinette began to spend more on gambling (cards and horse races), trips to Paris, new gowns from the overpriced Rose Bertin, shoes, pomade, rouge, ostrich plumes, and lots of other stuff. She also formed deep friendships with many of her ladies, such as the morbidly sensitive Princesse de Lamballe and the fun-loving Comtesse de Polignac, who would eventually form the cornerstone of the envied and maligned Queen’s Private Society (Societe Particuliere de la Reine). She also found admirers in her brother-in-law the Comte d’Artoise, the Baron de Besenval, the Duc de Choigny, and Count Esterhazy. In 1778, she met the greatest admirer of all, the Swedish heartthrob Count Axel Von Fersen.

In April 1774, a week after the triumphant premiere of the opera Iphigenie en Aulide by her old teacher Gluck, Louis XV fell ill with smallpox. He died on May 10, and Marie Antoinette was Queen. Louis XVI was crowned at Rheims on June 11, 1775. Marie Antoinette was not crowned at the ceremony, but watched from a specially constructed box. Though her seat was to the side of the altar, there were still some complaints that she blocked the view with her immense pouf.

In August 1775, her husband gifted her with the Petite Trianon, first constructed for Madame de Pompadour. It became her retreat, a place to run away from stifling court etiquette and indulge in gardening and decorating, and parties for her Society. Her infamous hameau, where she could play at farming and peasantry, was built there.

In April 1777, her brother the Emperor Joseph paid a visit to Versailles, and, it seems, helped the royal couple with their Little Problem. Whatever he advised, it worked, and the marriage was consummated on April 18, 1777. On May 16, 1778, it was announced that the Queen was pregnant. Marie-Therese Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born December 19, after a long, difficult labor (and lots of people gawking). The long-awaited Dauphin, Louis Joseph Xavier Francois, was born October 22, 1781. Marie Antoinette again went against court etiquette and took a deep interest in the upbringing of her children. (Once started, they kept coming–Louis Charles, Duc de Normandie was born in 1785, and Princess Sophie, who did not live long, came along soon after).

Despite the production of “Children of France,” and a new program of economy and, er, maturity (marked by the donning of dark silks in place of muslin and ribbons), her unpopularity grew and grew. Perceived extravagance and attempts at political meddling earned her the nickname of “Madame Deficit” in the summer of 1787. In November, at the start of a bitter winter, things took a bad turn when the parlement was exiled and the May Edicts took effect in 1788. Bread prices began to rise due to the terrible harvest; the Dauphin became dangerously ill (he would die in June at the age of 7); and Marie Antoinette was hissed whenever she went out in public. In May 1789, the Estates General returned. The Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly and took the famous Tennis Court Oath. The situation escalated violently to the storming of the Bastille, July 14.

By the end of August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man was adopted, officially creating the beginning of constitutional monarchy in France. This did not appear to solve much, though. A dinner for the royal bodyguards at Versailles was described as an “orgy” in the newspapers, and in October Versailles was stormed and the royal family taken to Paris to live under house arrest at the Tuileries.

Anyhoo, to make a long story shorter–there was war between Austria and France, an aborted escape attempt, massacres and other bad things. On January 21, 1793, Louis was executed, and Marie Antoinette’s health deteriorated (she probably suffered from tuberculosis and uterine cancer, made worse by the harsh conditions of imprisonment). She was tried by revolutionary tribunal on October 14, accused of (among many things) having orgies at Versailles, sending millions of livres of treasury money to Austria, spying for Austria, and plotting to kill the Duc d’Orleans. After two days of proceedings, she was found guilty in the early morning of October 16 and executed later that day, a couple of weeks before her 39th birthday. Though at first buried in an unmarked grave, her body was recovered in 1815 and reburied at St. Denis.

If you could give a birthday party for any person in history, who would it be? And what would your party be like???

Last week I went down to Dallas to see an exhibit called “Star Struck: Hollywood Costumes and Designers, 1934-2006.” It was a smallish exhibit (18 gowns plus a collection of sketches), but it was very comprehensive and had some great stuff. If you visit here very often, you know how excited I get about movie costumes! You can see an article about the exhibit here.

A few of the highlights were:

Replicas of the green and white organdy barbecue gown from Gone With the Wind and the Royal Ascot gown and hat from My Fair Lady (because the originals either no longer exist or can’t be found). I’ve long had a lust for that hat (I LOVE hats!)

All the other costumes were originals, and included the red satin gown Nicole Kidman wore in Moulin Rouge

A couple of kimonos from Memoirs of a Geisha (not the ones in this pic, but similar)

The blue velvet suit from Titanic

And my very favorite, the wedding gown from Marie Antoinette! Photos weren’t allowed in the exhibit, but this gown was in a case that could be walked all around, so I could examine the elaborate silver trim, the cut of the satin, the lacings up the back. It was gorgeous. Someday, if I ever get up the courage to get married, I’ve decided on an eighteenth century theme, with a gown like this one. 🙂

We’re also coming up on my Very Favorite holiday–Halloween! I’m going to a party tonight, and this is my costume, based around a great hat I found at Target and some fabulous chiffon fabric for the sleeves.

Last time I was a witch it looked like this:

And Abigail is going as Snow White. Isn’t she just the cutest Disney Princess ever??? (Victoria has a very cute Jack Sparrow costume, but alas won’t wear it. I will try to get pics of her later).

Happy Halloween everyone! What is your costume, either real or fantasy?

Be sure and sign up for the Risky Regencies newsletters at riskies@yahoo.com, with “Newsletter” in the subject line. It’s all treats and no tricks!

Let’s talk a bit about an aspect of movies that is often not even really noticed, but which can make or break a story–the soundtrack.

Something of a tangent, but not entirely: last weekend I went to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age. I was really looking forward to it, since I liked the first Elizabeth film. The Elizabethan era is one of my very favorites. In grad school, I specialized in Elizabethan poetry, so I know that the history in that movie was, well, a big crock of almost total nonsense. I expected that would be true of The Golden Age, as well, and also that the costumes would be stupendous (if sometimes a bit silly–what was up with that gigantic flower??). I wasn’t disappointed by either. What I didn’t expect was that it would be something of a snooze-fest. It even made Mary Queen Scots and the Armada dull going, and even Clive Owen (looking quite yummy in his scruffy-explorer Walter Ralegh get-up) seemed to be sleep-walking through it all.

The first movie was highly suspenseful, dark, almost claustrophobic. It captured the danger of the times so well, and also the lavishness and the delicious bawdiness. Christopher Eccleston was an intensely menacing Duke of Norfolk; Cate Blanchett an astoundingly perfect queen (as she also was in TGA, though far too young-looking). That tension was lacking in this new film. It gave me way too much time to eat my Sour Patch Kids and ponder such stream-of-consciousness matters as–“Why does Phillip II persist in giggling constantly? Why does he only have such lame lines as “What of the Jesuit?” And which one is the Jesuit anyway? Rhys Ifans? Or that crazy kid who looks like a Calvin Klein underwear model? No, I think he’s supposed to be Babington. Maybe. Why get an actress of Samantha Morton’s caliber to play Mary Queen of Scots if they’re not really going to use her? She should star in her own movie. Mary: Age of Extreme Foolishness. I would definitely go see that. She’d have to lose that weird Scottish accent, though, and sound French like she’s supposed to. Wow, I do like that gown Abbie Cornish is wearing. Wonder where I could get one?”

Anyway, the point of all this is that there were a few scenes I liked. The one where the crazy underwear model tries to shoot Elizabeth; Mary’s execution; the one where the storm that will destroy the Armada (not, as the movie would have us believe, Clive Owen) is brewing, and Elizabeth walks out on a cliff in a flowing white chemise. Oh, and the Volte dance bit. I do love bits with dances. Those scenes had a power lacking in much else, and one of the important reasons was the very effective use of music.

Another movie that did this very well was Marie Antoinette. I liked it despite the very bad screenplay and the less-than-stellar acting because, aside from looking gorgeous, it sounded weirdly great. The montage of life at Versailles set to Vivaldi; the masked ball where dancers twirl around to Hong Kong Garden. Terrific, if also very, very odd.

I like to set my books to soundtracks, too. This is a great way to waste time not writing while also feeling like I am doing something productive for my creative process. My current WIP is the second in my “Muses of Mayfair” series, Clio’s story, set in Sicily in 1818. Here are a few songs I’ve found for it:

1) Albinoni’s Adagio

2) Dave Matthews Band, Crash

3) Mozart, Der Holle Rache (the Queen of the Night’s second aria), The Magic Flute

4) Nickelback, Rock Star (I’m usually contemptuous of Nickelback, I admit, but this one has a Big Dumb Fun infectiousness, much like that “tell me what you want what you really really want” Spice Girls song. Maybe I should include that one, too)

5) The Cure, Pictures of You

6) BowWowWow, Aphrodisiac (stolen from the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, which I like to listen to when on the treadmill)

7) Mascagni, Intermezzo sinfonico from Cavalleria Rusticana

I need something for a skinny-dipping scene, too, if anyone has any ideas…

If you did a soundtrack for your own WIP, or your favorite book, what would it include? Anyone seen any good movies lately???

A few weeks ago, I did something I know people here at Risky Regencies will sympathize with–I ordered a couple of books from abebooks, and when they arrived realized I already had them. Ooops. (The duplicates will probably pop up here as a giveaway soon, so stay tuned!). Then I knew it must be time for a Book Check.

I do this once or twice a year, going through my shelves, the stacks of books on the floor, and the plastic storage tubs of books. It gives me a chance to do some much-needed dusting (I am really glad you can’t actually see my house, because honestly housekeeping isn’t my forte), find books to donate to the library book sale (though this doesn’t really often happen–I think I got rid of all of 2 books last time), and see what I have that I might have forgotten about (and thus not order them again). This process takes quite a while, as I usually end up sitting on the floor re-reading stuff or looking at pictures in art books.

One book I found hiding on the shelf this time was Benjamin Woolley’s Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron’s Daughter. Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, aside from her father (who she never knew, of course, her parents having separated so acrimoniously when she was an infant) was a very interesting person in her own right. Raised by her wackadoo mother in an uber-strict manner, emphasizing science, logic, and morality (i.e. the anti-Byron), she was a part of the early Victorian interest in new technology and science. She was a gifted mathematician (something about using punch cards to calculate Bernoulli numbers, and an interest in the concept of imaginary numbers), and although some of her interests were, er, questionable (mesmerism and magnetism, and later using her own mathematical system to lose disastrously at the horse races) some was of lasting impact. She worked with her friend Charles Babbage on an invention called the Analytical Engine (this is where the punch cards came in) that is considered an early forerunner of the computer. She died at 37 (still harangued by her mother) and was buried next to her father, but her influence can still be seen–the US Department of Defense called their computer language “Ada.”

I’ve often said that the one kind of hero or heroine I could never write about would be a mathematician. I’m a terrible dunce with numbers–they lost me somewhere around first grade with those pesky multiplication tables. In school, my abstract brain preferred things like analyzing poetry, where there was no “right” answer. After all, who can say what “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock” really means, yet 2+2 is always 4 no matter how you might feel about it at the moment. I’m so deeply impressed by people like Ada (or like my future sister-in-law, an engineer) who are good at such things. They’re so mysterious and strange to me. It would take an immense amount of hard research to make any mathematical character I wrote about believable. And yet inspiration is a strange thing. A heroine who is interested in algebra has taken up residence in my mind, and may one day have to come out on the page (though she is in line behind at least 4 other projects, all with stubbornly non-scientific heroines).

What were your favorite subjects in school? Any that you hated? What sort of character would you feel challenged to write or read about?

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