Authors: Antonia Fraser
Lyell, Catherine
Mackau, Madame de
Magnin, Charles, Abbé
Mailhe, Jean Baptiste
Maillé, Vicomte de
Mailly, Louise Julie, Comtesse de
Malden, Saint-Jean de
Malesherbes, Chrétien de,
Manchester, George Montagu, 4th Duke, and Duchess of
Mandat, Marquis de
Mannlich, Johann Christian von
Manuel, Pierre
Marat, Jean Paul
Marchand (of Temple kitchen)
Marchand, Sieur
Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples (MA’s sister; “Charlotte”): marriage prospects; place in family; character; relations with MA; at brother Joseph’s wedding; marriage to Ferdinand of Naples; mother’s advice to on marriage; distressed on leaving Austria; marriage relations; pregnancies and children; official status; and Joseph’s love for MA; stands godmother to Louis Charles; and MA’s remaining with husband; on proposal to confine MA in convent; on MA’s separation from son; fears for MA’s life; reaction to MA’s death; on MA’s love of pleasure
Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France (Louis XVI’s mother)
Maria Lesczinska, Queen of Louis XV
Maria Louisa (of Asturias), Princess
Maria Louisa (of Parma), Princess (
later
Queen of Spain)
Maria Teresa, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire (MA’s mother): and birth of MA; children and motherhood; speaks French; marriage; succeeds father; accused of writing to Mme. de Pompadour; appearance; and ceremonial; and husband’s infidelities; improves Schönbrunn; entertains Mozart; insists on female obedience; dominance and strength of mind; favours Marie Christine; MA’s relations with; and husband’s death; preoccupation with children’s marriages; near-death from smallpox; on MA’s character; and MA’s educational deficiencies; cultivates Durfort for dynastic marriage with France; requests Louis XV’s indulgence for MA; takes communion with MA on separation; anxiety over MA’s religious state; instructions to MA on marriage; addresses Louis XV; instructs daughters in sex matters; gives up wearing rouge; dispute and Comtesse de Brionne; interest in MA’s menstrual cycles; Mercy d’Argenteau’s attachment to; correspondence with MA at Versailles; and MA’s marriage relations; and MA’s official visit to Paris; wrongly believed dying; reprimands MA for reference to husband; on MA’s “dissipation,”; and
libelles
against MA; and MA’s following fashions; and Joseph’s militarism over Bavaria; and MA’s pregnancy; and MA’s injury during childbirth; disapproves of MA’s breastfeeding; and Bavarian settlement; anxiety over MA’s producing a son; decline and death; banishes courtiers from presence at childbirth
Marianna, Archduchess of Austria (Marie Teresa’s sister)
Marianne, Archduchess of Austria (MA’s sister): stands as proxy godmother to MA; disablement; birth; and mother’s favouring Marie Christine; remains unmarried; on mother’s decline
Mariazell, northern Styria
Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (Louis XV’s mother)
Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France: and “Let them eat cake” story; birth; baptism, ; ancestry and genealogy; marriage prospects; childhood and upbringing; meets Pitt and Wilberforce; appreciation of gardens; musical interests; appearance and character; bearing and carriage; dancing; called Antoine in youth; place in family; relations with mother; at brother Joseph’s wedding; and father’s death; and death of sister Josepha; educational deficiencies; learns and speaks French; hairstyle; portraits and drawings of; betrothal; religious piety and observance; bridal progress to Paris; commemorative medals for; dowry; trousseau; marriage contract; good relations with servants; love of children; enters puberty; nicknamed
l’Autrichienne
; mother’s instructions to on marriage; ceremonies and entertainments on departure to Paris; renounces hereditary rights to Austria and Lorraine; addresses Louis XV; proxy marriage to Ferdinand; departure from Austria; handed over at Strasbourg; first meeting with husband; Louis XV meets; relations with French “royal aunts,”; arrives at Versailles; wedding ceremony; presented with jewels; marriage relations; life at Versailles; correspondence with mother; compassion and humanitarianism; riding; coolness towards Mme. Du Barry; relations with Princesse de Lamballe; irregular menstrual cycle; early childlessness; relations with Josephine, Comtesse de Provence; and diplomatic problems over Poland; reading and libraries; pet dogs; growing political awareness and activism; first official visit to Paris; visits to opera and theatre; husband consummates marriage with; homesickness for Vienna; meets Fersen; supports Gluck; becomes queen; and husband’s rule; role and status as queen; Versailles apartments linked to husband’s by staircase; lacks interest in political intrigue; household; accused of lesbian practices; attitude to sex; popularity; and husband’s coronation; adopts village boy (Jacques); and birth of Artois’ son; gambling; attitude to admirers; mocking manner; attacked and slandered in
libelles
(pamphlets) and plays; watches dawn break; dress and fashions; extravagance and love of pleasure; gardening at Petit Trianon and Choisy; and brother Joseph’s visit; first pregnancy; and Bavarian crisis (1777–9); hair problems; and birth of daughter (Marie Thérèse); attempts breastfeeding; charitable acts; contracts measles; improved relations with husband after birth of daughter; stays at Petit Trianon; and daughter’s upbringing; introduces new manners at Versailles; amateur theatricals; social set (
Société Particulier de la Reine
); political indifference; birth of son (Louis Joseph); and mother’s death; entertains Grand Duke Paul; Joseph requests influence with husband in foreign affairs; and Princesse de Guéméné’s resignation; grants royal favours; pregnancy and miscarriage (1783); developing relations with Fersen; builds model village at Petit Trianon; accused of collecting pornography; on Duke of Dorset; acquires Saint Cloud; Fersen gives dog to; further pregnancy and birth of third child (Louis Charles); enthusiasm for interior decoration and furniture; limited travelling; taste in painting; and Diamond Necklace Affair; growing unpopularity; puts on weight; thirtieth birthday; 1785 pregnancy and birth of Sophie; rumoured affair with Cardinal Rohan; effect of Rohan verdict on; health problems; scruple over influencing appointment of French ministers; and international affairs; accused of drunkenness and orgies; welcomes Brienne’s appointment; blamed for financial crisis; and death of daughter Sophie; and Necker’s return as Finance Controller; melancholy and pessimism; and Third Estate; on weakening Franco-Austrian alliance; at meeting of Estates General; and son Louis Joseph’s death; plea to King to stand firm; supports Lambesc; dislikes tricolour; proposed immurement in convent; remains at Versailles (1789); devotion to children in Revolution; maintains court routine; threatened by mob at Versailles; taken from Versailles to Paris; life in Tuileries; believes in compromise; insists on staying with husband; rejects Augeard’s plan to escape to Vienna; escape plans; resumes political role; and Mercy’s departure; praised by Burke; and flight of Mesdames Tantes; on attempted flight; denied Regency; hopes for help from Austria; takes Easter Communion; arrested at Varennes and returned to Paris; demonized on return to Paris; interrogated about flight; physical deterioration and ageing; and Louis XVI’s acceptance of new Constitution; view of new Constitution; pleads for armed congress against Revolutionary France; later escape plans; on French war with Austria; hostility to as “enemy alien”; threatened by mob in Tuileries; at commemoration of fall of Bastille; hopes of foreign rescue; leaves Tuileries for Assembly; detention in the Temple; learns of Allied military successes; horror at death of Princesse de Lamballe; jewellery; teaches daughter in Temple; separated from husband; in Louis XVI’s last will and testament; and husband’s execution; mourning; hopes for release in prisoner exchange; prospective fate considered; Robespierre demands trial of; ill-health in prison; Louis Charles separated from; transferred to and detained in Conciergerie; possessions sold; interrogated before Revolutionary Tribunal; fate decided by Committee of Public Safety; accused of sexual abuse of Louis Charles; rumoured final Communion; sentenced to death; executed; burial; effects distributed; exhumed and reburied (1815); memorial sculptures and paintings ghost seen; posthumous reputation; life assessed; supposed lovers; blamed for French Revolution; as scapegoat
Marie Antonia, Electress of Bavaria
Marie Christine, Archduchess (MA’s sister; “Mimi”): paintings; place in family; favoured by mother; qualities marriage to Albert; Canova monument to; suspected of tale-bearing on MA; and Bavarian crisis; and mother’s final illness; visits Versailles; in Belgium; exile in Bonn; and MA’s escape plan; believes MA better not to have married1; flees from French
Marie de’ Medici, Regent of France
Marie Louise, Empress of Napoleon I
Marie Thérèse Charlotte (MA’s daughter;
later
Duchesse d’Angoulême and Dauphine): birth and baptism; childhood and upbringing; marriage prospects; appearance and character; coldness towards mother; bastardy charge against; in group portrait; and death of sister Sophie; illness; sees Tippoo Sultan’s envoys; and death of elder brother; Madame de Tourzel acts as governess to; praises MA’s courage in mob attack on Versailles; first communion; not subject to personal threats; escape attempt; on arrest at Varennes; threatened by mob in Tuileries; life in Tuileries; makes no mention of departure from Tuileries; in Assembly; kept in the Temple; and mother’s reaction to death of Princesse de Lamballe; MA teaches in Temple; separated from father; sees father before execution; and mother’s reaction to father’s execution; reaches puberty; death threats against; and mother’s transfer from Tower; denies Louis Charles’s claims of sexual abuse; in MA’s final letter to Madame Elisabeth; freed (1795); ignorance of MA’s death; marriage to Angoulàme and childlessness; on mother’s affection for Maria Carolina; exile and death; visits parents’ graves
Marie Thérèse, Queen of Louis XIV
Marly
Marmontel, Jean François;
Histoire des Incas
Marsan, Marie Louise, Comtesse de
Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland
Mary Queen of Scots
Matignon, Caroline, Comtesse de
Maubourg (deputy)
Mauconseil resolution (1792)
Maurepas, Jean Frédéric, Comte de: as Louis XVI’s chief minister; and Louis XVI’s coronation; MA interviews on Bavarian crisis; and Necker’s resignation; death
Maximilian, Archduke of Austria (MA’s brother; “Max”): childhood; birth; place in family; portrait miniature sent to MA; corpulence; visits Versailles; as Elector of Cologne
Maximilian Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
Maza, Sarah: “The Diamond Necklace Affair Revisited”
Mémoire des Princes
Menchikov, Princess “Ketty” Mercier, Abbé
Mercy d’Argenteau, Florimond Claude, Comte de: chooses MA’s trousseau; reports to Maria Teresa on MA’s menstrual condition; arranges transfer of MA’s dog to France; and Versailles etiquette; background and career; as MA’s advisor; reports on MA to Maria Teresa; deplores influence of royal aunts on MA; and MA’s plea for Duchesse de Gramont; warns MA of proposed marriage of Princesse de Lamballe; and MA’s attitude to Du Barry; and Franco-Austrian alliance; letters from Maria Teresa; and MA’s consummation of marriage; on Louis Auguste’s subservience; disparages Comtesse d’Artois; on MA’s early childlessness; on Louis XVI’s rule; and linking of MA’s apartments to husband’s; designs role for MA as queen; on Comtesse de Polignac; mishandles Max’s visit to Versailles; on MA’s financial position; approves MA acquiring Petit Trianon; and MA’s jewellery; and Joseph’s visit to France; on MA’s feelings for brother Joseph; suffers from haemorrhoids; attempts to influence Louis XVI through MA; sends message to Vienna on birth of MA’s daughter; and MA’s stay at Petit Trianon; and MA’s reforms at Versailles; on MA’s amateur theatricals; counsels MA against Polignac connection; and Maria Teresa’s death; relations with Joseph II; on birth of MA’s son; on MA’s political innocence; influence on MA on Joseph II’s behalf; on appointment of Yolande de Polignac as royal governess; and MA’s preoccupation with daughter’s education; and Diamond Necklace Affair; and MA’s 1785 pregnancy; and trial of Rohan; on Marie Christine’s visit to MA; and appointment of successor to Vergennes; on Louis XVI’s low morale; and Necker’s recall; on popular blame for MA; on Louis XVI before revolution; on Yolande de Polignac’s rise to favour; house searched for arms; on outbreak of French Revolution; and MA’s position in Paris (1789); and MA’s removal to Paris; on MA’s poor relations with brother Leopold, advises MA to resume political role; departs Paris; MA writes to in Brussels4; offers no Austrian help to MA; and MA’s attempted flight; Fersen delivers message to in Brussels; on Provence’s hopes for Regency; MA proposes return to France; MA writes to on Austrian interference in French affairs; MA gives details of conduct of war to; MA tells of mob in Tuileries; flees from Belgium; on MA’s right to Regency on death of husband; hopes for exchange of MA as prisoner; opposes Fersen’s plan to liberate MA; and execution of MA
Mericourt, Théroigne de
Merklein (German cabinet-maker)
Mesmer, Franz Anton
Metastasio, Pietro Bonaventura (Trapassi) Metz
Meudon, château de