Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 724 Marie Antoinette

For people today, the records about Marie Antoinette may not all be true, or during the French Revolution, a series of information transmissions were somewhat deformed due to various reasons.

To give the simplest example, a familiar legend is that when Marie Antoinette once heard that the peasants were starving, she said coldly, "Then let them eat." cake."

Although this saying has been widely spread, and has even evolved into a common saying, similar to the Chinese saying "Why not eat minced meat", there is no evidence to prove that it was actually said by Marie Antoinette.

According to scholars' research, it was the French Jean-Jacques Rousseau who first wrote this sentence in his "Confessions".Rousseau said that he himself never had the habit of drinking without eating, but always left some bread with his meal.

Writing here, the philosopher said, "I am reminded of the foolish remark of a noble princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, to which she replied: 'Let them eat cake, then!'"

The researchers analyzed that the original text of Rousseau's "Let them eat cake!" is "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!" This conceited tone is not like Marie Antoinette's traditional speech.

What's more, Rousseau said "a noble princess", not "queen", and there is no reason to attribute it to Queen Marie Antoinette.

In recent years, scholars have proved that this sentence was actually said by Queen Marie Theresa of Louis XIV of France, who was more than a century earlier than Marie Antoinette.

It can be seen that after having prejudices, it is easy for people to make a determination that violates the facts, but from another perspective, those folk legends may not all be false, but they have been exaggerated maliciously.

Marie Antoinette, for example, lived a life of luxury at one time, but she was not as corrupt and stupid as people imagined.After coming to France, her mother taught her many times:
"A queen should not take it lightly at all times and let herself fall into luxury." "Don't learn the frivolity of the French, but be a serious German, and you should be proud of it."

In fact, when she was more mature, she was quite restrained and restrained in her previous life style. She dressed in plain clothes, and she even posed for portraits with her children, hoping to change herself in the past. The image among the people has only little effect.

It's a pity that this kind of simplicity is only relative to the previous life. Unlike Louis XVI, whose hobby is to be a locksmith, she has a great sensitivity to the fashion, fashion, and art of the time.

The problem is that no matter which era art and fashion need to burn a lot of money to support.Therefore, there is no doubt that Mary was extravagant and extravagant.

But it is obviously nonsense to say that France's finances have been ruined by her. No matter how much a woman buys clothes and jewelry to decorate the palace, she will not empty the treasury unless there is no money in the treasury.

For example, Emperor Sui Yang of China was also this kind of prodigal son, but in the history of China, he believed that the other party spent all his money mainly on the three conquests of Korea, the construction of the Grand Canal and Daxing City, which is the future Chang'an, and he did not think it was His court consumed most of the wealth.

In fact the same is true of France.The country's finances have been going downhill since Louis XIV. Louis XV failed to solve this problem and made it worse-how many mistresses did he have but no money to marry his daughter? Even Louis XVI's wedding was borrowed. run by money—

Not even Louis XVI, who had just succeeded to the throne.So Mary, who spent too much money, hit the gun.In fact, she didn't marry to be a queen, and the life of the French is no better.

To a certain extent, this Louis XIV is a bit like Qianlong of China. His family did reach its peak, but it also left a lot of problems for the successors behind, and laid the foundation for the collapse of the dynasty. The seeds of destruction are planted.

Apart from this most obvious point, the remaining charges also have a lot of room for discussion. For example, in the attack on Mary's private life, it is highly probable that she has a lover, but other content related to personal morality is obviously ignored. Dirty water splashed.

As for opposing the French Revolution, this is of course true. Historically speaking, this is her only undoubted charge, after all, it blocked the trend of history.

What she had accepted since she was a child was the idea of ​​the divine right of kings. Her mother was from the Habsburg family. After 40 years of being a grand duchess, she was cut off from the world of ordinary people after she was born.

If an excellent politician with a keen sense of politics may still weigh the pros and cons, a little princess without political vision nods to agree that the nobles and the poor are born equal... Think about it, this is impossible, after all, only a few people betray their own class.

So to sum up, Marie Antoinette is an innocent and pure princess by nature.She not only has the natural, upright, frank and enthusiastic personality of the Austrians.She was also influenced by her parents' "a very unusual citizen-style couple's life in that era." She was used to being free and casual and letting everything take its course, rather than being serious and putting on airs.

She is a complete woman in a purely human sense.She doesn't care about things of a social nature, the duties of a princess, the responsibilities of a princess, the quality of a politician, etc., etc., etc. She doesn't care.

So she paid her life as a price in exchange for her more than 30 years of luxurious life, so the final ending can be regarded as corresponding to what she did.

And her life also coincides with the description of the time when she was besieged in the Tuiler Palace in "Queen of the Dead" by the biographer Zweig.

"She realized that fate favored her too much, and she had a good journey, a royal birth, a queen, and good luck followed, and she didn't make any effort for it.

For a long time, she had always thought that she didn't need to struggle, that ministers and subjects would do the work for her, and that everything would be smooth sailing, and she enjoyed all the gifts of fate without hesitation.

Only now did I discover that such a gift did not come without a price.It wasn't until she needed to use her intelligence and ability to save her own life and that of her child that she realized that her life had been empty and pale, and she had never accumulated any strength to fight against adversity. "

"She is not a bad person, and her execution is a tragedy, but it is inevitable." Joan of Arc said after hearing the life story of the Austrian princess, "at least from my point of view, there is no problem with her death sentence. "

After all, Joan of Arc has always regarded herself as an ordinary Frenchman, so Joan of Arc felt that it was very reasonable for such a queen to be executed after being replaced by the perspective of ordinary people.

"You're right." Liang En nodded, "But it seems that Marie Antoinette made preparations for her escape when she realized that something was wrong, that's why we were able to find the batch hidden in the Swiss bank this time." jewelry."

"These jewelry should be the boutiques that Marie Antoinette prepared for her future escape career. They should be very valuable in that era, not to mention that there are antiques as a bonus today."

"But then again, that bank is indeed very powerful. If it were placed in an ordinary bank, it might not be found long ago. Unlike this bank, which can be preserved for hundreds of years."

(End of this chapter)