Marie Antoinette lived over 200 years ago in France yet even today she is as well known as she was back then.
The favourite daughter of sixteen children she had a very extravagant lifestyle which only became more wealthy with her marriage to Louis Auguste of France. Her husband became king in 1774 after his grandfather, Louis VX died of small pox. Marie Antoinette was 19 and now wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, she visited theatres, masked balls, and went gambling regularly.
Unfortunately this all ended when the French started the French Revolution accusing Marie Antoinette of having sympathies with Austria, her birth land and accusing the royal family of being why France was dropping into recession.
Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis decided to run to Vareenes, its said the stress turned her blond hair white over night. Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison.
Before they had tried to run she visited a friend called Lady Abercorn. To her she gifted a small locket with a lock of her blond hair in it enclosed under glass.
The locket is heart shaped and measures 4.6cm, from the suspension loop hangs a chain with a dainty little key on the end. This key fits into the lock hanging from the bottom of the pendant.
On the back is an inscription which reads:
King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on the 21st January 1793 for high treason, to this day he is the only French king to have been executed. Marie Antoinette was tried nine months later and charged with treason. She also went to the guillotine on 16 October 1793.
Her locket and others like it are held in British Musuem.
The favourite daughter of sixteen children she had a very extravagant lifestyle which only became more wealthy with her marriage to Louis Auguste of France. Her husband became king in 1774 after his grandfather, Louis VX died of small pox. Marie Antoinette was 19 and now wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, she visited theatres, masked balls, and went gambling regularly.
Unfortunately this all ended when the French started the French Revolution accusing Marie Antoinette of having sympathies with Austria, her birth land and accusing the royal family of being why France was dropping into recession.
Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis decided to run to Vareenes, its said the stress turned her blond hair white over night. Louis XVI was deposed and the monarchy abolished on 21 September 1792; the royal family was subsequently imprisoned at the Temple Prison.
Before they had tried to run she visited a friend called Lady Abercorn. To her she gifted a small locket with a lock of her blond hair in it enclosed under glass.
On the back is an inscription which reads:
A lock of MARIE ANTOINETTE, Queen of FRANCE given by her to Lady Abercorn by whom it was given to her sister Lady Julia Lockwood, whose daughter Lady Napier gave it to W.S. 1853.
Around the outer edge of the locket is delicate filigree in the form of spirals inside of a flat wire rim.Her locket and others like it are held in British Musuem.
