Marie's lifestyle and the Revolution

I don't think that government programs to help the poor caused the French Revolution. People who throw bread riots don't as a rule get angry when the government is sinking too much money into their interests.

Imagine you are a poor peasant who pays so much tax you can't provide for yourself or your family any longer, and the taxes are continuously increased to pay for war etc, while you have a hard time getting food. You look at your monarch who is living in ridiculous excess and waste, I think you're bound to be pissed off and in want of change.

Marie A's lifestyle was hugely wasteful, there was a royal tradition that the queen never wore anything twice, so she was buying and discarding all those fabulous gowns, shoes, and accessories every single day... at the expense of taxpayers who didn't have enough to eat. Ironically, she didn't like living that way, it was forced on her by the court, but she didn't stop until it was too late.

She did not single-handedly bankrupt the country, not at all, the larger problem was that the entire upper class was trying to live the same way. Every noble family with a presence at Versailles dressed and furnished their homes in the extravagant Versailles fashion, and every landowner who hoped to rise in the world tried to fake the same sort of lifestyle. This meant squeezing every last penny possible out of their tenants and servants... and imagine how much you'd resent the noble class if you couldn't afford firewood in winter, because your landlord wanted to buy diamond buckles for his court shoes.

Marie A was regarded as a personification of the wasteful upper class, for some reason all the resentment the people had for the ridiculous luxury of the time got focused on her. None of it was her idea and most of it was outside her control, but she was a foreigner and an easy target.





" Jack, you have debauched my sloth! "

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