Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna von Hasburg-Lothringen, knwon to history as Marie Antoinette, was born an archduchess of Austria, and later became Queen of France and Navarre.
She was the daughterof the all powerful Maria Theresa who reigned in Vienna. France and Austria having settled their differences seven years earlier, in 1770 the heir to the French throne, LouisXV's grandson, married the Autrian archduchess, sealing an alliance that certain people still felt was unnatural. the bride was fifteen years old, the groom sixteen. Their marriage spurred the construction of the Opera, where the wedding festivities were held.
Marie Antoinette is perhaps best remembered for her legendary excesses, and for her death: she was executed by guillotine at the height of the French Revolution in 1793, for the crime of treason.