On October 16, 1793, erstwhile French queen Marie Antoinette is executed by beheading on charges of treason.
The execution came in the midst of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Her famed extravagance, along with the fact that she was a symbolic target on which to pin France’s problems, made her unpopular among those who would come to seal her fate. Contemporary papers describe in detail, though with some clear bias, the scene leading up to her execution and their feelings on the whole affair.
With her beheading, Marie Antoinette followed her husband, King Louis XVI, to the grave. He was executed nine months prior on similar charges.
Find more on Marie Antoinette, King Louis XVI, and other events of the French Revolution with a search on Newspapers.com.
Many may be unaware of French Asylum in Bradford Co PA. A group of nobels built a grand maison there for her to escape to. The site is now a interesting interpretive center. Many French who stayed here had many decendants that still live in the area. The graveyard at Homet’s Ferry has many stones of the period. Charles Homet was one of the court who remained and built a mill and ferry at the Susquehanna River in Wyalusing. Nice place to visit.