HistoryCourt characters

Marie-Antoinette occupied the Queen’s apartment in which she had to submit to the obligations of her position: levee, toilette, audiences, public meals, etc. But, more used to the simple ceremonial of Austrian palaces, she found it hard to put up with the pomp and ceremony of the Etiquette at Versailles and sought a more intimate life. Surrounded by friends who formed a coterie, she often took refuge in her inner Cabinets in the Petit Trianon palace given to her by Louis XVI, or in her Hamlet, a genuine and picturesque village built for her.

After eight long years of marriage, while the court awaited an heir, she finally gave birth to her first child in 1778. As the eldest daughter, her title was “Madame Royale”, and Marie-Antoinette gave her the nickname “Mousseline la sérieuse” (Serious Mousseline). Her next child was the Dauphin (the heir to the throne) Louis Joseph Xavier-François, born in 1781. Some years later she gave birth to Louis-Charles, whom she nicknamed “Chou d'amour” (Little Darling) and who became Dauphin on the death of his elder brother in 1789, and then Sophie-Béatrice.