But this black and white characterisation of Louis’ reign fails to take into account the dire circumstances of the crown he inherited, the global political situation and the impact of Enlightenment ideas on the wider population. Revolution and the guillotine were far from inevitable when he became king in 1770.

Here are 10 facts about Louis XVI, King of France.

1. He was born the second son of the dauphin, and the grandson of Louis XV

Louis-Auguste of France was born on 23 August 1754, the second son of the Dauphin. He was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, and proved himself to be intelligent and physically capable, but very shy.

After the death of his elder brother in 1761, and his father in 1765, the 11 year old Louis-Auguste became the new dauphin and his life changed rapidly. He was given a strict new governor and his education changed drastically in an attempt to shape him into a future king of France.

2. He was married to the Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette for political reasons

In 1770, aged just 15, Louis married the Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette, cementing an Austro-French alliance which was becoming increasingly unpopular amongst the people.

The young royal couple were both naturally shy, and virtually complete strangers when they married. It took several years for their marriage to be consummated: a fact which gained considerable attention and generated tension.

An 18th century engraving of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Image Credit: Public Domain

3. The royal couple had 4 children and ‘adopted’ a further 6

Despite initial problems in the marriage bed, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette went on to have 4 children: the youngest, Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix, died in infancy and the couple were said to be devastated.

As well as their biological children, the royal couple also continued the tradition of ‘adopting’ orphans. The pair adopted 6 children, including a poor orphan, a slave boy, and the children of palace servants who died. 3 of these adopted children lived with the royal palace, whereas 3 merely lived at the expense of the royal family.

4. He attempted to reform French government

Louis became king aged 19, in 1774. The French monarchy was an absolute one and it was deeply in debt, with several other troubles on the horizon.

In line with Enlightenment ideas which were sweeping across Europe, the new Louis XVI made attempts to make reforms to religious, foreign and financial policy in France. He signed the 1787 Edict of Versailles (also known as the Edict of Tolerance), which gave non-Catholics civil and legal status in France, as well as the opportunity to practice their faiths.

He also tried to implement more radical financial reforms, including new forms of taxations to try and get France out of debt. These were blocked by the nobles and parlements. Few understood the dire financial situation the Crown was in, and successive ministers struggled to improve the country’s finances.

5. He was notoriously indecisive

Many considered Louis’ greatest weakness to be his shyness and indecision. He struggled to make decisions and lacked the authority or character needed to succeed as an absolute monarch. In a system where everything relied on the strength of the monarch’s personality, Louis’ desire to be liked and listen to public opinion proved not only difficult, but dangerous.

6. His support for the American War of Independence caused financial problems at home

France had lost most of its colonies in North America to the British during the Seven Years’ War: unsurprisingly, when the opportunity came to wreak revenge by supporting the American Revolution, France was only too keen to take it up.

Military assistance was sent to the rebels by France at great cost. Around 1,066 million livres were spent on pursuing this policy, financed entirely by new loans at high interest rather than by increasing taxation in France.

With little material gain from its involvement and a financial crisis brewing, ministers attempted to hide the true state of French finances from the people.

7. He oversaw the first Estates-General in 200 years

The Estates-General was a legislative and consultative assembly which had representatives from the three French estates: it had no power itself, but historically was used as an advisory body by the king. In 1789, Louis summoned the Estates-General for the first time since 1614.

This proved to be something of a mistake. Efforts to force fiscal reform failed miserably. The Third Estate, made up of ordinary people, declared itself a National Assembly and swore that they wouldn’t go home until France had a constitution.

8. He was increasingly seen as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Regime

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived a life of luxury in the Palace of Versailles: sheltered and isolated, they saw and knew little of what life was like for the millions of ordinary people in France at the time. As discontent grew, Louis did little to placate or understand the grievances people raised.

Marie Antoinette’s frivolous, expensive lifestyle particularly aggrieved people. The Diamond Necklace Affair (1784-5) found her accused of participation in a scheme to defraud jewellers of an extremely expensive diamond necklace. Whilst she was found innocent, the scandal seriously damaged her reputation and that of the royal family.

9. He was tried for high treason

The Palace of Versailles was stormed by an angry mob on 5 October 1789. The royal family were captured and taken to Paris, where they were forced to accept their new roles as constitutional monarchs. They were effectively at the mercy of the revolutionaries as they hashed out how French government would work going forward.

After nearly 2 years of negotiations, Louis and his family attempted to flee Paris for Varennes, in the hope that they would be able to escape France from there and rally enough support to restore the monarchy and quash the revolution.

Their plan failed: they were recaptured and Louis’ plans uncovered. This was enough to put him on trial for high treason, and it quickly became clear that there was no way he would not be found guilty and punished accordingly.

An engraving of the execution of King Louis XVI.

Image Credit: Public Domain

10. His execution marked the end of 1,000 years of continuous French monarchy

King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793, having been found guilty of high treason. He used his last moments to pardon those who signed his death warrant and declare himself innocent of the crimes he was accused of. His death was quick, and onlookers described him as meeting his end bravely.

His wife, Marie Antoinette, was executed nearly 10 months later, on 16 October 1793. Louis’ death marked the end of over 1,000 years of continuous monarchy, and many have argued it was a key moment in the radicalisation of revolutionary violence.

Forced to flee France following the outbreak of revolution in 1789, Vigée Le Brun found continued success across Europe: she was elected to art academies across 10 cities and was a favourite of royal patrons across the continent.

Here are 10 facts about one of history’s most successful female portrait painters, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.

1. She was painting portraits professionally by her early teens

Born in Paris in 1755, Élisabeth Louise Vigée was sent to a convent aged 5. Her father was a portrait painter and it’s believed she first had instruction from him as a child: he died when she was just 12 years old.

Denied formal training, she relied on contacts and her innate skill to generate clients, and by the time she was in her early teens, she was painting portraits for her patrons. She became a member of the Académie de Saint-Luc in 1774, admitted only after they unwittingly exhibited her works at one of their salons.

2. She married an art dealer

In 1776, aged 20, Elisabeth married Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun, a painter and art dealer based in Paris. Although she was going from success to success on her own merits, Le Brun’s contacts and wealth helped fund more exhibitions of her work, and gave her greater scope to paint portraits of the nobility. The couple had a daughter, Jeanne, who was known as Julie.

3. She was a favourite of Marie Antoinette

As she became increasingly well-known, Vigée Le Brun found herself with a new patron: Queen Marie Antoinette of France. Whilst she was never granted any official titles, Vigée Le Brun painted over 30 portraits of the queen and her family, often with a relatively intimate feel to them.

Her 1783 painting, Marie-Antoinette in a Muslin Dress, shocked many as it pictured the queen in a simple, informal white cotton gown rather than in full regalia. Portraits of the royal children and the queen were also used as a political tool, in an attempt to rehabilitate Marie Antoinette’s image.

Marie Antoinette with a rose, painted by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1783.

Image Credit: Public Domain

4. She became a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture

Despite her successes, Vigée Le Brun was initially denied entry to the prestigious Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture because her husband was an art dealer, which violated their rules. It was only after King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette applied pressure to the Académie that they changed their decision.

Vigée Le Brun was one of only 15 women to be admitted to the Académie in the years between 1648 and 1793.

5. She painted almost all of the leading women at Versailles

As a favourite artist of the queen, Vigée Le Brun became increasingly sought after by the women at Versailles. As well as the royal family, she painted leading courtiers, the wives of statesmen and even some of the statesmen themselves.

Vigée Le Brun was also particularly used to paint ‘mother and daughter’ portraits: she completed several self-portraits of herself and her daughter Julie.

6. She fled into exile when the French Revolution arrived

When the royal family were arrested in October 1789, Vigée Le Brun and her daughter Julie fled France, fearing for their safety. Whilst their close connections to the royals had served them well thus far, all of a sudden it became clear that now, they would prove to put the family in an extremely precarious position.

Her husband, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre, remained in Paris and defended claims that his wife had fled France, instead stating she had travelled to Italy to ‘instruct and improve herself’ and her painting. There may have been some truth in that: Vigée Le Brun certainly made the most of her time abroad.

7. She was elected to 10 prestigious art academies

The same year she left France, 1789, Vigée Le Brun was elected to the Academy in Parma, and subsequently found herself a member of academies in Rome and St Petersburg, amongst others.

8. She painted the royal families of Europe

The emotional tenderness of Vigée Le Brun’s portraits, combined with her ability to connect with her female sitters in a way male portrait artists seemingly often failed to do, led Vigée Le Brun’s work to be extremely popular amongst noblewomen.

On her travels, Vigée Le Brun painted the Queen of Naples, Maria Carolina (who was also Marie Antoinette’s sister) and her family, several Austrian princesses, the former King of Poland and the grand-daughters of Catherine the Great, as well as Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Admiral Nelson. She was due to paint Empress Catherine herself, but Catherine died before she could sit for Vigée Le Brun.

Vigée Le Brun’s portrait of Alexandra and Elena Pavlovna, two of Catherine the Great’s granddaughters, c. 1795–1797.

9. She was removed from a list of counter-revolutionaries in 1802

Vigée Le Brun had partly been forced to leave France after a sustained press campaign smearing her name and highlighting her close associations with Marie Antoinette.

With the help of her husband, friends and wider family, her name was removed from the list of counter-revolutionary emigres, allowing Vigée Le Brun to return to Paris for the first time in 13 years.

10. Her career carried on well into her old age

In the early 19th century, Vigée Le Brun purchased a house in Louveciennes, and she subsequently divided her time between there and Paris. Her work was exhibited in the Paris Salon regularly until 1824.

She eventually died at the age of 86, in 1842, predeceased by both her husband and daughter.

Here are the 10 that always blow my mind.

1. “Et tu, Brute?” – Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar did not say “et tu, Brute?” as he was being stabbed by a gang of assassins. It was made up by William Shakespeare, who may have borrowed it from an earlier playwright.

The Roman historian Suetonius writes that Caesar said nothing. Others claim he spat out the Greek phrase kai su, teknon which means roughly, “you too, young man.”

2. “Houston, we have a problem” – Jack Swigert

Perhaps it was Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13, but the expression “Houston, we’ve got a problem” is used so often that it’s probable that at any one point in time someone on earth is saying it. Maybe.

Anyway, in the film, the spaceship’s commander Jim Lovell, played by Tom Hanks, issues the famous line. But in reality Jack Swigert, the Command Module Pilot from Apollo 13, called Mission Control and said, “okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”

3. “Let them eat cake!” – Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette has become the ultimate meme. The go-to personification for an out-of-touch, super-wealthy idiot who totally fails to understand the rage and discontent of the people who are hungry, angry and mobilised.

As she watched a massive crowd of protestors from a palace window, she is supposed to have said, “let them eat cake.” Her reputation was sealed.

Marie Antoinette with her two eldest children, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte and the Dauphin Louis Joseph, in the gardens of the Petit Trianon

Image Credit: Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Problem is, she never said this—the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau did. Even better, he was not even talking about Marie Antoinette or cake for that matter. He wrote a book before the French Revolution even began in which an anonymous ‘great princess’ says of the hungry, “let them eat brioche!”

4. “I see no ships” – Admiral Horatio Nelson

Admiral Horatio Nelson famously ignored a signal from the flagship of his commanding officer during his victory over the Danish navy at the Battle of Copenhagen. But he did not say, “I see no ships.”

Instead, he said, “I have a right to be blind sometimes. I really do not see the signal.” Nelson did however say, “kiss me, Hardy”, on his death bed at the Battle of Trafalgar a couple of years later.

5. “We are not amused” – Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria has a bad rep. In the popular imagination, she is thought of as the grumpy, round granny who never got over the death of her beloved husband – a bit of a fun-free zone who epitomises the stuffy era over which she presided.

This is, like all two-dimensional characterisations, obviously unfair. She was as varied and full of surprises and contradictions as any of us. And her diaries are pretty racey, but that’s another story.

What matters here is that Queen Victoria almost certainly never said “we are not amused.” According to her granddaughter, in fact, Victoria herself insisted that she had never said this. It was seemingly made up by a courtier who said she heard the story from someone at Windsor Castle.

6. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – Neil Armstrong

To be fair, the audio from Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon is as patchy as you would expect a signal broadcast across a quarter of a million miles of empty space in the 1960s to be. That has helped to muddle the memory of the exact words that he spoke as he stepped onto the surface of another celestial object.

We all quote, “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” but it doesn’t actually make sense. It’s tautological, man and mankind are synonyms. In fact, he said, “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

7. “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” – Henry Morton Stanley

Explorer and journalist Henry Morton Stanley did indeed go looking for Dr. David Livingstone, history’s most useless missionary, after he had disappeared in east Africa. After a terrible 700 mile trek, in which many of his porters were killed by tropical diseases, Stanley found Livingstone living in Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika, in modern Tanzania.

Stanley later claimed that he held out his hand and said, in an appropriately clipped, detached Victorian manner, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Neither of the men mentions it in accounts at the time and Stanley probably made it up later, to make himself sound cool.

8. “We shall fight them on the beaches” – Winston Churchill

It is Winston Churchill’s signature line, the ultimate roar of defiance in the face of the Nazi war machine, one of the greatest expressions of resolution in history. But he didn’t exactly say, “We shall fight them on the beaches” in the summer of 1940.

He did say, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

9. “Walk softly but carry a big stick” – Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt helped to reshape the Americas as European colonial powers retreated in the face of independence movements and the growing power of the economically vibrant USA. He is famous for using the expression, “walk softly but carry a big stick,” which he actually never used.

But he was fond of the expression, “speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far.” He used it in relation to New York politics, and then he used it again as Vice President when commenting on the American role in the world.

Four days after using the line in Minnesota, President William McKinley was assassinated, Roosevelt was sworn in, and it was now to be seen whether he would turn these words into actions.

President Theodore Roosevelt delivering a speech in Concord, New Hampshire. 28 August 1902.

Image Credit: SMU Central University Libraries / Public Domain

10. “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes” – Mark Twain

There comes a time in all of our lives when we throw down the old Mark Twain quote, “the only two certainties in life are death and taxes.” We think it makes us sound worldly-wise, cynical about government and, most importantly, witty.

But maybe the joke is on us, because Mark Twain never said this. It’s also not true, there are many other certainties, like the fact that we will end up misattributing fake historical sayings throughout our lives.

Two far less famous writers in the 18th century said something similar to the famed quote oft attributed to Twain. Christopher Bullock, for example, wrote in 1716, “tis impossible to be sure of anything but death and taxes,” surprisingly ignoring the certainty of renewed Jacobite attempts to regain the throne. And Edward Ward wrote in 1724, “death and taxes, they are certain.”

Bonus: “May the force be with you” – Obi-Wan Kenobi

And here’s a bonus misquote. Many oft-quoted lines from movies are wrong. But my particular favourite is that Alec Guinness, aka Obi-Wan Kenobi, never says “may the force be with you” in the original Star Wars movies.

1. Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette

France had an absolute monarchy in the 18th century – life centred around the king, who had complete power. Whilst theoretically this could work well, it was a system heavily dependent on the personality of the king in question. Louis XVI was indecisive, shy and lacked the charisma and charm which his predecessors had so benefited from.

The court at Versailles, just outside Paris, had between 3,000 and 10,000 courtiers living there at any one time, all bound by strict etiquette. Such a large and complex social set required management by the king in order to manage power, bestow favours and keep a watchful eye over potential troublemakers. Louis simply didn’t have the capability or iron will necessary to do this.

Louis’ wife and queen, Marie Antoinette, was an Austrian-born princess whose (supposedly) profligate spending, Austrian sympathies and alleged sexual deviancy were targeted repeatedly. Incapable of acting in a way which might have transformed public opinion, the royal couple saw themselves become scapegoats for far more issues than those which they could control.

‘Marie Antoinette en chemise’, portrait of the queen in a muslin dress (by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783)

Image Credit: Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As an absolute monarch, Louis was also held somewhat responsible – along with his advisors – for failures. Failures could only be blamed on advisors or external parties for so long, and by the late 1780s, the king himself was the target of popular discontent and anger rather than those around him: a dangerous position for an absolute monarch to be in. Whilst contemporaries may have perceived the king as being anointed by God, it was their subjects who permitted them to maintain this status.

2. Inherited problems

By no means did Louis XVI inherit an easy situation. The power of the French monarchy had peaked under Louis XIV, and by the time Louis XVI inherited, France found herself in an increasingly dire financial situation, weakened by the Seven Years War and American War of Independence.

With an old and inefficient taxation system which saw large portions of the wealthiest parts of French society exempt from major taxes, the burden was carried by the poorest and simply didn’t provide enough cash.

Variations by region also caused unhappiness: Brittany continued to pay the gabelle (salt tax) and the pays d’election no longer had regional autonomy, for example. The system was clunky and unfair, with some areas over-represented and some under-represented in government and through financial contributions. It was desperately in need of sweeping reforms.
The French economy was also growing increasingly stagnant. Hampered by internal tolls and tariffs, regional trade was slow and the agricultural and industrial revolution which was hitting Britain was much slower to arrive, and to be adopted in France.

3. The Estates System & the bourgeoise

The Estates System was far from unique to France: this ancient feudal social structure broke society into 3 groups, clergy, nobility and everyone else. In the Medieval period, prior to the boom of the merchant classes, this system did broadly reflect the structure of the world. As more and more prosperous self-made men rose through the ranks, the system’s rigidity became an increasing source of frustration. The new bourgeoise class could only make the leap to the Second Estate (the nobility) through the practice of venality, the buying and selling of offices.

Following parlements blocking of reforms, Louis XVI was persuaded to call an assembly known as the Estates General, which had last been called in 1614. Each estate drew up a list of grievances, the cahier de doleances, which were presented to the king. The event turned into a stalemate, with the First and Second Estates continually voting to block the Third Estate out of a petty desire to keep their status firm, refusing to acknowledge the need to work together to achieve reform.

Opening of the Estates-General in Versailles 5 May 1789

Image Credit: Isidore-Stanislaus Helman (1743-1806) and Charles Monnet (1732-1808), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

These deep divisions between the estates were a major contributing factor to the eruption of revolution. With an ever-growing and increasingly loud Third Estate, the prospect of meaningful societal change began to increasingly appear to be something of a possibility.

4. Taxation & money

French finances were a mess by the late 18th century. The taxation system allowed the wealthiest to avoid paying virtually any tax at all, and given that wealth almost always equalled power, any attempt to push through radical financial reforms was blocked by the parlements. Unable to change the tax, and not daring to increase the burden on those who already shouldered it, Jacques Necker, the finance minister, raised money through taking out loans rather than raising taxes. Whilst this had some short term benefits, loans accrued interest and pushed the country further into debt.

In an attempt to add some form of transparency to royal expenditure and to create a more educated and informed populace, Necker published the Crown’s expenses and accounts in a document known as the Compte rendu au roi. Instead of placating the situation, it in fact gave the people an insight into something they had previously considered to be none of their concern.

With France on the brink of bankruptcy, and people more acutely aware and less tolerant of the feudal financial system they were upholding, the situation was becoming more and more delicate. Attempts to push through radical financial reforms were made, but Louis’ influence was too weak to force his nobles to bend to his will.

5. The Enlightenment

Historians debate the influence of Enlightenment in the French Revolution. Individuals like Voltaire and Rousseau espoused values of liberty, equality, tolerance, constitutional government and the separation of church and state. In an age where literacy levels were increasing and printing was cheap, these ideas were discussed and disseminated far more than previous movements had been.

Many also view the philosophy and ideals of the First Republic as being underpinned by Enlightenment ideas, and the motto most closely associated with the revolution itself – ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité’ – can be seen as a reflection of key ideas in Enlightenment pamphlets.

Voltaire, Portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1724

Image Credit: Nicolas de Largillière, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

6. Bad luck

Many of these issues were long term factors causing discontent and stagnation in France, but they had not caused revolution to erupt in the first 15 years of Louis’ reign. The real cost of living had increased by 62% between 1741 and 1785, and two successive years of poor harvests in 1788 and 1789 caused the price of bread to be dramatically inflated along with a drop in wages.

This added hardship added an extra layer of resentment and weight to the grievances of the Third Estate, which was largely made up of peasants and a few bourgeoise. Accusations of the extravagant spending of the royal family – irrespective of their truth – further exacerbated tensions, and the king and queen were increasingly targets of libelles and attacks in print.

Assorted precious objects and family heirlooms change hands at auction regularly, but only a handful command truly astonishing prices and the attention of the world’s press.

1. Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi

Smashing the existing record held for the most expensive painting, Salvator Mundi sold for a whopping $450,312,500 at Christie’s New York in 2017. There are only thought to be around 20 of Leonardo’s paintings still in existence, and their scarcity has driven up the value of those remaining significantly.

Literally translating as ‘Saviour of the World’, Salvator Mundi depicts Jesus in a Renaissance style dress, making the sign of the cross and holding a transparent orb with the other.

Reproduction of the painting after restoration by Dianne Dwyer Modestini, a research professor at New York University

Image Credit: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The painting is controversial: its attribution is still hotly contested by some art historians. For several hundred years, da Vinci’s original Salvator Mundi was thought to have been lost – serious overpainting had transformed the painting into a dark, gloomy work.

The painting’s precise location is currently unknown: it was sold to Prince Badr bin Abdullah, who probably bought it on behalf of Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

2. Marie Antoinette’s Pearl Pendant

In 2018, one of the most important collections of royal jewellery ever seen in an auction house was sold by the Italian royal house of Bourbon-Parma at Sotheby’s Geneva. Amongst these priceless pieces was a large drop-shaped freshwater pearl hanging from a diamond encrusted bow which once belonged to the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

A pearl and Diamond Pendant owned by Queen of France Marie Antoinette, 12 October 2018 (left) / Marie-Antoinette, 1775 (right)

Image Credit: UPI, Alamy Stock Photo (left) / After Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (right)

The piece is believed to have been smuggled out of Paris in 1791, first to Brussels and then to Vienna. Several years later, the jewels found their way into the hands of the only surviving daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who later bequeathed it to her niece, the Duchess of Parma.

Whilst the precise piece isn’t known to be in any portraits, Marie Antoinette was famous for her penchant for extravagant diamond and pearl jewellery.

3. Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester

Another of Leonardo’s works tops the record for the most expensive book ever sold at auction. The 72 page Codex Leicester sold at Christie’s New York for $30.8 million to an anonymous buyer, who it was later revealed was none other than Microsoft billionaire, Bill Gates.

Written between 1508 and 1510, the codex uses mirror writing to create a distinctive kind of code. Codex Leicester is full of his musings on a variety of subjects, as well as over 360 sketches for inventions including things like the snorkel and submarine. The name derives from the Earls of Leicester, who owned the codex since 1717: it’s also known as the Codex Hammer, after its last owner, the American industrialist Armand Hammer.

Page of the Codex Leicester

Image Credit: Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The codex remains one of the few significant manuscripts by Leonardo offered for sale on the open market since 1850, which helps explain the fact the codex sold for more than double its original estimate.

Gates decided to digitise the codex, make it freely available on the internet. He also had the pages of the codex unbound and individually mounted on glass planes. They have since been displayed in cities around the world.

4. The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar

Touted as the most expensive coin in the world, the Flowing Hair Silver Dollar holds the record for the most expensive coin at auction, changing hands for $10 million in 2013. The Flowing Hair Silver Dollar was the first coin issued by the United States Federal Government and was minted between 1794 and 1795 before being replaced by the Draped Bust dollar.

Both sides of the Flowing Hair dollar

Image Credit: United States Mint, Smithsonian Institution, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

These new dollars had their silver content based on the silver content in Spanish pesos, thus tying its value to existing coinage. The coin depicts the allegorical figure of Liberty, with detailed flowing hair: on the reverse is the United States eagle, surrounded by a wreath.

Even in the 19th century, the coin was considered to be valuable – a collector’s item – and its price has only continued to rise since. The coin is 90% silver and 10% copper.

5. British Guiana One Cent Magenta Stamp

The most expensive stamp in the world, and the most expensive item in the world if you were to measure by weight, this rare stamp sold for a record $9.4 million in 2014, and is believed to be the only remaining one of its kind in existence.

Originally worth 1 cent, the stamp was issued in 1856 for use on local newspapers, while its counterparts, a 4c magenta and 4c blue were for postage. Due to a shortage, a handful of unique 1c magenta stamp designs were printed with a ship image added to them.

The British Guiana stamp issued in 1856

Image Credit: Joseph Baum and William Dallas printers for local postmaster, E.T.E. Dalton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As such, even in its day it was an anomaly: it was sold in 1873 for 6 shillings to a local collector, who was intrigued by its absence from collectors’ catalogues. It has continued to change hands semi-regularly, for increasingly large sums of money. None of the other run of these unorthodox stamps have been located.

6. Andy Warhol’s The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn

The Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol, 29 April 2022

Image Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo

This iconic silk-screen image of Marilyn Monroe sold for a record-breaking $195 million at a 2022 New York auction, becoming the most expensive 20th-century artwork of all time. The painting was based on one of her promotional photos for the 1953 movie Niagara. Warhol created it and other very similar works following the actress’ death in 1962. Based on reports, the buyer was the American art dealer Larry Gagosian.

Executed in Paris nine months after her husband, King Louis XVI, the queen had become the subject of intense national hatred – a symbol of everything the revolutionaries sought to erase if the new French Republic was to succeed.

But how did Marie Antoinette end up being so widely loathed? And what happened in the weeks and months before the blade fell?

A profligate royal

Marie Antoinette had been regarded as a controversial figure long before her execution. 

Born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna – as she was originally known – was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa. Austria and France were traditional enemies, so the decision to marry the archduchess to Louis, Dauphin of France (grandson of the reigning king, Louis XV), was certainly not welcomed by everyone.

After marrying the Dauphin on 16 May 1770, the teenage bride quickly became known for her love of parties, gambling and profligate spending, drawing the ire of the highly taxed French public. And, as time passed without the arrival of an heir (the couple would not consummate their marriage for seven years), rumours also spread that Marie Antoinette was embarking on sexual conquests elsewhere. 

Over the coming years, this unsavoury reputation would be cemented by the distribution of pamphlets known as libelles, filled with pornographic cartoons depicting her engaged in trysts with both men and women. Although she had long been known as l’Autrichienne (‘the Austrian’), the phrase was increasingly deployed as a misogynistic pun – chienne being the French word for ‘female dog’, thus making her ‘the Austrian bitch’. 

But even when Marie Antoinette became queen in 1774 and eventually started producing children, her reputation took further hits – notably in 1785 when a minor aristocrat fraudulently obtained a diamond necklace using the queen’s name. 

While Marie Antoinette was entirely blameless in the affair, it destroyed her remaining credibility. Given that she had spent an astonishing 258,000 livres on clothing and accessories in that same year, it was seen as entirely possible – in the eyes of her critics – that the greedy ‘foreigner’ could have stolen such a necklace if afforded the chance. 

After her husband succeeded Louis XV as king in 1774, Marie Antoinette was gifted a château in the grounds of Versailles known as the Petit Trianon. Rumours that it hosted orgies and other scandalous activities only served to sour the queen’s reputation (Image Credit: Moonik / CC).

The gathering storm

1789, however, would prove to be a pivotal year in Marie Antoinette’s downfall. With France experiencing poor harvests and facing economic ruin due to its support for the American War of Independence, King Louis XVI convened an assembly known as the Estates-General.

Along with the clergy (the ‘First Estate’), the nobility (the ‘Second Estate’) and representatives of the common people (the ‘Third Estate’), Louis planned to raise taxes to clear the country’s debts.

But instead of solving the problem, the king was met with fierce opposition from the Third Estate, which presented him with a long list of grievances. When its representatives then found themselves shut out of the proceedings, they formed a new governing body known as the National Assembly (later the National Constituent Assembly), gaining support from members of the clergy and nobility.

An image depicting the Estates-General convening in Versailles, May 1789. Within weeks it would be dissolved and replaced with the National Assembly, which sought to establish a constitutional monarchy (Image Credit: Public Domain).

Although the king reluctantly accepted the Assembly’s legitimacy, rumours that he was plotting to dissolve it sparked widespread unrest – a chain of events that would lead to the storming of the Bastille on 14 July. Faced with further uprisings, Louis was forced to allow the Assembly to rule as France’s new government and begin drafting the country’s first constitution.

Having abolished feudalism, the revolutionary movement gained further momentum in October, when thousands of protesters – angry at rising bread prices – marched on Versailles and dragged the king and queen back to Paris, where they were taken to an old palace known as the Tuileries.

For many, the king’s return to the capital was viewed as a positive development – Louis XVI could now help France move forward as the head of a constitutional monarchy. Yet, in reality, the royals were made to live under house arrest, and were unwilling to bend to many of the revolutionaries’ demands.

To make matters worse, the couple’s eldest son and heir – Louis Joseph – had recently died of tuberculosis, and the king had spiralled into depression.

A failed bid for freedom

Feeling increasingly helpless, Marie Antoinette took the situation into her own hands. Over the coming months she appealed to foreign powers for assistance, hiding the contents of her messages in secret codes so they could make it past prying eyes. 

Eventually, Marie Antoinette plotted (with the help of her Swedish lover, Count Axel von Fersen) an escape to Montmédy – a royalist stronghold near the Belgian border. There, she surmised, the family could gain local support and ultimately incite a counter-revolution.

But the attempt, on the night of 20–21 June 1791, was an unmitigated disaster. Despite disguising themselves as servants, the king and queen were spotted in their carriage near Varennes and escorted back to Paris, humiliated. 

The French royal family is arrested at a house in Varennes, having been spotted by a local postmaster and removed from their carriage (Image Credit: Public Domain).

The failed escape only served to further radicalise the government and boost popular support for republicanism. Even though France’s first constitution was signed by the king in September 1791, the fate of the royal family was growing increasingly uncertain. 

Fearing that its troops would invade and restore absolute monarchy, the incumbent government (known as the Legislative Assembly) declared war on Austria in April 1792. When the war began to turn against France in August, armed revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries, and the king and queen were thrown into the Temple Prison.

By now, the royals were thought to be actively plotting against the nation’s interests. Marie Antoinette – an Austrian by birth – was regarded as the enemy within.

A painting showing the capture of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792. The insurrection was sparked by reports that the Prussian and Austrian forces promised to seek “vengeance” if the French royal family came to any harm (Image Credit: Public Domain).

The path to the guillotine

In September 1792, having thwarted a Prussian-led attempt to invade Paris, the emboldened revolutionaries decided to abolish the monarchy altogether.

Louis was separated from his family, stripped of his royal titles and made to take on the commoner name ‘Louis Capet’. Charged with treason and put on trial, he was found guilty and executed at the Place de la Révolution (now the Place de la Concorde) on 21 January 1793. 

Marie Antoinette continued to pray for her safety, and that she would be able to remain at the Temple with her two surviving children, Marie Thérèse and Louis Charles. Yet even this privilege was taken from her, and she was transferred to a building known as the Conciergerie.

On 14 October, Marie Antoinette was brought before a tribunal, charged with conspiring with the enemy and furnishing them with money and military intelligence. More upsettingly, she was also charged with sexually abusing young Louis Charles – an accusation that she strenuously denied. Nevertheless, after two days of intense questioning, the deposed queen was found guilty of her ‘crimes’. 

Transported to the Place de la Révolution in an open cart, Marie Antoinette ascended the scaffold shortly after midday on 16 October. As jubilant crowds cheered, the queen – clad in a simple white dress, with her hair cut short – was beheaded by guillotine.

Although Marie Antoinette’s remains would be reburied in 1815 during the Bourbon restoration, her body was taken to the city’s Madeleine cemetery and hastily interred in an unmarked grave.

While it had been a demeaning final few days, the queen remained resolute to the end.

“I have just been condemned, not to an ignominious death – it is such to the guilty alone – but to rejoin your brother,” she wrote to her sister-in-law on the morning of her execution. “Innocent like him, I hope to show the same firmness in my last moments. I experience the tranquillity of mind ever attending a guiltless conscience.”

A hastily drawn sketch by revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David, showing Marie Antoinette being carted off to the guillotine, alongside a photograph of the queen’s funerary monument in the Basilica of Saint-Denis (Image Credit: Public Domain / Calvin Kramer, CC).

But how much of what we think we know about Marie Antoinette is actually true? Here are 10 key facts about the royal – from her childhood in Vienna, to the guillotine.

1. Marie Antoinette belonged to a large family

Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna (as she was originally known) was born on 2 November 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa, the archduchess was the 15th and penultimate child born to the couple.

Having such a large brood was politically useful, particularly for the Habsburg empress, who used her children’s marriages to forge Austria’s diplomatic ties with the other royal houses of Europe.

Maria Antonia was no exception, and she was soon betrothed to Louis Auguste, dauphin of France (grandson of the reigning monarch, King Louis XV), taking the name Marie Antoinette upon marriage. France and Austria had spent much of their recent history at loggerheads with each other, so strengthening the fragile union was of paramount importance.

2. She met Mozart when they were both children

Like many royal women, Marie Antoinette was largely raised by governesses. Academic success was not seen as a priority, but following her engagement to the dauphin, the archduchess was assigned a tutor – the Abbé de Vermond – to prepare her for life in the French court.

She was regarded to be a poor student, but one area in which she had always excelled, however, was music, learning how to play the flute, harp and harpsichord to a high standard.

Coincidentally, Marie Antoinette’s childhood saw an encounter with another (rather more talented) young musician in the form of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who performed a recital for the imperial family in 1762, aged six.

3. Her journey to France was a lavish affair – but she lost her dog along the way

Despite having only just met, Marie Antoinette (aged 14) and Louis (aged 15) were formally married in a lavish ceremony at the Palace of Versailles on 16 May 1770.

Her journey into French territory was a grand affair in itself, accompanied by a bridal party comprising nearly 60 carriages. Upon reaching the border, Marie Antoinette was taken to an island in the middle of the Rhine, where she was disrobed and placed in traditional French dress, symbolically shedding her of her former identity.

She was also forced to give up her pet dog, Mops – but the archduchess and the canine were eventually reunited at Versailles.

An image depicting the dauphin (the future King Louis XVI), being shown a portrait of Marie Antoinette prior to their marriage. His grandfather, King Louis XV, is seated in the centre of the picture (Image Credit: Public Domain).

4. The queen’s brother was enlisted to solve her marital ‘problems’

Following their wedding, the families of both parties eagerly waited for the couple to produce an heir.

But for reasons that aren’t entirely clear (one theory is that Louis had a medical condition that made sex painful), the newlyweds did not consummate the marriage for 7 years.

Eventually, Empress Maria Theresa’s frustration with the couple led her to send Marie Antoinette’s brother – Emperor Joseph II – to Versailles to ‘have a word’ with Louis Auguste. Whatever he said, it worked, because Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie Thérèse, in 1778, followed by a son, Louis Joseph, three years later.

Two further children would be born during the course of the marriage, but only Marie Thérèse would survive to adulthood.

Marie Antoinette depicted with her three eldest offspring, Marie Thérèse, Louis Joseph and Louis Charles. Another child, Sophie Beatrix, was born in 1787 (Image Credit: Public Domain).

5. Marie Antoinette built a pleasure village at Versailles

During her early years at Versailles, Marie Antoinette found the rituals of court life stifling. To make matters worse, her new husband was an awkward young man, who preferred to practise his hobby of locksmithing rather than going to the balls that Marie Antoinette enjoyed.

After Louis Auguste ascended the throne on 10 May 1774, the queen began to spend most of her time in an extravagant château within the palace grounds named the Petit Trianon. Here, she surrounded herself with numerous ‘favourites’, and held parties away from the prying eyes of the court.

She also commissioned the construction of a mock village known as the Hameau de la Reine (the ‘Queen’s Hamlet’), complete with a working farm, artificial lake and watermill – essentially an oversized playground for Marie Antoinette and her friends.

Marie Antoinette’s mock village at Versailles was designed by the architect Richard Mique. A building known as the ‘Queen’s House’, connected to a billiard room via a covered walkway, appears in the centre of the photograph (Image Credit: Daderot / CC).

6. A diamond necklace helped destroy her reputation

When Marie Antoinette first arrived in France, she had been warmly received by the public – despite hailing from a country that was once a hated foe.

However, as rumours of her personal expenditure began to circulate, she came to be known as ‘Madame Déficit’. France had spent vast sums of money supporting the American Revolutionary War, so the queen’s allowance of 120,000 livres per year to spend on clothes (many, many times the salary of a typical peasant) did not go down too well.

But Marie Antoinette’s poor reputation was further tarnished in 1785, after an impoverished minor aristocrat – the Comtesse de La Motte – fraudulently acquired a diamond necklace under her name.

A modern replica of the infamous diamond necklace, alongside a portrait of Louis XVI by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis. The king’s reaction to the scandal only served to damage the reputation of the royal family (Image Credit: Public Domain / Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Using forged letters and a prostitute disguised as the queen, she fooled a cardinal into pledging his credit to pay for the necklace on Marie Antoinette’s behalf. However, the jewellers never received the full payment and it was discovered that the necklace had been sent to London and broken up.

When the scandal was revealed, Louis XVI publicly punished both La Motte and the cardinal, imprisoning the former and stripping the latter of his offices. But the king was widely criticised by the French people, who interpreted his haste to act as confirmation that Marie Antoinette may have still somehow been involved.

The queen’s reputation never recovered, and the revolutionary movement gathered pace.

7. No, she never said “Let them eat cake”

Few quotes have gone down in history quite like Marie Antoinette’s alleged retort “Let them eat cake” (or more accurately, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”) when told that the French peasantry did not have any bread to eat.

Although the quip has long being associated with the queen, there is no evidence to suggest that she ever said it. In fact, the quote (attributed to an unnamed princess) first appears in a text by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, penned in 1765 when Marie Antoinette was still a child.

8. The queen plotted an ill-fated escape from revolutionary Paris

In October 1789, three months after the storming of the Bastille, the royal couple were besieged at Versailles and brought to Paris, where they were effectively placed under house arrest at the palace of Tuileries. Here, the king was forced into negotiating terms for a constitutional monarchy, which would greatly limit his powers.

With her husband weighed down by stress (made worse by the illness and death of his heir, Louis Joseph), Marie Antoinette secretly appealed for outside help. Assisted by her Swedish ‘favourite’, Count Axel von Fersen, Marie Antoinette hatched a plan in 1791 to flee with her family to the royalist stronghold of Montmédy, where they could initiate a counter-revolution.

Unfortunately, they were discovered near the town of Varennes and taken back to the Tuileries, humiliated.

A 19th-century painting showing the French royal family being arrested following their failed escape on the night of 20 June 1791 (Image Credit: Public Domain).

9. Her closest confidante met a grisly end

In April 1792, France declared war on Austria, fearing its troops would launch an invasion in a bid restore the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI. However, after defeating a Prussian-led coalition army at the battle of Valmy in September, the emboldened revolutionaries proclaimed the birth of the French Republic and did away with the monarchy altogether.

By this point the king and queen were already imprisoned, as was a coterie of their confidantes. Among them was Marie Antoinette’s close friend, the Princesse de Lamballe, who was thrown into the notorious La Force prison.

Having refused to swear an oath against the royal family, Lamballe was dragged out onto the street on 3 September 1792, where she was attacked by a mob and decapitated.

Her head was then marched to the Temple prison (where Marie Antoinette was being held) and brandished on a pike outside the queen’s window.

10. Marie Antoinette was originally buried in an unmarked grave

In September 1793, 9 months after her husband’s execution for high treason, Marie Antoinette too was brought before a tribunal and charged with numerous crimes, including sending money to the Austrian enemy.

Most alarmingly of all, she was also accused of sexually abusing her sole surviving son, Louis Charles. There was no genuine evidence for this latter charge, but the queen was nevertheless found guilty of her ‘crimes’ on 14 October.

Two days later – wearing a plain white dress, with her hair cut short – Marie Antoinette was publicly guillotined, aged 37. Her body was then dumped in an unmarked grave in the city’s Madeleine cemetery.

The queen’s remains would later be retrieved and placed in a tomb alongside her husband, but it was certainly a grim end for a woman who had lived a life of opulence.

Like her husband, Marie Antoinette was executed at the Place de la Révolution, later renamed the Place de la Concorde in 1795 (Image Credit: Public Domain).