Timeline, Absolute History, and other Historic Youtube channels have been on a tear of uploading history documentaries to their channels.  Today, I will review a documentary on Marie Antoinette: The Trial of a Queen.  The run time for this documentary film is 1:44:10.

Marie Antoinette would go down in history as France’s tragic Queen.  She was a mother and a wife.  She was a woman caught up in a situation nobody could have dreamed of.  The year is 1793 and France has been a republic for the last four months.  This is the story of her last 72 days of life after the Revolution swept away the royal family and kings.  New documents reveal that her trial was rigged.

The document begins with Marie Antoinette teaching her son his multiplication tables.  They are under house arrest and all of a sudden hear the crowds.  Louis XVI has just been executed.  He had been guillotined in the public square.  Robespierre will be in charge of Marie Antoinette’s fate.  However, his power is threatened.  Spain, Germany, and Austria are amassing their armies on the borders, threatening to invade.  Other regions in France are in danger of rebelling.

Marie Antoinette’s life is now a political issue.  Six months after Louis’ death, Marie Antoinette is transferred to a new prison.  She will be tried for treason against France.  She is stripped of her family and her possessions.  She is a prisoner and has fallen into the hands of a man who wants her dead.  It would bring his man glory and power.  However, Robespierre is more cautious.  The prosecutor wanted to have the trial sooner.  Robespierre wanted a later trial date and had only put Marie Antoinette in prison to quiet the people.  Marie Antoinette was no threat to the revolution, Robespierre wanted to go after the people who were corrupting the revolution.

The prosecutor would not be distracted.  He hated Marie Antoinette with a passion.  He wanted the trial.  He was going to feel the public’s demand for a trial.  In the meantime, Marie Antoinette was put under closer surveillance.  In the meantime, Charles is terribly abused by the shoemaker who is in charge of the boy.  He was to undergo a new education to become the perfect citizen.  His guardian would try to make him turn against his mother.

The push continued to put her on trial.  Robespierre wanted to deal with the trial later.  He was flooded with petitions calling for her death.  While she is in prison, she continues to try to hide a condition that weakens her.  Behind the scenes, there were moves to try to help her to escape.  Civil War was going to come to France and the French army was crumbling against combined Austria, Spanish, and Prussian armies.

After a final failed escape attempt, a reign of terror is unleashed on the French people.  In the meantime, the prosecutor worked to pad the case against Marie Antoinette.  Robespierre wants to be careful with the trial even though the pressure was on to have a tainted jury.  One man was also trying to make sure that the trial was a public spectacle of what would happen if a woman interfered with the affairs of her husband.  This man would put it that the job of the woman was to be in the home raising good citizens of the republic.

The trial of Marie Antoinette was going to begin and it would be a blockbuster trial.  There would be no help from the Austrians.  The jury was selected from “trusted Revolutionaries.”  The “evidence” was gathered.  “Witnesses” were gathered.  How would this trial go?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

Woah, Woah, Woah this is a different perspective on Marie Antoinette.  It made me feel enraged as to what happened to her, especially with the lies that were told about her.  This docu-drama was very well done.  The narration was good and not too much.  The acting was good as well, almost too good, it made me hate the real historical figures.  It left me feeling that the trial was tainted.  The docu-drama was divided into chapters which can make it easy to break up for viewing in a classroom.  This would be a good docu-drama to show in the classroom.

Did Marie Antoinette's partying and spending lead to the French Revolution?  Lucy Worsley explores the Myths that surround this queen and the French Revolution.  She explores the Marie Antoinette and her personality and why she was blamed for the suffering of the French people.

Her foreignness and perceived extravagance was blamed for the suffering of the French people.  Worsley blows up the story that "let them eat cake" was ascribed to Marie Antoinette.  Marie Antoinette tried to fight back against the slander.  She explores the real reasons for the French Revolution such as the French debt and the failure of the aristocracy to compromise with the changes that needed to be made in France.  She explores the Tennis Court oath and how things started to go wrong for the Royal Family after they attempted to flee.

This is the third episode in the series and at this time is available on YouTube.  It had aired on PBS as part of their Royal specials towards the end of the year.

You can use this episode of the series in the classroom when there is a sub in the room.  Unless you want to use it as a supplement for a lecture in a history classroom.

You can highlight, copy, and paste the questions into a Word, GoogleDoc or Google Classroom document for use in school or home school.  Format it the way you want to.  All questions after formatting should fit onto one page.

You can find the link to the YouTube video here.

Royal Myths Marie Antoinette Questions:

1. Who was to blame for France’s problems?
2. How old did she get married?
3. Why was she blamed?
4. What phrase was she alleged to have said?
5. Who really said that phrase?
6. How did Marie Antoinette fight back?
7. What really caused the French Revolution?
8. Who took a softer stand towards the revolution?
9. What prison was stormed as part of the Revolution?
10. What do the colors in the tricolor stand for?

Royal Myths Marie Antoinette Answers:

1. Who was to blame for France’s problems? - Marie Antoinette
2. How old did she get married? -14
3. Why was she blamed? - She was a foreigner, she loved to spend money and have parties
4. What phrase was she alleged to have said? - Let them eat cake
5. Who really said that phrase? - Wife of Louis XIV
6. How did Marie Antoinette fight back? - Cultivated a more responsible image
7. What really caused the French Revolution? - Debts from the American Revolution
8. Who took a softer stand towards the revolution? - The King, King Louis
9. What prison was stormed as part of the Revolution? - Bastille
10. What do the colors in the tricolor stand for? - Red: Paris / White: Bourbons / Blue: Paris