WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Rumor Has It: Marie Antoinette

Episode Date: November 17, 2023

In this episode, we serve the tea with cake as we talk about France’s last queen.

Sh-Rumor Has It. Rumor Has it. Rumor Has it. Rumor Has it. Rumor Has it. Rumor Has it. Rumor Has it. Did you hear? I saw. She told me. Rumor Has It. You'll never believe. You're listening to Rumor Has It with Addy Longnecker. Hello, hello, and welcome to Rumor Has It. I'm your host, Addy Longnecker.

And today, I have tea on the scandalous and luxurious lifestyle of Marie Antoinette. Born to the Austrian empress, Marie was married off to the young Dauphine of France, Louis XVIth. She married into a country deeply divided by class. The aristocracy lived lavish and luxurious lifestyles, while the peasants suffered and starved. Marie was no worse than the other nobilities, but she quickly drew the hatred of her people as she ordered a lavish garden built with a play farm in it where she could pretend to be a shepherdess, herding a flock of lambs. She had a gambling addiction and wore new clothes every day.

The people believed she was a profligate and a mockery of the queen, playing dress up as a shepherdess when they were starving for real, having her novels pretend to be peasantry for the charm of it when their real lives were miserable. When the French Revolution began, she and her husband were imprisoned, and eventually they were executed by guillotine. Was she just a girl in the world? the wrong place at the wrong time, or was she truly the decadent and careless queen who drove

her nation to bankruptcy and ruin? The debate is still ongoing, but regardless, she certainly caused quite the stir in history. Until next time, this has been Addison Longaker, on rumor has it, where we serve the tea of history boiling hot on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Thanks for listening.