The World She Left Behind

As Marie Antoinette prepared for her wedding at Versailles, the world she had left behind was already changing. Maria Theresa's letters to her daughter became a lifeline to her Austrian identity, even as they constantly reminded her that her duty now lay entirely with France. These letters, which would continue until the empress's death in 1780, mixed maternal advice with political intelligence and religious exhortation.

In Vienna, Marie Antoinette's departure had created a void in the imperial family. Her sister Maria Carolina, writing from Naples where she reigned as queen, expressed the siblings' shared sense of loss. Their correspondence reveals the emotional cost of Maria Theresa's diplomatic strategy—daughters scattered across Europe's courts, serving as living symbols of Austrian influence but separated from family and homeland.

The Austrian servants and courtiers who had known Marie Antoinette reflected on her transformation. Her former music teacher, Georg Christoph Wagenseil, composed a farewell sonata that captured both celebration and melancholy. Her childhood confessor, Father Johannes, worried in his private journal about how the innocent archduchess would maintain her faith in the skeptical atmosphere of Enlightenment France.

Meanwhile, ordinary Austrians were already mythologizing their departed princess. Folk songs began circulating that portrayed her as a sacrificial lamb, sent to tame the French wolf. These songs, collected by 19th-century folklorists, reveal how common people understood the harsh realities of dynastic politics. They expressed hope that Marie Antoinette would bring peace but also fear that she would be consumed by the foreign court.