It is simultaneously naive to place the burden of the entire entrenched aristocracy on the last two people to sit atop it, and perfectly reasonable to assume a population tormented and impoverished over the course of centuries would seek reprisal against the current figureheads of state when the system finally came crashing down.
Still, I think history demonstrated that Marie Antoinette generally got a bad rap. Her primary sin was being a particularly well-tended pet of the male-dominated aristocracy. She had about as much real agency as any particular piece of furniture in the Palace of Versailles. I suspect a more savvy and astute leadership could have rehabilitated her in much the same way the Chinese Communists rehabilitated the 10th Panchen Lama. As a reformed champion of revolutionary change, she would have been more useful - and potentially more subversive to subsequent Bourbon Restoration efforts - than as a martyr for Austrians usurpers to rally around.
It is simultaneously naive to place the burden of the entire entrenched aristocracy on the last two people to sit atop it, and perfectly reasonable to assume a population tormented and impoverished over the course of centuries would seek reprisal against the current figureheads of state when the system finally came crashing down.
Still, I think history demonstrated that Marie Antoinette generally got a bad rap. Her primary sin was being a particularly well-tended pet of the male-dominated aristocracy. She had about as much real agency as any particular piece of furniture in the Palace of Versailles. I suspect a more savvy and astute leadership could have rehabilitated her in much the same way the Chinese Communists rehabilitated the 10th Panchen Lama. As a reformed champion of revolutionary change, she would have been more useful - and potentially more subversive to subsequent Bourbon Restoration efforts - than as a martyr for Austrians usurpers to rally around.