OLLI breaks into their Archives to bring you one of their most popular video documentaries! In 1770, the 14-year-old Austrian archduchess Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, left Vienna for Versailles to marry the future king Louis XVI. This lecture, with images and film clips, brings Marie Antoinette to life, from a teenage girl plagued by marital difficulties that subjected her to public ridicule to a young woman who allegedly engaged in a scandalous extra-marital affair with a dashing Swedish nobleman to a controversial Queen who ultimately ended up vilified as l'Autrichienne whose frivolous extravagance and foreign sympathies fired the French Revolution. Initially admired, by the time she died at the age of 38, she was loathed as no Queen of France had ever been.

Pre-recorded Presentation - No instructor present. Video catch-up is available.