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Miss Conduct S04 E04: Marie Antoinette

We all know some things about Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the common people got all of the monarchy beheaded and tried to establish a true republic.

We know that she loved partying. That queen threw so many parties during a time of extreme poverty and war, that the commonfolk nastily called her "Madame Deficit".

We know that she didn't really want to be in France. She was a princess of Austria, one of the richest and most respected kingdoms in all civilised Europe. Who would want to leave that? Well, she had to though, since she was just a political pawn used for a marriage alliance.

We also don't know this as well, but she really struggled to consummate her marriage with Prince Louis, and for a long time they did not have children.

Marie still craved children though. She wanted to be useful, a queen. And a woman's rightful place in the 1700s was as a dutiful wife and mother.

So till she could have her own children, Marie decided to kidnap one.

His name was Armand Gagné. And he was a 5-year-old orphan boy that Marie picked up on the side of the road. She paid off the child's grandmother and kept the child at the palace for her own amusement. And as luck would have it, this child would grow up to resent his "mother", much like any other teenager. Although, unlike other teenagers, Armand would go on to join the French revolution that eventually led to the death of his adoptive family.

SOURCES: 

  • Jeanne Louise Henriette Campan, Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France (1823) 

  • Philippe Huisman and Marguerite Jallut, Marie Antoinette (1971)

  • Children of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KAaI10SfhI)

Marie Antoinette More or Less Kidnapped her Adopted Son, Eli Yudin at Cracked.com (https://www.cracked.com/article_36008_marie-antoinette-more-or-less-kidnapped-her-adopted-son.html)