Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI and the queen of France from May 10, 1774 until the French monarchy was abolished in 1792 amid the French Revolution. She was famous for her opulent lifestyle, though she never actually said “let them eat cake.”

Wedded to the future king of France when she was just 15, her life ended in a way no one could have predicted at the time of those nuptials: With an an apology to the man who would end her life.

Marie Antoinette’s Final Written and Spoken Words

While walking to the plank where she was to be beheaded, the former queen apologized to her executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson, after stepping on his toes. “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur, je ne l’ai pas fait exprès,” she said, which translates to “Pardon me, sir, I meant not to do it.” 

The 37-year-old had also written a letter the night prior in which she shared her final reflections and wishes. Her last missive was a letter to her sister-in-law, Madame Élisabeth, which was supposedly scrawled at 4:30 a.m. 

In it, she proclaimed her innocence, forgave her enemies, and lamented losing her family and friends. “I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and tender sister,” she wrote.

“Think always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell! Farewell!” the letter concluded. “I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a total stranger.”

Why Marie Antoinette Was Executed

While Marie Antoinette’s early political influence may have been exaggerated in popular imagination, she did indeed encourage her husband to resist efforts at reform, which made her into a target among revolutionaries. 

Disliked for her spending, she was widely scapegoated for the French economic crisis of the time, though her actual expenses were not the cause of the monarchy’s financial deficit. She was also frequently featured in pamphlets known as libelles, which featured drawings of her engaged in affairs with both men and women and helped spread baseless rumors about her supposed debaucherous behavior. 

Her reputation suffered another major blow when a con artist managed to bamboozle a minor aristocrat into obtaining an exorbitantly expensive diamond necklace by using the queen’s name, which created a scandal that deeply damaged the royal family’s credibility.

Yet another problem was her Austrian roots, which led some French citizens to view her with suspicion from the get-go. Additionally, as the French Revolution heated up, Marie Antoinette began sending coded messages to Austria and other foreign powers asking for assistance. 

The discovery that the monarchy had been urging Austria to intervene in France and crush the revolution marked Marie Antoinette’s death knell, as did the revelation that she had tried to flee the country in 1791 along with other members of the royal family.

The queen was imprisoned for over a year. On October 16, 1793, she was condemned to death for high treason and brought to the Place de la Révolution in a cart. On the way there, knowing how much she was loathed by the French public at the time, she feared that the people would attack her and tear her apart. However, she ultimately made it to the plank, where she was to utter her final words.

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