PRODUCED BY: MS. RICHMANSTARRING: WORLD HISTORY STUDENTS AT CORONADO HIGH SCHOOL

French Revolution Edition

Case Overview:DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

You are a crime scene investigator, expert on cracking the coldest of cold cases. The key to your success is your expert knowledge of how to analyze and interpret historical sources.

You are being assigned to one of the most famous murder cases in history.

Use the sources contained in this case file to figure out who the victim was and what happened to him/her.

Case File Table of Contents: DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes. Information on the victim Images of the Crime Scene Witness Analysis Suspected Murder Weapons Evidence Analysis

Images of Victim Information on Lifestyle/ Biography The Victim’s Final Days

Body Details DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Gender: Female Approximate Age: 37 Height: “medium height” Weight: unknown* Clothing light white shift dress Obvious Injuries: head severed from body Year of death: October 1793

*Sources suggest that the victim had lost a lot of weight around the time of her death

Body Details & Victim Identification DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes. The body shows signs of being buried

in a mass grave for several years, although it currently resides in the Basilica of St Denis, Paris.

A death mask of the victim’s head was made by Madame Tussard before burial. It can be seen to the right.

Although no identification was found on the body, sources tell us that her name is Marie Antoinette. Her occupation was queen of France.

Image A

Victim’s Family DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

At the time of death the victim had one daughter (15-years-old) and one son (8-years-old).

The victim’s husband, King Louis XVI had be executed in January 1793

Two years after the victim’s death, her son died of neglect.

Her daughter (an orphan and the only royal survivor) eventually left France, married but never had any children.

DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Section #2: Crime Scene Information

Link to Table of Contents

Crime Scene DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes. There are no photographs of the actual crime

scene but eye witnesses (or those who spoke to eyewitnesses or read their accounts) produced the following images of the crime scene.

As you examine each crime scene image think about which one is most reliable and why.

Image BPlace de la Révolution, Paris, France

Crime SceneDOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.Many of these prints were created in the 1800s shortly after Marie Antoinette’s death. They were likely made by artists who had not directly witnessed the crime. Images D & E

Crime Scene DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Image F, Place de la Révolution, Paris, France

DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Section #3: Witness Testimony

Link to Table of Contents

Witness #1 DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Witness: Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) Occupation: ArtistHe was not simply one of the crowd when he sketched Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. David, an eminent Jacobin and ally of Robespierre, voted for her death. He was the Revolution's chief artist, costume designer, ritual planner. After knocking off this sketch, David had important business that day - a ceremony to unveil his icon of Revolutionary martyrdom, Marat Assassinated. (source: The Guardian)

Witness #2: DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Witness #2: reporter for the newspaper, The Moniteur

During her interrogation, [Marie] Antoinette maintained almost invariably a calm and self-assured demeanor. During the first few hours, she kept running her fingers along the arm of her chair in an absent-minded way as if she were playing the pianoforte.When she heard her sentence pronounced, no trace of emotion appeared on her face and she left the court without uttering a word or addressing the judges or the public.It was then half-past four in the morning on the 25th day of the first month when she was led back to the condemned cell in the prison of the Conciergerie.At five o'clock recall was sounded in every section and by seven, the armed forces were at their posts. Cannons were placed at the ends of the bridges in the squares and at the crossroads from the Palace all the way to the Place de la Revolution. By ten o'clock, numerous soldiers were patrolling the streets. At eleven o'clock, Marie Antoinette, the widow Capet, wearing a white morning dress, was led to the scaffold in the same manner as other criminals. She was accompanied by a constitutional priest dressed as a layman, and was escorted by numerous detachments of mounted and dismounted police.

Source: Le Moniteur, no. 36 (27 October 1793), 145–46.

DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Section #4: Possible Murder Weapons

Link to Table of Contents

Suspected Murder Weapons… DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

The following weapons are suspected for killing our victim. Which do you think was the weapon in this particular crime?

SwordMany soldiers were at the scene of the crime and some carried swords. A French sword was used to execute Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn.

AxeCommon weapon used to behead people. Charles I was executed with an ax in England.

Guillotine (link to more information)A new device used to behead many people identified as enemies of the Revolution in 18th century France.

DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Section #5: Evidence

Link to Table of Contents

Evidence: Portraits of Victim DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Portrait APrincess of AustriaAge 13, 1767

Portrait BPrincess of Austria1769

Portrait C

Evidence: Portraits of Victim DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Portrait D1787

Portrait E1788

Portrait F1791

Evidence: Portraits of Victim DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Portrait G1778

Portrait HQueen of France, 1775

Evidence B: Biography DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

The queen enjoyed her beauty style, but her fashion fame came at a price. The Queen spent lavishly on her dress and adornments. Each year she exceeded her clothing allowance which the King covered. The excessive fashions for high headdresses, plumes and voluminous dresses were subject to public comment, caricature and on occasion ridicule. The queen also spent lavishly on her friends and on her entertainment including her retreat at Petit Trianon. This small palace adjoining Versailles was given to Marie by Louis XVI. There she arranged extensive interior decorations and building of a theatre for her theatricals and the Temple of Love in the park. Marie also had built a rustic Viennese retreat called the hameau. Here, she played at being at being a simple milkmaid. The hameau was stocked with perfumed sheep and goats, but the actual milking and chores were done by servants.

Source: www.marie-antoinette.org

Evidence B: The Victim’s Excesses DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

The enormous width of the queen’s skirts was rivaled only by the alarming height of her hair. After 1760, women began raising their hair with pads and pomade to a height that towered over their male counterparts. Marie Antoinette took this trend to the hilt, often undergoing elaborate hairdressing rituals that lifted her hair three feet. Even more startling than the height of the hair were the ornaments that decorated it.  These included, most controversially, references to current events.  The most famous of these was the "Belle Poule," a model of a French frigate [ship] or naval vessel of that name.

Source: PBS

Evidence C DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Many French people hated the Queen for her Austrian blood and her expensive tastes. Marie Antoinette was called Madame Deficit and blame was placed on her for the country's financial problems. As she matured, Marie Antoinette became less frivolous. She tried to change her image by wearing simple gowns and posing for portraits with her children, but her efforts had little effect on the brutal public. In October, she was tried by a mock trial, as was her husband. Marie Antoinette was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.

http://library.thinkquest.org

Evidence: Artists from the 1700s DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

This pictures date from 1792 and show Marie Antoinette as a serpent and Louis XVI as a pig. These images help show how the King and Queen were viewed by their subjects.

These images were among several that depicted the Royal family as animals. Such images helped to dehumanize the king and queen and eventually exclude them from any protection under the law.

Evidence: History of French Revolution DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

In the late 1700s Parisians were starving—prices of bread were too high for many to afford. They heard stories about the elaborate banquets at Versailles. In October 1791, a great mob surrounded Versailles demanding bread from the King. Many had knives and swore to use them to “cut the pretty throat of the Austrian” who was the source of all their problems. “How glad I’d be to put this blade into her belly up to my elbow.” Others vowed to cut different “pieces of Antoinette”.On reaching Versailles, they met with the assembly and had a brief audience with the king. Again, the Queen had wished to flee at their advance, but Louis would neither depart nor fire on the women. That night the mob found an unguarded entrance and was directed straight to the apartments of the sleeping queen. They threatened to kill the queen and attacked. Two of the Queen’s guards gave their lives to save her, as Madame Campan and her other maids hastily gathered some clothes and underwear, and Marie Antoinette ran from her bed literally “half naked” (by some accounts) to narrowly escape her attackers. They later ripped the Queen’s bed to pieces.

Source: www.marie-antoinette.org

Evidence DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

The above painting shows Marie Antoinette and her children (a son and daughter) being taken into captivity. The royal family was taken to Paris where they were held under house arrest by the Revolutionary government. Eventually they were separated from each other. This painting was made by an artist after the queen’s death. That artist was not at the event but relied on stories of what happened.

Evidence: What is known about the time… DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Other nobles were imprisoned at the same time as the king and queen. As the fortunes of French armies in the field waned the cry went up to kill traitors in their midst. Hundreds of nobles were massacred in the prisons in September 1792. The most famous victim was Madame Lamballe, close friend of Marie Antoinette who had returned to Paris to aid her in time of danger. Lamballe was summoned before a tribunal and when she failed to swear an oath against the queen, she was hacked to death by the mob, her head severed and mounted on a pike, and paraded before the Queen’s window in the Temple. The Reign of Terror had now begun.The royal family was under close guard and now without of all their riches and servants and forced to live simply in the confines of the Temple fortress. But their peace was not to last. In December 1792, King Louis XVI was summoned before the National Convention and tried for treason. He was convicted and on a close vote sentenced to death. In January 1793, Louis XVI was executed. In the two years that followed thousands more would be tried before revolutionary tribunals and similarly executed. Source: www.marie-antoinette.org

Evidence: Secondary Source on Victim’s Trial DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

In September 1793, Marie Antoinette was separated from her daughter and sister in law. Now called “Widow Capet”, Marie was transferred to months of solitary confinement in the dank Conciergerie prison, where she was under twenty-four hour guard by revolutionaries who from behind their screen watched her every move. The Conciergerie prison was the waiting room to death. In this dank prison, she lost much weight and her eyesight began to fail.On October 14, the poor pallid woman was awoken at night and faced the Revolutionary Tribunal (court). The trial was a horror, with the Queen attacked more as a person than as a queen. Her own son was forced to testify that she abused him. The queen bravely replied to all charges and to this she said, “If I make no reply, it is because I cannot, I appeal to all mothers in this audience.”Despite her eloquence, the verdict was never in doubt. Like the king, Marie was found guilty. Source: www.marie-antoinette.org

Evidence: 19th Century Images of the Trial

These images were made after Marie Antoinette's death in the mid to late 1800s. They depict her trial at the hands of the Revolutionary government of Paris.

DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

Evidence: Artists from 1800s DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

These images were made by artists after the French Revolution. They were not present at her execution. These artists romanticized the story of Marie Antoinette and in some cases saw her as a heroine.

Final Assignment DOK: 3; S.2; Learning Target: Investigate historical outcomes.

You have reached the end of the case file. Once your log sheet is complete, write a

one paragraph summary of what you think happened to our victim. Include why and how she died and who you think was responsible.

Stay tuned to your world history class to learn more about this and many many many many other murders (aka executions) during the French Revolution.