For Marie Antoinette, it was a baby, not a blob of tissue

March 14, 2013

A miniature portrait of Marie-Antoinette by Anne Vallayer-Coster, one of the queen's favorite artists and who received several important portrait commissions from the royal family. This miniature is housed at the Walters Art Museum, in Maryland.

A miniature portrait of Marie-Antoinette by Anne Vallayer-Coster, one of the queen’s favorite artists and who received several important portrait commissions from the royal family. This miniature is housed at the Walters Art Museum, in Maryland.

Struggling to disguise her happiness over her first pregnancy, Marie Antoinette quipped with her husband, King Louis XVI:

“Your Majesty, I feel compelled to register a complaint against one of your subjects, a brash one, who gives himself permission to give me kicks in my womb.”

 

Vicente Vega, Diccionario ilustrado de frases célebres y citas literárias (Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1955), 405. (Nobility.org translation.)

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 264

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