The charity of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
Distressed at the plight of the poor resulting from the Winter’s severity, Queen Marie Antoinette saved three hundred thousand francs from her personal budget and turned this sum over to her ladies-in-waiting, the parish priests of Paris, and charitable organizations for distribution among the needy. She also encouraged her daughter to do the same, and from the latter’s additional household thrift, a sum of five thousand francs more was obtained.
Madame Campan, Mémoires sur la vie de Marie-Antoinette (Paris: Nelson Éditeurs, 1823), 184. (Nobility.org translation.)
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 446
